The book on Loyola men's basketball from its inception through the early 1980s was literally written by Jimmy Smith. A 1976 graduate, and four-year player for the Greyhounds, "Jumpshot" as he is known graduated from nearby Northern High School, played on Mason-Dixon Conference Championship teams and became the first professional basketball player in Loyola history when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to play in the United Kingdom. 

In 2006, Smith dedicated himself to writing "Running with the Greyhounds, A Century of Loyola Maryland Basketball," an epic that chronicles the Greyhounds basketball program through much of its first century. He has spent hte last 45 years in the United Kingdom as a professional player, coach ane basketball development officer, bringing the game to the country's youth.

For this week's Alum Spotlight presented by Fence Masters, Smith penned an autobiographical journey that tells of his journey and love of the sport. His photo gallery also highlights many of his adventures.

Smith, in his own words:

It all began as a 12-year old boy's dream to play in the NBA, and over time it evolved into a mission to share a passion for the game he loved in a country that traditionally didn't play basketball. Jimmy "Jumpshot" Smith has taught over 75,000 players the game of basketball in the United Kingdom since graduating from Loyola College in 1976, mostly in Nottinghamshire, England.
 
Smith was Loyola's first overseas player, a pioneer of the pro game in England, both as a coach for men and women and as a player. The Leicester Riders, then based at Loughborough University, dipped into the foreign player market in 1976-77 by recruiting Loyola's 6-foot-7 Smith and the 6-foot-5 Kevin King from Syracuse University. While averaging 20 points per game with the Riders, Smith made his home in Nottingham. He played locally for Aspley Old Boys and coached in schools around the area. The following season was spent in France, and after a brief stint with the NBA Washington Bullets in summer of 1978, Smith returned to Nottinghamshire for good, just in time to usher in a couple of national championships as a player-coach.
 
Smith's career coincided with the Brian Clough Era on the soccer pitch, as he managed Nottingham Forest to European Cup victories in 1979 and 1980 and League Cups in 1978 and 1979. Smith remembers the as being a euphoric time to be in the city during the 1970s and 1980s. Locals would say developing basketball at that time would have been like "wading through treacle."
 

Smith says, "In those early years, I got letters from people like Nick Nurse, now head coach of the Toronto Raptors and Dave Hopla, who later to become an NBA shooting coach, but I was limited as far as what I could do at that stage in my career. In fact, my own position wasn't that secure. I was able to bring Ronnie Smith (Loyola '77) and Doug Krimmel (Catonsville CC) and a couple of UMBC players over to Nottingham (Jack Kane'79 and Mike Withers '83). Later in my career, I assisted Nottinghamshire players in gaining scholarships to American universities, including Siobhan Prior (Loyola women's basketball '09), Matt Meakin (Mount St Mary's '96), Reece Horton  (Holy Cross '95), Tristan Lawson and Antony Haase (Missouri Baptist) and Martyn Blankley and Guy Renton (Tennessee Wesleyan) to name a few."
 
Smith's big break came after the two national titles in 1979-80 that included his brother, Ron, and local players from Nottingham and the Midlands. In total Smith played eight seasons (1976-84) at the pro level. During six of those seasons, he was player-coach for the Nottingham Knights and for three seasons (1982-84), he was head coach of the Nottingham Wildcats Women whose star player was Pauline Prior, the mother of Siobhan who would go on to play for the Loyola women.
 
In 1981, Nottinghamshire County Council appointed Smith as its Basketball Development Officer and Coach, the first such appointment by a local authority in the United Kingdom. The appointment lasted until the London Olympics in 2012 and has continued in a self-employed capacity ever since, consistently introducing over 2,000 children to the game per year.
 
Smith begins his 45th season in Nottinghamshire this month, including his 40th season as a development officer and coach.
 
But how did it all begin? Just how did this basketball player from Baltimore end up in Nottinghamshire, England, the home of Robin Hood?
 
