One of them said on the phone, 'What did you get me?' ''My first year in the league, with the Rams, it was hairy because they had so many quarterbacks in camp. "Well, Shula knew what talent was," Nathan says. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. He has been a Giant since 1982, when he was obtained from the Los Angeles Rams after Phil Simms suffered a season-ending knee injury. Banks alums included Jimmy Sidle, an All-American quarterback at Auburn; Johnny Musso, an All-American running back at Alabama; and David Cutliffe, who became the head coach at Ole Miss and later, Duke. 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. Banks coach Shorty White had assigned Muse to shadow Woodlawn's Nathan everywhere he went, and although Nathan finished with 112 yards on 31 carries, Muse was all over him most of the night. Something like that. (Photo courtesy of Tony Nathan). It hardly seemed like a swan-song performance. in Plant Science from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and a Masters in Agronomy (Weed Science) from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. But, Knoxville, too, was a little too far from home for Nathan. Ragland recalls. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Wore number 17 for the New York Giants. Jeff Rutledge Wiki Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family He was part of a team that earned back-to-back state *les at L. Frazier Banks High School in Birmingham, Alabama. "I think back about our team, and I think about the players who played then and who could play now in terms of their strength and speed and ability," Legg says. The stoic Nathan even teared up as walked across the Coleman Coliseum stage to receive his diploma from outgoing UA President Judy Bonner. "And when they were picking teams, I wanted to get picked. In overtime, he hit Art Monk with a vital 40-yard p* on third and 15 to help set up Chip Lohmiller's game-winning field goal. Today, Ken O'Brien, the Jets' starter, broke a toe. After games, fans mobbed Nathan to get a piece of his jersey. "There wasn't anybody that came to see me play or any of the other guys. And while most college players today are bigger, faster and stronger now than they were during Nathan's college days, Legg has no doubt that, had Nathan come along four decades later, Nick Saban would find a place for him with Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake in the Crimson Tide's current running back rotation. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. 3 QUARTERBACK, https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/24/sports/uneasy-lies-the-head-of-no-3-quarterback.html, Frank Litsky, Special To the New York Times. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. My parents raised me that way. There was no mortgage. Woodlawn students used to yell, ''Rip those Sugar Jets," which was a reference to this brand of cereal. (Birmingham News file/Robert Adams). Jeff Rutledge - Biography - IMDb "I just felt like I was the oldest cat in the house," he says. Football was going to be it. When the teams ran back onto the field for the third time, the lower bowl of Legion Field was practically full. . "I didn't have to worry about cutting grass because they played all the time.". His two older sisters went to Banks, but after the Birmingham schools were desegregated, he was zoned for Woodlawn. 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. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. ''It's an odd world, isn't it?'' 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. RELATED:See who plays Tony Nathan in 'Woodlawn'. A three-year starter, he also led Alabama to the #2 National ranking in 1977. The easygoing Nathan had the ideal temperament for the job, Newman told him. We just couldn't put the icing on the cake.". He is married to his wife Laura and has 3 children. Woodlawn grads included Harry Gilmer, who was an All-American at Alabama and the MVP of the 1946 Rose Bowl, and Bobby Bowden, who coached Florida State to two national championships on his way to becoming the winningest coach in college football history. are hard-pressed to remember the final score. Horgan III, Jeff Hart, Jim Rutledge of Canada, Gary Hallberg and Jeff Freeman pose together with their Qualifying cards during the Champions Tour. "That Banks-Woodlawn game our senior year, that was all about Tony and Jeff Rutledge," Hendrix says. While it has been reported that only one gate was open that night, Walter Garrett, who was the stadium manager at Legion Field for 38 years, says that both gates 7A and 7B at the south entrance to the stadium were open, as was customary at all Birmingham high school games there. Jeff Rutledge Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images As the teams went through their pre-game drills, Woodlawn's Stearns noticed another assistant, Mike Logan, staring up into the stands with his mouth agape. Nose tackle Bob Baumhower, who was two years ahead of Nathan at Alabama, was already there when Nathan arrived for his first camp. A Valuable Commodity. Anyone can read what you share. The other day, Rutledge called his wife and told her to wait. See the article in its original context from. New York Giants. Jeff is an experienced communications and public affairs professional with more than a decade working in government and the private sector. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Or was it 17-7? Jeff Rutledge. His brother Gary Rutledge was also a quarterback at Alabama from 1972 to 1974. (Birmingham News file/Robert Adams). Later, while at Belmont High School in Mississippi, Gerelds was diagnosed with brain cancer, and he died in 2003, coaching right up until the end. Nathan scored Woodlawn's only touchdown on a 13-yard run in the fourth quarter. Commission - Waterways He is married to his wife Laura and has 3 children.