Dane won “Best Little Athlete” Blue Ribbon Award at the Southern Oregon College Campus Days picnic in 1950 at the age of 2 years, a good indication of what would follow. After attending and participating in grade school sports in Cave Junction, Eagle Point and Baker, he returned to Ashland in 1962 where he quarterbacked the Ashland 9th graders to a Southern Oregon Champion­ ship, lettered in 9th grade basketball and earned a varsity letter playing baseball with the Ashland High School team. He was voted “Most Inspirational Player” the same year.

MOVED TO MEDFORD HIS SOPHOMORE YEAR.

FOOTBALL: Defensive Linebacker, Southern Oregon Conference All-Star, his junior and senior year, unanimous choice as a senior. Designated “Outstand­ing Player” his senior year – Co-Captain of the Shrine All Star game – received full-ride scholarship to the University of Oregon – was being watched closely by several pro team scouts when a head injury ended that career. At the request of Coach Chuck Mills of Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, he coached the Red Raider linebackers in 1983.

BASKETBALL: Being ambidextrous, dribbling and scoring with either hand came easy, but it was the left hand that led 44 consecutive free throws through the hoop in competition that gained him the Oregon High School Free Throw record, a record which still stands.

BOWLING: As a left-handed bowler, Dane rolled a perfect “300” in 1982, his second year of bowling. During the1984 season he rolled a 299 game with an 812 series and carried a 207 average.

AUTO RACING: With fourteen years of racing behind him, 1984 proved to be his most productive year, setting new track records at Medford, Oregon (this one will probably stand forever) – Skagit, Washington – Yreka, Eureka and Chico. California. With 26 wins out of 30 “A” Main races, he holds the best Stock Car racing record on the West Coast currently. Of the last five races at Eureka, California he has qualified fast time, bettering his own track record each time.

GOLF: As a right-handed golfer, with his father Stan Smith, won the RVCC Father-Son Tournament low net in 1965. With son, Tom, won the same tournament in 1983-84-85 low gross. Dane scored a Double Eagle in May 1985; his son scored a Double Eagle at age 13 and they may be the only father-son in the nation to hold this rarer than a hole-in-one record. Both received the Golf Digest Double Eagle Award and both father and son carry a 3 handicap. With funds not available for the golf program at Medford High this season, Dane raised the money needed for the program and coached the Medford High golf team to a District Championship.

Dane joins with his father, Stan Smith, and with his grandmother, Audrey Swoape, as an inductee into the Medford Sports Hall of Fame.