Tommy Smith (footballer Born 1945) - Life and Playing Career

Life and Playing Career

Born in Liverpool, Smith joined Liverpool F.C. under new manager Bill Shankly as a schoolboy on 19 May 1960 and made his début three years later on 8 May 1963, the last day of the season in a comprehensive 5–1 victory over Birmingham City at Anfield. However, he made no appearances throughout the following season, as Liverpool won the League title. He scored his first goal in the 3–2 league defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on 29 August 1964.

In 1965, Smith started to feature more regularly and was an integral part of the Liverpool side that won the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history, They beat Leeds United 2–1 after extra-time in the final at Wembley on 1 May. Although a defender, Smith wore the #10 shirt; a cunning ploy by manager Bill Shankly to confuse opponents in the days when specific numbers always represented specific positions on the pitch. The #10 shirt usually was worn by an inside forward.

The 1965–66 campaign saw Smith become a fixture in the team which went on to regain the League title, earning Smith the first of his four championship medals, However, the season also had the taste of disappointment as Liverpool lost 2–1 in the 1966 European Cup Winners' Cup Final to Borussia Dortmund at Hampden Park. Had Liverpool won, with future successes in other European competitions to come, Smith would have attained a rare haul of three winners' medals from the three different European contests.

After the success of 1966 there then followed a barren period for Liverpool in the late 1960s and after a disastrous cup defeat at Vicarage Road to Watford in February 1970, Shankly decided to dismantle the team and build a new, younger side. Smith and team-mates Ian Callaghan, Chris Lawler and Emlyn Hughes survived the cull which saw the likes of Alec Lindsay, Brian Hall and Ray Clemence emerge from the reserves and Steve Heighway, John Toshack and, later, Kevin Keegan join the club.

Smith was given the honour of club captaincy and led the team to the 1971 FA Cup final, which Liverpool lost to Arsenal 2–1 after extra time. In 1973, Smith skippered the team to their first double success of the League and UEFA Cup, when they topped the league by three points over Arsenal and beat Borussia Mönchengladbach in the UEFA Cup final 3–2 on aggregate.

The following season, after Smith complained to Shankly at being left out of the team for a game, he had the big disappointment of losing the captaincy to Emlyn Hughes. Earlier, Hughes had told Shankly to remove the captaincy from Smith and give it to a younger man. When he returned, he was also moved from his favoured central defensive role to full back. Although Smith ultimately settled his differences with Shankly satisfactorily, a long-running feud developed between Smith and Hughes which led to some tension in the Liverpool dressing room, where the older players remained loyal to Smith and voiced their dislike of Hughes's chattiness (and parsimony in the pub).

Hughes went on to lift the FA Cup as captain in 1974 after Liverpool comprehensively beat Newcastle United 3-0 in one of the most one-sided of Wembley finals. Although Smith missed out on receiving the trophy from Princess Anne, he did have the pleasure of setting up the third and final goal for the young striker Keegan, a stunning team goal.

As Smith's twilight years approached, he made fewer appearances and with the emergence of youngsters Phil Thompson and Phil Neal as central defender and full back respectively, though he still played an important role as Liverpool managed another League and UEFA Cup dual success in 1976, when he appeared 24 times in the league and played a left-back role in both legs of the UEFA final. The following year, which Smith had announced would be his final season with the club, started with him out of the side for several months, but ended with his finest moment.

Smith spent the 1976 season playing 17 games on loan as a defender for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, where he continued his trademark toughness and earned the nickname, "The Tank." He then returned to England.

Smith was left out of the side that started the 1976–77 season but, when Thompson picked up an injury in Liverpool's 1–0 win over Newcastle in the month of March, he was recalled and kept his place as the side went on to retain the League title. Smith then played in the 1977 FA Cup final which Liverpool lost to bitter rivals Manchester United, thereby ruining the chance of a treble, with the club's first European Cup final in Rome due a few days later. Despite the disappointment of the defeat at Wembley, Liverpool played magnificently to beat old UEFA Cup foes Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1, with Smith scoring a towering header from a corner to make the score 2–1. It was his 48th and final goal for the club and the first for the season. The BBC commentator Barry Davies described the goal with the words "It's Tommy Smith! Oh what an end to a career."

Two days after the remarkable night in Rome, Smith had his testimonial game at Anfield, a Bobby Charlton select Xl and 35,694 fans turned out to honour the Liverpool hardman as the side played out an entertaining 9–9 draw, such was the party atmosphere of the evening the Liverpool goalscorers included 2 from goalkeeper Clemence and 2 from the now 'prolific' Smith! He decided to delay his retirement and played a further season for Liverpool (missing the successful retention of the European Cup after a DIY accident at home injured his foot).

He spent the summer of 1978 in the NASL with the Los Angeles Aztecs. He started as a player but became player/head coach halfway through the season. At the end of the season he was replaced by Dutch legend Rinus Michels.

Smith left for Swansea City after 638 games in 1978, receiving the M.B.E for services to football that same year. The Swans were being managed by his former Liverpool team-mate John Toshack at the time and Smith helped Swansea to promotion from the old Third Division. He retired from playing in 1979. It's notable that despite his long association with a winning team, level of respect within the game and amount of medals, he was only ever selected once to play for England, in a 0–0 drawn British Home Championship match against Wales at Wembley in 1971. He also made junior and under-23 appearances for his country early in his career.