Kevin Smith has a story from his Little League days that has always stayed with him.
 
A pre-teen who was the best player on his team, Smith was pulled in the fifth inning of a tie game because of rules stipulating that everyone must play. He threw a fit in the dugout, and he saw his mother coming from the other side of the field, presumably to defend him.
 
"She comes to the dugout. She grabs me by both ears and drags me all the way across the field, and when we got in the car she said, 'You're never going to play again if you don't understand team ball and what it has to do with sacrifice,'" Smith said. "And she held me out. I couldn't play anymore the rest of the year.
 
"The lesson was learned that it's a part of the game. If you have to come out, you have to come out, no matter who you are or what you are. No one is bigger than the game. And I was about 12 or 13 years old when I realized that, because I was being selfish, I was thinking I was the best player and the game had to revolve around me. So that's probably the most valuable lesson I learned at an early age about team sports."
 
That humility has stuck with Smith, through a dominant college football career at Texas A&M to the three Super Bowls he won with the Cowboys. And now, it has helped land him in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Smith is the 12th Aggie in school history to make the Hall, and he arrives there after a record-breaking run that reverberates in College Station to this day.
 
The 5-foot-11 cornerback is Texas A&M's all-time leader in interceptions (20), interception return yards (289) and interceptions returned for a touchdown (3), and he led the Aggies to a No. 1 finish in total defense in 1991. That senior season saw Smith earn first-team All-Southwest Conference honors for a third time, en route to the Aggies winning the conference championship and making the Cotton Bowl.
 
For a kid from West Orange-Stark High School with a pair of state titles on his resume, it only made sense to join fellow Orange native R.C. Slocum — then A&M's defensive coordinator — and call Aggieland home.
 
"I was playing both ways in high school, and maybe I could play a little receiver, but my best fit was probably going to be a defensive back, and so that's why I chose Texas A&M," Smith said. "And when I went down there, just that Aggie environment, the family environment, it was just a great setting. And it worked out for me."
 
The No. 17 pick in the 1992 NFL Draft, Smith spent his eight-year career with the Cowboys, playing an integral role during the franchise's dynasty days. Smith makes it back to several Aggies (and Cowboys) games each season. He has worked in several different sectors, from real estate to transportation, and he previously worked at the Michael Johnson Performance Center in nearby McKinney. Smith now resides in Plano, and he doesn't take for granted the opportunity to spend his entire football life in one region.
 
"It's a true blessing," Smith said. "There are only a few guys who I know that were able to do it. One is the great Dat Nguyen (HOF Class of 2017), who played at Texas A&M from Rockport. But it was quite unique. And I think one of the things that that makes it even more of a story is that I was able to play for R.C. Slocum from Orange, and then being drafted by Jimmy Johnson from Port Arthur, Texas. So that's another tie-in that a lot of people may or may not know.
 
"And being a part of that same system. I like to tell people that I think I was a pretty good player, but I was a part of a system. I bought into what these coaches brought to me. And a lot of people don't know that Jimmy and Dave Wannstedt and Tony Wise and all those guys and Bob Davie were all on Jackie Sherrill's staff at the University of Pittsburgh in the mid-70s.
 
"And so Jimmy goes on to Oklahoma State, Jackie goes to A&M and they pretty much run the same defenses and have the same philosophies. Of course, Jimmy goes to the Cowboys — I get drafted by the Cowboys. So, I basically played under the same system and coaching tree from college to the NFL, and a lot of people really don't know that, but I think that's pretty interesting."
 
KEVIN SMITH: UP CLOSE
 

• Named a consensus First Team All-American in 1991, helping the Aggies lead the nation in total defense in 1991, win the Southwest Conference (SWC) title, appear in the Cotton Bowl and land a final No. 12 ranking in the AP Poll.
• Led the team in punt returns in 1991, recording 19 for 274.5 yards for a 14.5 average, which ranked the Aggies seventh nationally.
• Finished his career with 133 tackles, 20 interceptions, 32 pass breakups, five fumble recoveries and five forced fumbles.
• Played for College Football Hall of Fame coach R.C. Slocum.
• Becomes the 12th Texas A&M player to enter the College Football Hall of Fame.