Bob Smith (defensive back, born 1945)
American football player
Robert Bert Smith (born December 28, 1945) is an American former professional football defensive back who played one season with the Houston Oilers of the American Football League (AFL). He was selected by the Oilers in the 16th round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft after playing college football at Miami University.
Early life and college
Robert Bert Smith was born on December 28, 1945, in Williamson, West Virginia. He attended Hughes High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He was a member of the Miami RedHawks football team from 1964 to 1967, and a three-year letterman from 1965 to 1967.
Professional career
Smith was selected by the Houston Oilers of the American Football League (AFL) in the 16th round, with the 430th overall pick, of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft. He played in six games for the Oilers in 1968 and spent part of the season on the taxi squad. In 1969, he was placed on the reserve list due to military service. Smith was activated in 1970 but later released.
Smith signed with the New England Patriots of the National Football League in 1971 but was later released.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bob Smith (defensive back, born 1945)” as american football player. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american football player. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20710739. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1968, 1964 and 1967.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Bob Smith (defensive back, born 1945)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.