Some fans of the popular Police Academy films might be surprised to discover that the actor playing the gentle florist turned recruit Moses Hightower was someone who inspired an entire college campus to wear T-shirts stating "Kill Bubba Kill", echoing the words chanted by thousands of supporters in Michigan State University's Spartan Stadium. Bubba Smith, who has been found dead aged 66, was one of American college football's most legendary defenders, a figure who inspired awe on the gridiron. Playing against that image earned him a long career in film, television and advertising, most notably for Lite Beer.
His beer commercials often paired him with the equally fierce Dick Butkus, but the most memorable was one he did alone, in which he extolled the virtues of Lite Beer, then tore the can open with his bare hands. "I also love the easy-opening cans," he smiled. The adverts led to a busy career as a guest star on television shows as varied as Hart to Hart and The Odd Couple, and roles in films including Stroker Ace (1983).
Smith and Butkus teamed up in the short-lived TV series Blue Thunder, which starred James Farentino and a helicopter. It was broadcast in 1984, the year the first Police Academy film was released. He played Hightower in five sequels throughout the 1980s. As Hightower, Smith's role was to act gentle until it was necessary to use his strength; as when, in training, he simply knocks over the brick wall the recruits were supposed to scale, or to seem unassuming when his appearance was otherwise intimidating. He did much the same thing in virtually all his roles, effectively playing different versions of himself.
At 6ft 7in and over 20 stone, Smith was the focal point of a remarkable Michigan State team assembled by the coach Duffy Daugherty. They were arguably the first college team led by black stars at virtually every position, including quarterback. It was a time of change: in the spring of 1966, Texas Western won the college basketball title with an all-black starting lineup, beating an all-white Kentucky team from the still-segregated Southeastern Conference. That autumn, Michigan State were undefeated and ranked second in the country, when they hosted the top-ranked and similarly undefeated Notre Dame in a game that was so hyped it forced college authorities to drop their limit of one nationally televised game per team per season so that the ABC network could broadcast it live.
State jumped to a 10-0 lead, as Smith forced both Notre Dame's star quarterback Terry Hanratty and his centre to retire injured in the first quarter. But Notre Dame rallied, and the game finished a fiercely-fought 10-10 tie. "Nobody in the NFL ever hit me as hard as I was hit in that game," Smith later wrote. Notre Dame, whose star defender Alan Page was their first black player, were named national champions; State finished second; Alabama, like Kentucky from the still-segregated Southeast Conference, was relegated to third. Southern schools soon started integrating.
Segregation was the reason why Smith had moved to Michigan. Born Charles Aaron Smith in Orange, Texas, he grew up in Beaumont, where his mother was a teacher and his father was his coach at the segregated Charlton-Pollard high school. He wanted to play for the University of Texas, but they played in a segregated conference. Rather than follow his brother Tody to the University of Southern California, Smith accepted a scholarship to Michigan State, where he graduated with a degree in sociology. In the spring of 1967, he was the first player picked (by the Baltimore Colts) in the NFL's annual draft of players whose college eligibility has expired.
Always reliant more on his strength and quickness rather than technique, Smith never dominated the NFL, yet he was picked first-team all-pro – as the best in his position – and played twice in the Pro Bowl all-star game. He was just as popular in Baltimore as he had been in Michigan. When the poet Ogden Nash did a feature on the Colts for Life magazine in 1968, he wrote:
When hearing tales of Bubba Smith
You wonder is he man or myth.
He's like a hoodoo, like a hex,
He's like Tyrannosaurus Rex.
In Smith's rookie season, the Colts lost the Super Bowl to the New York Jets in one of American football's most famous upsets. In his 1983 autobiography, Kill Bubba Kill, Smith suggested that the game had been fixed. The Colts won the Super Bowl in their 1970 season, but the following year Smith injured his knee severely. He was traded to Oakland, where he played two seasons. He suffered recurring injuries and finished his career playing in Houston.
His legacy will be split between the gridiron and the screen; he described leading a parade when he returned to a Michigan State football game. While the older fans chanted "Kill Bubba kill", the younger ones repeated the beer slogan, "Tastes great, less filling."
Tody died in 1999. Smith was divorced from his wife.