Coach Leroy Tayloer “L.T.” Smith was a championship football coach at Lanier High School in Jackson. Coach Smith was born in Jackson and was an outstanding athlete at Lanier from 1932-1938. He played football one season at Jackson State before transferring to Tougaloo College. He was a first team All South Central Athletic Conference player at Tougaloo and lettered in 1939 and 1946-47 when he returned from military service during World War II. L.T. began his coaching career in 1942 when he coached two seasons at Alexander High in Brookhaven. He served as head coach at Bell Street High in Grenada from 1944-45. He was the head coach of the Lanier Bulldogs football team from 1945 to 1968. Coach Smith worked as a SWAC football and basketball official for 30 years. He created the famed Jackson State Homecoming Parade. Until 1951, L. T.’s football team had to use shoe polish to write numbers on their jerseys until the school rallied to purchase new uniforms. He is a member of the Tougaloo College Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1998. Coach Smith passed away on October 2, 2002.