Friday night’s boys basketball game at Maryland’s Winston Churchill High School was a special one. The school retired the jersey number of Class of 1978 alum Eric Smith, who wore No. 44 as a Bulldog, before going onto a stellar college career at Georgetown University. His jersey was enshrined during halftime of Churchill’s home contest against Northwest.
“It’s amazing,” said Smith. “It’s overwhelming, and I just don’t believe that it’s happening now. You might have to pinch me and wake me up.”
Smith was part of the 1978 Churchill team that won a Maryland state championship, with many people supporting him at his jersey retirement ceremony, including his old head coach Les Lombardi, some of his old teammates, and his family.
“Coach Lombardi taught us how to be a team,” said Smith. “He figured out our team and what we needed, he got the best out of all of us, and he would make sure that we were in shape.”
Smith also played football at Churchill and was part of the school’s 1977 Maryland state championship team. He and a few other football players soon joined the basketball team in time to help them win a title in the same school year.
“We started out 2-5, left for dead,” said Smith. “Somehow, we came together to come back and win the state championship. It was truly a remarkable season.”
Lombardi was Churchill’s boys basketball head coach from 1972-1978, as he was very proud to see the alum finally get honored.
“It took him 47 years to get here,” said Lombardi. “He made me a good coach. We had seven guys from the team here tonight. A real tribute to Eric, because he did a lot for Churchill High School, and he did a lot for the whole area.”
Smith was joined at halftime by some of his former Churchill basketball teammates, including Dave Berman and Buddy Hummers, as they were all happy to see the No. 44 retired after all these years.
“It’s long overdue,” said Berman. “The guy deserved it. I’m so glad that everybody turned out to see him. Not all of the team was here for other reasons, but you can tell that Eric just really appreciates everything. He’s the best friend and player that you could have.”
“All of us love Eric,” said Hummers. “I’ve known Eric since 1968 or 1969, third or fourth grade. We played little league baseball together. Eric is a better person and athlete. He’s the best athlete I’ve ever known. We love him and support him, and we’re so happy for him.”
Smith was a three-sport star at Churchill, and became the first Washington player since 1973 to be named All-Met in football and basketball, having won Maryland state championships in both sports. However, he chose to play college basketball at Georgetown University.
“It wasn’t hard as everybody thought,” said Smith. “I didn’t like cold weather. Most of the schools that recruited me were out west and up north, and I didn’t want to go up north.”
While at Georgetown, Smith played alongside stars like future hall-of-famer Patrick Ewing and future NBA All-Star Eric Floyd. He also got to play under legendary Hoyas head coach John Thompson.
“What more can you say,” said Smith. “Playing for a legend, he’s a hall-of-fame coach. He was great and also got the best out of his players. He knew how to push the buttons that he needed to push for us to perform.”
Smith built up quite the resume at Georgetown, which includes second team All-Big East honors in 1981, and third team all-conference honors in 1982. As a senior, Smith scored 14 points to lift Georgetown past top-seeded Villanova in the Big East championship game. When the Hoyas reached the Final Four that year, Smith scored 14 points against Louisville in the semifinal, and another 14 with five assists against North Carolina in the national championship game.
Lombardi left Churchill for another coaching job at Delaware Valley College after Smith graduated in 1978, but the coach kept a close eye on him at Georgetown.
“It was a unique experience,” said Lombardi. “The year he graduated, I got a college job at Delaware Valley College, and the Big East was just starting. A lot of the games weren’t televised, but all my friends down here at Churchill would call me, and I did get an opportunity every year to see him play on campus, which was pretty cool.”
One day before his jersey enshrinement, Smith visited the current 2024-25 Bulldogs basketball team to give them some advice. “I just told them that there’s three things that you need to do,” said Smith. “It’s to believe in your coach, you have to buy in to what he’s teaching, you have to play hard and love to play for one another.”
The team is currently led by Dave Blumenthal, who has been Churchill’s head coach since 2017. “Eric’s one of the first people I met when I got the job here,” said Blumenthal. “I wanted to reach out to alumni, and he was the most local one left. It just so happens that he’s the living legend that he is. He and I have created a great bond.”
Blumenthal had wondered why there hadn’t been any accolades for Smith at the time. As a result, the two collaborated on retiring the jersey numbers of famous alumni from the Churchill basketball team.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Blumenthal. “It’s long overdue for him, and I was just proud to be a part of it for him. Every conversation that I’ve ever had with him has been super genuine and super awesome to listen to his stories, and his knowledge that he has of the game being the stops that he’s good at.”
With the current team at 4-5 before Friday’s game, Blumenthal got Smith to tell his players the story of how his team started out 2-5 and wasn’t a really great version of themselves until the end of the year.
“I wanted him to share that message for our guys as we get better,” said Blumenthal. “The guys really enjoyed it. It’s not too often you get to talk to a guy that played with hall-of-famers like Patrick Ewing and against guys like [Michael] Jordan and [James] Worthy, so it’s awesome.”
