M.A. “CATFISH” SMITH - INDUCTEE #30
hall of fame fast fact:
Two members of Catfish Smith's Carey Cardinals championship team later were elected to the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame: Carroll "Slats" Foust in 1987 and W.J. "Sleepy" Redwine in 1988.
M.A. "Catfish" Smith
Milburn Albert “Catfish” Smith, from Winfield attended high school at Mount Pleasant. A football and basketball player in high school and college, Smith gained notoriety in the two sports as a coach.
Smith’s 1937 Carey Cardinals won the state basketball title when schools of all sizes competed together; with fewer than 100 students, Carey beat a Fort Worth school.
Smith was both football and boys basketball coach. The Carey football squad went 11-0 and earned a regional football championship while the basketball squad went 30-0 and grabbed a state title.
In 1950, Smith took on the head football job at East Texas State and led the team to an overall 30-2-1 mark with two appearances in the Tangerine Bowl. Smith did not have a loss his last two years.
Smith returned to the high school ranks in 1954 and took the Longview football job until he exited in 1958 to join the football staff at Baylor University.
He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.
Smith died in 1982.
