0:02

You're listening to Rebel 5ive, an interactive interview

0:06

podcasts with alumni, past and current parents

0:08

and friends of Roncalli high school. I'm

0:10

your host, Gary A rmbruster, director of alumni

0:12

and corporate relations at R oncalli. And each

0:14

week I will ask our guests five questions

0:17

regarding how their lives have evolved and

0:19

how key connections o f e xperience, opportunity

0:21

and alumni networking and propelled them to where they

0:23

are today. A nd we'll talk challenges, how

0:26

to overcome challenges and what they've learned

0:28

along the way. Stay tuned. Our

0:33

guests this week on the Rebel 5ive podcast is

0:35

Dr. Chad Huck. Chad

0:37

graduated from Roncalli in 1977

0:40

and Chad's claim to fame,

0:42

at least at that point in time i n his life, was

0:44

he was our starting quarterback. He led

0:46

the Rebels to our very first football

0:48

sectional championship. Chad, I've

0:50

interviewed John Wirtz. I've

0:53

interviewed K athy Schembra, both

0:55

fountain square natives.

0:58

You went to St. Pats. Talk

1:00

a little bit about fountain square

1:03

and why is, why is there

1:05

still such an affinity for people that grew

1:07

up in fountain square?

1:08

Probably. Um , because

1:11

we're survivors . Uh,

1:13

it went through some hard times and the

1:16

school closed after my brother

1:18

Rick graduated from there, which was just a couple of years

1:20

after me. But, you

1:22

know, it was an Irish Catholic kind

1:25

of inner city school.

1:27

In fact, that takes me back to when I first

1:30

walked into Roncalli is the, you know,

1:32

the eighth grade want to be

1:35

a Rebel sort of thing. And

1:38

it broadened my horizons considerably

1:40

right then. So, u h, so

1:42

it's a pretty humble background.

1:44

Your first job when you were growing

1:46

up, did you , um, do you remember, I'm

1:48

sure you remember your first job. What was it,

1:50

a newspaper route. So were

1:52

my brothers before me, Ed and Joe

1:55

both had one. My sister had one.

1:57

In fact, I think probably

1:59

dad required us to have one. Uh,

2:02

so a newspaper route would be the first official job.

2:04

Yeah.

2:05

So how old were you when you started a paper

2:07

route ?

2:07

I was in fifth grade

2:09

star or news?

2:11

afternoon. The news.

2:12

Any lessons you learned from that

2:14

paper route?

2:14

Yes. That it gets very cold

2:17

in the winter and snow. And,

2:20

and certainly life lessons about responsibility

2:23

and, and how to present yourself and

2:25

how did we respectful and , uh,

2:27

how to count your quarters and stuff like that.

2:30

Well, I know sports was a huge, huge

2:32

part of your upbringing. Uh

2:34

, you had older brothers that I'm sure like to

2:38

bang around a little bit with you. Uh , maybe

2:40

your older sister as well. I don't know.

2:43

Uh, so how did you do that with an

2:45

afternoon paper rout? How were you able to , to

2:48

be involved in sports at St. Pats and

2:50

carry your papers?

2:52

Oh , that's a really good question. I hadn't thought of that,

2:55

but nothing was more important than the CYO sports

2:58

for sure. I just remember getting

3:01

out of school, hustling, going

3:04

to deliver the paper and still making it to

3:06

practice. I can't remember how

3:08

, how we reconciled conflicts there.

3:10

You mentioned your dad just a minute ago. Uh,

3:12

he, he probably demanded that. Talk a little

3:15

bit about your dad and

3:17

why did he demand that?

3:19

My dad was

3:21

a labor . Um, he sacrificed

3:23

tremendously for our family. He, he

3:26

was actually a phenomenally good

3:28

bowler. He's in a bowling hall of fame.

3:30

He had an opportunity to go pro

3:32

. He used to bowl with Dick Weber and

3:35

yeah, so they had a travel team that was

3:37

really, really phenomenally good.

3:40

And Dick Weber was a crony . So

3:42

dad chose family life. Instead,

3:44

he had aspirations to do engineering

3:46

kind of work and stuff like that. But , uh,

3:49

apparently decided he wasn't well suited for that

3:51

one thing after another. He's married, he's

3:54

, uh, raising big,

3:56

big family and he was

3:58

a Glazer, so he was a construction worker

4:00

who put in big panes of glass in downtown

4:02

Indianapolis and wherever. So

4:05

the amount of sacrifice that he

4:07

went through to be able to put us through

4:10

eight years of St. Pats and

4:12

then four years of Roncall for a family.

4:14

They on those wages, I

4:16

just still can't believe it to be

4:19

honest. Um, so

4:21

he, he also was extremely supportive

4:23

about sports , uh,

4:25

and your, you know, your activities.

4:28

Uh , but he also wanted to

4:31

have us understand how to manage

4:33

money a little bit and how that paper

4:35

route was critically important

4:37

to , uh , those kinds of developments. In

4:39

fact, my older brothers, Joe and Eddie

4:41

both did it in a much bigger way

4:43

than say Tom and I did because

4:45

they were competitive about expanding

4:48

their route and stuff like that. And they took these

4:50

elaborate trips , uh, as

4:53

a reward sort of thing. But,

4:55

but we all learned how to go pay the bill

4:57

on Saturday morning and get in line and,

4:59

and go through that. And

5:02

so dad wasn't like iron

5:04

fisted about it or anything, but we

5:06

all had, we all had a coffee can

5:08

where the money got from collections

5:11

and there was hell to pay if it did more . But

5:15

it was an expectation very much so.

