Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

John L. Smith craves finding a mountain to climb.

Smith wants a spot he can push himself on vacation this summer. He’s contemplating a trip up the 13,770 feet of the Grand Teton in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Conquering the highest peak in the Grand Teton National Forest, scaling one of the most demanding mountains in the world, would allow Smith to cross off yet another item on his bucket list. And as challenging as “The Grand” is, it would be nothing out of the ordinary for Smith, who has run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro with his two sons and been through basic training with Marine officers.

Smith first learned to push the limits while growing up on a farm near Idaho Falls, Idaho. It started with something as simple as sneaking out of class in junior high to watch high school football games. Somewhere along the way he discovered Hemingway. Reading the author’s exploits only fueled Smith’s desire to push himself and make the most of life.

Finding the next adrenaline rush, a new mountain to climb, has been a priority for as long as he can remember.

This is why Smith, who turns 64 in November, is back at Arkansas. He took over in April after Bobby Petrino was fired. It was a return to the school where Smith had spent the last three years as an assistant coach.

Smith’s wife, Diana, jokes that this is just another one of “John L.’s adventures,” which is exactly how the coach views the opportunity to coach the Razorbacks this season.

When Smith left Fayetteville for Weber State in Ogden, Utah, at the end of the 2011 season, he was convinced that major head coaching opportunities had passed him by. He returned to his alma mater, hoping to turn the Wildcats into a Football Championship Subdivision title contender before retiring and devoting more time to his love of the outdoors and his wife, a two-time cancer survivor.

Smith last worked as a major college head coach at Michigan State, where he limped to a 22-26 overall record with the Spartans, and then to the unemployment line. He was 1-7 in the Big Ten his final season, his record getting progressively worse over four years after opening 8-5 in his debut at the school.

“I had said it is probably not going to happen,’” Smith said of a BCS-level job. “We were concentrating on the time at Weber State, getting them to that level. All of a sudden this opportunity presents itself. …”

Smith had his mountain to climb.