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Former NFL center and long snapper John Hudson, who
played with the Baltimore Ravens in their 2001 Super
Bowl win, is pictured here with fellow Henry County High
School Patriots coaches: front row, left to right: Paul
Putman (former McKenzie High School wide receiver and
running back and current HCHS defensive backs coach),
Jim Younger (a graduate of Jackson Southside and
UT-Martin and current HCHS offensive line coach with 30
years in football), Michael Norman (former HCHS
offensive and defensive lineman and UT-Martin player and
current HCHS linebackers coach); back row: Chad Hodge
(former Hollow Rock-Bruceton quarterback and current
HCHS running backs coach), Brian Wyatt (former
University of Alabama quartrback and current HCHS
quarterbacks coach), head Coach Joe Gaddis (a 31-year
veteran, Gaddis has increased the HCHS team by more than
20 percent and raised their record to 7-5 last season),
and Hudson, who says of his new coaching career, “This
is a ball—coaching here has been as much fun as I’ve
ever had.” Hudson is the defensive ends coach at HCHS.
By Deborah Turner
dturner@mckeniebanner.com |
Five years ago, the day
meant excitement for the family of Raven's #66, Henry
County's own John Hudson. But the coveted win also
marked the end of his ten-year tour with the NFL... and
the beginning of something even better.
As temperatures approach the boiling point among
those afflicted with football fever--in anxious
anticipation of Super Bowl Sunday on February 5 this
weekend--Henry County Patriots' assistant Coach John
Hudson is taciturn regarding the outcome of the game.
After all, hopes that his favorite team, the New England
Patriots, might win a third straight Super Bowl ended in
a 27-13 play-off loss to the Denver Broncos.
"I don't even have a clue who's going to win," he says.
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The Baltimore Ravens earned the world champion
designation in a 2001 Super Bowl to remember.
Hudson keeps his multi-diamond winner’s ring in a
safe deposit box.
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In 2001, however, the high school teacher and coach
had an up-close and personal view of the action as
number 66 on the Baltimore Ravens' team. A center in his
tenth year in the NFL after being drafted from Auburn
University three and a half years into his college
career, Hudson took the field during the game for a snap
that afforded him the memorable opportunity of playing
in the historic game, becoming one of a rare group of
sportsmen to be awarded the coveted Super Bowl ring.
Titans fans will remember the game as the year that
"should have been." Finishing second to Tennessee in the
AFC's Central Division, Baltimore nevertheless ousted
the Titans 24-10 in the conference semi-finals.
More memorable, fans everywhere will recall the final
moments of the third quarter when "the teams staged the
most explosive 36 seconds in Super Bowl history,
featuring three touchdowns, two of them by the Ravens."
The game ended in a 34-7 victory for the wild-card team.
These days, "too big and gaudy" to wear, Hudson surmises
his wife, Ginny, has the ring tucked away in a
safe-deposit box for safekeeping. Thankful for his
decade-long romp with the big boys of football, he
nonetheless has bigger eggs to fry: readying new legions
of student athletes for the football field and the
world.
Weekday afternoons, two months past the official high
school season, finds Hudson putting his players through
drills on the practice field, outside the Patriot
fieldhouse. Their drills complete, the players file into
the weight room. Today's game knows no break: next
season is just around the corner and rival teams are
working hard to gain a competitive edge.
Hudson, himself, was a member of the Henry County high
school team in his youth. He grew up on the family farm
with two older brothers, Ross and Todd, and little
sister, Mary Kate. Sadly, Todd has since died, a victim
of MS.
Their father, Bill Hudson, then vice principal at HCHS,
had played for Memphis State before being drafted into
the NFL, playing tackle for Buffalo; thus it was with
great excitement that John went pro in '91.
"I wanted to play real bad... I had a decent ability,
I guess," Hudson says, embarking upon a continuous
effort at downplaying his role in the NFL, despite the
rarity of the opportunity.
"I was drafted 11B... I got a shot in Philadelphia on
an offensive line; I was able to snap the ball and
tricked them into taking me and stayed on the team for a
few years."
He played with Philadelphia for six years and the New
York Jets for four more before being picked up by
Baltimore.
For the first six years of his career, John had
continued to spend the off-season working out at Auburn,
where he met Ginny, a gymnast from South Carolina who
was studying corporate fitness/kinesiology. The couple
married in 1993 and now have three children:
21-month-old Lewis, four-year-old Caroline, and Celia
Jean, now seven years old. She was three when the family
traveled to Tampa, Florida for the Super Bowl.
John Hudson, wearing number 66, takes the
field during the 2001 Super Bowl game.
Hudson grouses that he was never able to acclimate to
the immensity of New York City, which--with a population
of more than eight million--is more than twice the size
of Los Angeles, the nation's second largest city, and
dwarfs both Memphis and Nashville.
"I went to Auburn because it was a small town," he says.
"I looked forward to going back home." After leaving
Auburn, he and Ginny built a house in Paris with the
outlook toward moving back to his hometown.
In the meantime, Hudson's ability as a snapper kept him
on the substitute roster. If the frontline center was
hurt, he says, "They'd pick me up halfway through the
year."
Ironically, the Super Bowl was the final game of
Hudson's NFL career. It was a day he had planned for.
"If you've got any sense you don't play for very long
without looking for that to happen," he says, noting
that exceptionally good players come onto the field
every year with some never getting a chance to prove
themselves. Players must possess not only talent, he
says, but the ability to discover their niche.
"If a player goes through the final cut two or three
years and doesn't have himself mentally prepared that
they're going to bring someone in to take their place
then they're not very smart," he says, summing up the
experience with, "I had a ball--I wouldn't take anything
for the experience."
His career at a standstill and a home ready-made for his
return to Tennessee, Hudson played his smart card and
went back to school at Murray State, taking two and a
half years to complete his studies in history/social
studies education after losing many of the credits he
had amassed a dozen years earlier.
The Hudson homestead includes a farm where John raises
beef cattle--but no chickens--in what he says is "kind
of a knee-jerk reaction to living in the city for
years."
"The dogs don't like chickens," he grins, relaxing into
the comfort of discussing life in the here and now.
Ginny fills the role of homemaker and mom in the happy
equation.
"Women who stay home with two or more children--I gotta
tell you--I have a lot of respect for them," John says.
After graduating last spring, his name was added to a
new roster, among eight coaches at Henry County High
School, a team led by head Coach Joe Gaddis, who is
going into his 32nd year of football, 24 as a coach.
"This is a ball--coaching here has been as much fun as
I've ever had," says Hudson.
Concerning his role among the senior staff members, he
says easily, "I keep my mouth shut and listen. I'm still
trying to learn; they've been in the high school game a
lot longer than I have."
The Patriot team, in its second year under Gaddis, last
year boasted a 7-5 record, losing in the second round of
the play-offs to Melrose. "It's exciting," says Hudson,
anticipating a continuing climb. "Since he's been here
the team has improved tremendously."
Joining with other Henry County coaches on the practice
field for a photo op, the staff members exhibit an
uncommon camaraderie, bantering easily together in what
is clearly "home" for Hudson, who earlier had a big
smile for daughter "Celie" when school was let out for
the day.
Asked for comments regarding their follow coach, Gaddis
said with a big smile, as the group dispersed, "I
watched the Super Bowl that he was in."
"I did, too," grins Jim Younger, who has coached with
Gaddis for 15 of his 30 years in football.
"So did I," jests Hudson, 360 degrees removed from
his childhood, his hometown providing his own perfect
niche. |
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