5:17

Yes,

5:18

you enter Roncalli in the

5:20

fall of 1973.

5:23

The merger really was pretty,

5:26

it was still new. Did you have any memory

5:28

of that you had older siblings that were involved in that?

5:31

You personally, would you have any memory

5:33

of the Kennedy / Chartrand merger

5:35

at all?

5:36

Oh yes, absolutely. I remember

5:38

going to watch my brother ed play

5:40

at Kennedy. I remember idolizing

5:42

a lot of those great Kennedy

5:45

athletes. Like I say,

5:47

I was extremely focused

5:49

on athletics. So I remember that. And I

5:51

remember then likewise the early years

5:54

at Roncalli and I, I

5:57

attended every game and idolized

5:59

those guys too.

6:00

You enter Roncalli as a, as a f

6:02

reshman, the fall of 73. Was

6:05

Roncalli going to be it? Ca

6:07

use y ou wo uld h a ve c athedral was downtown

6:09

at that time. Was it always Roncalli? I

6:12

mean obviously your older siblings went there, so

6:14

was there any question about that?

6:16

Uh, no, not really. I if

6:19

I remember because our CYO

6:21

team , uh, we actually

6:24

did pretty well and football

6:26

playoffs and stuff. And I remember some discussion

6:29

cause we had some cousins and stuff who went to cathedral.

6:32

It seems like there was , uh , some

6:36

discussion about that possibility, but

6:38

nothing that was really worth

6:40

thinking about. So, so it was always Roncalli. Yes.

6:43

You mentioned your , your success at St. Pat's.

6:45

Were you always the quarterback?

6:47

Uh, no, actually that's uh

6:49

, a very , uh , interesting

6:52

thing now. I was a running back and a linebacker

6:55

and we had a hardscrabble

6:57

kind of team. It was combined

6:59

with Holy cross, if you're familiar with Holy

7:01

cross, cause me neither

7:03

school had enough , uh , people to

7:05

field a team. And

7:08

if I remember right, we had, you

7:10

know, maybe one or two guys

7:13

who would be on the sidelines. And so

7:15

everybody else kind of went both ways and stuff. So

7:18

, um, but yeah, we did pretty

7:20

well. We had, we were pretty gritty

7:23

and, and did well , um , made

7:25

it to the , uh , city championship

7:27

game, which of course meant everything back

7:29

then. Yeah, we did that a couple of few times,

7:32

did pretty well in basketball too. Going

7:34

on to Roncalli . Then of course

7:36

I was all about football and

7:38

, and uh, at the outset

7:40

of course, and , and came

7:43

time to, you know, get

7:45

to know the other guys on the team and , and

7:47

it was really a very simple thing.

7:49

And that is , uh, our coach for

7:51

a freshman team was Bob Tully. And

7:54

he said , uh, who

7:56

wants to go off quarterback? And

7:59

guys started getting in line to

8:02

play quarterback. And

8:04

I thought, Hmm

8:06

, I think I'm going to do

8:09

because, and while I did , I

8:12

ran the ball a lot and in

8:14

grade school and stuff, I also threw the ball a lot,

8:16

so we did. We did half back passes, so

8:18

if there was passing plays then I

8:20

would throw the ball and in fact

8:22

I just recently had a conversation with one of the

8:24

coaches from my grade school team

8:26

who kind of was apologizing for

8:29

not knowing that I wanted to play quarterback. I was like,

8:32

I know I didn't. I didn't really have

8:34

any aspirations play quarterback at that point in time.

8:36

It just kind of came to me at Roncalli

8:38

.

8:38

Who was your sports idol back then

8:41

as a young kid?

8:42

Dick Nalley was probably my

8:44

most immediate one. You talk

8:46

about a phenomenal player,

8:48

phenomenal athlete, and he grew

8:50

up in the same neighborhood, went to the same grade school,

8:53

so I would just there in awe of him was

8:57

not blessed with his kind of athleticism for

9:00

sure. He , he's the most immediate one. Yeah.

9:02

Your freshman year you play freshman

9:04

football. Obviously the freshman year,

9:06

the varsity was 3-7. Your

9:08

sophomore year, you didn't start out

9:11

playing a starting. I know

9:14

you played behind Chris Amore maybe. Does

9:16

that sound right?

9:17

Yeah, Chris and I were competing

9:20

against one another for the position. He was a year

9:22

ahead of me, but actually I still

9:25

, uh , started and played

9:28

the majority of times. It was not

9:30

anything I was terribly proud of of how

9:32

that, how some of those games went.

9:34

But , uh, anyway,

9:35

I'm very similar to you as far as I

9:38

had older siblings who went to Roncalli

9:40

in those first years. And so I was o ut a

9:42

lot of games and so I'm gonna throw this

9:44

game a t you. I hope you don't

9:46

disconnect from the conversation because

9:48

I know the end was not good,

9:50

but it's what I remember about

9:53

that season. And it's the game at CYO

9:56

field against cathedral. And

9:58

I think both w inless I think w e were both

10:00

schools row 0-3 it's our chance t o, t

10:03

o play cathedral and we had a chance,

10:06

u m, I know how i t unfolded. You

10:08

have any memories of that game that you want to share?

10:11

I'll be honest, I think I'm probably

10:13

blessed with a selective memory and

10:17

, and then , uh,

10:20

the way things went at IU, which was

10:22

not the way I planned them to go.

