Like the day he was said to be on his way to a baseball game, but stopped off at the Los Gatos track to high jump 6-foot-6—in his baseball uniform.

Or the time he stopped by the Los Gatos track during an AAU meet and ran a 9.6 in the 100-yard dash—wearing tennis and running on the old dirt track.

Fact or legend, it's such stories that make Smith a larger than life figure in Los Gatos sports history.

But then there are the indisputable facts—all-league in football, basketball and baseball; Prep All-American as a football player; and the only athlete in Los Gatos history to play two sports at the professional level.

And it's because of those outstanding achievements while attending Los Gatos High School that Holden Smith will be among the first 14 athletes recognized with induction into the newly created Athletic Hall of Fame at the high school during ceremonies to be held May 1 at the La Rinconada Country Club.

The high school coaches knew that there was a pretty good athlete headed their way when they heard about a young athlete setting track and field records at Raymond J. Fisher Middle School in the early 1970s.

But when Smith arrived at Los Gatos High, he skipped track and opted to compete in football, basketball and baseball instead. He was outstanding in all three.

Smith started his senior year at Los Gatos with an outstanding football season in the fall of 1975. He averaged an incredible 30.1 yards per catch for a Los Gatos team that posted a 10-0 record. He won all-league honors that fall and was named to the 1975­76 Prep All-American football team.

"He had so much physical talent—speed, quickness and his great hands," said his former football coach Bob Skuse, himself a former Wildcat football great.

"He was feared," added Skuse. "I talked to other coaches and they had no clue how to defend him. He had the ability to clear the line of scrimmage. He just had incredible quickness."

He went on to an all-league season on the basketball season, setting a school single-season record for rebounds with 301.

He capped the school year by winning all-league honors in baseball. He set a school record that spring by hitting two home runs in an inning for the Wildcats.

Smith went on to UC Berkeley where he played football and ran for the Golden Bears track and field team. He was a Pac-10 Player of the Week in football for a 1978 game against Oregon, and he was a member of an All-American 400-meter relay team in track at Cal.

He was selected in the NFL draft and played the 1982 season for the Baltimore Colts. When that career didn't work out, he signed with the Cleveland Indians organization to play professional baseball, making him the first and only athlete in Los Gatos history to play at the pro level in two different sports.

And that's no legend—it's a fact.