Smith says, "My parents, Jim Sr. and Barbara (Loyola '73), met in in United States Air Force at Pope AFB in North Carolina. They were married in January 1954, and I was born nine-months later at Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville, South Carolina. For the first three years of my life, I grew up in the shadow of military bases. Most of that time we were stationed in Udine, Italy, where my brother, Ronald, a 1977 graduate of Loyola, was born in 1955. The fifth member of our family, Dawn, arrived after our return to Baltimore in 1958.
 
"The Smith children and my Mom, a South Baltimore native, all began and completed formal education in Baltimore but true to form, we couldn't settle for long and in 1964 packed up and headed out to Chicago. Our hiatus in Chi-Town lasted until 1969, but it's what happened in those years that set the stage for what was to come. My brother and I started playing organized sports, actually on teams with uniforms!
"I tell all of my players that when I was 12 years old, I knew absolutely nothing about basketball. My parents, especially my Mom, encouraged me to tryout for our elementary school team in South Shore called the Bradwell Bulldogs, despite me never having played before. I was so raw that another seventh-grader, David Bentz, was kind enough to show me how to shoot a layup at the tryout. Of course, I didn't make the team, but I was hooked. I knew how to score, or so I thought. Before we returned to Baltimore, I managed to make the team in the eighth grade and then stepped up to the Freshman-Sophomore in the ninth grade at South Shore High School. Let me make it clear, I was very much a 'bench warmer.' I may have thought I was a great player, but the truth is, I loved playing greatly and if I could have, I would have played from morning until night, but I wasn't allowed to.
 
"Returning to Baltimore for his sophomore year, Jimmy and Ronnie went to separate high schools. Jimmy went to Northern and Ronnie attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.
 
Jimmy says, "I found out in a hurry how good Baltimore basketball was when I got to Northern. Future Loyola great Rodney Floyd's career was on the rise under Northern Coach Manfred Werner. He lived one block from now famous Dunbar High School, and the reason he was at Northern was because he wanted to play against rather than with the best players in the City. There was a rare quality about Rodney that transcended his skill level. He had the ability to play at a higher level than any opponent put in front of him. In other words, if you wanted to beat the Vikings you better be able to guard the other four players because he was getting his!"
 

Jimmy says, "my life is defined by building relationships and the person who has most impacted his life is Loyola Hall of Fame Coach Edward "Nap" Doherty, who by the early 1970's was bringing championship seasons to Evergreen. In retrospect, it appears that Jimmy Smith was destined to be a Greyhound. Everything in his life was pointing towards Loyola College, as it was then known.
 
"Firstly, Jimmy's mother graduated from Loyola's Evening Division in 1973 at age 40. She was always referring to the Jesuits and Sisters of Mercy at the College at home while Dad continually emphasized the need to go to college.
 
"Secondly, brother Ron was invited to join the Lancers Boys Club by one of his fellow Poly Engineers, which in turn meant Jimmy was also invited. The Lancer basketball team was coached by club founder, Judge Robert I. H. Hammerman and occasionally, Gary Handleman, a hoop star at Johns Hopkins University. Lancer teammate, Tom Pedroni introduced Jimmy, by that time 6-foot-6 to Coach Doherty at the same time Nap was recruiting Rodney Floyd.
 
"Nobody realized it then, but Loyola had tried hard to recruit African-American student-athletes, and had a player on their roster, but none had yet been signed to a full scholarship until Rodney Floyd (1971).
 
Jimmy said, "I desperately wanted to follow Rodney Floyd to Loyola. Nap Doherty used to say he was my high school hero, but I didn't care, because he was! Nap expressed an interest in recruiting me and assured me that he would follow my progress at Northern in my senior year, which gave me hope."
 
"Mr. Doherty, as we called him then, was always giving me tips on how to play and telling me what the great players did. It was impossible not to learn and improve if you were around him. I wanted to get better, and I wanted to learn from him so much! Nap has since told me that he thought he could help me develop my game over a couple of years. I was going to be a project for him. Looking back, there were so many players better than me, I don't know what he saw in me?"
 