10:24

I think I got

10:26

all the more selective with my memory, so I

10:28

don't remember a lot of that stuff, but I do, I

10:31

remember the game was critically important to me

10:34

because of the cathedral connection

10:36

because it was a CYO field. Uh,

10:39

and um, and

10:41

I had cousins and stuff on the East

10:43

side of the city and stuff

10:46

and it was that rivalry , if

10:49

I remember right. It was, I

10:52

don't, it wasn't raining. I don't,

10:54

I just remember it was cold. It ended

10:56

up being, it was a 7, 7-6 loss. We

10:59

had an opportunity to go for two at the end

11:02

and it didn't work out. Right. But yeah , we'll

11:04

move on because I'm

11:07

going into your junior year. We

11:09

finished that season 8-2. did, did , did

11:11

you know going into that season

11:14

that we were going to be pretty dang good?

11:16

Yes. Because we had a really

11:18

good couple classes there.

11:21

The class in front of us, we had really good

11:23

athletes , has some good leadership, good dudes,

11:26

and we had some good

11:28

skilled positions. The receiving corps was

11:31

particularly good. Yes.

11:34

And also, you know, that first year,

11:36

the sophomore year was our new first

11:38

year with a coach.

11:39

Oh, that's right. Yeah. Butch Branson.

11:41

Yeah. So we were just kind of learning

11:43

how to put schemes and you know, so

11:45

we learned a lot that first year was that another

11:48

thing was , uh , my sophomore

11:50

year, the center

11:53

quarterback exchange was never

11:55

something to take for granted. It

11:59

was painful how unpredictable

12:01

that center quarterback exchange would

12:03

go. Uh , but we got through it

12:06

and that got behind us after that. So

12:08

I'm not sure what the solution was, but so

12:10

yeah, going into junior year, I

12:13

distinctly remember thinking we're going to be pretty darn good.

12:16

Senior year we have this , uh

12:18

, in the state of Indiana, a new football

12:20

format, post-season format. I'm

12:23

not sure it was started that particular year, but

12:25

, uh, we, you had to get certain

12:27

amount of points to make the post season , not

12:30

like now where everybody gets in. So we

12:32

were 8-2 I think

12:34

again, and we get into the post season

12:37

and we're at Warren central playing

12:39

Noblesville for our first football

12:42

sectional opportunity to win a game.

12:44

If you remember how much you remember about that, what

12:46

a big deal that was.

12:48

Uh, yeah, it was, it was tremendously

12:50

fun and exciting. The

12:52

junior year, if I remember

12:54

correctly, we, it

12:56

was the first year for the playoffs system

12:59

and we missed out by like

13:01

a hundredth of a point or something like that

13:03

to be able to make it . Uh,

13:05

and so we got over that hurdle then the next year.

13:08

And I was blessed with

13:10

a lot of really good players around

13:12

me, some tough son of a guns. I

13:14

was also blessed that the coach

13:17

had confidence in , uh

13:19

, my ability to kind of see what was going

13:21

on on the field and allowed me to call

13:23

plays, which that

13:25

even at that, even in that era,

13:28

it was a very, very rare that a coach

13:30

would give out , that sort of thing. So I was able to call plays

13:33

and that meant we, we passed the ball

13:35

a lot. So

13:39

to be honest, I don't remember the details

13:42

of the game other than we

13:44

won. Uh , I remember celebrating

13:47

, uh, I remember feeling

13:49

good, but you know, I honestly

13:52

remember that like yesterday because I

13:54

have kept the bigger poster of that.

13:57

Really . Yeah. So I had a very large poster

14:00

of that. I think it used to be on display

14:02

in the trophy case or something like

14:05

that. And then now somehow they made

14:07

room for other stuff for like , like

14:09

state championships. Funny

14:12

how that works. And then ended

14:15

up getting handed back to me. And,

14:18

yeah, I'm very proud of that picture because I

14:20

was holding that trophy and Jeff Jourdan and

14:22

was holding that trophy and Tim Dant was holding

14:24

that trophy and John Conover is holding that

14:26

trophy. Uh, it was, it

14:28

was fantastic. That's the stuff

14:31

I remember best. Yeah.

14:32

Yeah. And , and obviously our

14:34

listeners aren't going to know what picture I'm talking about,

14:36

but there's a picture in the 77 yearbook

14:38

and it's that night after the game and

14:41

there's a trophy being held high with

14:43

all of the football team holding that picture

14:45

up as one. And this came up

14:47

just an on Facebook , uh, just uh,

14:50

yesterday maybe uh, someone

14:52

was talking about those helmets because in

14:54

85, I think maybe rough , roughly

14:56

around 85, we went to the running R and

14:59

how much fun it would be to bring those helmets back

15:01

because those were cool.

15:03

They were slick. They were really slick

15:05

. They looked good under the lights.

15:08

So the next week we play in the regional,

15:10

it was a once one game sectional back

15:12

then play the regional. We played Jasper

15:15

got beat by one. Any memories of that

15:17

at all?

15:18

That's the one I remember best because

15:20

I'm still not over it. It

15:24

was a two,

15:27

two things. A, it was bitterly

15:29

cold. It was unseasonably

15:31

cold, made it really difficult

15:34

to uh , throw the ball. So

15:36

it really challenged the passing game. And

15:38

B, I believe we

15:40

had been , uh

15:43

, and again I'm surprised I even , this

15:45

comes to mind and I might be wrong, but it seems

15:47

like we got called for some obscure

15:50

penalty three or four times on,

15:52

I think it was a punt. W

15:55

you know, we're, we're receiving a punt and

15:58

I don't know if it was off side what it was,

16:00

but, but like three

16:03

or four times we did not get the ball

16:06

spite of them having, you know, tried

16:08

to turn it over on a punt. So,

16:10

so, so those are some really bad calls

16:12

that worked against us. Jasper was really darn

16:15

good though, and they had a running back

16:17

who actually went to IU and I got

16:19

to know him and I knew he

16:21

was he was very, very good. So

16:24

I , I just really, really think that

16:26

we should have won that game and it , and

16:28

barring those two things, I think we would have

16:31

you graduated 40, 43

16:34

years ago. Can't be right . Well

16:37

do the math. Chad, do the math. Here's

16:40

the thing. Our record book still

16:43

has Chad Huck's name all over

16:45

it for , for example

16:47

, uh, now over

16:49

40, we'll just say over 40 years, most

16:51

passing yards, season and career,

16:54

most past completion's career, most

16:56

TD passes, game season and career.

