When Sacramento State baseball coach John Smith was drafted into the Army in the fall of 1967, he likely couldn’t see 800 career victories in his future.

Just out of junior college, the 21-year-old Redding native received word that the U.S. Government was requesting his service in the war against the Socialist Viet Cong forces in Vietnam.

Smith was reluctant to put his life on hold to go to war, but he knew it was his obligation to serve his country.

Once enlisted, Smith decided that he wouldn’t settle for being a typical G.I. Instead, he tested to join the U.S. Army Special Forces, the Green Berets.

“It was 18 months of intense training,” Smith said. “We used to go spend six weeks out in the field and be given enough food to last two weeks and we had to figure out how to eat the other four.”

Smith earned a place on the Green Berets, but he never saw Vietnam. His unit eventually was deployed to Panama to reinforce American control of the Panama Canal. Smith said that at the time, he and his unit were disappointed that they would not get an opportunity to serve their country in Vietnam. But looking back, he said he was very fortunate not to have gone.

After three years of service, Smith was discharged. He said he may have spent his best years as a baseball player in Panama, but what the Special Forces taught him would change his life.

“It’s what trained me to be tougher than anything else in my whole life,” Smith said. “Going through that made me understand adversity and difficulty and nothing coming easy. That was the best training I ever could’ve gotten for life itself.”

Once back on American soil, Smith, now 23, took his first coaching job as an assistant at College of the Siskiyous. After a year as there, Smith decided to take advantage of the two years of eligibility he had left to play.

In 1971 Smith first arrived in Sacramento to attend Sac State and tried out for then baseball coach Cal Boyes. Smith immediately fell in love with the river city.

“This was my dream,” Smith said. “Once I became a Hornet, I loved what I was doing. I loved Sacramento, I loved the town. Nothing else could beat it.”

Smith made the team, but it did not come easy. Smith, who is well under 6-feet-tall, is not a large man by any standards, but he loved the game and he worked hard to become a decent ball player.

As hard as Smith worked to earn playing time, it didn’t compare to the summers he spent in the lumber yards of Northern California earning money to pay for the next school year’s tuition. After each baseball season, Smith would travel to his home town and earn approximately $4,000, which would have to last the entire school year.

“It was hard. It was hard enough to know I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life,” Smith said.

Even with all his efforts, Smith was never a sensational player at Sac State. He would never become a starter, but he embraced his roll as a utility man and a situational pinch hitter.

“I didn’t break any records, I didn’t set anything on fire, but I got a chance to be around the game and learn. It gave me a chance to do what I wanted to do which is coach,” Smith said. After a successful five-year coaching stint at Encina High School in Sacramento, Smith was urged by Boyes to apply for the vacant coaching position at Sac State. The job had been occupied by three different coaches in the three years following Boyes’ retirement in 74′ and the program was in shambles. Smith said that he did not believe he was qualified to do the job at the time.

Smith was hired in 1978, and 29 years later, he became the winningest coach in Sac State athletics history and is one of the top 50 winningest active coaches in the NCAA Div. I books. Smith passed women’s volleyball coach Debby Colberg (799) to set the standard for career wins at Sac State with 800 and counting.

Smith said he is proud of the accolades and milestones, but what he treasures most are the relationships he has built with the hundreds of players he has coached and mentored in his career. Smith has always taken his responsibilities far beyond coaching and has aimed to create a family environment for his players.

“I appreciate the things that are more important than whether you win or lose, whether or not you reach 800 wins,” Smith said. “It’s the people you touch along the way.”

Volunteer assistant Matt Wilson, who played for Smith from 2002 to 2005 and is now on his staff, is just one example of the many players that Smith has mentored in his 29 years on campus.

“He’s like a father to me,” Wilson said. “He knows when something is bothering me and he takes me aside. I’ve been away from my family . . . for seven years and he’s always been there for me when things have been rough.”

Along the way, Smith and his staff have replaced the sand-lot that was once called the baseball field with the newly-renovated Hornet Field.

“When you think of Sac State baseball, you think of John Smith. He’s an icon here,” Wilson said.

The Hornets earned a 7-3 victory over New Mexico State in Las Cruces on March 16 to put Smith atop the wins list. Sophomore first baseman Gabe Jacobo recorded the final out and secured the game ball in his glove. Smith’s current group of players took advantage of the opportunity to honor their coach by showering him with Gatorade.

“800 is a big milestone for him in his career so we wanted to do something special,” senior Devon Spurling said. “Everybody who got him there is special too, but there’s only one group of guys who actually got to be there for 800, and that’s a special feeling.”

Following the icy celebration, the team lined up on the baseline and presented Smith with the game ball.

The ball, which was later signed by every player on the roster, will sit in Smith’s club house office along with his 1988 national runner-up trophy and the other awards and accolades he has accumulated over his extensive tenure at Sac State.

The ball serves as a constant reminder for Smith of every player he has molded and as a symbol of Smith’s success on the field as well as the achievements of the men who have passed through his program.

“I’ve always tried to teach the guys that baseball is a game and it’s what you do after baseball that is really what’s important,” Smith said. “If you’re a good person and you work hard, good things will come to you.” Mario Martin can be reached at [email protected]