'Lancer the Legend' to be inducted in National Wrestling Hall of Fame

PALMER — Lancer Smith was unmistakable.

Tall and rugged, with his trademark brown bushy hair and beard, Smith cast an undeniable presence.

From the time he came to Alaska, during the summer of 1971, until after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor five years before his death in May of 2002, Smith was central to the success of Alaska amateur wrestling.

The longtime local wrestling coach was a college All-American and Olympian. In 1988, he became part of the second class of the Alaska Wrestling Hall of Fame.

And on Saturday, Smith will be awarded, arguably, his highest honor, an induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

“I think he would be humbled by it all,” Smith’s wife Joanne said. “He used to say it’s all the kids. It’s not me, it’s the kids. He was a great coach.”

Smith is one of five prominent figures in the Alaska wrestling community to be inducted into the National Hall of Fame, an honor that recognizes an individual’s lifetime service to the sport.

Joining Smith, who served as the head coach at Palmer High School for 18 years, in the class of 2008 are Tom Ritchie Sr., Bruce Merritt, Steve Gillaspie and John Lee Johnson — a longtime Dillingham coach who also spent time working within the PHS wrestling program.

While each of the inductees hold their own place in the history of amateur wrestling in Alaska, Smith could be considered one of the founding fathers of the sport in the Last Frontier state.

“He’s a legend,” former Service High School coach Mark Stiller said.

His talent took him to the highest levels of the sport and his adventurous spirit led him to Alaska. By marrying those two loves, Smith helped put the state of Alaska on the wrestling map. He helped bridge the gap between the 49th state and the Lower 48, and his effort’s were key in the promotion of freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling in the state.

Under the guidance of Smith, amateur wrestlers in Alaska began to have the opportunity to compete outside of the state and against athletes from across the country.

“We were the first to start taking kids out on Team Alaska trips to go down to Junior Nationals,” Joanne Smith said.

Smith even opened his own home he built with Joanne, the place the couple raised their daughters Kaycee and Kelli, to the wrestlers he coached and cared for. On his property — dubbed “Lancerland” — that sits outside Palmer, Smith hosted The Great Alaska Outdoors Wrestling Camp.

“We ran that for quite a few years,” Joanne Smith said.

Smith had a place for the wrestlers to stay. He had his own wrestling mat. The Smith family hosted three sessions each summer — one each in June, July and August — with each lasting a few weeks. Joanne Smith said on some summer days, it would be too hot to wrestle on the mats outside. So the campers got a taste of Alaska during the day, and an opportunity to wrestle in the evenings.

“The whole ambiance, wrestling outside, was huge for Lancer,” she said.

During The Great Alaska Outdoors Wrestling Camp were not the only times Smith invited his wrestlers into his home.

“We had a lot of young men living with us. Some of them didn’t have a place to stay,” Joanne said. “A month, or two, or three and they’d find their way back home.

“I had several sons,” she said. “None of them legally, but lots of sons.”

Pete Dickinson, a former Palmer and Service wrestling standout, was one of those who Smith took in.

“He’d do anything for you,” Dickinson, who lived and worked for Smith for about three months, said. “If you were in a bind, you could always call him and he’d help out. I was kind of in bind. He brought me up there and put me to work.”

Smith’s been called “Lancer the Legend,” and the Paul Bunyan and Wyatt Earp of Alaska wrestling. Just as his image was unmistakable — Joanne said he embraced life as a mountain man — Smith’s prowess on the mat was indisputable.

He was an All-American while at Diablo Valley Junior College in Pleasant HIll, Calif., and a two-time Big Sky Conference champion at Division I Idaho State.

In 1968, Smith was an alternate on the United States Greco-Roman team in the Olympic Games in Mexico.

Even after he started coaching in Alaska, Smith continued to dominate on the mat. He was a regular on the freestyle wrestling circuit, and in all the freestyle tournaments he entered in Alaska, he never lost.

“It was hard finding someone in Alaska who could even take him down,” Dickinson said.

Smith’s success in the sport continued into his coaching career. He started as an assistant coach at Palmer High School in 1973 and three years later he became the head coach of the Moose wrestling program. While at PHS, Smith saw a number of his athletes earn state titles.

He also coached at Colony High, and early in his coaching career he was a youth coach and director of the Palmer Kiwanis Junior Wrestling Programs, he led freestyle clubs and AAU teams and coached in the Arctic Winter Games.

In all, Smith was instrumental in the growth of countless Alaska wrestlers, teaching not only the sport, but life lessons as well.

“He was doing what he loved, and teaching the kids to do the same,” Joanna said.

Joanna said her husband had a way of commanding respect.

“Maybe it was because he gave it back to them,” she said.

Smith had a knack for motivating athletes and driving them to succeed.

“He got the best out of most,” Dickinson said.

Sometimes it didn’t even matter what program the wrestler was in. In the late 1990s, Stiller said Smith would make the drive into Anchorage to work with one of his wrestlers, Jason Cooley, a two-time state champion at Service.

“Lancer specifically helped coach him one to two times a week for a couple months,” Stiller said. “He’d stop working, drive all the way to Anchorage and get on the mat and wrestle with this kid. He loved the sport so much. It’s a testament to what kid of heart he had. It’s neat to watch guys who love the sport so much.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.