Salmon Arm’s Bev Smith, a legendary basketball player and coach, has been named to the U.S. Pac-12 All-Century Team.
Smith is a member of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and was included in the University of Oregon’s inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame class in 1992. She played in three Olympic games (1980, 1984 and 1996) with Canada and later coached the Canadian national team from 1997-2001 before taking over at Oregon.
“Bev Smith was the Canadian women’s team’s Larry Bird,” former U.S. national women’s team coach Don McCrae said of Smith, who started her basketball career at J.L. Jackson and was a standout as a Salmon Arm Jewel.