Peter Smith (B.Ed. '79; MA '86) was selected in the builder category after a 42-year stint at McGill Athletics & Recreation. He coached the women's varsity hockey program for 20 seasons, from 1999-00 to 2019-20 and became the winningest bench boss in program history with a stellar record of 534-229-33 in 796 games overall.
He guided the Martlets to four national championships (2008, 2009, 2011, 2014) and 10 conference banners in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec. In regular season play, his record stands at 276-70-11 in 357 contests for a lofty .789 winning percentage.
Excluding a one-year sabbatical with the national team in 2009-10, Smith guided the Martlets to a berth at the U SPORTS Final Eight tournament in 17 of his 20 seasons, winning four gold medals, five silvers and five bronzes. During the four national championship seasons, the Martlets compiled a spectacular combined record of 131-5-0 against Canadian university opponents. The 2007-08 title marked the first time that a McGill women's team, in any sport, had captured a CIS (now known as U SPORTS) championship.
An eight-time RSEQ conference coach-of-the-year laureate, Smith won the CIS national award in 2003, 2008 and 2012. He is one of only three Canadian university women's hockey coaches to reach the 500-win plateau, achieving that milestone in a 2-0 shutout over Ottawa at McConnell Arena on Nov. 25, 2018. The exclusive club also includes current Alberta Pandas coach
Howie Draper (665 wins in 25 seasons), who reached his milestone in 2016, and former Concordia bench boss
Les Lawton (626 wins in 34 seasons), who reached the 500 mark in 2003.
Among McGill's coaching fraternity, Smith ranks first in both championships and winning percentage, second in victories and fifth in coaching longevity. His 20 seasons behind the bench trails track coach
Dennis Barrett (38 seasons), volleyball's
Rachèle Béliveau (31), football's
Charlie Baillie (29) and soccer's
Marc Mounicot (24).
Born in Montreal on March 27, 1953, Smith was raised in Lachine, Que., and attended Lachine High School. A former junior hockey player with the Lachine Rapids, Smith attended Vanier College before moving on to McGill, where he was a varsity swimmer from 1976 to 1979, qualifying for CIAU Nationals in all three seasons and serving as team captain. He holds a bachelor's degree in physical education (1979), followed by a master's degree in sports psychology (1986). After graduating, he was hired as coordinator for the McGill intramural sports program in 1979, took over the reins of the women's hockey program in 1999 and also served a short stint as facilities manager and manager of professional development for McGill's varsity coaches.
Among his many achievements behind the McGill bench was four undefeated regular seasons and a CIS record 86-game win streak against all Canadian university opponents, including non-conference and playoff games. The streak started with a 6-2 win over Moncton on Jan. 4, 2008 and was halted more than two years later by a 2-0 setback to Alberta in the 2010 CIS gold medal game. Included in that sequence was 20 consecutive post-season victories.
However, the streak continued for three more years in RSEQ play, where the Martlets racked up a remarkable 107 consecutive victories over opponents in the Quebec league. started that streak with a 2-0 victory over visiting Carleton on Feb. 11, 2007 and that streak finally ended on Oct. 29, 2011, with a 3-2 home-ice loss to the Montreal Carabins.
In 2007, Smith was the inaugural beneficiary of a chaired coaching position, created from a $1 million gift from
Sheryl and
David Kerr, both McGill grads who played varsity hockey. That donation ensured the program would have perpetual funding for a full-time coach. At the time, it was the largest single donation to a women's sports program in Canadian university history.
From 2005 to 2010, Smith served with the Canadian national women's team as an assistant coach, helping guide them to gold medals at numerous tournaments, including the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He served as head coach of the national team in 2007-08, winning gold at the Four Nations Cup in Sweden and silver at the 2008 IIHF world championship in China. He also won gold as an assistant coach at the 2007 and 2009 IIHF worlds. In 2022, he coached Canada to gold in the women's hockey open category at the Maccabiah Games in Israel.
He came out of retirement in 2022-23 to serve as head coach of the Montreal Force, a women's professional franchise in the Premier Hockey Federation.
Not only has most of his adult life been spent at McGill but his family is also intertwined with the renowned institution. His wife
Vango, who was also a varsity swimmer, is a graduate (BA '76). His daughters
Christina (BA '06) and
Natalie (BEd '06, MEd '10) both played for the hockey Martlets. His older sister
Patricia Smith-Grayton also earned two degrees from the University (BSc '72, LLB '80). Even his son-in-law,
Kerwin Clarke (BA '99, LLB '06) is a grad and served as co-captain of the McGill football team.
