Science Hill High School

Tommy Hundley

Tommy Hundley, 1957

Tommy Hundley lettered in basketball and track, and was Wigwam Wisemen All-American in football after his senior season in '56. He started at quarterback 29 straight games at Science Hill despite playing for three coaches in three years (Mule Brown, Jack Green and Kermit Tipton).

Hundley returned a punt 35 yards for a game-winning score against Kingsport as a freshman. "He caught it on the dead run," said Bob Taylor, a senior who'd scored the first TD in the 13-7 victory.

Hundley won the Plowboy Farmer Award, then he then quarterbacked Tennessee team in the Tennessee-Virginia Shrine Bowl.

"Tommy Hundley was a hard act to follow; he was the man," Science Hill quarterback Wayne Burchfield said. "He was your typical Split T operator, very sound mechanics and a super athlete."

Hundley was an assistant on Tennessee High's two state championship teams in 1971-72 and began an eight-year run as Science Hill's head coach in 1977 after spending four years as an assistant at ETSU. Hundley later assisted Dave Rider a year at Elizabethton and was head coach at Tennessee High.

"I believe Tommy was the last coaching hire I recommended," Science Hill athletic director Sid Smallwood said. "It was a good one."

Hundley was inducted into the National High School Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

"Tommy was ahead of his time," said Bob May, Hundley's defensive coordinator. "They're doing things now Tommy was doing in the '70s."

He had an offensive mind but played defensive back at Kentucky, where he was co-captain as a senior 1960. Smallwood saw Hundley play against Tennessee in Knoxville his senior year, and the performance evokes his affection more than 46 years later.

"Tommy might've been 5-10, and there he was battling those 6-4 and 6-6 receivers Tennessee always had," Smallwood said. "He battled them right down to the ground and it ended up in a (10-10) tie. He had a great day, broke up quite a few passes.

"That was I guess what you'd call a thrill for me. Tommy Hundley was tough as a pine knot."