Although Jim Boykin can’t recall his friend and teammate, Danny Smith, being particularly interested in politics, he certainly knows why Smith was successful at it over the latter stages of his life. It’s the same reason that led Smith to a stellar track career worthy of his posthumous election to the Barton College Athletic Hall of Fame this year.

“Danny was really competitive,” Boykin said. “He was one of those guys who, when game time came, he would turn it on.”

After his career at Barton, Smith returned home to Smithfield, Va., where he became a successful businessman as owner of Smith Construction Company. He also became involved in local government, serving 14 years on the Smithfield Town Council. Smith was serving as mayor of Smithfield in 2008 when he passed away after a four-year battle with cancer.

“I think he might have been involved in student government while he was in school. But he certainly didn’t look the part of a politician,” Boykin joked.

He did, however, look like the great athlete that he was.

“Danny had good speed and incredible leaping ability,” said Boykin, a 2005 Barton Hall of Fame inductee.

Smith was a four-year letterman at what was then Atlantic Christian College. He joined the program in 1971 and immediately made an impact, winning a conference title in the triple jump. He did so by surpassing his teammate, John Liles, whom the Raleigh News and Observer had recognized earlier that year as one of the top 10 collegiate athletes in the state in the triple jump and javelin. Liles set a school record that season with 398 points.

“Danny was a great athlete,” said Liles, who was inducted into the Barton Hall of Fame in 2000. “I was fairly successful in the triple and long jump, and, when he came in, I was taking second place to him. But that was a good thing. It was more points for the team.”

At that time, the conference had numerous track powers, and with Smith on board, Atlantic Christian was able to battle with the best of them.

“We would go to the conference meet and compete against High Point, Catawba, and other really strong teams,” Boykin said. “They all had football programs, so they were always loaded with throwers, sprinters, and jumpers. And, Danny could beat all of them. The same thing happened at District where we would run into Pembroke. They were a national track power, but he could compete with their best jumpers. That’s how good he was.”

In 1972, during Smith’s sophomore season, he won the conference title in the triple jump for the second time, but he also claimed the league crown in the long jump, an event he would come to dominate over the remainder of his career. He followed the conference performance with an even better effort in the NAIA District 29 meet, taking first place with a new school and District record of 22 feet, 9¾ inches. His finish, along with a school record-setting javelin toss by Liles, helped the team to a second-place finish in the District.

“Danny was one of the missing parts that we needed for the team,” Liles said. “We needed someone who could help us in the jumps and also in the sprints, and he came in and filled that bill perfectly.”

Liles finished his career that season, but a new teammate arrived who could help push and challenge Smith, Vernon Kelly.

“Vernon was from Northern Virginia, and he had been a 46-foot triple jumper in high school,” Boykin said. “He and Danny traded the school record back and forth for a while. He and Danny had talked at the beginning of the year about winning the long jump and the triple jump at the conference meet, but Vernon tore his hamstring during the season and was out until the conference meet. He fouled on his first attempt on the triple jump and felt like he only had one attempt left in him on that leg, but they got it done.”

Not only did Smith hold up his half of the bargain, winning the long jump for a second straight year, but he did so with Carolinas Conference and school records of 22 feet, 10½ inches. He would go on to win the league title in the long jump for the third straight time the following season.

“I always felt like he might have a 24-foot jump in him,” Boykin said. “It just never happened, but he was an incredibly good jumper.”

When he graduated, he did so with the school record in the triple jump as well, having taken it back from Kelly with a distance of 44 feet, three inches.

Nothing like a little competition for Smith to bring out his best.