Myrl L Smith

Myrl Leon Smith passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 18, 2020 at the age of 96 and is now reunited with his loving wife, Lola in the presence of Our Lord. Myrl was born in Brinkley, Arkansas on Tuesday, September 18, 1923, the youngest of seven children. He grew up in Brinkley and starred in three sports for the Brinkley Tigers, football, basketball, and track. As a running back on the football team, Myrl led the Brinkley Tigers to a state championship in his senior year. He was given the nickname “Dobbin” after a well-known racehorse at the time. The nickname led to the unexpected anomaly of Myrl being elected twice in the same year to the Arkansas All Star Football team, as M. Smith and D. Smith! His championship football team was rewarded with a trip to the Cotton Bowl by passenger train.

Among his childhood adventures were a clandestine trip on a freight train which he rode from Brinkley to St. Louis with his father for work. Myrl and his sidekick brother, Carl, were businessmen from an early age. They used to salvage scrap metal from around town and sell it to a local scrap metal yard. An entrepreneur at heart, Myrl’s other side businesses included selling popcorn at the local pool hall and officially greeting tourists at the Brinkley Train Depot to sell newspapers. His work ethic was an example to everyone and followed him throughout life. As a lifelong coach and teacher, he not only worked his primary job as a coach and teacher at Albuquerque High School, but he simultaneously was a Driver’s Education Instructor, and during basketball season, he took tickets at the Pit for Lobo Basketball for many years. Even in retirement, Myrl and Lola operated a jewelry business and Myrl coupled his love of geology with building plexiglass display stands which he sold across the country.

During the summer after high school, Myrl initially went to work for the Pidgeon-Thomas Iron Company in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was a welder of landing craft tanks that were later critical to the invasion of Normandy in World War II. One July day while he was welding the head football coach for the University of Arkansas drove to Memphis to recruit Myrl to become a Razorback. Myrl packed his bags and moved to Fayetteville where he played for one season before joining the Navy as the war expanded in the Pacific. Myrl was especially proud of his service on the USS Proteus, a submarine tender in the Pacific fleet. He saw significant action during the war, and he had the honor of witnessing the surrender of Japan aboard the USS Missouri. He became a member of the occupying force after the Japanese surrender, during which time he was one of the first Americans to provide security at the Submarine Base in Yokosuka.

After discharge from the Navy, Myrl moved to Albuquerque to join his older brothers in a plumbing and heating business. However, one of his first moves was to pay a visit to the football coach at the University of New Mexico to successfully solicit a football scholarship. He started as a wingback and defensive back on the 1946-1948 Lobos. Myrl found the best thing Albuquerque had to offer when he met the love of his life, Lola Slyter, in an education class at Hodgin Hall when they both were attending UNM.

After graduating from UNM in 1949 Myrl went on to obtain a master’s degree from New Mexico Highlands University in 1950. During that school year he and Lola were married and began their life journey together. After graduating from Highlands, he first coached at Pagosa Springs, Colorado for one year, followed by three years in Amarillo, Texas. However, Myrl and Lola missed Albuquerque and returned home to coach, first as a football coach at Washington Junior High. In 1958 Myrl was hired as the head coach for the Albuquerque High School Bulldogs football, wrestling and pentathlon teams.

He won individual honors as a football coach when he was selected to coach the North team in the annual New Mexico North/South All Star game in 1963. That same year he was named Coach of the Year by the Albuquerque Lions Club. His teams won both District and City Championships twice during his tenure at AHS and the Bulldogs went to the State Championship game in 1961 and 1967.

As head wrestling coach his teams twice won City and State Championships, and as pentathlon coach, his teams collected an astonishing eleven state crowns. Myrl retired from coaching in 1974 but continued to teach biology until 1983. In 1987, he was inducted into the New Mexico High School Athletic Association Hall of Honor.

Myrl was the quintessential family man and taught his family the finer Arkansas points of fishing and starting campfires. On one notorious occasion in the Jemez, he grew impatient and decided he would siphon a small bit of gasoline from the car to “accelerate” the burn. The Jemez survived, but Myrl had to live the rest of his life being reminded of that “special” fishing trip. Everyone caught their limit of trout on that trip.

Myrl leaves a legacy of faith, love, optimism, kindness, generosity, respect, and a diligent work ethic to those blessed to have known him. Myrl was preceded in death by his parents, six siblings, and his loving wife of 56 years, Lola. He is survived by sons Ron (Judy), Jerry, and Randy (Ann), and by his daughter Jana Perry (Frank); seven grandchildren (Trevor, Lexi, Anna, Natalie, Austin, Quinn and Catherine) and three great grandchildren, (Hadley, Grayson and Brooks).

The family will plan a Celebration of Life in the post-Covid-19 era when it is safe to gather and exchange love and memories. Always a Bulldog, Myrl’s wishes are that in lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Albuquerque High School A-Club, 800 Odelia Rd. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87102.