Arthur John "Jack" Smiley (1922–2000) was an American basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 player.

With Gene Vance

Gene Vance

Ellis Eugene "Gene" Vance is an American former professional basketball player for the NBA's Chicago Stags and a former collegiate athlete for the University of Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team. He is most famous for leading Illinois as a member of the famed "Whiz Kids" of the 1940s...

, Andy Phillip, Ken Menke, and Art Mathisen, Smiley was a member of the University of Illinois' "Whiz Kids" team that went 35-6 from 1941 to 1943, earning two Big Ten Conference

Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...

 championships. The team was broken up in 1943 when players went to serve in the military, but Smiley returned to Illinois for the 1946-47 season and won team MVP honors.

After college, Smiley played two seasons in the National Basketball Association

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

 with the Fort Wayne Pistons, Anderson Packers

Anderson Packers

The Anderson Packers also known as the Anderson Duffy Packers was a professional basketball team based in Anderson, Indiana, in the 1940s and 1950s....

, and Waterloo Hawks

Waterloo Hawks

The Waterloo Hawks were a National Basketball League and National Basketball Association team based in Waterloo, Iowa. The Hawks remain the only sports franchise ever based in Iowa from any of the Big Four Leagues.- Franchise history :...

. He averaged 6.2 points per game in his NBA career. Smiley also served as a player-coach

Player-coach

A player-coach, in sports, is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. The term can be used to refer to both players who serve as head coaches, or as assistant coaches....

 for the Hawks for 27 games in the 1949-50 season, and posted an 11-16 record.

Smiley spent his later years in Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...

. He died in 2000.