"At that time, college sports was not like it is now. Smith was heavily recruited by the University of Baltimore and mildly recruited by other state schools but Jimmy waited to hear what Coach Doherty wanted to do."
 
Jimmy remembers, "I applied to Loyola, was accepted as an economics major and Coach Doherty offered me a scholarship. Oh my God, what it meant to me and my family! It literally was a dream come true. I was going to be a Greyhound!
 
"Loyola was so different then. "Lefty" Reitz, Father Sellinger, the Jesuits, and the Sisters of Mercy were all still there, as well as Wilson Bean, the equipment manager, who kept us in line when nobody else was around.
 
Jimmy continued, "Before I talk about basketball highlights, I want to share what Loyola was and is really all about-education. Loyola's President (at the time), Rev. Joseph Sellinger, S.J., said over and over for my whole four years that 'academics come first' at Loyola, and he meant it. A's were hard to come by, but F's were not. You had to do the work if you wanted the degree. And if you played a sport, you still had to do the work. One reason I have so much respect for Loyola's female student-athletes of that era was that I was playing one varsity sport and going all out to keep up with my studies. Many of the women were playing three sports and probably getting better grades than me!"
 

Jimmy says, "In my freshman year (1972-73), I had to try-out and make the team. It didn't help that over the summer I had broken my left wrist at my local playground court. Loyola had lost a great crop of seniors, including the school's all-time leader rebounder and second all-time leading scorer, Mike Krawczyk. To compensate, Nap had recruited 6-foot-8 Mark Rohde and 6-foot-3 Morris Cannon from Loyola High School, the Baltimore Catholic League Champions. Oh yes, and he recruited me as well.
 
"After one week of tryouts, Nap wrote down the list of players who made the team and put it on the locker room board. I can still see it now. Eleven names were on that list. My name was the last name listed. It felt amazing! I was high as a kite! Nap Doherty was my coach! I was a Greyhound!
"Something young players don't understand is that you have to prove yourself under pressure over and over again to be considered a good player. I was unproven. I started at the bottom, 11th man on a team of eleven. Every year, The Baltimore Sun wrote a preview of the Greyhounds for that coming season, and everybody on the team's name was mentioned, except mine. Respect for your game was not automatic. As an example, nobody was called by their first name unless they could play, like 'Ed' (Butler), 'Gene' (Gwiazdowski), 'Rodney' (Floyd), 'Kevin' (Robinson), 'Mark'(Rohde). Lefty Reitz and Nap Doherty just called me 'Smith'.
 
"Don't feel sorry for me. I loved being on that team, one of Loyola's greatest. Co-captains that year were seniors, Ed 'Slim' Butler and Mike Kaiser. Both of them took me under their wing and because Ed was a commuter, from Northwest Baltimore – the same as m. We spent a lot of time together going back and forth to college and even took a few of the same classes. We were also roommates on for road games.

"'Slim' was at Loyola as a result of Loyola's prison ministry at the Baltimore Penitentiary. Father Sellinger and the Jesuits saved Ed from spending the rest of his life there, and for that 1972-73 season, Ed's senior year, he always expressed his gratitude for what they had done. Ed turned 32 years old that November and was coming off a knee injury, but was still the best player on the team and guarded the best player on everybody else's team, usually shutting them down. Ed's value to the team that year was immeasurable because we were all so young. He was the consummate team player and made everybody on the team better, including me."
 
"During my freshmen year, I played in all the games and contributed to the over-all team effort. There were some great experiences. One was playing at Mount St. Mary's for the first time. After the game in which I scored 10 points, I was introduced to the famous Mount Coach Jim Phelan and he said, 'nice shooting Smitty!' Another special moment was playing against American University's All-American Kermit Washington. I scored nine points. Washington had 24 points and 33 rebounds!
 
