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.