Former Sun Devil Wrestling Head Coach Lee Roy Smith to be inducted into National Wrestling Hall of Fame

STILLWATER, Okla. – The National Wrestling Hall of Fame announced on Thursday afternoon that former Sun Devil Wrestling Head Coach Lee Roy Smith will be inducted as a distinguished member of its 2026 Hall of Fame class. The Class of 2026 will be honored and officially inducted during the 49th Honors Weekend on June 5 and 6, 2026 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Smith will be joined by Ben Askren, Tervel Dlagnev, and Shannon Williams-Yancey as distinguished members. Also joining the hall will be Meritorious Official honoree Zach Errett; Order of Merit recipient James L. Porter, MA, LAT, ATC; Medal of Courage recipient Patrick Morrissey; and Outstanding American honoree Retired United States Army Major General Michael J. Nardotti, Jr.

“The National Wrestling Hall of Fame is honored to announce the Class of 2026, an illustrious group whose enduring contributions exemplify the foundational principles of our sport. Every Hall of Fame class is special, but this one is even more so as it includes Lee Roy Smith, who will be retiring next year after more than 20 years of superb leadership as executive director of the Hall of Fame,” said John Harris III, National Wrestling Hall of Fame Board of Governors Chairman. 

Smith becomes the third member of his family to be inducted as a Distinguished Member, joining brothers John Smith and Pat Smith, who were inducted in 1997 and 2006, respectively. The Smiths are the second family to have three Distinguished Members, joining the Peery family: father Rex Peery, inducted in the Charter Class of 1976, and brothers Ed Peery and Hugh Peery, both inducted in 1980. There are seven other sets of brothers who have been inducted as Distinguished Members: Ed Banach (1993) and Lou Banach (1994); Tom Brands (2001) and Terry Brands (2006); Stanley Henson (1978) and Josiah Henson (2006); Cliff Keen (1976) and Paul Keen (1977); Ben Peterson (1986) and John Peterson (1986); Bill Scherr (1998) and Jim Scherr (2002); and Dave Schultz (1997) and Mark Schultz (1995).

Distinguished Members can be a wrestler who has achieved extraordinary success in national and/or international competition; a coach who has demonstrated great leadership in the profession and who has compiled an outstanding record; or a contributor whose long-term activities have substantially enhanced the development and advancement of the sport. Wrestlers must have been retired from active competition for a period of five years to be eligible for consideration as a Distinguished Member.

Smith became the head wrestling coach at Arizona State University in 1992, a position he held until 2001. He had a career record of 91-58-1 with three NCAA champions, 28 All-Americans and 27 Pac-10 Conference champions. Smith led ASU to five Top 10 finishes at the NCAA Division I Championships and five Pac-10 Conference team titles. He was named National Rookie Coach of the Year in 1993 and Pac-10 Conference Coach of the Year four times. During his tenure, the wrestling team achieved the highest graduation rate of any sport at ASU.

Smith took the ASU post after serving as USA Wrestling's freestyle coach for the United States national team from 1989 through the 1992 Olympics. At the Barcelona games, Smith guided the USA to its best-ever Olympic wrestling performance. The U.S. squad won three gold, two silver and one bronze medal, placed all 10 weight classes in the top seven, and compiled a record number of team points. In 1997, Smith coached the USA Wrestling team at the World Championships in Siberia.

In the three years prior to the Olympics, he coached six individuals to world freestyle wrestling titles and helped guide the U.S. National Team to three runner-up finishes at the World Championships.

From 1987-89, Smith was a member of the Swiss Wrestling Federation national coaching staff. In that capacity, he conducted training camps for Swiss National Team members prior to international competition, helping the Swiss team to its best-ever showing at the Freestyle World Championships in Clermont-Ferrand, France, in 1987.

Smith began his coaching career first as a graduate assistant coach and then as an assistant coach for his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, from 1982-87. He helped guide the Cowboys to five top-four NCAA finishes and three Big Eight Conference titles.

Smith earned his degree in Liberal Arts from State University of New York at Albany after completing all coursework, except a student-teaching assignment, for his B.S. in physical education from OSU in 1982.

Competitively, Smith was a two-time Oklahoma prep state champion and a two-time junior national champion. Smith also was a three-time All-American at Oklahoma State and earned four Big Eight individual titles. He won an NCAA title at 142 pounds in 1980 and helped the Cowboys to second-place finishes at the NCAAs in 1977 and 1980.

Following his collegiate career, he was the National Open Freestyle champion from 1980-82 and the World silver medalist in 1983. He earned silver medals in the 1983 and 1984 World Cup, and in 1984 won the U.S. Olympic Trials, only to lose his spot on the team in a protracted court battle. He was a qualifier at the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials as well.

The second oldest of 10 children, Smith, 41, began wrestling in the fourth grade. No one knew then what a tradition of outstanding wrestling he would pioneer - a tradition that includes seven NCAA Championships and a host of international wrestling honors among himself and his three younger brothers: John, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who is currently the head coach at Oklahoma State; Pat, who became the first wrestler to win four NCAA titles; and Mark, who was a three-time All-American at OSU. In fact, the Smith family was picked as the "Family of the Decade" by Amateur Wrestling News in 1999 for their accomplishments. 

For more information about the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, please visit www.NWHOF.org.