Don Smith
“Even in my sophomore year I wasn’t pressed too hard”

Aroostook County native Don Smith, born in 1918, was one of the best middle distance runners in the nation during the late 1930s. The University of Maine runner won three straight New England Cross Country Championships and won five other New England titles in the mile and 880.

Smith grew up in the small Aroostook County town of Easton. He hadn't been the first great runner to come out of Easton High or the County. When Smith was about 10 years old, a runner from Lee named Harry Richardson had won the national cross country championship, after winning three straight New England titles. And in 1932, Houlton had produced a national championship cross country team. On that team was a runner from Smith's own Easton High, Darrell Barnes, who had transferred to Houlton.

Like other great Aroostook runners Don Smith had worked on a farm and had developed a strong body from hours of daily chores. In high school at Easton, where about 100 students were enrolled, he had played every sport offered. He earned varsity letters four straight years in four different sports. In winter sports he raced on snowshoes and set a state record in the 100 yard dash. He was also undefeated on snowshoes in the 100, 440, and mile in both his junior and senior years.

And he loved to run. "When I went somewhere, I'd run. When my mother sent me, I'd run to go get it," said Smith. Although Easton High did not have track it did offer cross country. In his junior year he probably would have won the state championship but for a mishap. He traveled to Orono for the race with his teammates, but while walking at night on his way to the movies in Orono he was hit by a car and ended up in the hospital. In his senior year he won the county cross country title at Houlton.

Smith went on to the University of Maine where he trained as a teacher, minoring in vocational agriculture. And, of course, he took up track and cross country. He quickly met with success. Just a few months after setting foot on campus, he won the freshman race at the New England Cross Country Championship. He would go on to win three straight varsity races from 1937 through 1939.

Although he sometimes gets credit for being the first to do this, Smith makes it clear that he was not. Back in the late 1920s, two UMaine runners, Harry Richardson from Lee and his teammate Francis Lindsay, tied in winning three straight varsity New England cross country meets (1927, 1928, 1929) and then went on to win the IC4As (then considered to be the national championship) in the same manner. However, meet officials for the New England race would not give them credit for the tie and they awarded one or the other the victory. Finally, in their senior years, officials allowed the tie, according to Smith. But in the record books, neither is credited with the string of victories. In the IC4As, however, the tie was allowed.

In his three varsity New England cross country wins, Smith had the course pretty much to himself. In his senior year he set a new course record. "I did have a big lead," said Smith. "And the year before I won easily, and even in my sophomore year I wasn't pressed too hard." Third-place finishers don't get much notice, but taking third in the New EngIand’s in Smith's junior and senior years was a Bangor runner, Don Bridges who was running for Bates.

Smith fared well in IC4A cross country as well. He placed 6th as a freshman, 4th as a sophomore, 3rd as a junior, and 5th as a senior. His success in track at Maine came just as quickly as it had in cross country. In only his sophomore year he broke the UMaine mile record by more than six seconds with a 4: 19.4 clocking, erasing a nine-year-old mark set by Victor MacNaughton in 1929.

Smith went on to win three straight state meets in the 880 and mile, and added five individual New England track championships in these events. In one New England championship meet at New Hampshire during his junior year he won both the mile and 880, tying meet records in both events (4:18.6. and 1:54.4, respectively).

In the IC4A track and field championships, Smith placed second in his senior year in the mile. In other national level competition, in 1939 he was invited to compete in the NCAA Championships in Los Angeles and, among a field of 21, in the mile he took 6th, running his fastest mile ever, 4:13. That was only five seconds off the world record for the mile. On that same trip he stopped off in Lincoln, Nebraska and took second in the mile in the National Junior AAU meet on July 3. The following day the senior AAU mile was held and entered in that was the world mile record holder, Glenn Cunningham. Smith also entered. "That was a great thrill for me. When he passed me I rubbed his elbow. I think he got fourth and I got fifth that day," Smith said.

At 5-foot-8, Smith was a slender 127 pounds when he entered the University of Maine, but by the time he was a senior he had developed into a more solid, stronger 147.

Back in these times, even great cross country runners were not thought as having good speed. His coach even laughed at him once when he asked to try running the sprints. "Then one day I went over to practice and I said ‘Gee, coach, I don't know what the trouble is, I don't have any ambition. I don't feel like doing a thing.’ He said, ‘Get in with those 100 yard dash men up there.’ So, I almost beat his 100 yard man. Then, in the state meet, he put me in the 220. We had the fastest heat of the day, and I was second in the race," Smith recalled.

Smith remembers Coach Chester Jenkins fondly. "Everybody had great words for Coach Jenkins." Jenkins coached at Maine from 1929 through 1943, and had an academic background in chemistry. The coach made sure that his athletes took their studies first, encouraging his runners to take their books with them on trips, Smith remembers. He even took time to tutor them.

"The greatest compliment the coach ever gave me was he let me drive home from the New Hampshire meet in his prized car, a Lincoln Zephyr," Smith said.

Smith would likely have competed in the Olympics if World War II had not come along. In 1946, while playing town baseball he went to field a ground ball at third base and the baserunner threw a body block on him that got him in the knee. He would never run again.

Throughout his professional life, Smith farmed, taught high school and coached for 28 years. He taught in the towns of Mars Hill, Easton and Presque Isle. He coached girls and boys basketball and baseball at Easton and, at Presque Isle, he coached basketball, skiing, track, and was athletic director for 12 years. Smith retired in 1978.