As Fans Go, UI Booster Ranks No. 1

Don Nevile-Smith’s heart was in Memorial Gym on Tuesday night, if his body wasn’t.

“That place’ll be rocking like the ol’ days,” said Nevile-Smith, 1958 University of Idaho graduate and Vandal athletics Superfan. He missed Tuesday’s Idaho-Washington State volleyball showdown, but he hasn’t been absent from too many Vandal sporting events the last eight years.

Others may have better attendance records, but certainly no one travels as far to see the Vandals.

Nevile-Smith runs an insurance brokerage in Toronto.

That was Nevile-Smith swapping stories around the campfire at 2 a.m. with Louisianans after the visiting Vandals’ 34-31 playoff win over Northeast Louisiana in 1993.

That was Nevile-Smith preparing to hop the fence at Bronco Stadium to scrap with Boise State players whom he felt started a pregame brawl with the Vandals in 1994.

That was Nevile-Smith buying University of Montana season tickets - just so he could watch when the Vandals played at Missoula.

“Lance West (former UI assistant A.D.) was always telling me to wear Vandal gear whenever I traveled,” Nevile-Smith said. “I’m in San Francisco about four years ago and a guy taps me on the shoulder. Dan O’Brien. Saw my Vandal jacket and he introduced himself.”

Nevile-Smith grew up in Creston, British Columbia, then attended UI. He tried out for the baseball team, but quit when his social life became more important.

After graduating from Idaho, he left the area - and Vandal athletics - behind for about 25 years as he moved all over Canada.

One day he found himself scanning the New York Times for an Idaho basketball score when his girlfriend said, “You’re always talking about Idaho. Why don’t you go out there?”

So he did, catching Idaho at the 1988 Big Sky basketball tournament in Bozeman, Mont. From there, he met up with several of his UI classmates and began contributing to Vandal Boosters.

He’s been hooked ever since.

Sports have always been Nevile-Smith’s passion. He has had season tickets to Toronto Blue Jays games since the team’s inception. He has attended Wimbledon and viewed World Cup soccer matches.

“I saw Reggie Jackson skiing one time. He was just beginning. So the next time he came to town (Toronto), I started riding him about his skiing,” Nevile-Smith said. “My buddies said, ‘Now you’ve done it, he’s going to punch you.’

“He called me down by the dugout and we ended up talking about skiing during the National Anthem.”

He fires off hilarious stories one after another. He recalled one incident with Bjorn Borg at a tennis tournament.

“I’ve got a box (seat) on the baseline and me and my buddy have bet on (John) McEnroe. Well, Borg double faults and both of us stand up, but we don’t do anything else because it would be rude. Somebody behind us claps and Bjorn, the unflappable one, comes over and starts yakking at us, ‘What, don’t you like me?’

“There’s 15,000 people staring at us and I’m trying to tell him it was somebody behind me.”

Nevile-Smith, 60, said he experiences as much thrill from Vandal games as he did watching Joe Carter’s home run win the World Series for Toronto.

“When we won the (1990) Big Sky basketball tournament on Ricardo Boyd’s shot against Eastern Washington, that rates with anything,” said NevileSmith, who will be president of the Vandal Boosters national board in two years. “I just really like the emotion of sport.”

Even though it puts a dent in his wallet.

“I’ve got a great friend who is my travel agent and my frequent flier miles pile up,” he said. “And I usually stay with friends.”

, DataTimes