John Smith on decision to retire: 'My career is complete'

Oklahoma State wrestling head coach John Smith announced his retirement Thursday and explained his decision to walk away now.

A complete career is what Smith cited after over three decades with the Cowboys. The legendary coach and wrestler feels there is no more to accomplish for himself.

He just wanted to leave his beloved program in a better place than he found it.

“I brought Coleman (Scott) back, we had a great year this year, implemented some things, made a difference, you know,” Smith said. “Most of you know the story of last three years and some of the things, some of the issues that have happened, you know, and I think when you coach 33 years, you’re just like going ‘Hey, listen. Man, I need to leave it in a better place.’ You know, that’s all I thought about. I didn’t think about myself. 

“I didn’t think about anything other than, damn you don’t coach 33 years and you walk out on it now. 32 years and you walk out. You want to finish and you want to finish with the bang. This team allowed us to watch them wrestle in six to seven different sellouts when we showed up. Everyone showed up. You know, we had to sell out here, broke our attendance record. And you finished 18th last year? Damn. There was a couple of times I’m going, how many tickets? But that’s what happens when you win.”

The 2023-24 season seemed to be a bit of a return to form for Oklahoma State. While the Cowboys didn’t bring home a team trophy at NCAAs and had two runner ups in separate weight classes, Smith felt it was the right time.

“And so that’s what I wanted,” Smith said. “I wanted to grind it out and be in a better place. Hand it over. It’s not perfect. We got some balance right now, you know, and good to know that we came back from nationals and nobody’s hit the portal. You know you’re doing your job. A little different today. People having a good experience, they’re wrestling for you. You know, and so hope it stays that way. 

“But it was the right time. That’s all I could think about the last three years. Can’t leave till it’s in a better place and give them a pile of crap. Give him something to go with. Wasn’t thinking about winning a national championship, I wasn’t thinking about taking second or bringing a trophy home. I was just thinking I gotta get it in a better place.”

John Smith caps off ‘complete’ wrestling career

Smith, 58, was at the peak of his powers as a wrestler by the early 90s. A two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and four-time World Champion, Smith opted to go into coaching rather than keep wrestling.

Following a historic college career at Oklahoma State and then back-to-back Olympic Gold Medals, which were included in his six straight golds when combining the World titles, Smith was offered to stay following the 1992 cycle.

Instead, he walked away from the mat as a competitor and turned to the bench.

“I walked away complete,” Smith said. “1992, I retired and USA Wrestling was trying to keep me and bundled a whole bunch of money together. And it was about six times more than I was going to make as the head coach. And they were going to do it over four years and instead I took the $15,000 and started coaching. Literally, and I got a raise. 

“I got a $10,000 raise to $25,000 next year. But the reason I didn’t do it was because I was complete. My career was complete. I didn’t want to interfere with you know, making decisions based on money. When I walked away from the NCAA championship this year, I was complete.”

The team this year certainly had talent and will have a lot more next year with transfers Dean Hamiti and Caleb Fish adding to the room. But Smith felt this was still the time to end it.

“Wish we would have done better than 10th place,” Smith said. “We were 16 points away from second you know, I mean, which wasn’t much. One guy, you know, everyone was bunched in there. Wish we would have done better but for me the way we wrestled, just nice walking away. Wasn’t in good shape two years ago, wasn’t in good shape, you know, a year ago, mentally. 

“Just wanting to make sure that you coach a long time, not everybody gets to do that. I got to do it when I wrestled. I got to walk away being an Olympic gold medalist and I got to walk away today, feeling complete, that my career is complete. I’m walking away from coaching and won’t come back.” 

Will Smith get bored? Probably. But the coach has ways to keep himself occupied. It just won’t be anymore coaching.

“You can’t believe that number of people that asked me ‘What are you going to do? What are you going to do when you get bored, you better make sure you’ve got enough to do,’” Smith said. “And I told them and basically everyone has said that to me, I said listen, I’m probably gonna get bored, but I can promise you one thing I’m not going to wish I was still coaching. The changes that have happened, you know, things like that. I mean, we’ve heard about it. 

“I’m not going to get into the changes and things. I mean, they didn’t force me out. I wouldn’t say any of the changes forced me out, you know? 33 years is enough.”