Emmitt Smith knew deep down he could do it.

Since high school, the National Football League's all-time leading rusher entered every competition he was in with a simple approach: Losing wasn't an option.

So with it all on the line, Smith clapped his hands a few times to get pumped, the music began and he leapt — with faith in his training — out in front of his audience.

Smith wasn't wearing cleats this time. He wore dancing shoes as he and his partner stepped through their freestyle segment in last fall's finale of ABC's hit show "Dancing With the Stars."

They won, proving that Smith still has the work ethic and determination to ballroom blitz his way to victory two years after retiring from a 14-year NFL career.

A running back with the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals, Smith spent years crafting his fancy footwork. His "Dancing With the Stars" partner, professional dancer Cheryl Burke, took notice.

"He learned steps so fast, and he's got natural body rhythm," Burke told CNN's Larry King in November before the victory. "With Emmitt . . . it's all about business with him. He wants to practice eight hours a day. He's a hard worker. And you know, we just get on with it."

Hail Mary

As a youngster struggling with poverty in Pensacola, Fla., Smith learned the value of hard work.

When he wanted brand-name jeans as a kid and went to his mother to ask for money, the matriarch urged her son to get a job so he could buy whatever he wanted. He took all kinds of odd jobs at a nursing home where his mother worked, and bought the jeans.

"From that point on," Smith told ABC, "I started creating ways to go out and earn a living. And I learned that hard work and commitment and dedication definitely pay off.

"But I also learned, when I made the money and my mother asked to borrow some — I felt good giving it away. And that, to me, was an unbelievable feeling."

Jimmy Nichols, a coach at Escambia High School in Pensacola who coached Smith for four years, told IBD: "I was very impressed with him when he was young. I met him at 14 years old, and his demeanor, his manner, the way he handled himself — you could just tell his family did a great job of raising him."

Smith's mother, Mary, worked in a bank as well as in the nursing home, and his father, Emmitt Jr., was a city bus driver. They were committed to keeping Emmitt, his two sisters and three brothers on the right path.

Nichols, whose son was Smith's best friend growing up and later his college roommate, says Smith's mother was no-nonsense. "The kids run the show more than the parents these days, and she wasn't going to allow that," he said.

In 18 years, the Escambia Gators had logged only one winning season. Then Smith came to school.

The way one former coach saw it, the new agenda was simple: Hand the ball to him, pitch the ball to him, throw the ball to him.

In his sophomore year, Smith helped nab Escambia's Gators their first state title, repeating the thrill the next season. The 8,804 yards he gained in his four years there leave him second on the National High School Sports Records Book's list of all-time rushing leaders.

Smith has been running off triumphs ever since. He collected three Super Bowl rings with the Cowboys in the 1992, '93 and '95 seasons. He won the NFL's Most Valuable Player award in 1993 and was MVP of that season's Super Bowl.

He also ran off records. The biggest are his 18,355 NFL rushing yards, just ahead of Walter Payton, and 164 rushing touchdowns.

Prior to that, Smith threw his 5-foot-9 frame around college fields. In only his third game at the University of Florida, he broke the school record by rushing for 224 yards. He was named the 1987 National Freshman Player of the Year and the 1989 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year.

In 1990, the NFL altered its rules and let juniors forgo their last year of college play and enter the draft. So Smith left school, and Dallas grabbed him in the first round.

Once in the big leagues, it took Smith only six seasons to score 100 touchdowns. He was helping turn the Cowboys into the most dominant team of the 1990s.

"Everyone knows about his athletic ability," Nichols said. "Not everyone knows about the other side. I have seen him go from a 14-year-old kid to becoming the leading rusher in the NFL. I've also seen him become a father, become a husband, become a businessman."

Smith's professionalism started in high school. He would sit down at the start of every season and write out his list of goals. That purpose only grew. In his last two NFL years with the Cardinals, he would arrive dressed in a suit before 7 a.m. for off-season workouts. "This is the way I come to work," he would say.

Nichols said: "Everybody would say he couldn't do this, he couldn't do that. All these things would come before him and he would have to dismantle those in addition to proving to himself that he could."

That applied even on the "Dancing With the Stars" floor, where not many fans figured he had a chance at the trophy.

"I've defied the odds all my life," Smith told Sports Illustrated's Peter King. "I wasn't supposed to be a productive back for 13 years, was I? Why would I let another tough situation stand in my way?"

Why indeed. Smith somehow shifted his athletic prowess into high nimble gear. "I'm in it for the competition and just the thrill of the opportunity," he told Larry King. "You know I've always been somewhat of a person that has . . . said, 'Man, I wonder, can I get that done?' "

College Grad

Smith made sure to get his college diploma. When he left the University of Florida for the NFL, he promised his mother he'd get his degree. So he returned to the campus in Gainesville, Fla., every off-season until he walked away with a bachelor's in public recreation in 1996.

Off the field and dance stage, Smith still takes big steps.

He began fostering an interest in real estate after buying property in Pensacola during his first year with the Cowboys. Today he is the Smith in SmithCypress Partners, which is connected to Staubach Co., the global real estate firm headed by fellow Cowboy great Roger Staubach.

This past week, Smith, 37, twirled through TV and radio leading up to the Super Bowl in his home state. He was the star interview ahead of a game he once owned.

"With all the things he's done, all the accolades, all the achievements, he could sit down and not do another thing," Nichols said. "But that is not him. He is going to continue to strive. . . . He's going to succeed in everything that he does because of how proud he is."
BY KASEY SEYMOUR