[7]. (Photo courtesy of Tony Nathan). "We both started to laugh.". That game meant that Rutledge got the nod to start the following week on Monday Night against the Philadelphia Eagles in a game that was to become infamously known as the "Body Bag Game". They got at least part of that right. He was indeed a basketball guy, but Tony Nathan would be playing football for a long time. He is currently single. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. On Sunday, the Jets lost their backup, Pat Ryan, for at least six to eight weeks with a sprained knee. Jeff Rutledge Position: QB Birthdate: January 22, 1957 College: Alabama Draft: Selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 9th round (246th overall) of the 1979 NFL Draft Stats Gamelogs 300-Yard Passing Jeff Rutledge Stats Jeff Rutledge career stats with the Los Angeles Rams, New York Giants and Washington Redskins. 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 and his wife, Johnnie, who was his high school sweetheart at Woodlawn and his college sweetheart at Alabama, still live in the same house they bought in 1983. 6' 1" (185 cm) How much does Jeff Rutledge weigh? 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. Roberts, the starting left guard, has a slightly sprained left knee, which was reported improved. Many of the players on both teams grew up playing pee-wee football together at East Lake and Wahouma parks, and as teenagers, they hung out together at Eastwood Mall. "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. 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. jeff rutledge wife - holyfamily.schoolmerchcanada.com Finished career at Alabama has the school's leading passer, surpassing Joe Namath. When it came time to pick a college, Nathan considered going to Oklahoma, where renegade coach Barry Switzer was lighting up the scoreboard with a high-powered wishbone offense that was the talk of college football. Gosh, that game was 40 years ago, which is unbelievable.". I said, 'You have to wait until you see me.' If it had been up to Louise Nathan, her son Tony never would have touched a football. Nathan played his entire NFL career with the Dolphins - retiring in 1987 after nine seasons in the aqua and orange - and he has continued to make Miami his home, even when NFL assistant coaching jobs took him to Tampa Bay, Baltimore and San Francisco. (Birmingham News file/Charles Nesbitt). Rutledge led Montgomery Bell Academy to a 41-17 record from 20022006, with two state *les in 2002 and 2003 and a #15 ranking in the final USA Today Super 25 poll in 2003. "We let them run and play," Tony's father, whom the family calls "Pops," says. Almost assuredly, Nathan would not be the featured character in the upcoming movie "Woodlawn," which opens nationwide on Oct. 16, and most definitely, he would not have written a book, "Touchdown Tony: Running With a Purpose," which comes out Tuesday. Former Realtor at ReallivingAdavanceRealty. 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. A title search shows that Mr. Rutledge and his wife bought a property in Naramata for $1.15-million on Oct. 31, 2016. So I had never beaten them.". No One Else Wanted Him. "They had the best running back in the state and we had the best quarterback," former Banks head coach George "Shorty" White remembers. "In high school, he was the best quarterback in the state of Alabama, and Coach Bryant did his job and the recruiters did their jobs to get him to go to Alabama," Nathan says. The two schools were just 10 minutes and less than four miles apart. Add to that the fact that, back in those days, only one team from each region made the state playoffs. So I've never come to camp feeling confident I'd be in place. 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. ", In the lunchroom, the Woodlawn students would break into impromptu pep rallies, standing in their chairs and yelling, "Rip Jets, rip Jets, rip those Sugar Jets." 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. "We had a ball. How tall is Jeff Rutledge? His breakout moment came against Montgomery's Robert E. Lee Generals, when, late in the game, he scooped up a fumble and ran 38 yards for the winning touchdown. Jeff Rutledge Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family Jeff Rutledge Stats | The Football Database . DeOssie, who has been starting at inside linebacker, strained his back lifting weights. "We were out there playing in the mud and the rain," Woodlawn's Ragland says. (Birmingham News file) In the 1980s,. fatal car accident in tulare county / how to endorse a check for mobile deposit wells fargo / jeff rutledge wife. McNeal has been a pastor and counselor at the church, and he and Nathan are close, a friendship that dates back to their playing days at Alabama. "I came to stay until Tony makes up his mind," Bryant replied. BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Forty years later, the details have gotten fuzzier and the legends have grown larger. We were playing in front of 20,000 people regularly, so we were getting some big crowds.". When the Cardinals hired a new offensive coordinator at the end of that season, Rutledge and most of the offensive staff were fired. Drafted in the ninth round of the 1979 NFL Draft (246th overall pick) by the Los Angeles Rams, Rutledge played in 14 NFL seasons from 1979 to 1992 for three different teams. William Nathan asked, referring to Bryant's bag. