This Quarterback Made Hall of Fame as Blocker

When Riley Smith was named to the College Football Hall of Fame last week, the name didn’t ring a bell with many Alabama fans who are familiar with other Crimson Tide quarterbacks such as Bart Starr, Joe Namath and Ken Stabler.

“It seems like it was 100 years ago when I played,” Smith said.

Actually it was in the mid-1930s, and fans who remember that far back recall Smith as the quarterback on one of the best Alabama teams of all time.

But the quarterback then was different. In Alabama Coach Frank Thomas’ Notre Dame box offense, Smith was primarily a blocker, although he threw a few passes.

On the 1934 Tide team that went 10-0, outscored its opponents 316-45 and upset Stanford, 29-13, in the Rose Bowl, Smith also did all the kicking--punting, kickoffs, field goals and conversions.

But it was his blocking that drew attention.

In 1935 Smith won th first Jacobs Trophy, an award presented annually to the best blocker in the Southeastern Conference.

“I got more attention than any blocking back in the country,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in Mobile where he runs a land development company.

“I was very happy with the situation. I wasn’t jealous of anybody. If I had been, we would have had a different ball club.”

There were some he could have been jealous of it he had wanted.

One halfback was Dixie Howell and one end was Don Hutson, the famed Howell-to-Hutson passing combination. The other end was Paul (Bear) Bryant.

“Bryant and I played all through school together.” Smith said.

Smith, now 73 with no intention, he said, of ever retiring, lettered in 1933 as a fullback before moving to halfback for his last two seasons. Alabama was 23-3-2 those three years and won two SEC titles.

In those days of two-way football, Riley played halfback on defense. “It would be called cornerback today,” he said.

He said he was grateful to the school president, Joab Thomas, and “to everybody else who had anything to do” with his selection Sunday to the Hall of Fame. He will be inducted in New York Dec. 3.