Chris Smith

Chris Smith (born March 31, 1939) is an American former college basketball player for the Virginia Tech Hokies from 1957 to 1961. He was nicknamed "Moose" at Charleston High School in West Virginia where he played as a 6-foot-6 center. During an era of exceptional local talent, in what was then known as the Kanawha Valley, Smith was later dubbed "The Human Pogo Stick" by former Roanoke sportswriter Bill Brill.

Since playing professional basketball was not financially lucrative in 1961, Smith reportedly informed the NBA teams that he would not play professional basketball and asked them not to draft him. He never reported to Syracuse camp.

Awards and records In 1982, Smith was inducted as a charter member to Virginia Tech's Hall-of-Fame. He was the only basketball player in the class.

Smith still holds many Virginia Tech rebounding records: game (36); season (495); career (1508); season per-game average (20.4); and career per-game average (17.1). Smith is the state of Virginia's NCAA Division I leader in career average rebounds per game of all time.

He is still ranked 26th nationally for career average rebounds per game (17.1) and 24th nationally for total career rebounds (1508) as listed all-time for Division I players by the Official 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Records Book. His career average rebound record of 17.1 rebounds per game is the current record for the State of Virginia.

In addition, Smith has the Southern Conference tournament rebounding records of 28 rebounds for a single game and 71 rebounds for three games. In 2010, ESPN selected Chris Smith as the "Best Player" in the history of the Virginia Tech Basketball program.

In 1959, Chris Smith was a First Team All-Southern Conference Selection. In 1960, he was a unanimous 1960 First Team All-Southern Conference Selection along with Jerry West. In 1961, Smith was the captain of the All-Southern Conference team.

Frequent news articles still appear that document events during Smith's playing career such as Jennings Culley's July 22, 2001 article in the Richmond Times titled "Tech Basketball Recruits said 'Noe' to West Virginia"; Jack Bogaczyk's February 25, 2009 article about the second college basketball game in the Charleston Civic Center between Marshall and Virginia Tech; and MSN Sports November 16, 2008 article about Chuck Noe's successful basketball recruiting in West Virginia for Virginia Tech during the 1950s.