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. "That's a scary thought now," the 58-year-old Nathan says of what might have been. And to himself. Gerelds' plan to move Nathan to running back was paying off handsomely, too.Sometime during that junior season -- maybe it was after he ran for 231 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-12 upset of the No. Nathan says. Rutledge, first, and then Stan Humphries were knocked out of the game, leaving emergency quarterback Brian Mitchell (a kick returner and former college quarterback) to finish the game. The next year, they got Bert Jones. "He wasn't too pleased," Nathan recalls. Rutledge would never start an NFL game again but he did see spot duty in relief of returning starter Mark Rypien in the Redskins' 1991 Super Bowl Championship season, including some playing time in the last game of the regular season, again against the Philadelphia Eagles. "This was before Bo Jackson," Ragland, the Woodlawn quarterback, says. "It's . 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. Jeffrey Brooks Rutledge, Meg Rutledge, Christen Rutledge. When the other team did not pick up on Rutledge, he took the snap and did a sneak up the middle for yardage that gave the Giants a first down that would eventually lead to a go-ahead score. The week of the game, Jerry Stearns, who was an assistant coach at Woodlawn that year and later became the head coach there, recalls selling advance tickets at the school, something he says never happened before. About Jeff Rutledge is a 66 year old American Football (American) Player born on 22nd January, 1957 in Birmingham, AL. Birmingham, Alabama. "It was an amazing thing to see all of those kids -- who grew up together and went to church together, played at Wahouma Park together - in that room together that night," Stearns says. "I played with older guys, and I wanted to be able to play on their level," Nathan says. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. 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. Ragland, the Woodlawn quarterback, grew up in a house divided. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. They've been married for going on 37 years now, with three children and nine grandkids. 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. Josh Rutledge - Wikipedia 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. 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. And when the game finally did kick off a half-hour or so later, the crowd kept pouring in well into the second quarter. 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 touched me," he says. "He looked like he had a jet pack on his back," Baumhower recalls. ", Alabama basketball coach C.M. He resigned in the Spring of 2012 to return to Arizona to spend time with his family. 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. Wife'S Suggestion of Retirement Lost on Rutledge Even though the Dolphins eventually lost in overtime, the play lives on in Miami lore. The purchase date corresponds with most of the transfers from Mr. Slaughter's account, according to the suit. "What are you doing with that grip?'" Something else special happened that week, too. 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. "It was time for people to actually get along -- no matter what race or color you were," he says. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. The quiet Nathan, who teammates say tried to shy away from all of the attention, was one of Birmingham's first superstar black athletes in a city that was still adjusting to integration. American football player and coach (born 1957) 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. [2] Rutledge spent most of his career as a back-up quarterback and a holder on kicks. In 2013, he married Laura McKeeman (who took Rutledge's name upon marriage), a reporter and host for ESPN and the SEC Network. I don't remember that whole week. 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. Gerelds, recognizing Nathan's underutilized potential, thought he needed to have the ball in his hands more often and moved him to offense his junior year.Before the start of that 1973 season, something else happened that changed the Woodlawn football team's fortunes. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Former Buyer/Planner at Rutledge Properties LLC. In overtime, he hit Art Monk with a vital 40-yard pass on third and 15 to help set up Chip Lohmiller's game-winning field goal. Playing in the wishbone -- a four-pronged attack with two tailbacks, a fullback and the quarterback all sharing carries -- Nathan never amassed huge numbers like Crimson Tide workhorses Bobby Humphrey or Shaun Alexander or Trent Richardson, but for his career, he averaged an eye-popping 6.4 yards every time he carried the ball at Alabama. If Roberts misses Saturday night's game, as seems likely, Damian Johnson will move to left guard and Brian Williams will replace Johnson at right guard. (Birmingham News file/Charles Nesbitt). They attended some of the same churches and dated some of the same girls. He said, 'Well, make sure you promise me you're going to finish what you started. I think Tony could definitely play today. "We would go to the board of education and get tickets and we would be sold out in 30 minutes to an hour," Stearns says. I was so elated that he did it, and I thank the Lord that he did.". Rutledge was born to Tony and Cheryl Rutledge in Cullman, Alabama, on April 21, 1989. "If we needed him to throw the football, I knew he could definitely do that. Tandy Gerelds left Woodlawn after the 1975 season to join his father in the family insurance business, but in 1984, he returned to coaching at Deshler High School in Tuscumbia. The Nathans go to the same church, New Testament Baptist Church, with his former Alabama and Miami teammate McNeal and his wife, Rhonda. "When people say Tony Nathan, their ears go up. On the bus ride to Legion Field, the Woodlawn players knew it was a big deal when they got a police escort to the game, which was also a first for them. Charles Rutledge Obituary (1938 - 2019) - Boiling Springs, SC - Legacy (Photo courtesy of Tony Nathan). "There is no doubt in my mind that the delay in the game helped us,'' Banks' Grefseng says. While Nathan ran for 112 yards and scored a touchdown that night, the Colonels lost to the Jets 18-7, with Rutledge completing eight of nine passing for 185 yards and a touchdown. