Arkansas football lost one of its all-time greats Wednesday, when Billy Ray Smith Jr. died at 64 after a long battle with dementia. He passed away peacefully with his family by his side on July 29.
The Chargers announced his death with a tribute from owner Dean Spanos, who said, “To know Billy Ray was to love Billy Ray,” and added, “He wasn't merely a great football player. He was, truly, larger than life.”
Smith’s place in Razorback history is secure. He was the No. 5 overall pick in the 1983 NFL Draft, but before he ever reached the league, he had already built a Fayetteville résumé that put him among the best defensive players Arkansas has ever produced. He earned unanimous All-American honors in both 1981 and 1982, then served as team captain in his senior season and helped lead Arkansas to a 9-2-1 record and a Bluebonnet Bowl win over Florida.
His numbers still jump off the page in the Arkansas record book. Smith remains the program’s career leader in tackles for loss with 63, which is 15.5 more than Trey Flowers in second place.
The family name runs deep in Arkansas football. Billy Ray Smith Sr., who died in 2001, was a trailblazer for the Razorbacks himself, earning first-team All-SWC honors in 1956 before going in the third round of the 1957 NFL Draft to the Los Angeles Rams.
He later became the first Arkansas Razorback to play in a Super Bowl, appearing in Super Bowl III, and the first to win one, as part of the Baltimore Colts’ Super Bowl V team. His son carried that legacy forward with a career that matched it in stature.
Smith Jr. and Smith Sr. were both named to Arkansas’ All-Century Team, and Smith Jr. was also inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Razorback Hall of Honor. In 2000, he became the sixth Arkansas player to be elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
His NFL career was just as distinguished, even if it all came with one franchise. Smith spent 10 seasons with the Chargers, played in 126 games, and won consecutive Chargers Defensive Player of the Year awards in 1985 and 1986. He was named the team’s MVP in 1987, later earned a spot on the Chargers’ 50th Anniversary Team in 2009, and after retirement became a familiar voice on television and radio in the city.
His death comes shortly after the losses of fellow Arkansas legends Bill Burnett and Jim Lindsey, who died at 78 and 81, respectively. With three major figures from Razorback history gone in less than a month, the Arkansas community has taken a heavy hit.
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