Bev Smith

Biography

Canada’s best ever female basketball player, Smith was also considered to be one of the world’s best players of her era. She played for 12 years on the Canadian national team competing in two Olympic Games (Los Angeles 1984, Atlanta 1996). She won two bronze medals at the World Championships (1979, 1986) and two bronze medals at the Pan American Games (1979, 1987).

Smith played 12 years of professional basketball in the Italian clubs of Vicenza (1982-85, 1989-90) and Ferrara (1986-88), winning three Italian championships and two European Cups. A student-athlete at the University of Oregon, Smith was a two-time All-American (1981, 1982) and held many school records including points in a game (38) and rebounds in a game (26). 

Raised in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Smith was a multi-sport athlete also competing in field hockey, softball and track and field. It was while attending Salmon Arm Secondary School where basketball became her passion, leading the team to three provincial championships and an 89-game win-streak.

When Smith retired from playing, she pursued a successful career as a coach, first briefly at the University of British Columbia, then with the Canadian national team from 1997 to 2001, finishing 10th at Sydney 2000. She became head coach of the University of Oregon Ducks from 2001-09, winning the Women’s National Invitation Tournament Championship in 2002. Later she became the assistant coach for the Canadian team winning back-to-back gold medals at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto and the FIBA Americas in Edmonton. 

Smith was inducted into the University of Oregon’s inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame class in 1992, Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004 and Pac-12 Hall of Honor in 2019.