16:59

You still hold six offensive

17:01

football records from 40 some

17:03

years ago. You actually had

17:06

more up until about eight

17:08

years ago and Oh yeah,

17:11

the most yards receiving and the most past receptions.

17:13

Go to Jeff Jourdan who you were

17:15

throwing the ball to . So talk

17:17

about Jeff A. Little bit cause

17:19

that's another story that's pretty

17:22

unusual. Just talk a little bit about that because

17:24

that's pretty neat.

17:26

Well, my name on those records

17:29

is silly. His,

17:31

is really, really well deserved and

17:33

awesome. Uh, Jeff and

17:36

I buddied up very quickly,

17:38

became best of friends, did not

17:40

know him , uh, prior to

17:43

freshman year. You know, because we

17:45

were an inner city school and we didn't play

17:48

st Jude and much stuff. So, but,

17:50

but yet I had an awareness of him because

17:53

of course he was born with a

17:55

short left arm and

17:57

hand and he was incredibly,

18:01

incredibly well-skilled

18:04

despite that disadvantage. Phenomenally

18:08

, uh , well-skilled and

18:10

a really, really good athlete and a really,

18:12

really good guy. Uh , tremendous

18:15

fun . So we buddied up , uh,

18:18

right away and, and virtually

18:20

everything. And as

18:23

the careers went on, I

18:25

became, of course then more

18:27

and more dependent on Jeff

18:30

Jordan and it became a bigger

18:32

challenge or burden, so to speak for him

18:34

because our junior year, you

18:36

know, he, he had a compliment

18:39

of other really good receivers

18:41

around him. Okay. And , uh,

18:44

Jim Talhelm uh, and

18:46

Bob Kocher and Eddie

18:48

Perry. And , but then,

18:51

then going into senior year,

18:54

it was really more

18:56

and more focused. And dependent on Jeff

18:59

, that's not say there weren't other good receivers

19:01

there, but it was, it was different challenge

19:03

for him . And I'll be honest, I made

19:05

it clear to him that I

19:07

was depending and we were depending on him.

19:10

In a lot of different ways. So

19:12

I remember that that part of it, I also

19:15

, uh , is very special to me that , uh,

19:17

after I was recruited then to go to IU

19:20

and had , uh, been

19:23

offered a scholarship , et cetera , they

19:25

were also very interested in Jeff and

19:28

like almost everybody else who's

19:30

ever seen us play in high school,

19:33

it would be almost immediately mentioned.

19:36

How can that guy do that with one

19:40

hand? And I

19:43

've seen him play baseball

19:45

that way and, and he'd

19:47

wear a glove and rip it off and

19:50

throw , I mean it was just incredible. So, and

19:53

then he was going to come to IU. So they offered

19:55

him an invite on , uh,

19:58

and it really went down to the 11th

20:00

hour where it was literally time to

20:02

pack up and leave and go. And

20:04

that's why I found that he wasn't, he

20:07

wasn't going to go, you know, I was disappointed.

20:09

Of course. Uh , cause I still love the guy

20:11

and still owe him a lot. He

20:14

really carried me a

20:17

ton. I mean, two tons. Jeff Jourdan was

20:20

awesome.

20:21

Huck to Jourdan, that was, I remember

20:23

that vividly. We're going to go

20:25

to a break. But before I do, I have

20:27

to throw out some more accolades of the

20:29

young Chad Huck class

20:31

of 77, some uh

20:34

, personal accolades. You were all city

20:36

and football junior, senior season. You

20:39

were junior, Allstate , you were Catholic, all

20:41

American junior and senior year. You

20:44

participated in the North, South, all star game. You

20:46

were Indiana Allstate player, both

20:49

in the coaches poll and the UPI poll

20:51

back then. You look back on

20:53

that and uh , Dick

20:55

Nalley was Roncalli's first star

20:58

athlete. No question about it, but

21:00

you were our first

21:03

probably division one recruit. What

21:06

does that mean? Does that mean anything to you still

21:08

today or, or for me

21:10

as a student who came in after

21:12

you, it still is a significant

21:14

accomplishment in a big, big way.

21:16

Uh, thanks. Uh, I didn't know

21:19

what you just said that, that

21:21

it was like the first , I was the first one. I

21:23

was super proud of Dick's heroics

21:26

at Indiana central and we'd go and watch

21:28

him play. And uh, he

21:30

took me under the wing and a lot of ways. So I used to train

21:32

with them and work out with him and stuff like that. And

21:34

what a , what a character he was. I

21:36

was really, really proud of, of

21:39

the heritage and from CYO

21:42

and st Pat's to Roncalli and

21:44

carrying that forward. And, and I'll be honest,

21:46

I had extremely high

21:49

, uh, goals and expectations

21:51

and , uh, I knew what I wanted

21:54

to do and, and the way it should

21:56

go, it just didn't go

21:58

that way. But that's not to say , um , uh,

22:01

you know , life turns out great and, and

22:04

maybe it was a blessing in the end that it didn't go the

22:06

way I had planned it to go,

22:08

but as far as that

22:10

, those kinds of recognitions or

22:12

whatnot, I'll be honest, I don't,

22:15

I don't remember quite that way as

22:17

I knew there. I knew there were some awards

22:19

and recognitions and stuff like that, but , but I

22:21

think truly I was kinda more focused

22:23

on what's next.

