By Libby Ray
STATE Magazine

The wrestler eyes up his opponent.

More than 30 years since John Smith, a Distinguished Member inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1997, won his second Olympic gold medal, he is still looking for a challenger.

Nowadays, you won’t find him basking in the cheering Olympic crowds of Seoul or Spain. You won’t find him matside in Gallagher-Iba Arena, where he coached the Cowboy wrestling team to five titles and trained 153 All-Americans.

You might not realize he was a wrestler at all unless you looked beneath that dusty brown cowboy hat to see those trademark cauliflower ears. Behind that grizzled white beard is that same wry smile and the glint of his hazel brown eyes.

Smith wrestled collegiately at around 134 pounds, but today, his opponent is a heavyweight, coming in at around 1,000 pounds. It’s his cattle and it happens to be lunchtime.

Since retiring from OSU in 2024, Smith has spent more time on his ranch. His herd has increased, coming with new responsibilities and difficulties he’s had to learn to overcome.

“In wrestling, you have to be hard; you have to be tough, and you have to be able to bounce back,” Smith said. “Some of those days [of working on the ranch] and breaking ice five, six, seven times a day were tough, but I liked it. I liked having a different kind of challenge.”

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