Birmingham police guessed another 20,000 gave up and went back home when they saw the long lines. Jeff Rutledge date of birth: January 22, 1957. After playing in three college all-star games following his senior season, Nathan fell behind in his classes, and he was worried he might flunk out his spring semester. . I knew when I came to training camp that it would be tough. jeff.rutledge@mcmillanvantage.com. Dunn and Anthony Murray and that would go on to make it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, losing to eventual champion Indiana. It helped, too, that both Banks and Woodlawn were also blessed with some enormously talented athletes who weren't named Rutledge or Nathan and who also went on to play in the SEC and the NFL. In the spring of 2007 Rutledge got his first NFL coaching job when he was hired as quarterbacks coach with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, with direct charge over Kurt Warner. ", Tony Nathan is joined by his wife, Johnnie, and his daughters Nichole, Natalie and Nadia at his induction into the Miami Dolphins Walk of Fame in 2014. It took him 36 years, but Nathan kept that promise to his coach. The unsung hero, though, was a little linebacker named Greg Muse, who had transferred to Banksafter living in Texas. Denny Ragland, who would become the Woodlawn starting quarterback during Nathan's senior season in 1974, knew something was up during freshman football practice, when most of the basketball team came out just to see what the 14-year-old Nathan could do on the football field. "There is no doubt in my mind that the delay in the game helped us,'' Banks' Grefseng says. Jeffrey Ronald Rutledge (born January 22, 1957) is an American football coach and former professional quarterback. And when that happened, that movement, I was touched in my heart to do so again.". Rutledge played collegiately at Alabama, where he was a member of three SEC Championship teams under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. He completed 30 of 42 passes for 363 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 12 yards for the game-tying touchdown with only 24 seconds remaining. His wife, Laura, a former Miss . Jeff Rutledge, Nathan's old rival from Banks, was now his teammate, quarterbacking the Tide. He also led the Crimson Tide to two Sugar Bowl appearances and two SEC Championships. In 2006, the Birmingham Board of Education decided to close the deteriorating middle school, too, saying it was unsafe and an eyesore. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. "It was odd to see people react and want a piece of cloth off of somebody else who was wearing it. are hard-pressed to remember the final score. "I've never known a Nathan to quit anything," she said. Jerry McDonald, a split end and defensive back, turned down college football offers and decided to play baseball instead after he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. When he retired from football, Nathan also got into coaching - first with the Dolphins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then at Florida International University. How old is Jeff Rutledge? Jeff Rutledge - Wikipedia "To be a 16-, 17-year-old kid, I had never seen anybody run and do the things Tony did athletically. "Coach Tandy Gerelds was a fine man and a fine coach, and he had a lot to do with a lot of players on that team coming to know the Lord," Brad Hendrix, a senior defensive end on the '74 team, says. Nathan is flanked by his parents William and Louise Nathan. So after his freshman football season -- while his football teammates were enjoying their break -- Nathan was on the basketball court the next day, trying to break into an Alabama lineup that featured Leon Douglas, Reggie King, T.R. (Photo courtesy of Tony Nathan). ''I wanted to know what he was thinking. said Rutledge. The Nathans go to the same church, New Testament Baptist Church, with his former Alabama and Miami teammate McNeal and his wife, Rhonda. Contact . [4], Rutledge is a Christian and attends Arizona Community Church in Chandler. Probably, Tony Nathan never would have gone on to play for Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Alabama, and without him, it's possible the Crimson Tide might not have won that 1978 AP national championship. "I wanted to go home. