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The Oregon football community lost a legend this month as Tom Smythe, a beloved leader and one of the winningest coaches in state history, passed away at 84 years old.
Smythe amassed a high school head coaching record of 273-78-1 and racked up the 10th-most wins in state history during a 40-year run that included stops at Lake Oswego (1970), Lakeridge (1971-77, 1979-87, 2009-2013) and McNary (1995-2006).
He led McNary to its first-ever state title in 1997 and added another championship with the Celtics in 2001. He also helped Lakeridge get the 1987 title.
Additionally, Smythe spent six seasons at the helm of Lewis & Clark College, where he accumulated a 29-25-3 record and led the Pioneers through one of their more successful stints in program history. As if that weren’t enough, Smythe spent nearly two decades coaching semi-professional teams in Europe during the U.S. offseason.
“I think you could do some math and make an argument — he might be the all-time winningest football coach. Like, ever,” said Silverton head football coach Dan Lever, who worked alongside Smythe. “He’d get done with his season and then go coach 15 games a season for 20 years in Europe. Think of the juice you have to have to do that. Most of us, we get done with a season and we’re exhausted in November and December. Tom would get on a plane and go for another four or five months. It’s incredible, really.”
Wins and losses come nowhere close to telling the full story of Smythe’s impact, however.
“He taught me that emotions are very important and they’re beautiful,” former McNary football standout Luke Atwood said. “He never, ever did that (stuff) that coaches do, where they beat you over the head with toughness. He never talked about it once. … He had this gentle approach that was so special.”
Atwood was an all-state quarterback for McNary in 1996 who helped lead the Celtics to an 11-2 record under Smythe. He went on to play football and baseball at Willamette University before following Smythe overseas to Europe, where he enjoyed a seven-year career under the head coach in Vienna. He later went on to coach alongside Smythe, too.
The pair won plenty together; 1996 served as McNary’s first-ever season with double-digit victories and resulted in a trip to the state semifinals. Prior to that, the school had just 11 winning seasons in its 30-year history.
“It was a dream come true,” Atwood said. “I never thought that would happen. When I grew up, McNary couldn’t win in football. They never won. Pee wee teams, we never won. I was getting tackled at quarterback before I could even hand the ball off a lot of times — we were so bad. I had to pinch myself when we started winning games, because I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
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Smythe was an offensive innovator who, according to those who worked closely with him, was ahead of his time from a schematic standpoint. Long before Chip Kelly put the University of Oregon football program on the map with his “blur” offense in the late 2000’s, Smythe was deploying something similar not far up the road.
“A lot of people don’t realize — Oregon and Chip Kelly, that was revolutionary era in football, I think. But Tom Smythe had been doing no-huddle since the late 80’s,” Lever said. “He just was way before his time in terms of scheme and approach. Kind of an unorthodox guy, too. He wasn’t ever afraid of a good idea.”
Prior to taking over as Silverton’s head coach, Lever spent the 2017-21 seasons coaching at Tualatin, where Smythe worked with him as an assistant. Lever was admittedly at an early point in his own coaching career and wanted to load his staff with experienced, knolwedgable assistants who he could learn from.
With Smythe, he hit the jackpot.
“The guy was in his 70’s and still had the ability to connect with kids the same way a 25-year-old could,” Lever said. “He was just a wealth of knowledge for me and my staff. I do some things that he taught me to this day. You can’t put a price tag on the experience and what I’ve been able to take away from it.”
Smythe built upon the “run-and-shoot” offense that has become a modern staple of both college and professional football. Created by former Portland State head coach Darrell “Mouse” Davis, the scheme is unique in the sense that it provides receivers with the autonomy to attack defenses with “option” routes that exploit mismatches.
It can be a complex, difficult offense for young players to learn — particularly for quarterbacks, who take on a greater physical and mental burden than in most other schemes.
That wasn’t the case for Smythe’s signal-callers, though.
“In the run and shoot, receivers run the offense,” Atwood said. “They’re gonna go run a route, and as they’re running it, they have to read what they’re gonna do. (Smythe) would just tell you what to do so you didn’t have to read it. He got it to the point where there was no chance for human error, because he was telling you exactly what to do, and he would tell you with a number. Each number was a different route. So, he didn’t need his players to go read what to do because he already knew what the defense was gonna do.”
Atwood described Smythe as "a genius." Even while he was stacking winning seasons with a cutting-edge offensive philosophy, he didn't wear a headset on the sideline. Rather than rely on his offensive coordinator to relay information from their superior vantage point in the booth, he identified each opponents' vulnerabilities while standing at field level — an incredibly difficult thing to do for even the savviest of coaches.
Smythe's practices were almost always short, and yet he only needed four practices to install a new formation and have his players up to speed by the time Friday rolled around.
"Players from the NFL down to junior high football can recognize great information and sound coaching," Lever said. "(Smythe) would do a drill with a kid and casually say something like, 'Yeah, I used to do this drill with (former NFL quarterback) Doug Nussmeier. He's the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys now.' I mean, everybody just knew Tom had street cred. When he talked everybody listened. When he was coaching our kids, I was listening just as closely as they were."
Smythe's impact on the Salem-Keizer football community will be felt for years to come, for far more than just his tactical innovations or countless accolades.
“I didn’t need Tom Smythe in the sense that I didn’t have a void in my life for a strong male presence. I have the best dad in the world and two grandpas who were more than heroes,” Atwood said. “But then you spend all that time wondering, ‘Why are you treating me so well?’ And when he’s not around, you’re wondering, ‘Why do I feel so good about myself?’ It doesn’t matter if you have the need for a strong role model in your life or not. Even though I didn’t need him, he worked his way into my heart.”
Jarrid Denney covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X @jarrid_denney
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: 'When he talked everybody listened'; remembering McNary's Tom Smythe
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