Smith was born at Doncaster and joined the Tigers in December 1956. A towering centre-forward, he made 65 League appearances for the club, scoring 39 goals, before moving on to Rotherham United during the summer of 1960. He then played in non-League football for King’s Lynn from the summer of 1961, Boston United between 1961 and 1964, Boston FC and Goole Town. He returned to City as a coach when they revived their young Minors side in the 1980s and also had coaching spells locally with North Ferriby United and Hall Road Rangers as well as working abroad in football.

Smith was well-known for his prolific goal-scoring partnership with Bill Bradbury when the Tigers won promotion from the Third Division in 1958-59. Bradbury finished with 30 League goals – still a post-war club scoring record in a season. But Smith scored 26 times in the League in 40 games – and also created a lot of Bradbury’s goals. Yet Smith took his goal-scoring to new heights with Boston United because he scored 58 goals when they won the Central Alliance title in 1961-62.

Colin, who also played cricket for Aldbrough, was also a leading figure in the development of the Ex-Tigers’ Association. He nurtured the idea when a team of former players met North Ferriby to raise funds for Chris Chilton’s testimonial and attracted an attendance of 500. That was in April 1971 and Colin said: “It proved that people will turn out to watch ex-Hull City men in action again and I think that a team such as this could raise no end of funds for the needy. It also gives the players the chance to get together against besides making money for charity. They all said how much they enjoyed it and that more fixtures should be arranged.” As a result, the inaugural meeting took place in the North Stand social club at Boothferry Park on August 24, 1971, when the association’s committee were formed. Smith did not attend it because he was then player-manager of the now-defunct Hull Brunswick, whom he had joined in April 1969, and had to be at a training session – but he was still elected as the first chairman of the Ex-Tigers in his absence!

Colin’s funeral took place at Haltemprice Crematorium, Willerby, earlier this week. He was predeceased by his wife Audrey and leaves four children – Elaine, Vaughan, Steve and Sarah.