By Courtney Linehan

Senior writer

Athletic director Ron Guenther recently joked that it will take women’s golf coach Paula Smith two years to clean out her office at the Bielfeldt Athletic Administration building. Stepping into Smith’s office is itself a challenge, with boxes lining the walls, photo albums spread across the floor, and dozens of plaques, trophies and awards cluttering tabletops and bookshelves. It is a room filled with three decades of memories.

“I never thought about being a coach, I always just wanted to help others,” Smith says. “But now I have many special people in my life because of golf, and that’s who I’m going to miss most. I’ll miss my golfers.”

After 28 years as Illinois’ varsity women’s golf coach, Smith will soon be stepping down. She has led the Illini since before women’s golf was a varsity or NCAA sport, and when the Hall of Fame coach finally clears out that messy office, it will be a changing of the guard unlike any in Illinois history.

“It’s the end of 36 years I’ve been working and 28 that I’ve been the coach here,” Smith says. “It doesn’t seem possible.”

Smith’s college golf career started at Southern Illinois, where she played four years for the Salukis before earning her bachelor’s degree in 1968. Smith competed at the National Championships each of her four years of college, including a trip to the Scarlet at Ohio State, which she says is her favorite collegiate course.

As an amateur, Smith won back-to-back Illinois Women’s Amateur Championships in 1971 and 1972. She qualified for several U.S. Amateur Championships and the 1975 U.S. Open at the LaGrange Country Club in LaGrange, Ill.

She came to Illinois to earn her Master’s and worked as an unofficial volunteer assistant coach with the women’s golf team here, which was then a club sport.

“Once I was here, I was helping Jody Davenport, who was the women’s golf coach for the club team,” Smith says. “I helped her, played a lot in local tournaments, and got to know a lot of people here.”

Smith moved to Chicago to teach high school English, and started the girls’ golf team at Forest View High School. She took a leave of absence to coach the now-varsity Illini team for the 1978-79 season, and has been the Illinois head coach ever since.

Smith coached three players to the National Championships, and has taken the Illini to regional competitions on several occasions. As she highlights items in her office, though, it becomes clear that Smith is most proud of her team’s eight awards for earning the highest GPA of any Illinois women’s team.

Smith has known for several years that this would be her last season with the Illini. Throughout the year, players, fellow coaches and even Guenther, have presented her with photo collages to commemorate her career at Illinois. They are gifts which capture the essence of her personality.

“I’m kind of like an open book,” Smith says. “I don’t have too many secrets.”

Her respect for her recruits made her upfront about retiring, she says, because she didn’t want new players coming to Illinois without them knowing a coaching change would occur during their college careers.

“That’s why it’s been a three-year thing, I wanted everybody I was recruiting to know this was going to be happening,” Smith says.

Come next fall, Smith says she’ll miss her athletes and miss her friends at the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. She looks forward to spending time with her one-year-old granddaughter and playing golf for leisure.

“There is a song that says don’t let go, hold on to every moment,” she says. “I think there come times when you do have to let go, but I will cherish every moment.”