John Huard spent last Tuesday night in the company of some of the most celebrated players and coaches in the history of college football.
The Waterville native was among 16 men inducted into National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame during the organization’s annual awards banquet held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City.
“It was exciting,” Huard said upon his return to Maine.
The 70-year-old Huard, a former University of Maine star, shared the head table with the likes of former college stars and National Football League standouts LaDainian Tomlinson, Sterling Sharpe and Wesley Walls.
“At the table next to us was [former Cowboys quarterback] Roger Staubach). On the other side was [Steelers receiver] Lynn Swann and [former 49ers safety] Ronnie Lott. Barry Switzer’s two tables away,” recounted UMaine athletics director Karlton Creech, who represented the department at the function along with Black Bears football coach Jack Cosgrove and associate director of athletic development Seth Woodcock, along with several of Huard’s former teammates.
“It’s a who’s who in the history of college football, so it’s a special night every year,” Creech said, “but this year was awesome because we had one of our own guys there being honored.”
Huard is considered by many to be the greatest football player the state has ever produced.
He was a star at UMaine, where the rugged linebacker earned Little All-America honors in 1965 and 1966 under late head coach Harold Westerman. He was a member of the Black Bears’ 1965 Tangerine Bowl team, whose eight victories stood as the school record until the 1989 squad won nine games.
Many of his former teammates at UMaine and Kents Hill School, along with former players from his coaching days at Acadia University, also were in New York to share the moment with Huard.
“I was fortunate my family was there, my kids and grandkids,” Huard said. “I had friends that I had gone to prep school with like Ted Alfond and Charlie Holden and Jimmy Umile, and another [Kents Hill] roommate of mine, Larry Crooker.”
It was those lasting football bonds, rather than the glitz and glamour of the College Hall of Fame induction, that Huard will cherish. It was a feeling he held throughout his career at Waterville High School, Kents Hill and UMaine.
“I don’t think anybody starts out playing sports and says, ‘I’m going to be in the hall of fame,’” Huard said. “You play the sport because you like challenges, you like to compete with people.”
He speaks with great fondness about his Black Bear teammates.
“The University of Maine was phenomenal and our guys were really close,” he added.
“I’ve always cared about my teammates and I would do anything for them. I was just blessed.”
Huard admits there is a special pride in having represented the state of Maine, his community, family and friends through football. He learned a blue-collar work ethic growing up in Waterville and embraced the underdog mentality.
“I just reflect back to the fact that we were never bigger, we were never faster or stronger, but we always found a way to win,” Huard said. “To me that speaks volumes to the character and the type of people in Maine and at the University of Maine.”
Huard is the only Maine player to have earned College Hall of Fame enshrinement. The list of former coaches with Maine ties to be honored includes Old Town native Dick MacPherson (1950-52), Jim Butterfield (1956-59), Dave Nelson (1949-50), Tubby Raymond (1951-53) and Eddie “Robbie” Robinson (1902).
Huard traces his success as a linebacker back to the fundamentals of tackling and blocking that he learned from coach John Theriault at Waterville High.
“He gave me a blocking bag one summer and I used to tie it up to my mother’s clothesline pole,” he explained. “I used to get on my hands and knees in a six-point progression and move to a four-point progression, then from a four-point progression to a two-point progression.”
His other mentors included former Waterville High basketball coach John “Swisher” Mitchell, along with Westerman and UMaine assistants Walter Abbott and Jack Butterfield.
Huard, a two-time All-Yankee Conference first-team pick, was selected by the Denver Broncos in the fifth round of the 1967 NFL draft. He played four seasons with the Broncos and New Orleans Saints and spent one season with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
He went on to become the head coach at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and directed the Axemen to Canadian national championships in 1979 and 1981. Huard also coached at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, and with the United States Football League’s Chicago Blitz.
Huard was the first football player inducted into the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame and was the inaugural inductee into Alfond Stadium’s Ring of Honor at the University of Maine. He also is in the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.
Huard, an active participate in the NFF’s State of Maine Chapter, volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club and the Susan Curtis foundation. He has been successful in business as the president of Northeast Turf Hue, Inc. and serves as the Northeast representative for FieldTurf artificial athletic surfaces.