Ronald Ray Smith (March 28, 1949 – March 31, 2013) was an American

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

, winner of the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

. He attended

San Jose State College San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State Universit ...

during the "Speed City" era, coached by

Lloyd (Bud) Winter Lloyd C. Winter, better known as Bud Winter (June 8, 1909 – December 6, 1985) was an American track and field coach who is regarded as one of the greatest sprint coaches in the world. Over a 29-year coaching career (1941–1970) at the then San ...

and graduating in sociology. At the 1968 AAU Championships, Ronnie Ray Smith equaled the 100 m world record in the semifinal, repeating the same time of 9.9 which was run by

Jim Hines James Ray Hines (September 10, 1946 – June 3, 2023) was an American track and field athlete and National Football League (NFL) player, who held the 100-meter world record for 15 years. In 1968, he became the first man to officially break the ...

in the same race and Charles Greene in the other semifinal of the same competition. That evening of June 20, 1968, at Hughes Stadium in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

has been dubbed by track and field historians as the " Night of Speed." Since Smith was still 19 years old at the time, that mark also became the World Junior Record, which lasted for exactly 8 years. At the

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, Smith ran the third leg in the American 4 × 100 m relay team that won the gold medal and set a new world record of 38.24 seconds.Ronnie Ray Smith
sports-reference.com Before arriving at San Jose State, Smith ran at

Manual Arts High School Manual Arts High School is a secondary public school in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Manual Arts High School was founded in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, one-half mile from the nearest bus stop. It was the third high sc ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, finishing third in the 220 yard dash at the

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

in 1966. After retiring from competitions Smith worked at the Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department. He was inducted into the San Jose State Sports Hall of Fame. Smith died in a hospice facility in Los Angeles, California, on March 31, 2013. He was 64. His funeral was featured on the

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

reality TV show Best Funeral Ever. In honor and memory of his 1968 gold medal performance, his casket "ran" a 100 yd race and received a gold medal in a mock Olympic-style funeral.Videos
TLC (May 9, 2014). Retrieved on 2015-07-12.

References

External links

* * 1949 births American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics 2013 deaths Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics Track and field athletes from Los Angeles Track and field athletes from San Jose, California San Jose State Spartans men's track and field athletes NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-sprint-athletics-bio-stub