Orlando tubby smith biography

College basketball coach

College Basketball Beckoned

Mr. Smith Went to Kentucky

Won National Championship

Sources

Tubby Smith, University of Kentucky’s head basketball coach, not only proved he could maintain the program at the school, he improved it. In just one season, The Wildcats—under his leadership—won the NCAA Championship. His climb was not meteoric, but Smith proved that with hard work and perseverance, you can make it to the top—even if the top is just head coach of a college basketball team.

Orlando Smith, was born on June 30, 1951 in Scotland, Maryland, a farming community on the Southern Peninsula of the state. Guffrie and Parthenia Smith’s sixth of 17 children acquired his nickname, Tubby, because of his fondness for taking baths in an old utility tub. His father was heavily influenced by his time in the military where he won a Purple Heart as a soldier in Italy in World War II. To support his brood of 17, Guffrie Smith farmed, barbered, drove a school bus, worked construction, and was a maintenance worker. Tubby had a very strict upbringing growing up on the farm, and though the chores were always there, Smith’s parents insisted that he go to school. He attended an all-black school until the tenth grade when he transferred to a just-integrated Great Mills High School. Smith was named All-State in 1969 and earned a scholarship at High Point College in North Carolina to play point guard.

As one of three African Americans on the campus, Smith was contacted by a number of civil rights groups, including the Black Panthers, who wanted him to get more involved in the racial struggles of the time. But like his father before him, Smith had decided to do good from within the system. Smith earned his teaching degree in 1973 after lettering all four years and being selected All-Carolina Conference his senior year. He taught Physical Education and coached three sports for six years at Great

American college basketball coach

Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach who last coached the men's basketball team at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, the University of Minnesota, Texas Tech University, and the University of Memphis. With Kentucky, he coached the Wildcats to the 1998 NCAA championship.

In his 31 years as a head coach, Smith achieved 26 winning seasons. In 2005, he joined Roy Williams, Nolan Richardson, Denny Crum, and Jim Boeheim as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or fewer. With Texas Tech's invitation to the 2016 NCAA tournament, Smith became only the second of three coaches in histor

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 23, 2024) — The University Press of Kentucky has announced that it will publish a new memoir by sports legend Orlando Henry “Tubby” Smith. From growing up in Scotland, Maryland, as the sixth of 17 children, to the highs and lows of an incredible 31-year career as an NCAA basketball head coach — and the first Black head coach at the University of Kentucky — the forthcoming book will delve into Smith’s incredible life on and off the court.

“I am grateful, honored and excited to be partnering with the wonderful folks at Kentucky Press to write my first book,” said Smith.

Smith, who was inducted into the University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013, was head coach at Kentucky for 10 seasons, from 1998–2007. He coached Kentucky to the 1998 national championship — the third Black coach to win the national championship — and five SEC regular-season crowns and five SEC Tournament titles. He is one of two head coaches to guide five different programs to the NCAA Division I Tournament (Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota and Texas Tech). Smith represented the Kentucky Wildcats as a member of the 2024 Southeastern Conference Legends class at the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Tubby Smith had an incredible career in college basketball and his accomplishments speak for themselves,” said Mitch Barnhart, UK director of athletics. “Beyond his basketball achievements, a memoir of Tubby’s unique journey will bring insight to a man who has been a winner, on and off the court.”

Smith was head men’s basketball coach at his alma mater, High Point University, from 2018-2022 and inducted into the High Point University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016. He was named National Coach of the Year three times (2003, 2005, 2016) and Conference Coach of the Year six times (1994, 1995, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2016) and was honored with the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award in 2016. In 2000, Smith was an assistant coach on Rudy Tomjanovich’s staff that

Basketball coach

Tubby Smith is one of just six coaches to have led three different programs into the NCAA tournament's sweet sixteen, capped by the 1997–98 University of Kentucky squad that won a national title. In thirteen seasons, he has never posted a losing record, and his teams have qualified for the NCAA tournament eleven straight times. He became one of the highest paid collegiate coaches in the profession, as well as one of the most generous.

Orlando Henry Smith was born in Scotland, Maryland on June 30, 1951 to Guffrie and Parthenia Smith. The sixth of seventeen children, Orlando grew up on a farm on the tip of the southwestern peninsula. Orlando acquired his nickname "Tubby" early on, owing to his delight in bathing in an old utility tub. Guffrie Smith, who had been awarded a Purple Heart during World War II while serving in Italy, was a farmer who worked several other jobs in order to support his large, but close-knit brood, including barber, school bus driver, construction worker, and maintenance man. Though the children were expected to complete their fair share of farm chores, the elder Smiths were keen on seeing their offspring attend school. Tubby attended segregated schools, including George Carver High School, until transferring to the newly consolidated and integrated Great Mills High School in tenth grade. At Great Mills, Smith played football, basketball, and track, earning all-state honors on the court in 1969, his senior season.

Although Smith was recruited by and signed to play basketball at the University of Maryland, a coaching change in 1969 resulted in the scholarship being rescinded. Fortunately, Smith was offered a scholarship by High Point College, a small, Methodist-affiliated school in High Point, North Carolina. Having grown up in a Methodist church, Smith found the college to be a good fit. He excelled in basketball at High Point, where he was a four-year letter winner (from 1970 to 1973) and All-Carolina Co