Club career Smith began playing football at
Mauchline F.C. before transferring to
Edinburgh University while he studied. After completing his studies in the early 1880s he joined
Queen's Park, where he won the
Scottish Cup in 1881, 1882 and 1884. He became the first player to score a
hat-trick in a Scottish Cup final when he scored all three of Queen's Park's goals in the
1881 final replay against
Dumbarton. He was not selected to play in the
1882 final and no match took place in 1884 – Queen's Park were awarded the trophy after
Vale of Leven failed to appear. In 1884 Smith was part of the Queen's Park team that reached the
FA Cup Final, losing 2–1 to
Blackburn Rovers. Whilst at Queen's Park, he also finished second in the 100 yards at the inaugural
Scottish Athletics Championships of
1883. Smith often played under the
pseudonyms J.C. Miller and
J.S. Miller. He also played occasionally as a guest for
the Corinthians,
Swifts and
Liverpool Ramblers. He was banned from playing for or against any Scottish club or for the Scottish national team in 1885 after he played for Corinthians against a professional English club, thus breaching the
Scottish Football Association's amateur regulations.
International career Smith earned ten
caps in total for the
Scotland national football team, scoring 10 goals. His first four appearances were as a Mauchline player – he was the sole club representative to have been selected for international duty. In what proved to be his final appearance before being banished by the governing body, he scored the only goal of the match as Scotland defeated
England to secure the
1883–84 British Home Championship (the first edition of the competition).
International goals :''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''
Referee Smith sometimes officiated as a
football referee. ==Rugby Union career==