Chadron State College Athletics

Ann Smith had received numerous honors prior to her death on Oct. 29, 2014, but a review of her record as a coach and her leadership in providing opportunities for female athletes has prompted this year’s posthumous induction.
Smith was 29 when she enrolled at what is now Western Nebraska Community College. Three years later in 1970, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Chadron State and began teaching at Bridgeport High School. She organized and coached the Bulldogs’ first volleyball and girls’ track and field teams. Her 1974 track team won the state championship.
She earned a master’s degree from Chadron State in 1977 and came to CSC to teach physical education and coach track and cross country in 1980. She had 10 district champions and nine All-Americans.
She was CSC’s first recipient of the Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award in 1985, received Nebraska’s Honor Award from the American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance in the 1980s and was presented CSC’s Distinguished Alumni Award and the Pathfinder Award given by the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports, both in 2008.
In the late 1990s, she became involved in the Red Cross. During the next decade, she participated in numerous relief activities.