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. "It was supposed to be a quick pass but somebody got in there and almost sacked Jeff. Fully committed to football now, Nathan became one of the key cogs in a wishbone offense that was clicking on all cylinders. At the age of 32, starting his 11th season as a National Football League quarterback, Rutledge was not sure he would make the. DeOssie, who has been starting at inside linebacker, strained his back lifting weights. He resigned in the Spring of 2012 to return to Arizona to spend time with his family. That was Laura Holmes, whom Rutledge later met when his Fellowship of Christian Athletes adviser suggested that he ask her to go with him to the team banquet following his freshman year at Alabama. "If we needed him to throw the football, I knew he could definitely do that. "I didn't have to worry about cutting grass because they played all the time.". Menu Log In Sign Up And when the game finally did kick off a half-hour or so later, the crowd kept pouring in well into the second quarter. Meanwhile, the recruiting letters continued to pour in from schools such as USC, Notre Dame, Texas and Oklahoma, as well as SEC schools Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Tennessee. ", Alabama basketball coach C.M. Efforts to reach him for this story were unsuccessful. ", Tony Nathan runs behind his Miami Dolphins teammate Jeff Toews in a game against the New York Jets. So, when Tony was in the 10th grade, and he came home one day and told his mother he had left the Woodlawn High School football team, she replied, in no uncertain terms, no, he had not. ''My first year in the league, with the Rams, it was hairy because they had so many quarterbacks in camp. I don't know exactly when, but I'll do it.'". Jeffrey Brooks Rutledge, Meg Rutledge, Christen Rutledge. "They had the best running back in the state and we had the best quarterback," former Banks head coach George "Shorty" White remembers. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jeff Rutledge, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. Jeff Rutledges income source is mostly from being a successful Player. Commission - Waterways He was just a humble high school athlete. Woodlawn students used to yell, ''Rip those Sugar Jets," which was a reference to this brand of cereal. (Sugar Jets was a reference to a brand of cereal from the 1950s and '60s.). Perhaps that epic 1974 showdown at Legion Field between Birmingham high-school heavyweights Woodlawn and Banks would have been just another Friday night football game. He had left the University of Alabama in the spring of 1979 without a diploma. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. The family will receive friends from 12:00-1:30 pm, Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at . Tony -- the second oldest of five siblings -- used to wear out the grass playing ball with their neighbors in the backyard of their house in Parker Heights, near the airport. 66. My parents raised me that way. "He looked like he had a jet pack on his back," Baumhower recalls. A creative problem solver with refined approach to crisis communications and media management. . Although he was mostly used as a back-up, he has two Super Bowl rings - one from the New York Giants and another from the Washington Redskins. He would just tear it off and throw it up in the crowd. Gosh, that game was 40 years ago, which is unbelievable.". In those days, the Banks-Woodlawn rivalry was like the Alabama-Auburn of Birmingham high school football, but maybe just a little friendlier. ----DeOssie and Roberts Out Steve DeOssie and William Roberts missed practice Wednesday. Last year, Nathan was inducted into the Dolphins' Walk of Fame, immortalized alongside such legendary Dolphins as Dan Marino, Bob Griese, Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka and Nick Buoniconti in the sidewalk outside Miami's Sun Life Stadium. [3][5][6] Rutledge led Montgomery Bell Academy to a 41-17 record from 20022006, with two state titles in 2002 and 2003 and a #15 ranking in the final USA Today Super 25 poll in 2003. He was part of a team that earned back-to-back state titles at L. Frazier Banks High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Jeff Rutledge, Nathan's old rival from Banks, was now his teammate, quarterbacking the Tide. It was Geralds, Nathan would say later, who talked him out of quitting football, and for that, Nathan remained forever grateful. He had to meet with Coach Bryant to get him to sign off on it, too. Relationships We have no records of past relationships for Jeff Rutledge. Jeff Rutledge's net worth Jeff Rutledge - Facts, Bio, Favorites, Info, Family 2021 - Sticky Facts American football player and coach (born 1957), Alabama Crimson Tide starting quarterbacks, Washington Commanders starting quarterbacks, 1978 Alabama Crimson Tide footballAP national champions, Alabama Crimson Tide football yearly statistical leaders, History of the New York Giants (19791993), "High School Football Database - All-American (Parade 1974)", "Jeff Rutledge Named as Football Head Coach - Valley Christian High School", "NFL vet Rutledge returning as high school coach", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeff_Rutledge&oldid=1134094507, High