Charles Smith

Sport: BasketballCoach

Induction Year: 2019

University: Paul Quinn

In 33 seasons at the helm of the Peabody Magnet boys high school basketball program, the 69-year-old coach has had remarkable success.

With a 1,008-176 (.851) career record after becoming just the fourth boys basketball coach in Louisiana history to win 1,000 games while claiming his fourth state runner-up finish in 2017-18. Smith has led the Warhorses to seven state titles (1991, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2017) and three other runner-up finishes (1990, 2011, 2013), and was an assistant on the school’s first state championship team in 1979.

Smith’s teams have won 28 district championships, including 19 in a row in a streak that ended in 2014. Smith has guided Peabody to the Top 28 18 times, has never lost in the first round of the playoffs, and has won at least 22 games every season since 1988. He was named the LSWA’s Coach of the Year four times, most recently in 2016-17, and ESPN’s National Coach of the Year in 2010. His 2004 and 2010 teams went undefeated and finished the year nationally ranked. More than 60 of his players have earned athletic scholarships in his three-decade career.