It has been reported that when Olympic champion sprinter Tommie Smith arrived at his first Bengals training camp in 1969, receivers coach Bill Walsh devised a drill to show him off.

The quarterbacks would line up with Smith, backpedal five yards and throw it as far as they could. The trick was to try to chuck it far enough to be out of the reach of the 200-meter world record holder.

Sam Wyche never could.

''I could not overthrow him,'' said Wyche, the former Bengals quarterback and coach, now a game analyst and comic strip writer. ''I'd throw it as hard as I could. He was as explosive a runner as I have ever seen. I mean, I'd take a full five steps to wind up and throw, and he would still get it.''

Speed was never Smith's problem. The lean, 6-foot-3 runner was invited to several NFL training camps in 1969 based solely on his wheels. He had scheduled a tryout the Oakland Raiders, but former San Jose State roommate Saint Saffold, a member of the 1968 Bengals, talked him into coming east to try to make the Cincinnati roster.

''I needed a job,'' said Smith, who had trouble finding endorsements, much less employment, after his controversial Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Coach Paul Brown cut Smith, who had not played football since high school, during his first camp, and quickly brought him back onto the taxi squad. Smith was activated at wide receiver for the final three games of the 1969 season, and Brown promised him he would play Dec. 7 at Oakland.

Smith went deep on a post route, but Bengals quarterback Greg Cook's toss was short - they couldn't out-throw him, remember? - and Smith had to cut back for the catch.

He outleaped the Raiders' George Atkinson and Chip Oliver for a 41-yard reception but was sandwiched coming down, landing between the two defenders and breaking his collarbone. Smith was inactive the rest of the year.

Smith was on the taxi squad in 1970 but never made another catch in a regular-season game.

Smith said he received death threats while with the Bengals, and his activation drew ire from some Cincinnatians. The VFW District 4 issued a statement critical of Brown's decision to play Smith, calling it ''in very poor taste . . . thoughtless.''

Brown shrugged off the complaints.

''The thing for us was when he got here, none of (what happened in the Olympics) mattered,'' recalled Mike Brown, Paul Brown's son and now Bengals president.

''Tommie was as far different from his public image as you could imagine, a likeable young guy. He was just another guy trying to play football, and there was never any discussion of one way or another about Mexico City.''