General 6/28/2023 8:00:00 AM

Meet 2023 Athletics Hall of Fame Class: Rohan Smith, '91

WASHINGTON - The Gallaudet University Athletics Department is proud to announce its 2023 Athletics Hall of Fame Class. Over the course of one week the department will introduce one member of the seven-person class each day.

The seven-person class will be released in alphabetical order. Each release will include a brief summary of the inductees' career at GU along with a video of Athletic Director Warren Keller contacting each inductee or member of their family to share the news of being selected to the Athletics Hall of Fame.

At the conclusion of the week, a general overall release about the entire Athletics Hall of Fame class will be shared along with ticket information for the event.

Our sixth inductee of the 2023 Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame Class is Rohan Smith, '91.

Smith was a four-year letterwinner and record-setting sprinter on the Gallaudet men's track and field team from 1987-90. Smith set several school records that stood for over three decades before they were recently broken in the past few years. Smith held Gallaudet's 100-meter dash outdoor record of 10.50 seconds set April 11, 1987, at the Messiah Invitational until Eric Gregory broke the mark on May 8, 2022, with a new time of 10.42 seconds. Smith, Clyde, Michael Cross and Eric Roberts had previously held the 4x400 meter relay indoor record of 3:33.20 set on Feb. 17, 1989 at the Mason-Dixon Championships in Blacksburg, Va., until this year when Gallaudet's team of Troy Holcomb, Walter Douglas, Gareth Ashton and Gregory posted a new mark of 3:31.13. Smith, Cross, Roberts and Phillip Njoku had previously held the 4x100 meter relay outdoor record of 42.86 seconds set on April 29, 1989 at the Millersville Invitational until it was erased on April 12, 2019 by Montray Roberts, Gregory, Toraneau Varice and Brady Perry with a new mark of 42.59. Since then the mark has dropped even further to 42.45 set this past season by Joshua Bourne, Gareth Ashton, Gregory and Trey Johnson. Smith and his teammates; Robert Clyde, Rodd Gatewood and Edward Harrison still hold the 4x200 meter relay record with a time of 1:33.6 which was set March 31, 1990 at the Battleground Relays in Fredericksburg, Va. Smith participated in the 1987 NCAA track and field championships and finished in the Top 10 of the 100-meter dash but did not earn All-American honors, reserved for top-eight finishers.

The 2023 Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame event will take place during Homecoming Weekend on campus. The induction ceremony is set for Sunday, Oct. 22, at 11 a.m., in the Peikoff Alumni House ("Ole Jim").

The Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame Induction is one of the premier events of the year for the GU Athletics Department. The special event recognizes the individuals, past and present, whose contributions to Gallaudet University Athletics have been deemed worthy of induction into the Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame.

To be considered for the Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame one must be a former Bison student-athlete, coach and/or contributor that is five years removed from the University. One must be nominated in writing and submitted to the Gallaudet University Athletics Department during an open nomination period. Inductees can be deaf, hard of hearing or hearing. All nominations are then screened and reviewed by the Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame committee.