Are Isaac Smith And Norm Smith Related By Family? Blood Bond, Parents And Wife

Victor Smith, an ironworker, and Ethel May Smith are Norm Smith’s parents (nee Brown). He has a younger brother, Len, who was born in 1912.

Smith attended Westgarth Central School before beginning an engineering apprenticeship and working at Millers Rope Works in Brunswick. In 1943, he took over his father’s Northcote engineering firm, which he relocated to North Coburg in 1954.

On October 19, 1940, he married Marjorie Victoria Ellis at Melbourne’s Wesley Church. Their lone child, Peter, was born in 1947. Norm Smith died on July 29, 1973, at the age of 57, from a brain tumor in his Pascoe Vale home. Both his child and wife survived him.

Smith had a wide-ranging impact. He made coaching in Australian football more significant by introducing novel ideas like utilizing a runner to communicate with his players (in 1955). He raised the bar for physical preparedness and group cohesiveness while paving the way for developing the so-called “running game” in the 1970s.

Despite his direct demeanor and intolerance for fools, he was universally appreciated and respected for his astute game analysis and belief that teamwork was everything.

Outside of competition, despite his reputation as a formidable speaker and strict taskmaster, he was a reserved individual. He paradoxically contributed more than anyone else to moving the sport from a semi-professional to a professional level while playing and coaching primarily for the love of the game.

During the 1970s, Peter Smith, a full-forward who played for Coburg in the VFA and Melbourne and Carlton in the VFL, was Coburg’s top goal scorer for a season. On July 19, 2007, Norm Smith became the second coach to be inducted as a Legend into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.