22:25

All right , we're going to take a break and we'll be

22:27

back in just a moment with Chad Huck on the Rebel 5ive podcast.

22:32

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23:03

We're back on the Rebel 5ive podcasts with

23:05

Chad Huck. Dr Chad Huck , thanks

23:07

for being here today. We really, really appreciate

23:10

, uh , taking a step back and talking

23:13

about some of our foundation as

23:16

a Roncalli football team. During the

23:18

break we talked about , uh , Roncalli's won 20

23:21

football sectionals and you quarterbacked

23:23

the first. You can only be the first once

23:26

and so you got us started. That's

23:29

pretty, that's pretty neat. So let

23:31

me say we got it started out . Okay. Fair enough.

23:34

What kind of coach was Butch Branson?

23:35

Butch? was, I

23:38

think today's term would be, he

23:40

had a lot of swag. He was very

23:42

confident in what he

23:44

was teaching. Uh, he was

23:46

very confident in , uh

23:48

, team building. One

23:50

of my many, many blessings, and

23:53

I've had been

23:55

terribly fortunate was

23:57

he saw something in me that

23:59

gave me the reins to call plays, like

24:02

I said, and , and allowed me to

24:04

compete and start as a

24:06

sophomore, pretty much unheard

24:08

of these days. Uh, uh,

24:11

so he was, he was

24:13

really good. And , uh, and at

24:15

that level, you know , he brought in some

24:17

offensive concepts that were , uh

24:19

, deceptive. Uh,

24:22

he taught me the importance

24:24

of , uh , ball handling , uh,

24:26

in every way. And some of our best

24:29

plays were when we'd

24:32

would bootleg sorta stuff and we'd do

24:34

this misdirection stuff. And

24:36

, uh, there were, there

24:38

were two or three times where

24:40

the official blew the whistle

24:42

because the guy who carried

24:45

the fake out got

24:47

tackled. And I've got the ball around

24:49

end and throwing it into a

24:52

wide open receiver and

24:54

the whistles blown dead, the place called dead.

24:57

Uh, so, so that was all Butch Branson , uh

24:59

, teaching that. Um, and so

25:01

I was really fortunate to have had that too

25:04

.

25:04

Which would coincide with

25:06

, uh , coincided with your career. Uh , you

25:08

were your three years playing

25:10

varsity were or his three years as

25:12

our head coach. Uh , moving on, something

25:14

I didn't mention. Um , Patty

25:16

Henderson, she's your wife

25:19

of 35, 35

25:21

years. Correct. Where did you meet Patty

25:24

Henderson?

25:24

Well, and it's actually Dr. Patty Henderson,

25:27

so she kept her maiden name. Uh,

25:29

we met in optometry school. Uh,

25:32

we met also my fifth year

25:34

of playing football at IU, which

25:37

was my first year of optometry school, which was

25:39

a , uh, an interestingly

25:41

challenging year to try to go through

25:43

a professional school and at the same time play

25:45

big 10 football. Uh,

25:47

and that was the year that , uh, I

25:50

was most , uh , likely or expected

25:52

to get the nod and play

25:54

and stuff. And so we met early

25:57

that semester became good friends. And

25:59

then what do you know , uh, it , uh,

26:03

uh, advanced to more than that and

26:05

here we are this many years later happy as a clam.

26:08

Yeah. That's awesome. Uh, your son

26:10

Andrew is completing

26:12

his residency in ophthalmology in

26:14

Oklahoma city and your daughter

26:17

is a doctor as a dentist

26:19

in Bloomington, a high achieving

26:22

family. What's the motivation behind

26:24

that?

26:24

I married well, for one ,

26:28

I know the feeling. Yes.

26:30

Yeah. So , uh , Patty is

26:32

with the school of optometry, so she's an

26:35

academician. She's, she

26:37

was salutatorian I think

26:39

of her class at Franklin. Really, really,

26:41

really smart woman. And

26:44

we've been blessed and I don't know how's

26:46

it happened, but our

26:48

kids have just done fantastic

26:51

stuff. So what , it couldn't be more

26:53

proud.

26:54

Well that's, that's great. Uh,

26:56

you graduate from Roncalli in 1977

27:00

and you're recruited to play at IU b

27:03

y a coach by the name of Lee Corso.

27:06

And that's going to be a surprise to some of our listeners

27:09

c ause they won't even maybe

27:11

even know that Lee Corso coached

27:13

h im at, u h, at IU. How

27:16

did that go? C ause that I'm sure that

27:18

had there had to be some humor

27:20

involved, maybe or, or maybe not,

27:23

but he's known for his sense of humor. So

27:25

how did that go?

27:26

It , it was interesting. I remember the

27:28

first time I met him was at

27:30

a banquet for, I

27:32

think the whole all city team.

