Championship game at Wembley. Style of play Smith used psychological ploys to threaten and intimidate opposition players. That said, he certainly had the respect of his peers, with fellow professional Jack Charlton once saying "Tommy Smith was easily the hardest player I faced. I ran into him once and he knocked every ounce of breath out of me. I tried to get up and look like he hadn't hurt me, but he had." Manager Bill Shankly once said of him: "Tommy Smith wasn't born, he was quarried". Smith was nicknamed "The Anfield Iron" and it was said that "Merseyside mothers kept his picture on the mantelpiece to keep their kids away from the fire". A common story stated that he "missed the 1978 European Cup Final after tripping on a pickaxe and injuring his foot. The pickaxe was a write-off". Later life Smith had a brief spell as a youth coach at Liverpool. He wrote a weekly column for the Liverpool Echo for 35 years from 1979 until August 2014. In March 2008, he published his autobiography, Anfield Iron. He bought the lease to The Cavern Club in 1980, but sold it on after a few years of minimal profits. Smith was still held in high regard amongst Liverpool fans long after his retirement, as he was voted into 25th place in the official club website poll "100 Players Who Shook The Kop". In 1988, Smith caused controversy after stating in an interview with the author Dave Hill that Howard Gayle "Suffered from a black man's attitude towards the white man. See, everybody thinks whites have an attitude towards blacks. In reality it's blacks who have a problem with the whites... I used to call Howard the 'White Nigger'. Now that is a compliment. It was the only way I could find to describe that I thought he was OK." Smith then went on to comment to Hill that "I'm not prejudiced but if a coon moved in next door, I'd move, like most white people would. If my daughter came home with a nigger, I'd go mad. But I'm only being truthful and normal." Smith intended to sue Hill, but found he had no grounds to take legal action as Hill had recorded all of Smith's comments on tape during the interview. Health problems On 5 June 2007 Smith suffered a heart attack in his garden which required an