Longtime Jets college scout Gary Smith has died at the age of 72.
From 1998-2011, Smith served as the Jets’ representative to the National Football Scouting (NFS) service. He also played an integral role in New York’s NFL draft preparation, hitting the road in the spring before the upcoming draft to collect information on players who would be eligible the following year.
“Gary was a hard-working scout who loved his job and loved the Jets,” former Jets general manager Terry Bradway told Jets senior reporter Eric Allen. “He had a really good background, a former player and coach who carried his Midwestern values and was very fun to be around.
“Typically, the NFS/Combine scout was a young scout who did it for a couple of years and then would move on to become an area scout as another young person would step into that role. Gary loved that position, he loved being the NFS scout of the Jets. He took great pride in his work and his work would go to the other 18 or 19 teams who participated in the National Football Scouting system.”
A native of Springfield, Ill., Smith, who is a member of Ourlads.com‘s “NFL Scout Hall of Fame,” got his start in the NFL working for the Chicago Bears as their BLESTO scout from 1991-98. Prior to that, he worked as the defensive line coach, director of football operations and on-campus recruiting coordinator at Indiana University. Smith joined Indiana’s coaching staff following a stint as the head coach and athletic director of Crete-Monee High School in Illinois. He also coached at Virden High School, Lyons Township High School and Reavis High School in Illinois, where he played a major role in three straight state titles working as a defensive assistant from 1980-82.
Smith played his college football at and graduated from Southern Illinois in 1969. Before coaching at the College of DuPage and working as a graduate assistant at Southern Illinois, Smith was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals’ taxi squad from 1970-71 as a cornerback and special teams player.