27:35

And it was , uh , uh , the mayor

27:37

back in the day had this luncheon sort

27:39

of thing. And then you got to meet other

27:42

players in the city and stuff. And

27:45

I remember meeting him in the men's room

27:48

and, you

27:50

know, he has this larger than life

27:52

kind of presence where he's, you

27:55

know , yeah , acts acts like

27:57

he knows me really well and stuff. And,

27:59

and, and was

28:01

asking me about recruiting. And back

28:03

in that time , uh, my

28:06

plan was to go to Notre Dame. I

28:08

really very much intended

28:10

to plan to just knew that

28:12

was going to happen. I was recruited

28:14

there , uh, but in the

28:17

end , uh, they said that

28:19

I was third on their list. They probably

28:21

told a hundred other players that they were put

28:23

on the list too . Uh, and so

28:25

they, they, these other two kids

28:27

went there. So when

28:30

I met , uh, Corso , uh,

28:33

he, what he said was

28:36

implying that I thought you were going to Notre Dame,

28:38

you know, and, and coach Branson

28:41

says that , no, you're not

28:44

going to , or something along that line. It was like this

28:46

fore gone conclusion that you're going to Notre Dame.

28:49

And I'm thinking, this is a really

28:51

odd conversation in a rest room.

28:55

Uh , and , and so

28:58

that's what really kind of started

29:00

the, the recruitment

29:03

by , uh , Indiana. And then

29:05

, uh, he handed it off to

29:07

the position coach, the quarterback coach

29:10

Morris Watts . And I

29:13

said , that's great. Uh

29:16

, uh, I'll be honest, I,

29:18

I didn't , uh, you know,

29:21

I wasn't a real sophisticated recruit

29:24

or I should say , uh , you

29:26

know, it was just so flattering to think

29:28

people want you to come to their school and, and

29:31

it's a great school. And I

29:33

was so thrilled to have the opportunity

29:36

to not only go and do the football thing,

29:38

but still love, love, love

29:40

Indiana in Bloomington, still live

29:42

here. So next thing

29:44

you know, I sign and we're

29:47

gone.

29:47

If you had gone to Notre Dame, would you be, would

29:49

you be the clinic director of the

29:51

Eye center of Southern Indiana?

29:54

Uh, it was pretty unlikely. Uh huh .

29:58

Would you have been an eye doctor? Was that something

30:00

that was out there or where

30:02

did that turn come?

30:03

Yeah. Uh, so I was premed.

30:06

Uh, so I had high aspirations , um,

30:09

uh, academically , uh,

30:11

was able to do pretty

30:13

well academically. But

30:16

, uh, while I was going through football

30:18

and then the premed thing, what

30:20

really bothered me more and more was I

30:22

just didn't like, you know, it

30:24

wasn't appealing to be in a hospital

30:27

setting all the time to be

30:29

with terribly sick people.

30:31

I just knew that wasn't where I would

30:33

be able to thrive or do well.

30:36

One of my counselors , uh, with

30:38

the football program said, well, why don't we do,

30:40

you know, a career counseling

30:42

sort of thing. There's somebody on campus so you could

30:45

talk to and stuff. So it was one of the more

30:47

important things I did cause I learned so much

30:49

about myself without knowing

30:52

really what, what I was

30:54

kinda geared for to a greater extent. And

30:56

out of that came the notion that

30:59

I'm certainly someone who for

31:01

me to thrive or do well, I need to be around

31:03

people, that that's my comfort zone,

31:06

my wheelhouse sort of thing. Something

31:08

in the , you know , healing and medicine

31:10

sort of thing. But, and why

31:13

not? Look at , uh, optometry

31:15

and , uh, Indiana university

31:17

has one of the best optometry schools

31:19

in the country and at that point in

31:21

time, one of the few, or I should say,

31:24

so they, they've really proliferated . So,

31:27

so I looked at an optometry

31:29

and uh, got to know more

31:31

about it and I was like, yeah, that's , that's the direction

31:33

I want to take it. Uh, so that's

31:35

kinda what happened.

31:36

Yeah. Well we'll come back to that. But you go

31:38

down there to play football, you red shirt your freshman

31:41

year or your take a red shirt year.

31:43

Correct. Is that right? Through injury

31:45

and then your sophomore year you go

31:47

to the Holiday Bowl. Uh , now

31:50

I know you alluded to it earlier, your

31:52

football career, you didn't go as, as you had

31:54

hoped . Do you have a favorite memory

31:57

of , uh , I mean there's still some

31:59

value of standing on the sideline

32:01

holding a clipboard and getting your education

32:04

taken care of and not getting hit.

32:06

Yeah, absolutely. No doubt. Yeah.

32:08

So favorite memory of all that. It's

32:11

certainly the holiday bowl experience would have

32:13

to jump to the top. That was awesome.

32:16

It was a , it was a major life

32:18

experience to go out to San Diego.

32:21

That reminds me when I was recruited at Northwestern,

32:24

I distinctly remember, wow, I'm actually

32:26

on an airplane. It was my first time to fly. Well

32:29

then by then , now I'm accustomed

32:31

than we are accustomed to traveling as a team and

32:34

very first-class way. So Corso it was

32:36

all about, you know, doing

32:38

things right, et cetera. Boy

32:40

did we step it up for the holiday

32:42

bowl experience. It was , uh,

32:45

phenomenal. Um, so,

32:48

and , and he also had at

32:51

that time a pretty unusual approach

32:53

and that is, he thought it was critically

32:55

important that players have a great experience

32:57

and fun. So it wasn't all

33:00

work and you know, cut throat sort of approach.

33:02

And a BYU on the other

33:04

hand did make it that way and

33:07

we were able to upset them in the game.

33:10

And so that was cool. Probably

33:13

a competing alternative for that

33:16

was my sophomore year going to LSU

33:18

for the home, for the opening game, first

33:21

game of the season. And what

33:23

was so cool about that was , uh

33:25

, part of the , uh, travel

33:27

trip was to arrive

33:30

a day early and see the Mohammad Ali / Leon

33:33

Spinks fight in the Superdome.

