From staff reports

sports@joplinglobe.com

Many believed Rod Smith’s football career was over.

Missouri Southern played at Central Missouri in the third game of the 1992 season, and as Smith was waiting to catch a punt, he took a shot directly on his left knee before the ball arrived, causing severe ligament and cartilage damage.

“I’m still mad about the Central Missouri deal,” former Lions athletics director Jim Frazier said Friday night. “It seemed like he could have lost his leg.”

But Smith, who also sat out the 1989 season with a foot injury, underwent surgery and intense rehabilitation and returned in time to help the Lions win the MIAA championship the next year. He completed his career with 158 catches for 3,122 yards and 35 touchdowns. He was a Harlon Hill Award finalist as a senior when he had 63 r4eceptions for 986 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Smith’s success at Missouri Southern wasn’t limited to football. He earned three degrees — economics and finance, general business and marketing and management — during his six years on campus and was named the school’s outstanding graduate in 1994.

“I’m telling you there isn’t one percent of the people who could overcome what he overcame,” Frazier said. “I was so shocked and so proud (he was able to play again). And remember he got three degrees. He did a lot of things right. In two words, it’s work ethic.”

Work ethic earned Smith another honor Friday night when he was inducted into the Division II Football Hall of Fame during a banquet in Florence, Ala.

Smith and former Jacksonville State (Ala.) defensive back Eric Davis comprised the 10th class of inductees into the hall. Both went on to play 13 seasons in the National Football League, and they were teammates in Denver in 2001.

Smith became the second MIAA player selected by the 20-member committee to join the hall. Former Pittsburg State running back Ronald Moore was inducted in 2005.

Darrell Green, former defensive back with the Washington Redskins and Texas A&M-Kingsville, was inducted in 2003. Smith’s first professional catch was a game-winning, 43-yarder over Green in 1995.

After his record-setting career with the Lions, Smith signed a free-agent contract with the Denver Broncos and, after one year on the practice squad, became the franchise’s record-setting receiver.

“There were a lot of scouts, in fact, two Chiefs scouts were in the press box the night he got hurt,” Frazier said. “After he got hurt, everybody disappeared except the guy from Denver. He kept coming around. He was the only one left who had any interest in Rod.

“I saw him (the first year with Denver) in a preseason game in Dallas. He had worked hard. He was on the kickoff coverage team. He needed a little work on his tackling ability, but he was trying to hit somebody. It was obvious to me that he had blended in. He had accepted coaching well. It all goes back to the work ethic. He’d worked himself to where he was accepted.”