‘Incredibly humbled’: Alex Smith becomes Utah’s first Ring of Honor inductee

When Mark Harlan’s number popped up on Alex Smith’s phone, the former Ute quarterback initially thought Utah’s athletic director was calling to ask for money.

By the end of the call, Smith was in tears.

Harlan phoned Smith to inform him Utah was creating a Ring of Honor at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and he would be the first inductee.

“It was just so emotional, so unexpected,” Smith said. “... He told me about the plans that they’d been talking about this for years of starting a Ring of Honor. “Then when he told me that it was going to be me, yeah, I lost it. I did.”

During halftime of Thursday night’s Utah-Southern Utah game, surrounded by his family, athletic director Mark Harlan and university president Taylor Randall, Smith’s name was added to the facade of the west side of Rice-Eccles Stadium.

As the banner covering Smith’s name was raised, much of the 51,444 on hand at Rice-Eccles Stadium that stayed for the halftime ceremony gave the former Ute quarterback a standing ovation.

“Just incredibly humbled by this,” Smith said.

There’s no better inaugural inductee than Smith.

It’s been 20 years since Smith made his mark in Salt Lake City, and the college football world, by quarterbacking 2004 Utes to an undefeated 12-0 season and the first-ever berth by a non-Automatic Qualifying conference in the BCS.

“The BCS was the thing back then. And we weren’t invited to the party,” Smith said. “We weren’t a big school. We were just this little school, kind of a stepbrother. And I think that didn’t sit right with all of us, everybody on that team. And it’s something that we leaned into and that we wanted to prove that we belonged and that we could play with anybody.”

By the time he ended his Ute career with a 35-7 win over Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Smith’s draft stock had soared after throwing for 2,952 yards and 32 touchdowns and adding 631 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. He finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting and was named Sports Illustrated’s National Player of the Year.

“For everybody to buy in to being a part of something bigger than yourself, a goal that many thought was unachievable, and then to go do it together as a team was obviously a memory I’ll never forget and cherish,” Smith said.

A few months after his Fiesta Bowl victory, he was taken No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers — Utah’s first, and only, No. 1 pick.

He’d go on to have a 16-year NFL career with 35,650 passing yards and 199 touchdowns, playing for San Francisco, Kansas City and finally Washington, where he suffered a gruesome leg injury that nearly claimed his life after a subsequent infection.

Through eight surgeries and an extensive rehab in a military hospital, Smith returned to help Washington win the NFC East and win the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year.

“I never thought it imaginable to play 16 years in the NFL. It was crazy. I never dreamt that was possible,” Smith said.

An underrecruited quarterback from San Diego, Utah was one of the only FBS offers Smith had, and coming to Salt Lake City changed the trajectory of his life.

“The teammates and coaches, this community, this program, I’m not the person I’m today. I’m not the man I’m today. I certainly don’t have the career I have today without it,” Smith said.

“And to come here and to grow, to find out the meaning of hard work and sacrifice, the value of teamwork, being a part of something bigger than yourself, these are all life lessons that for me were ingrained here and that I take with me to this day.”

The university as a whole — and especially the football program — has changed substantially since Smith was starring on the Hill. The Utes have gone through two conference changes, expanded Rice-Eccles Stadium, and built a gleaming new practice facility.

But some things have stayed the same — Kyle Whittingham has been a constant, along with the character and toughness the program has always embodied, Smith said.

“Obviously the landscape and college football has changed a lot and probably will continue to change. Grateful still that this program, the bones of it that I was even part of back then, is still here. And certainly Whitt’s a big part of that and everything that he embodies,” Smith said.

On the night Utah honored one of its greatest quarterbacks in school history, its current quarterback, who passed Smith in touchdown passes on Thursday night, returned for his first game action in 605 days after a knee injury.

The two had a conversation on Thursday morning, before Rising threw for 254 yards and five touchdowns, setting a personal best for touchdown tosses, in one half of action.

“I think he’s built for this. He’s a resilient kid. Just look at everything he’s been through in his life,” Smith said.

“... I think we’re lucky to have him, to have the pedigree he has, to have played in the big games, all the starts he’s had. To take on a new conference, I think to have him again, lucky.”