33:36

Yeah . And so now I'm a sophomore.

33:39

Okay. And as a

33:42

freshman , uh, I didn't travel

33:45

with the team, so this is literally

33:48

my first travel experience.

33:50

Okay . And furthermore, I was also

33:54

so without boring people to tears

33:56

, uh , of Corso wanted me, Corso wanted

33:59

me to flip over to defense. So he was,

34:01

he was somewhat , uh, had a history

34:03

of taking quarterbacks and converting the defense.

34:06

And I made the mistake after

34:08

throwing an interception and a practice of

34:10

making a angry

34:13

tackle. And so

34:15

from that point on, I think he thought, Oh

34:17

well that's where we to play him cause we got

34:20

this other kid playing quarterback sort of thing. So

34:23

at the end of my freshman year, he,

34:26

this re this huge trip have gone

34:28

to the , to the Muhammad Ali fight

34:31

and then playing in LSU

34:33

stadium on Saturday night for their home

34:35

opener, blah, blah, blah. That was

34:38

what the whole buzz was about. And

34:40

, uh, after spring ball,

34:42

he gave me the rundown

34:46

as , uh , well you can

34:48

be second team strong, safety , uh,

34:51

make the trip to new Orleans, see Muhammad

34:53

Ali, Leon Spinks fight, and

34:56

then perhaps play

34:58

on Saturday night against LSU or

35:00

you can be 5th team quarterback and

35:03

have no chance to move up and

35:06

have no chance to make the, you know,

35:08

the trip, et cetera. And

35:10

so what do you want us , what do you want to do? Uh,

35:14

and, and I told

35:16

him very honestly,

35:19

coach, I'm a quarterback. Defense

35:21

is not what I'm suited for.

35:24

Fine. You'll be 5th team quarterback,

35:26

no chance of moving up, no chance of making

35:29

a trip and reiterate that stuff. I mean, it's just

35:31

kind of right between the eyes. And

35:34

so I'm proud to say then I was second

35:36

team at that point

35:38

in the season going down there and

35:40

made this unbelievable trip.

35:43

Yeah . And even got in the game. Uh , that

35:46

was also interesting cause

35:48

I threw an interception. Uh

35:52

, and uh, but I, and that

35:54

came out in the sidelines and my

35:56

position coach was just in my face,

35:58

like livid. Just

36:02

giving me the full treatment and I was looking

36:04

right over his head at the crowd saying,

36:06

wow, that just

36:09

happened. Uh

36:12

, so , and I did not get back

36:14

in. That was a pretty

36:16

close game though. Yeah, it was. Yeah,

36:19

I remember the score, but I know , um , it

36:21

was fairly close game, I

36:23

assume , uh, living in Bloomington

36:25

, uh , for the last thirties , five years

36:28

or so. You still spend time

36:30

on campus, go to football

36:32

games, basketball games. Is that something you do a lot?

36:34

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Love

36:37

it. Love it. Love it. Still have a lot of relationships

36:39

in the athletic department and

36:42

uh, and you know, Bloomington's a really nice small

36:44

community. It's easy to know people

36:46

and stuff like that. Yeah. So, yeah, that's

36:49

my highlight.

36:49

Well, we talked before we started , um,

36:52

I have two kids , uh , at Purdue and

36:55

so I had a Purdue sweatshirt on that I took

36:57

off in your honor. So , um,

36:59

I'm going to bring this up. Your last

37:02

game as a senior at U

37:05

is the bucket game and you

37:07

hadn't beaten Purdue in the last two

37:09

years prior to that. If I think that's right. Talk

37:11

about that last game at IU and

37:14

the good memories of that.

37:15

It's again, another long story. Uh

37:17

, with respect to my experience at IU.

37:19

My last game was actually at Illinois

37:22

and at Illinois we were

37:25

losing and it was a very cold

37:27

day and Tim Clifford was

37:29

playing , uh , he was a starter. He

37:31

and I were came in the same year. He

37:34

had the upper hand on me from day

37:37

one sort of thing. Cause I think Corso in

37:39

part wanted me to play defense. So I'm second

37:42

team there and Corso abruptly

37:45

late in the game turns to me and he says, you're in. And

37:49

I go in and I'm running out

37:51

of bounds to escape a tackle. And I

37:53

heard something on my knee pop and it

37:55

had gotten strained on the previous play , uh

37:58

, after I threw thrown a pass.

38:01

That's the only way I blew out my knee at Illinois.

38:04

And there was one week left in a five year

38:06

career. Uh , and all that's right. So

38:08

Clifford hadn't been there, so it was Babe Laufenburg who would have

38:10

been in front of me at that point. But anyway, so,

38:13

so then that meant that I didn't

38:15

actually dress for the

38:17

, uh, bucket game and

38:19

it was a home. It was a

38:21

snowy, icy, nasty

38:23

day. And I watched

38:25

the game from Nick's , here's

38:30

your, here's your song. Yeah , yeah.

38:32

That's a , and it was a win for the, for the

38:35

Hoosier's . So that , that's uh , that's awesome.

38:37

I , I'd already had my leg

38:39

and so it was really a situation where

38:42

I couldn't move around very well and stuff. So my

38:44

leg ,

38:46

we're going to take our last break with Chad

38:49

Huck on the Rebel 5ive podcast. We'll be back in

38:51

just a minute.

38:54

Rebel 5ive is sponsored by Steve's

38:56

flowers and gifts for the best

38:58

and freshest flowers in Indianapolis

39:00

and surrounding areas. Steve's

39:02

flowers and gifts have exactly what

39:05

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39:07

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39:09

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39:13

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39:24

We're back on cast with Dr.

