Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Price-Smith Named to National Track & Field Hall of Fame
10/14/2016 | 4:32:00 | Track and Field
SIU alumna and former Saluki head coach Connie Price-Smith will be inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame on Nov. 3 in New York City, the site of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
A four-time Olympian and 25-time national champion in the shot put and discus, Price-Smith has had a distinguished career as both a competitor and a coach at the world level. She has been a member of 34 international U.S. squads as an athlete, and was the first woman in 32 years to win both the shot put and discus at an Olympic Trial in 1992. In 1995, she became the first U.S. woman in 35 years to win a World Championship medal in the shot put, claiming silver.
Price-Smith's international coaching experience is as impressive as it is extensive, as she most recently served as the women's head coach for Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero. It marked the third-straight Olympics that Price-Smith has served as a coach for, as she was an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. She was also the head women's coach for Team USA at the 2011 IAAF World Championships and the 2007 Pan American Games.
Price-Smith is a 1985 graduate of Southern Illinois University. She was a four-year standout on SIU's basketball team, leading the nation in field goal percentage her junior year and scoring 1,271 career points, the ninth-most in team history. She threw the shot put for the first time as a senior at the urging of her husband, John Smith, and quickly became dominant, winning MVC indoor and outdoor titles in the shot put in 1985.
After retiring from competition after 15 years as a professional athlete, Price-Smith began her coaching career as a volunteer at Ohio State University.
In 2001, Price-Smith was hired at her alma mater as the head women's coach. She spent three seasons as the head women's coach, before SIU combined both the men's and women's programs in 2004-05 and Price-Smith was named head coach. In total, she spent 14 seasons coaching at SIU, before departing to fill the head coaching vacancy at Ole Miss.
Under Price-Smith, a 1990 Saluki Hall of Fame inductee, SIU's women's team racked up five conference titles and finished a program-best ninth in the nation at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In her final season at SIU, the men's team ended a 23-year drought and brought home their first MVC title since 1992. A five-time MVC Coach of the Year honoree, her student-athletes won a combined 184 MVC individual titles, 51 All-American honors and eight NCAA individual championships.
