Former men’s basketball head coach Hank Smith took the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym floor to a thunderous standing ovation, appearing on a court that now bore his name 14 years after he last led the Lions.

On Jan. 11, members of the Emerson Athletic Department, former men’s basketball players, and their families packed the stands to honor Smith with the renaming of the gym’s floor to “Hank Smith Court,” a testament to a coach who led Emerson basketball for 16 seasons, elevated the program to new heights, and made an indelible impact on its members and history.

“Even more important than his success on the court was the enormous impact on the players during their time at Emerson and how it shaped and prepared them for their lives and careers,” President Jay Bernhardt said to the crowd in a pregame ceremony.

Smith’s influence has transcended Emerson to the highest levels of professional basketball. A plethora of Lions have impacted the game as coaches, scouts, and executives—including three who went on to serve as NBA General Managers. This includes Sam Presti ‘00 with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Will Dawkins ‘08 with the Washington Wizards, and Rob Hennigan ‘04, who led the Orlando Magic from 2012 to 2017 and currently works with Presti as OKC’s vice president of basketball operations.

Smith, who took on a men’s basketball program that held a 21-131 all-time record before his arrival in 1994, was known for instilling a hard-nosed, no-quit attitude in his players, evident in his iconic “Minute Drill”—running from baseline to baseline ten times in one minute—that they endured in practice.

That success did not come without adversity—one of which was a lack of home-court advantage until Brown-Plofker opened in 2006. Players drove vans to other Boston-area gyms, that served as the practice and game sites for Smith and his players.

Over the course of Smith’s career with the Lions, he won two back-to-back Great Northeast Atlantic Conference championships in 1997 and 1998, respectively, made the title game ten times, and accumulated 258 wins—17 of which came in his first season. 

Alex Tse, a former player of Smith’s, noted the court renaming as a symbol of the team’s homecoming to Emerson.

“When we didn’t have a home gym to practice in [or] play games in, ‘home’ meant the name on our jerseys. It meant the teammates we played with, and the ones we didn’t play with,” Tse said. “Now, when we walk into this house and see Coach Smith’s name, we’ll all know that we’re truly home now.”

Presti said Smith’s lessons revolved around “doing more with less.”

“That’s what the program was really about in its early days—taking limitations and turning them into strengths,” he said. “Everybody coming together is a testament to the culture that coach has created.”

When it was his turn to talk, Smith briefly deflected the attention away from himself and showed appreciation toward his players.

“All these guys that played together, I just can’t tell you how much I love you guys, how much you mean to me,” he said.

The familial aspect was evident throughout Saturday afternoon, with players trading stories and catching up with the leader who transformed Emerson basketball.

Smith said he was at home when he got on a Zoom call with President Bernhardt informing him of the honor.

“It was hard to believe,” Smith told The Beacon. “When something like that happens, you have so many emotions going through, so it was kind of not even real.”

Smith’s fondest memories at Emerson came from every minute he spent with his players, adding: “Practice was way more important than games, and all the different gyms. To relive [the memories] was so special,” he said.

Presti’s best moments with Smith happened in the coach’s office where “the door was open all the time,” he said in an interview with The Beacon. The former player said he knew he could always talk to Smith about anything and often counted on him for guidance.

“At the same time, I also knew that later in the afternoon he was going to put me through the wringer,” Presti added, smiling. “But it never deterred me from counting on him for encouragement or a point-of-view or perspective.”

Presti said he was “humbled and honored” to be part of Smith’s pipeline because of the connections to Lions he never played with.

“We have people coaching all over the place, working in sports, that weren’t necessarily teammates of mine,” he said. “I didn’t play with Will Dawkins. I didn’t play with Rob Hennigan. But I worked with both of them for over a decade in the NBA.”

Presti added that Smith’s teachings weren’t just for the players—they extended to coaches, announcers, trainers, and many others: “Anybody that did anything related to supporting the program was part of the club.”

Among those who benefited from Smith’s wisdom was Jerry Gerardi, who served as a public address and radio announcer during his time at Emerson.

“Coach Smith was like a second father to me, and he treated everybody as family,” he said.

Gerardi recalled one of his favorite memories with Smith when he was working an Emerson game as a PA announcer.

“It was a really complicated announcement, and we were in a gymnasium where the speakers were behind the benches,” Gerardi said. “And one time, [Smith] turned around, he goes, ‘Shut up!’ right to me. … I felt honored. You know why? Cause I felt like I was one of the players.”

Even though players spoke of the lessons Smith gave them, the veteran coach said he learned just as much from his players, particularly about mental toughness.

“I grew up in Allston-Brighton; there’s a certain kind of toughness that comes with that,” he said. “These guys were highly intelligent and [worked] hard to get into a place like this, and they’re way tougher. I learned how to manage [emotions] from these young guys. I was supposed to be the teacher and I’m learning from them.”

Smith’s impact is not lost on current members of the Emerson basketball family, who have carried on the legacy that Smith established.

“Everything that they epitomized and brought—I don’t think people really understand what they did to build the program here,” current head coach Bill Curley said. “They’re the main reason we’re in the NEWMAC because of how successful they made the basketball program.”

“It’s unbelievable to see what they were able to do with what they had,” he added.

“It means the world” to carry on the tradition and culture that Smith and his teams built, graduate guard Trevor Arico said.

“We slowly started to learn this was going to happen, but pretty quickly, we found out just how much this meant to the program,” he said. “Every game we play from here on out is for [the alumni], and this gym we’re in right now and being in the NEWMAC and the program we have is because of Hank Smith.”

Presti hopes that when people see the Hank Smith Court, they’ll remember a coach who truly cared about his players and instilled in them a resilient mentality.

“The main thing is that this isn’t North Carolina, it’s not Duke, it’s not Kentucky, and everybody understands our place as a program in the history of basketball—no one has any illusions about that,” Presti said. “It’s really fitting that, to go from having no gym to having a permanent gym with his name on the floor is, to me, a representation of the mindset that he helped instill in the teams that he coached.”