"So by tournament time, I had a full season behind me. Slim Butler and I were roommates on the road, which was great because he continually analyzed his opponents and knew exactly what he had to do to help us win. He was preparing me mentally as well. This was my first Mason-Dixon Tournament. Ed was already a celebrity in that part of the world. He had been there and done it all before, along with Gene Gwiazdowski and Mike Kaiser when Loyola won the 1971 M-D Tournament which was also played in Salem, Va.
 
"The only way I can describe that weekend is that for those three days there was upset after upset after upset. Led by Coach Nap Doherty and captains Ed Butler and Mike Kaiser, we shocked the University of Baltimore, defending national champions Roanoke College and Randolph Macon in succession. Ed Butler was the MVP of the tournament, and we became Loyola's first team to play in the NCAA Tournament.
 
"What Ed did in the semifinal, guarding 6-foot-6 Jay Piccola, Roanoke's All-American, was incredible. Piccola was held 15 points below his average – to only eight points – and fouled out. Then, Ed fouled out with 3:17 left in the game, and as he was walking off to a standing ovation by the Roanoke fans, Nap Doherty was telling me to go in for him! I did exactly as I was told. We were winning by a couple points after an amazing second half comeback and Roanoke was pressing. Nap stationed me under our basket to stretch the defense. I was passed the ball in the lane. I did not hesitate and drilled a turn-around jump shot. The building was silent. We were up four, and Roanoke couldn't catch up! We made history! How could the fifth-place team in the league upset the defending national champions on their home court? I caught the ball and scored and after that everybody started calling me 'Jimmy Jumpshot.'
 
"Loyola won the tournament on the next night against Randolph-Macon in overtime, beating them 72-71. We were presented our awards by the league commissioner, our own athletic director, Emil "Lefty" Reitz Jr. Mr. Reitz had driven down to Roanoke with Jack Degele, Sr. '43, to preside over the tournament.
 
Loyola's handful of fans at the tournament also included my dad and his friend, Manuel Sampedro, who worked together at Korvette's (a retail store in Parkville) and maybe a half dozen students."
 

"It was Lefty's final year as Loyola's athletic director, and it meant the world to me to receive my award for my first ever championship from 'Mr. Loyola.'
"Loyola's Cinderella Team advanced on their first journey into the NCAA Tournament and its first-round game was with Biscayne College in Miami, Florida. Loyola beat them at Miami-Dade Junior College in overtime, 82-79. Floyd played the greatest game of his career, scoring 36 points, including the steal that won the game with three seconds left. Playing in that game and contributing four points, 10 rebounds and three or four blocked shots was a big thrill for me, but the real highlight was Ed Butler treating Rodney, Morris Cannon and I to banana splits in Atlanta airport on the way back to Baltimore. Before I leave that season, I want to acknowledge that our team had five Loyola one thousand-point scorers (Gwiazdowski, Floyd, Robinson, Rohde and Cannon), and six if you include Nap Doherty as well as Ed Butler, Mike Kaiser, Mike Lamb, Paul Farnan, and myself. Jack Degele Jr. was our assistant coach and our managers were John Schissler, Dan O'Connell and Mark Kreiner.
 
"By my senior year (1975-76), it became inevitable that I would be saying goodbye to Loyola. Even with so many changes, which you'll have to read about in the Greyhounds history to understand, I loved the school and the people that made Loyola what it was and still is today, an educational community that cares.
 