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Rutledge was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. And since Banks and Woodlawn were in the same region -- and both were competing in 4A, which was then the largest high school classification in the state -- only one of them would advance. 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. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). He also led the Crimson Tide to two Sugar Bowl appearances and two SEC Championships. "All I had ever seen of football games was everybody falling on each other and piling on each other," she says. View popular celebrities life details, birth signs and real ages. (Sugar Jets was a reference to a brand of cereal from the 1950s and '60s.). Since then, Rutledge has been mostly a backup. "We don't have any of the highlight reels from the '70s that they have from Bo Jackson's day, but Tony did some phenomenal things on the football field and on the basketball court. Jeff Rutledge date of birth: January 22, 1957. I knew it even before that, when Plan B came along.'' ", 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. We have estimated "I told him, me being so far behind, I didn't want to flunk out. He was the starting quarterback on the 1978 National Championship team. In overtime, he hit Art Monk with a vital 40-yard pass on third and 15 to help set up Chip Lohmiller's game-winning field goal. He received his degree from Alabama in Business Administration and in 2011, was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Rutledge spent most of his career as a back-up quarterback and a holder on kicks. See also [ edit] Rule 5 draft results References [ edit] . Trailing 35-14 with 10:37 left in the third quarter Rutledge replaced an ineffective Stan Humphries and led a great comeback. 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. "I wanted to go home. Relationships We have no records of past relationships for Jeff Rutledge. An estimated 42,000 fans filled the lower bowl of Legion Field for the 1974 Banks-Woodlawn game. Jeff Rutledge, of Newport, represents the White River and his term expires in 2024. ''But this is tough on the family. 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. If all that notoriety affected Nathan, none of his teammates could tell. Plan B was the system under which each N.F.L. It took him 36 years, but Nathan kept that promise to his coach. As a senior, he was a member of the 1974 Parade High School All-American team. Meanwhile, Tuscaloosa was just an hour away, and one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game, Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant, had the Crimson Tide not just rolling again, but steamrolling. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? ", Woodlawn's Tony Nathan ran for 112 yards and scored a touchdown in the 1974 Banks-Woodlawn game, but Banks linebacker Greg Muse was all over him all night long. After the Tide slipped to an uncharacteristic 9-3 in Nathan's sophomore season -- Alabama's worst record in his four years there -- the team bounced back to go 11-1 and finish runner-up to national champs Notre Dame in 1977 and to go 11-1 again and win it all in 1978. "It was supposed to be a quick pass but somebody got in there and almost sacked Jeff. Jeffrey Ronald Rutledge. Tony Nathan, left, talks with Jeff Rutledge, right, after the famous Woodlawn-Banks high school football game at Legion Field in 1974. Everybody else was gone home for Christmas vacation, and I was like, 'What am I doing here?' Jeffrey Ronald Rutledge (born January 22, 1957) is an American football coach and former professional quarterback. Out on the field, one of the players, a linebacker who also filled in as back-up tight end, caught the only touchdown pass of his high-school career, in what was by far the biggest game of his career. Bold denotes league leader. Jeffrey Ronald Rutledge (born January 22, 1957) is an American football coach and former professional quarterback. If all of the gates had been open, they would have had 60,000 people.". I told Coach Gerelds that I didn't want him to be anywhere near the ball.". "I've never known a Nathan to quit anything," she said. 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,[5] with direct charge over Kurt Warner. "I think (defensive lineman) Marty Lyons could play today. '", So just think, if Louise Nathan hadn't put her foot down, maybe no one would have ever heard of "Touchdown Tony.". Birmingham police guessed another 20,000 gave up and went back home when they saw the long lines. The main building, built in 1922, was a grand, three-story structure that always looked more like a palace than a schoolhouse. Jeff Rutledge takes a breather during the 1974 Banks-Woodlawn game at Legion Field in Birmingham. ", During his senior season at at Woodlawn High School in 1974, Tony Nathan was a Parade All-American and featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd." "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. jeff.rutledge@mcmillanvantage.com. 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. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember anything about it. "Each gate had four openings in it for four lines of people," Garrett says, "but it still obviously wasn't enough.". Efforts to reach him for this story were unsuccessful. Our defensive game plan was awesome.". I do believe. Jeffrey Ronald Rutledge (born January 22, 1957) is an American football coach and former professional quarterback.
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