The winner of the Heisman Trophy, Troy Smith is a former player in the Ohio State University football team from 2004-2006. He has won this Trophy in the year 2006. He started his career as a quarterback in the team.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 20, 1984 Troy Smith graduated from Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio. His coach was Ted Ginn, Sr. who was the father of Ted Ginn, Jr., another Ohio State team member. By virtue of his great skill he got the chance to participate in the competition held for selecting the eleven most impressive high school quarterback players. This competition is known as the Elite 11 competition.
Troy Smith had also gained a football scholarship from the Ohio State even after being much late for the recruitment process, and to be frank all these happened only because of his excellent ability to impress people by his superb performance. On the date of 6 February, 2002 he signed his letter of intent and joined the Buckeyes being the last player to commit to the Buckeyes. At present he is playing for Baltimore Ravens. On December 9 this year he had scored his first NFL touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts.
In his early childhood Troy Smith was brought up by his mother in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and it was in 1987 that they shifted to Cleveland, and all these happened without the help and support of his father. He started his career as a running back and tight end for the Glenville A's midget football team in Cleveland. It was Irvin White, his initial coach who first placed him at the position of quarterback after a few games and after that he stayed there.
His first schooling was in St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio where he played for the first two years, but unfortunately he was driven out of the school due to some misunderstanding created by some other student. While leading Glenville to the state playoffs he had a record of throwing 969 yards and had 12 touchdowns as a senior player. Even he is also popular as a basketball player which he had played for three years. More over at an early stage Troy Smith had also participated in the events like high jump, long jump and 1,600-meter relay.
In his sophomore season as a back up quarterback to Justin Zwick, but due to the injury of Zwick Troy Smith was moved on to the position of a starter and he continued in that position through the rest of the season of 2004. His famous victory was against Michigan Wolverines, and apart from this one he had also achieved three more important victories in 2004.
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