In 1958, Joseph Fielding Smith answered a question raised by his son Milton.
“You say you want to know more about my history, and personal life. What I did for sports etc. Well, I liked to play, when I was a boy, just as much as any boy does, and I suppose that I did my share of it. …
“When I went to school we had no coach and we were not organized into a league as the schools are now. We knew nothing about basketball in that day, and football likewise was not in an organized condition. Both of these games were just coming into being in our schools. We did play baseball. But the players made their own arrangements and about the only team we had to meet was the Catholic boys of All Hallows school. We played them and got along very well. Then at times we had two teams out of the school, so you see our sports in school did not reach out very far. This gave us more time to study. I was always interested in baseball and became an average to fair player. This is about the only sport that we indulged in. At that time the L.D.S. ((Latter-day Saints University was located across from the Salt Lake Temple, on the block where the Church Office Building, Relief Society Building, Joseph Smith Memorial Building, etc., now stand.)) was a junior college, we sometimes played the U[niversity]. of U[tah]., and strange as it may seem, we could hold our own with them.
“It was not until the Deseret gymnasium was built ((Near the LDS University buildings, and behind the present Joseph Smith Memorial Building.)) that I got in to real competition in games. We organized indoor baseball teams and had a league of four teams. These teams were business men who went to the gym, at noon; business men who went at 5 p.m., and the senior boys and junior boys attending the gym. I can tell you that we had some very good games also at that. I belonged to the noon team and we won the pennant.
“An amusing thing happened when the coach for the two boy teams informed them that they did not need to fear the men who played at noon for they were old men and could not see at night. It was to be at night when we were to play them. Well the games came off as scheduled and our team walloped these alert and speedy young men. So much for that.
“One day by invitation and for an attraction, two teams from the gym went out to Saltair ((The resort on the shores of Great Salt Lake.)) and put on an exhibition game in their coliseum or what ever it is called. It was a good game, too, for it went six innings with a score of one to two. We also did some playing with the hard ball also out on the West High grounds or elsewhere.
“My main interest, however, was in handball and I entered several tournaments, but never got very far. Will Lund ((Like Joseph Fielding Smith, an Assistant Church Historian.)) and I almost defeated the champions, Big “Joe” Smith and George Dent, who held the state championship for several years. I say almost, we took the first game from them and lost the next two on narrow margins. It was good enough to put a scare in them however.
“Eventually I concluded that I had played the game long enough and if I wanted to maintain my health I better quit, for handball is a very strenuous game. So I quit. This was a wise thing for me to do and it is a wise thing for every other person not to engage in strenuous exercise too long. Many of these games are very trying on the heart, especially football and basketball. My advice to my boys is that they do not indulge in these games too strenuously.
“Well that is that. I suppose if I had been going to school when the boys were under the supervision of coaches, I would have been foolish enough to have engaged in all of these sports. It was, perhaps, a wise thing that we did not have them. My great sport now is sitting at a typewriter writing books or lessons for the Priesthood.”
Photograph: Joseph Fielding Smith and his brother David A. Smith, playing handball.