Troy University Athletics
Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2023
Scrap. Niner. National Champion. Those are just some of the names you can substitute for the man who has worn the Troy Baseball uniform more than anyone else in the program’s storied history.
While it came in many sizes, colors, styles and even two different school names across the front, Mark Smartt wore a TROJAN baseball uniform 1,173 times during his career as a two-time National Champion player and NCAA Tournament assistant coach and NCAA Tournament head coach.
“He loves Troy,” Smartt’s teammate and member of the Troy University Sports Hall of Fame, Wendell Stephens, said. “He was dedicated wholeheartedly to Troy University during his entire career. That is one heck of a milestone, and he did it will all the class in the world.”
Smartt joined the Troy squad in 1986 after transferring from Dekalb Central Junior College and immediately impacted head coach Chase Riddle’s squad. He hit .405 in his first season with the Trojans, a mark that ranked as the third-best in program history at the time and stands as the sixth-best at the time of his induction.
“He was such a good hitter because he was Scrap,” Stephens said. “He wasn’t going to settle for mediocrity and had the mentality that you weren’t going to get a pitch by him. So you combine that with his great hand-eye coordination, and you had a .400 hitter.”
Smartt and the Trojans won a combined 84 games to just 18 losses in his two seasons and won back-to-back NCAA Division II National Championships in 1986 and 1987. Troy went a remarkable 22-0 in the postseason those two seasons.
“That whole group was special in the sense that maybe not knowing it at that time, but it was a group of guys who loved each other,” Stephens said. “Besides Coach Riddle, Mark was the glue that kept us all together, and I’m proud to call him my friend. He was a great hitter, a heck of a second baseman and an even better person.”
He earned All-Gulf South Conference honors in both his seasons as a player at Troy and was named to the 1987 College World Series All-Tournament Team. Smartt finished his career batting at a .379 clip, the fourth-best in program history, and with a .480 on-base percentage, the ninth-best all-time.
“Scrap was a good teammate and a great friend,” Stephens said. “He wasn’t the tallest and the biggest guy compared to some guys, but he was tough as nails and sure wasn’t one you’d want to get into a scrap with.
Following his playing career, Smartt did what he knows best – baseball. He began his coaching career with Riddle and the Trojans as he was first a student assistant in 1988 and then a graduate assistant in 1989. Those teams combined to post a 64-33 record, win a Gulf South Conference title and play in the NCAA Division II Regionals.
Smartt spent 11 seasons as a coach at the University of West Alabama, serving as the head coach from 1995-2000 before returning to Troy to be an assistant coach under Hall of Fame member Bobby Pierce for 13 seasons. Following Pierce’s retirement, Smartt took over as Troy’s head coach for five years.
Troy advanced to six NCAA Tournaments and won four Sun Belt Conference titles during his time as an assistant or head coach.
