Cardinal Hall of Honor
A three-year letterwinner on the Lamar University men’s basketball team (1961-62 through 1963-64), Richard Smith earned All-Lone Star Conference honors as a sophomore and junior, and was named Lone Star Conference Player of the Year in 1963. He earned second-team All-Southland Conference honors as a senior in 1964.
Smith held LU’s career scoring mark of 1,348 points for six years, a total that ranked eighth in school history at the time of his induction. He ranked 10th all-time in career free-throw percentage at .749.
Smith scored a career-high 45 points at Sul Ross State for the single-game scoring record for a sophomore. It was the third-highest single-game total in school history.
A native of Parkersburg, W.Va., Smith led the team in scoring all three years he lettered, with averages of 15.3, 16.9 and 18.3 points per game. He played on future Hall of Honor inductee Billy Tubbs’ first freshman team in 1960-61 before playing on the varsity squad.
