Gaylon Smith

Gaylon Smith

Smith at Rhodes College in 1936
Position:	Fullback, Defensive end
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1916-07-15)July 15, 1916
Place of birth:	Lonoke, Arkansas
Date of death:	March 10, 1958(1958-03-10) (aged 41)
Place of death:	Cleveland, Ohio
Height:	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight:	202 lb (92 kg)
Career information
High school:	Beebe (AR)
College:	Rhodes
NFL Draft:	1939 / Round: 2 / Pick: 13
Career history
Cleveland Rams (1939–1942) Cleveland Browns (1946)
Career highlights and awards
All-Dixie (1937, 1938) All-Southern Second Team (1938) Little All-American (1938) AAFC Champion (1946)
Career NFL statistics as of 1946
Games: 51 Rushing Yards: 710 Receiving Yards: 256
Player stats at PFR

Gaylon Wesley Smith (July 15, 1916 – March 10, 1958) was a professional American football fullback and defensive end who played five seasons for the Cleveland Rams in the National Football League (NFL) and one season for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Before entering professional football, Smith starred as a halfback at Rhodes College and led the country in scoring in 1938. He was selected by the Rams in the second round of the following season's NFL draft and played for the Cleveland team until deciding to retire from the sport in 1943. After taking a job as a personnel director and playing on a regional basketball and baseball teams based in the Cleveland area, Smith joined the U.S. Navy in 1944 during World War II. He was discharged two years later and signed with the Browns, then a new team in the AAFC. Smith was a second-string player with the Browns, but substituted for an injured Marion Motley late in the season as the team won the AAFC championship game. Smith retired after the 1946 season, but stayed in Ohio to raise his family and work as a manufacturer's representative. He died in 1958 at the age of 41.

Vance Stewart, Sr., attended the Mississippi State v. Southwestern At Memphis (now Rhodes College) game c. 1938 at Crump Stadium in Memphis. Southwestern blocked and recovered a kick in the end zone and won the game, 7-3. Gaylon Smith, for Southwestern, and Blondy Black, for Mississippi State, both of whom played in the game, went on to play pro football.

Smith grew up in Beebe, Arkansas and attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee starting in 1935. He played baseball, basketball and track in college, but he was best known as a star halfback on the school's football team. While Rhodes was a small college, Smith led the country in scoring for two weeks in 1938 and finished the season in third place. He was named to All-Dixie teams in 1937 and 1938, and was named a Little All-American in 1938. The Cleveland Rams selected him in the second round of the NFL draft that December.