On the eve of Green Bay Packers legend Sterling Sharpe’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, let’s take a look at another – relatively unheralded – former Packer whose career was cut short due to injury: Barton Elliott “Barty” Smith.

Smith had the misfortune of playing for the mostly awful Packers teams of the 1970s. For example, in his best season, in which he was recognized as Packers Offensive Player of the Year at the fullback position, the team went 4-10. 

During that 1977 campaign, splitting duties with running back Eric Torkelson, he posted 554 rushing yards to go with 37 receptions for 340 yards. (That he scored three total touchdowns that year and was still honored as the offense’s best player tells you all you need to know about that season.)

Nevertheless, as a fullback, Smith was the complete package. He was a 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound sledgehammer with the ball in his hands, had strong receiving chops, and he could lead a run and pass protect like a guard. 

The only thing he couldn’t do on a football field with his body was stay healthy. Smith suffered numerous knee injuries; that he continued on as such a battering ram is impressive.

Before becoming a Packer, he attended his hometown University of Richmond (Virginia), helping the team to a Southern Conference title and a bid to the Tangerine Bowl, winning multiple awards and being invited to the East-West Shrine Game, the College All-Star game and other honors. His bio on the UR website said Smith “is considered to be the best blocking back in UR history.” (Matt LeFleur would have loved this guy.)

His college career would make him a first-round pick by the Packers in 1974. Humorously, on draft day he was waiting at his mother’s house, anticipating a call from an NFL team. In those days, the NFL Draft was not televised, so players just waited to be called. The phone rang, and Smith eagerly answered. It was a furniture company wanting to arrange details for a forthcoming delivery to his mom.

“I was very abrupt with my response,” Smith told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Over his seven-year career, Smith would total 1,942 rushing yards on 544 carries with 18 rushing touchdowns. He also tallied 979 yards receiving, catching 120 balls, with three additional scores. One highlight for Barty Smith was posting a career-high 133 yards from scrimmage during a 28-17 loss against the Vikings on Nov. 2, 1975. 

His 1978 season was nearly as impressive as his 1977 season, with 567 yards rushing and 256 yards passing, even while ceding most of the carries to running mate Terdell Middleton, who put up 1,116 yards rushing with 11 touchdowns that season. Still, Smith was known primarily for his blocking, so it’s no stretch to assume many of Middleton’s runs featured Barty leading the charge.

"Guys used to go to the special-teams meetings just to watch Barty play the up-back on the field goal and extra point team," Smith’s former teammate Larry McCarren told Packers historian Cliff Christl. "He'd literally knock the snot out of guys trying to rush off the edge. People would go in there just to watch it."

As for the injuries, Smith suffered his first major knee injury post-college in one of the all-star games in which he played. That injury cost him the first several games of his rookie season. He would end up having constant knee problems during his playing career, including four surgeries.

"You're never the same," Smith told Christl 2002. "You have to remember back then, when they did surgery, if there was any cartilage damage, they just yanked it out. There wasn't any of that trimming it up and leaving the buffer in your knee joint. They just yanked it out and you ended up with bone on bone."

Ouch.

So it was that, after the 1980 season, the Packers let him go. The team reportedly told him he barely passed the physical prior to that season, and there was no way he would pass one with another full season of wear and tear.

United Press International wrote a story about Smith attempting to get an injury settlement of $37,500 based on the collective bargaining agreement rules on injury releases. When asked if he would consider filing a grievance against the Packers to get the money, Smith said he wouldn’t.

“I don't want to get into that, because I left there with a good taste in my mouth and I want to keep it that way,” Smith said in 1981. “I'm not hacked off and I don't feel I was treated unfairly. I'm completely satisfied with my career up there. There's no way I'm going to try to stick it to the Packers.”