 "I dedicated my final season to the student body and fans. Our new coach Tom O'Connor, who I also learned a lot from, emphasized to us that we were representing the students, the alumni and the faculty. Again, for maybe some young players reading this, it took me all of my junior year and eight games into my senior year to prove myself to the new coach and make the starting line-up. The team was 3-5 when I broke into the lineup. I started my last 18 games. In those 18 games, I gave the team and Loyola everything I had in me. I was a shot-blocking specialist and believed if I could prevent our opponents from getting layups, we could win. Yes, I played over the rim. Everything I did was to help the team win. I was always surprised when I saw my stats. Our goal was to win for Loyola. The focus for me was doing anything I had to do to help the team win. Our season ended in the tournament semifinal with a winning record (14-12). In our final two home games, we beat Mount St. Mary's on a tip-in at the buzzer in overtime and we beat American University in double overtime, thanks to 'The Impossible Shot.' Both of those games were at home, and as a matter of fact, the last shot I took at Evergreen was 'The Impossible Shot' (assisted by Mark Rohde) which sent the American game into the second overtime which enabled us to win.
 
"Saying goodbye after graduation to travel to England was very difficult. It was hard to walk away, but one of the Jesuit priests, our assistant coach, Fr. Donahoe made it easier by arranging a little going away party for me in the Jesuit Residence. Fr. Frank Haig, Fr. Ed Convey and Fr. Arthur Long had dinner and talked about what life would probably be like in the UK.
 
"Once I became a development officer of the sport, I felt a responsibility to learn how to teach the game. My teammate Kevin Robinson connected me with the Mason-Dixon Basketball Camp at Mount St. Mary's University that was co-directed by DeMatha High School's Morgan Wootten and Mount Coach Jim "Bowtie" Phelan.
 
"Ironically, after so many court battles with Mount St. Mary's, Coach Phelan befriended me when I met him in 1988 at camp. He has been a role model for me ever since. I learned a lot from him about the game and how to conduct myself as a coach and an ambassador for the game. He and his wife, Dottie, made a huge contribution to the book Running with The Greyhounds, A Century of Loyola Maryland Basketball History.
 
"Morgan Wootten (1931-2020), one of the greatest coaches of all time, and I also became friends.  Coach Wootten wrote the Foreword to Running with the Greyhounds and said he loved the book, as did the Phelans.
 
"On the 30^th anniversary of my graduation (2006), I decided to write Running With The Greyhounds to say "thank you" to the Loyola community and especially Coach Nap Doherty, Lefty Reitz, Loyola's Jesuits and Sisters of Mercy. It is an epic, 392-page story about Loyola and the people who made it special that took me eight years to complete (2014). It really is a Who's Who at Loyola. To finally finish the design of the book, Greg Miller '73, stepped in and provided the finishing touches and editing which you will see when you pick up the book.
 

"Loyola's alumni from 1936 through to the 1990's all contributed to make the book a wonderful insight into Loyola's history –Barney Goldberg, Fr. Wish Galvin, Andy O'Donnell, Mike Zedalis, Vince Bagli, Jim Lacy, Jr., and his brother, Joe, Nap Doherty, Joel Hittleman, Dan O'Connell, Morris Cannon, Mark Rohde, Steve "Nino" Collins, Mark DiGiacomo, Tom O'Connor, Gary Dicovitsky, Rodney Floyd, Vince Gallagher, Frank Barrett, Jimmy Lazzati and Frank Cashen to name a few made outstanding contributions.
 
"The 2020 edition will soon be available.  Email jimmy-jumpshot@hotmail.com for information."
 
Jimmy concluded, "When I am able to visit Loyola over the Christmas holidays to watch the men and women play, I marvel. The 21^st Century men's and women's teams are living out the dreams our generation had for the program – the coaching team, the facilities, the scoreboards, the screens, television crew, stats crew, dance team, cheerleaders, and security. And, don't forget the mascot, it's amazing! You might see bigger but you won't see better anywhere in the world.
 
"I enjoy seeing (current) Coach Tavaras Hardy's posts when he says to 'embrace the journey.' It has been an education in itself living outside the United States and by meeting people from diverse cultures around the world. I remember being on a beach during a tournament in Greece in 2004 and one of my players (Tom Wade) said, 'If you had made the NBA, we wouldn't be doing this.' That's when I realized God's plan for my life was different to my plans and His plans were better. I embraced the journey."