Bobby Smith (Canadian soccer)

{{Short description|Canadian soccer player}}

{{Infobox football biography

| name = Bobby Smith

| image =

| caption =

| fullname = Robert Smith

| birth_date = 30 November 1940

| birth_place = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

| death_date =

| death_place =

| height = 183 cm

| position = Outside Left

| years1 = 1958

| clubs1 = Nanaimo City FC

| years2 = 1959-1962

| clubs2 = North Shore Carling's

| years3 = 1962-1969

| clubs3 = Vancouver Columbus FC

| years4 = 1965, 1966

| clubs4 = → Vancouver Firefighters FC (loan)

| years5 = 1967

| clubs5 = → Victoria O'Keefe (loan)

| years6 = 1969-1970

| clubs6 = Vancouver Firefighters FC

| years7 = 1970

| clubs7 = Vancouver Columbus FC

| years8 = 1970-1972

| clubs8 = North Shore Friuli

}}

Bobby Smith (born 30 November 1940) is a former Canadian soccer player. He was an outside left, most notably with Vancouver Columbus FC with whom he played in the 1968 Canadian final. He is an honoured member of the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame.

In the Pacific Coast League, Smith won league championships titles with North Shore United (1959–60) and Columbus FC (1969-70). He was a British Columbia All-Star five times in an eight-year span from 1960 to 1967.

He was one of only three players that scored more than 150 goals in the Pacific Coast League from 1939–40 to 1972–73, setting the league record with 160 goals from 1958 to 1972. He was the league's top scorer through the 1960s with 132 goals scored. He also led the league in scoring three times (1959–60, 1964–65, 1967–68).{{cite web |title=Top Scorer of the Pacific Coast League |url=https://canadasoccer.com/index.php?t=awardWinners&id=428 |website=Canada Soccer |access-date=August 24, 2018}} In 1959–60, he won the Ed Bayley Trophy as BC Soccer's most outstanding player in his first year in senior soccer{{cite web |url=https://canadasoccer.com/index.php?t=awardWinners&id=388 |title=Ed Bayley Trophy |publisher=Canada Soccer |access-date=August 7, 2020}} after beating Les Fabri in the scoring race.{{cite news |title=Smith Top Scorer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/325877368 |access-date=August 24, 2018 |work=Nanaimo Daily News |date=May 26, 1960 |page=10}}

Smith was still a teenager when he made his Pacific Coast League on 26 May 1958 with Nanaimo City FC under player-manager Gogie Stewart.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dz9lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2okNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1096%2C5092896|title=Gogie inserts youth in tonight's lineup|website=Google|author1=Roy Jukich|date=May 26, 1958|access-date=August 6, 2018}} He scored his first goal on 3 September and then added two more goals on 14 September in a Nanaimo victory that postponed North Shore from clinching first place in the season's second half.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9VZlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=64kNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3287%2C2729940|title=Carlings won't argue with wacky weekend|website=Google|author1=Roy Jukich|date=September 15, 1958|access-date=August 6, 2018}}

On loan, he helped both Firefighters FC (1966) and Victoria O'Keefe (1967) win the Pacific Coast International Championship for the J.F. Kennedy Trophy. In the 1966 final, he scored a record five goals as Firefighters won 6–0 over the Los Angeles Selects.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=C5RlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GYoNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6955%2C2826332|title=Firemen do the job in Kennedy tourney|website=Google|author1=Roy Jukich|date=May 9, 1966|access-date=August 6, 2018}}

In 1968, he helped Columbus FC reach the Canadian final, scoring his team's lone goal in a 2:1 loss to the Toronto Royals on 29 September in Toronto. Two weeks earlier in the western final, Smith had scored both goals in Columbus FC's 2:1 come-from-behind win over Winnipeg Internationals at Callister Park in Vancouver.{{cite web|url=https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm:2328310|title=Internationals lose in sudden-death semi|website=University of Manitoba|author1=Canadian Press|date=September 16, 1968|access-date=March 3, 2019}}

In 2019, he was inducted to the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as part of a group of Past Canadian Players from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.{{cite web|url=https://vancouversun.com/pmn/sports-pmn/canada-soccer-hall-of-fame-welcomes-12-more-in-special-class-of-past-players/|title=Canada Soccer Hall of Fame welcomes 12 more in special class of past players|website=Vancouver Sun|author1=Canadian Press|date=February 20, 2019|access-date=March 1, 2019}}