2025 Hall of Fame Feature: Martin Smith

They were two men at the humble height of their profession when Martin Smith and Dan McClimon briefly crossed paths on the road to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.

On a late November day in 1982, Smith led the Virginia women’s cross-country team to its second of back-to-back NCAA championships, while McClimon guided UW to its first national title on the men’s side.

After both teams left the race site in Bloomington, Indiana, they happened to stop at the same Sizzler restaurant where the coaches and student-athletes ate and celebrated their historic achievements before piling into their vans and heading east for Charlottesville and north to Madison.

“Pure coincidence,’’ Smith recalled.

Before sitting down to eat, Smith said he and McClimon took a moment to shake hands and exchange pleasantries. It would be their final encounter.

“I did not know Dan in a strong, personal, intimate friendship,’’ Smith said. “He was older than me and more accomplished than I was. I was just a young beginning coach.’’

Less than six months later, Smith learned that McClimon died of injuries sustained when a small plane in which he was a passenger crashed and burned while on a recruiting trip to Illinois. It’s a moment that led Smith to Madison, to coach the Badgers to multiple NCAA titles and to establish himself as one of the best college distance coaches in the U.S. while making subsequent stops at Oregon, Oklahoma and Iowa State.

“Obviously I didn’t know Dan, but I could tell when I arrived that he was beloved by everyone in the running community and everyone probably outside it,’’ Smith said. “I know the athletes absolutely adored him and worshipped him.

“I learned very quickly you don’t replace someone like that. If you try, you’re going to fail or not endear yourself to anyone. I don’t know if I was mature enough or wise enough or intelligent enough to navigate that type of situation. I’d never experienced that kind of a situation.

“Dan was really good, not just as a coach, but as a person and had a lot of special skills. It impacted everybody.’’

After Ed Nuttycombe was promoted to run the UW track program, he looked back to his home state of Virginia to land Smith, who had helped guide the women’s team to consecutive NCAA crowns.

“People think he came here because I was from Virginia and he’s from Virginia and we’re basically the same age,’’ Nuttycombe said. “But I didn’t know him from Adam and he didn’t know me.’’

But they were largely on the same page when it came to creating and maintaining championship-level men’s track and cross-country programs. Nuttycombe led Wisconsin to the 2007 NCAA indoor crown – the first Big Ten school to accomplish that feat – as well as 26 Big Ten Conference titles (13 indoor and 13 outdoor). He was inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.

Smith, meanwhile, coached the Badgers to nine top-five placings in the NCAA meet, including two championships, three runner-up finishes and two third-place finishes. He also produced 12 Big Ten crowns, the most in conference history until 2023 when he was surpassed by current UW coach, Mick Byrne.

Nuttycombe (2014) and Smith (2023) are both enshrined in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

“I’m glad it’s happened,’’ Nuttycombe said of Smith’s pending enshrinement. “He’s a heck of a coach, very deserving of this honor.’’

If anyone can relate to the issues Smith faced when he took over the Badgers, it’s Nuttycombe. McClimon had assembled a cross-country squad dominated by state-born talent and appeared on the verge of creating a dynasty. Except now they were grieving and struggling.

Enter Smith, who had his own training ideas and coaching methods, but also knew that he had to tread lightly.

“He had a tough road for the first year or two because Dan was deeply entrenched here at Wisconsin and obviously very successful, beloved and admired by anybody he came in contact with,’’ Nuttycombe said.

“I don’t think it was anything (Smith) did or didn’t do. It was just a tough initial position to be in.’’

Smith described his initial mindset.

“I have a team to coach. They’re very good. They’re used to, technically, a different system of training and obviously incredibly successful with it,’’ he said. “I don’t know if you’re going to win them over, so all you try to do is prepare them best that you can athletically and give them the time to grieve. It won’t be easy. It won’t necessarily be pleasant.’’

One thing Smith made clear to his student-athletes was that he’d have their backs. For example, UW distance runners were shielded from media interviews.

“His first couple of years here, I don’t think he wanted me talking to them,’’ Nuttycombe quipped. “He was very protective of them, guiding them very tightly through all those processes.’’

Jerry Schumacher is a UW distance alum from Waukesha who competed for Smith.

“He didn’t let people in very easily and he was very protective of his boys, so to speak,’’ Schumacher said of Smith.

“Maybe I just didn’t know any better,’’ Smith said. “I just thought that was the way things were supposed to be done, so that was my approach. Looking back, I think that would be modified.’’

Schumacher coached the Badgers to the NCAA title in 2005 and has since taken the reins of the men’s and women’s programs at Oregon as well as the high-profile Bowerman Track Club.

“He’s been an incredible mentor to me, not only professionally, but personally,’’ Schumacher said. “I would never be where I am today without having Martin Smith in my life. He’s a very special person to me.

“I was very raw, very immature and he was exactly what I needed to harness whatever skills and talents I had and focus it into the sport. Once I figured out how to do that – it was really because of him – I absolutely fell in love with everything about it.’’

Nuttycombe said the key to Smith’s success was his preparedness.

“He always had them ready at the key times to be ready,’’ Nuttycombe said. “That’s an art. That’s a skill that not all coaches can figure out how to do, but he did.’’

Schumacher said the key to Smith’s success was his ability to communicate.

“People see the intensity side of coaches because their visible outside the playing field or in the heat of battle, whatever you want to call it,’’ Schumacher said. “A lot of people don’t get a chance to see that coach outside of the arena. I’ve been very fortunate to see Martin in that capacity. You couldn’t have a better representative to the Wisconsin Hall of Fame.

“His lessons to young people centered around being focused and disciplined and becoming the best that you could be. It didn’t matter where you carried that beyond sport, those were life lessons that he was able to bring into the athletic environment.

“It’s OK to be competitive and to be disappointed when things don’t go well and to work hard for things. The element of becoming the best that you can be at whatever you’re doing was a message that was taught daily to us.’’

Smith said he was “very flattered and honored’’ to be added to the UW Athletic Hall of Fame. He said the most important lesson he learned came courtesy of Nuttycombe.

“I learned a lot that would serve me well after I left Wisconsin in regards to Ed’s approach to being a head coach,’’ Smith said. “That was one lesson that I’m very thankful for. You don’t necessarily see it at the moment, although I think in many cases that I do know how lucky and fortunate I was to have worked with Ed, because he had a special gift for getting the best out of people.’’

BEST OF THREE

One: Smith has the cool distinction of having won league titles – either in track and field, cross country or both – in four different conferences. In addition to UW and the Big Ten, there was Virginia in the Atlantic Coast, Oregon in the then-Pac-12, Oklahoma in the Big 12 and Iowa State in the Big 12.

Two: Asked what he’s most proud of during his time with the Badgers, Smith was direct. “The team success of the cross country and track programs,’’ he said. “That’s not easy to do year in and year out. How those guys would always find a way to show up. Unbelievable. We were part of something bigger than ourselves and that’s always a thing to be affiliated with and be a member of. It’s a remarkable story that’s had an impressive journey. I don’t think that’s completely comprehended. I was in the middle of it, so it was important to me, but I still marvel at it.’’

Three: Did Smith maximize his time at Wisconsin? “No. Absolutely not,’’ he said. “It’s probably just part of my personality that I would say that and actually think that. I believe I’m one of those coaches that thinks more about the ones that got away – that slipped through our fingers – or where you made a miscalculation in coaching, which you can’t do anything but learn from it. If I had done a better job, you could have had a few more little successes along the way.’’