Herschel Curry Smith (1903–1983) was an American athletic coach in the sport of track and field at Compton Jr. College. He is also popularly known as the founder of the Compton Invitational, and the co-founder of the Los Angeles Invitational, both track meets located in Southern California, the United States of America. Smith was also a sprint athlete and world record holder. As a team member of the University of Southern California (USC) track team, in 1927 his relay team broke the world record in the 800-meter and 880-yard relay. Smith was the head coach of Compton College from 1928 to 1968 and was the founder of the Compton Invitational and its director from 1936 to 1969.Herschel was also the co-founder, with Al Franken, and the meet director of the first indoor track meet on the west c