school football coaches in Tennessee, Coaches of American football from Alabama, Players of American football from Birmingham, Alabama, Articles with dead external links from October 2010, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 00:15. Sports Illustrated featured him in its "Faces in the Crowd" section after he ran for 228 yards and scored seven touchdowns against Ramsay, and late in the season, along with Banks quarterback Jeff Rutledge, he was named a Parade All-American. (Birmingham News file/Charles Nesbitt). That same night, Banks' 35-game unbeaten streak came to an abrupt end when Rutledge blew out an ankle and the banged-up Jets lost 34-27 to West End. ", The Banks players huddle around head coach Shorty White during the 1974 Banks-Woodlawn game at Legion Field in Birmingham. ''But this is tough on the family. His brother Gary Rutledge was also a quarterback at Alabama from 1972 to 1974. We have estimated He played college football at Alabama, where he was the team's starting quarterback for their 1978 National Championship victory, and was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round of the 1979 NFL Draft. On Nov. 8, 1974 -- 40 years ago this Saturday - the two-time defending state champion Banks Jets met their eastern Birmingham rivals the Woodlawn Colonels in front of what was then and remains today the biggest crowd to ever watch a high school football game in Alabama. The final count was an estimated 42,000 people -- roughly 10,000 more than the previous record crowd at the Crippled Children's Classic between Phillips and Woodlawn, also at Legion Field, in 1950. Bold denotes league leader. If all that notoriety affected Nathan, none of his teammates could tell. He is now a bailiff for Miami-Dade County Court Judge Edward Newman, a former Dolphins teammate. In May 2013, Rutledge was hired by Valley Christian High School in Chandler, Arizona as a full-time staff member and also to lead the football program. Jeff Rutledge, who played at Alabama after he graduated from Bank High School, is pictured here during the 1976 Alabama-Notre Dame game in South Bend, Ind. Though Rutledge was available, no other team signed him. "But at that time, I had a concussion. 6' 1" (185 cm) How much does Jeff Rutledge weigh? (Birmingham News file/Charles Nesbitt). ''It's an odd world, isn't it?'' His finest moment as a professional player came when as a member of the Redskins he came off the bench in a game versus the Detroit Lions in 1990. "The touchdown was a busted play," he recalls. He played college football at Alabama, where he was the team's starting quarterback for their 1978 National Championship victory, and was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round of the 1979 NFL Draft. Newton and football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant stand behind Tony Nathan as he signs his scholarship to attend the University of Alabama. "Greg was not very big but he had a huge heart and he gave Tony fits that night. After working as an assistant at Vanderbilt University and with the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL, Rutledge is now the head coach at Valley Christian High School in Chandler, Ariz. After four years at Alabama, Woodlawn's Tony Nathan was drafted in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins, where he played for nine seasons under Don Shula, including two Super Bowls. Nathan says. He was part of a team that earned back-to-back state *les at L. Frazier Banks High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Simms is the Giants' starter and Jeff Hostetler is No. The athletic teams at Banks adopted the name Jets, and in 1961, the Alabama Air National Guard loaned the school a Korean War-era F-86D Sabre jet, which was painted in the school colors of Columbia blue and scarlet and prominently displayed on campus, making it an inviting target for practical jokers from rival schools. I do believe. A couple of weeks before their game, Banks' White alerted the Legion Field staff to expect a monster crowd. Banks quarterback Jeff Rutledge, who would later lead Alabama to a national championship and play on two Super Bowl-winning teams, and Woodlawn running back Tony Nathan, who would become Rutledge's teammate at Alabama and go on to play in two Super Bowls of his own, were the marquee attractions. "We just sat up there and watched," Martin, now retired, recalls. He is not dating anyone. "I was like, 'All right, it's that time.'". Trailing 35-14 with 10:37 left in the third quarter Rutledge replaced an ineffective Stan Humphries and led a great comeback. During preseason camp, evangelist Wales Goebel, who became a born-again Christian after alcohol destroyed his small-college basketball career and nearly cost him his life, came to share