Arthur John Smiley (December 22, 1922 – July 30, 2000) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Smiley played basketball for Waterman High School, in

Waterman, Illinois Waterman is a village in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,433 at the 2020 census. The village is known for the DeKalb Ag seed corn processing plant, now owned by the German company, Bayer. The "Waterman and Western" t ...

. With

Gene Vance Ellis Eugene Vance (February 25, 1923 – February 16, 2012) was an American professional basketball player. He played in the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Chicago Stags and Tri-Citi ...

Andy Phillip Andrew Michael "Handy Andy" Phillip (March 7, 1922 – April 29, 2001) was an American professional basketball player.

, Ken Menke, and Art Mathisen, Smiley was a member of the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

' " Whiz Kids" team that went 35-6 from 1941 to 1943, earning two

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

championships. The team voted to turn down an invitation to the NCAA tournament in 1943, after Smiley, Vance and Phillip were inducted into the military mid-season. As an artillery corporal with the Army's 106th division, Smiley was engaged in one of the bloodiest skirmishes of the Battle of the Bulge- once firing his 105 mm Howitzer for 96 continuous hours. The 106th division suffered a 90% casualty rate in the skirmish. Smiley returned to Illinois for the 1946–47 season and won team MVP honors.Jim Rossow. "Whiz Kid passes away". ''News Gazette''. July 31, 2000. C1. After college, Smiley played two seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

with the

Fort Wayne Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at ...

Anderson Packers The Anderson Packers, also known as the Anderson Duffey Packers and the Chief Anderson Meat Packers, were a professional basketball team based in Anderson, Indiana, in the 1940s and 1950s. The team was founded and owned by brothers Ike W. and ...

, and

Waterloo Hawks The Waterloo Hawks were a National Basketball League and National Basketball Association team based in Waterloo, Iowa. The Hawks remain the only sports franchise ever based in Iowa from any of the current Big Four Leagues. They are not affili ...

. He averaged 6.2 points per game in his NBA career. Smiley also served as a

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

for the Hawks for 27 games in the 1949–50 season, and posted an 11–16 record.Jack Smiley coaching statistics
basketball-reference.com. Retrieved on May 27, 2010. Smiley spent his later years in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

. He died in 2000.

BAA/NBA career statistics

Regular season

References

External links

1922 births 2000 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Anderson Packers players Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Illinois Fort Wayne Pistons players Forwards (basketball) Guards (basketball) Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players Basketball player-coaches Waterloo Hawks coaches Waterloo Hawks players 20th-century American sportsmen {{1920s-US-basketball-bio-stub