Personal Details:

• Born 9/5/1871 (Mineral, Ill) 
• Died 9/17/1917 (Seattle, WA)
• Died from a fall from a Plum Tree at his property in Seattle

Hiram grew up in Mineral, Ill. He first attended Northern Normal University (Later Known as Dixon University). He finished his schooling at the University of Illinois.

Time At Montana

• Athletic Director 1903 – 1905
• Football Coach 1903 – 1904 (5 – 7 Record Overall)
  • 1903 Record 2-5
  • 1904 Record 3-2 
• Conibear also coached Baseball, Basketball, and Track
• Conibear was the first Athletic Director to hire a coach specifically for football. Up to that point it was customary that whoever headed athletics for the school was also the coach for any teams the University would field for any sport.
• While Conibears record was not stellar, he was the first coach that would field a team that could somewhat compete with some of the other regional schools like Idaho, Washington State, and Utah State. This was critical as it would ultimately lead to them being a founding member of what became the Pac-12.
• The Universities first Gymnasium was completed just prior to him getting to Montana. This was critical to the development of the program as it gave athletes a place to practice, train, and exercise. This allowed him to teach the athletes more about the game.

Other Facts:

• After Montana Conibear went to the University of Washington. During his time at Washington, he was recruited to coach the Men’s and Women’s Rowing Teams. 
• He had no previous experience coaching rowing, but he would become one of the most known rowing coaches of the era. He pioneered the “Conibear Stroke” or Washington Stroke. He laid the foundation which led to Washington becoming an elite rowing team. 
• Conibear was the Athletic Trainer and Assistant Coach at the University of Chicago from 1899 to 1903 (Assumed).
• Conibear was the trainer for the 1899 University of Chicago team that went 16-0-2. The team had wins over Notre Dame, Penn, Purdue, Minnesota. They finished the year by beating Wisconsin to be champions of the Western Conference. 
• Well recognized for his ability to train athletes.

[It is important to note that this is a Narrative Bio of Fred Smith. All of the information was sourced through articles from Montana newspapers of the era, University documents such as The Sentential, and the Red Book History written by George Dahlberg. In some instances, there are some gaps that needed to be filled in.]