his story with the Woodlawn players. DailyPress.com. This week, Birmingham filmmakers Jon and Andrew Erwin began shooting a movie, "Woodlawn," which takes place during Nathan's days at Woodlawn High School and focuses in on that 1974 Banks-Woodlawn game. If it had been up to Louise Nathan, her son Tony never would have touched a football. In May 2013, Rutledge was hired by Valley Christian High School in Chandler, Arizona as a full-time staff member and also to lead the football program. Jeff is an experienced communications and public affairs professional with more than a decade working in government and the private sector. Louise Nathan, though, never was wild about her seeing her son get hit. Jeff Rutledge was born on January 22, 1957 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. "You wouldn't have known him to be any different from any of the other players on the team," Hendrix, who went on to play briefly with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers, says. ''My wife is frustrated,'' said Rutledge. Their two-year reign as 4A state champs also ended with a 12-0 shutout loss to eventual champion Homewood in the first round of the playoffs. (Photo courtesy of Tony Nathan). A backup for most of his career, he was a member of the New York Giants team that won a Super Bowl in Super Bowl XXI and the Washington Redskins team that won Super Bowl XXVI. "The Woodlawn guys were like maniacs, and they were roaring all through their pre-game warm-ups. As that 1974 season progressed and both teams kept winning week after week, that friendly rivalry between Banks and Woodlawn reached a new level, though. He played college football at Alabama, where he was the team's starting quarterback for their 1978 National . Where was Jeff Rutledge born? After games, fans mobbed Nathan to get a piece of his jersey. They came out in such numbers that the start of the game had to be delayed twice so folks could work their way through the jammed Legion Field turnstiles. "I'm 57 years old, and I'll run into people that I haven't seen in years and years and years and they talk about that game, that they were there. Rutledge, 58, who was the quarterbacks coach of the Cardinals in their only Super Bowl season, said Alabama never stopped aspiring to the biggest heights in college football since he left. In the days leading up to the game, both The Birmingham News and the Birmingham Post-Herald played it up as not only a clash of the titans between Banks and Woodlawn but also a Rutledge vs. Nathan showdown. ', "She said, 'No, but even more so, you're not going to be a quitter. "Before I signed to go to Alabama, Coach Bryant told me, 'Well, look, you can try out (for basketball), but if you're not within the top six, you've got to come back out for spring ball.'''. All rights reserved (About Us). Jeff Rutledge Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family I don't remember that whole week. "It wasn't hard to grab a piece of it. The next year, Nathan and Rutledge became teammates at the University of Alabama. Nathan played on the B-team his freshman year, and by his sophomore season, he earned a spot on the Woodlawn varsity as the starting free safety on defense. A three-year starter, he also led Alabama to the #2 National ranking in 1977. Nov 09, 1990 at 12:00 am. Wasn't it 14-0? He finished his college career with a 33-5 record as a starter, which currently ranks him as the University of Alabama's seventh all-time winningest quarterback. By Frank Litsky, Special To the New York Times. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. What is Jeff Rutledge's full name? Internal communications and employee engagement pro with a tech focus and multi-disciplinary background. Like Jackson, Nathan excelled at just about any sport he played. Plan B was the system under which each N.F.L. "It was a culmination of really four years of building up to that point," Woodlawn quarterback Denny Ragland remembers. Fast learner, critical thinker with an eye for efficiency, and generally fun guy. Jeffrey Ronald Rutledge (born January 22, 1957) is a former American football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. In April 2010, Rutledge agreed to become the head football coach at Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee; where he coached for two seasons, leading the Knights to a 4-18 record. Jeff Rutledge Biography. That iconic Banks jet was turned over to the Southern Museum of Flight, where it has been restored to its Korean War glory days. "We knew each other from grammar school.". Bill Battle, the young coach at Tennessee, wanted Nathan to come play for him in Knoxville, and Vols star quarterback Condredge Holloway showed him around on his official visit.
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