39:26

Chad Huck class of 1977.

39:29

Chad, you are the clinic director of

39:31

the eye center of Southern Indiana. You've

39:33

been in that position for a number of years. You've been with

39:35

that practice for

39:37

30 plus years, you've been

39:40

in Bloomington all this time. Was

39:42

, was that always probably in the

39:44

game plan or did you ever think about coming

39:47

to Indianapolis or how did that all transpire?

39:50

Yes , it was kind of a foregone conclusion that

39:52

I would go back to Indianapolis, but my

39:54

fourth year of optometry school, so it's a four

39:56

year program, so it was my eighth year in Bloomington.

39:59

There was an ophthalmologist in practice,

40:02

Danny Grossman, his son is Rex Grossman

40:05

from the bears claim. Uh , and

40:07

Danny and his brother and

40:09

his father were all IU

40:11

football alums. So they all played for

40:13

IU. But he was busting at the seams

40:16

after having opened his practice three years

40:18

before and it was a practice

40:20

on the shadows of campus and

40:23

nearby. And I had met

40:25

him after a football game once

40:28

that I'd forgotten about that and

40:30

didn't really know that when I saw

40:32

this posting , uh , in the optometry

40:35

school, a local eye doctor looking

40:37

for temporary help sort of thing, I

40:39

applied for it and kind of sought

40:41

it out. And I was really

40:44

fortunate because he was busting

40:46

at the seams. He had already had established

40:48

a successful practice and

40:51

it was unusual in that day for

40:53

an optometrist and an

40:55

ophthalmologist. So the difference is the

40:57

ophthalmologist does surgery, the optometrist

41:00

doesn't do surgery. There

41:02

were more turf battles and politics

41:05

then and then deciding to

41:07

cooperate. And so when

41:09

I applied, I was also fortunate because

41:12

I had a lot of time my second

41:14

semester of my fourth year

41:17

of school, so it was all in Bloomington,

41:19

whereas a lot of the first semester

41:21

I was in Chicago and these other places.

41:25

So , so I had time, he was looking for part

41:27

time help. And I , I immediately

41:29

recognized, wow, this could be a really,

41:31

really good situation. And he's

41:33

a very dynamic good guy,

41:36

very successful in his own right for sure.

41:39

And I recognize that

41:41

I could do more as an optometrist

41:44

than what he was aware of because there was,

41:46

you know, optometry has really changed a lot

41:49

in those days. And so

41:51

, uh, we decided to join

41:53

join forces. And this small practice

41:56

on the shadow of campus

41:58

grew a lot. And we

42:00

now have become a clinic

42:02

upstairs as 19 exam

42:04

rooms and , and some other special

42:07

testing areas to a surgery

42:09

center that's downstairs with two operating

42:11

rooms and all the gadgets

42:14

and stuff like that. And it's a staff of

42:16

six doctors now. And

42:19

uh, and it's been an unbelievable run. And

42:21

, and he and I have

42:24

said so many times, man, what a great sport

42:26

to play. Uh, because

42:28

you know, you're taking care of something that's so critically important

42:31

to people. And that is, you know, their eyesight.

42:33

And most people would say that's probably right there

42:36

next to life. And perhaps, you

42:38

know, brain health . And we've,

42:40

we were geared to be

42:43

very innovative about the way we've done

42:45

it. And so we offer people a lot of

42:47

services and conveniences along the way.

42:49

And it's a very much, it's what's unique

42:52

about it, especially in the history

42:54

of it, is of a very patient

42:57

centered experience. Everything's about

42:59

the patient's experience and , and

43:01

people recognize that. So when

43:04

we expanded over

43:06

to our new facility,

43:08

which was now 1989,

43:10

1990, I became the clinic

43:13

director kind of as that

43:15

story goes. So, and my responsibilities

43:17

are typically too , I see a lot

43:19

of patients, I do provide a lot of care, but

43:21

I also do a lot of the managerial stuff

43:23

and leadership stuff and , and he

43:26

has since retired

43:28

and so he's still very

43:31

much involved. He's essentially

43:33

an absentee owner, if you want to think of it that way.

43:35

His daughter , uh, is kind of his

43:37

surgeon in the practice and as the administrator

43:40

and , and , and it's , uh

43:43

, I've been again, really, really

43:45

dumb, lucky.

43:46

Looking back on your long career at the eye

43:48

center of Southern Indiana, you have a proud

43:50

moment , the proudest moment maybe or something that you're just,

43:52

you look back on anything as that's something that I'm

43:54

really proud of.

43:56

Uh, not a day goes by

43:58

that a patient doesn't

44:01

reach out and, and help

44:03

me recognize and say thank

44:05

you for being here. The eye center. Thank

44:08

you for the services you guys provide. I mean, people

44:11

come from all, all around. So we see people

44:13

from an hour, hour and a half away. They come in

44:15

and they, you know what

44:17

we do and that is mostly cataract surgery

44:19

and laser type surgery. And when

44:22

you do it in a unique

44:24

way and you really are servicing

44:27

that person and they recognize

44:29

it and it gives, gives

44:31

me back all the time. So that's positively

44:34

the highlight.

44:35

I have one last question. Uh

44:37

, we'll go into the Rebel 5ive questions. When

44:39

was the last time you were on Ron Callie's campus?

44:41

Probably a football

44:44

game. Oh yeah , yeah, yeah. Probably when

44:46

my nephew who played

44:48

, uh , for Zionsville played

44:51

there at Roncalli. Yeah. That's been

44:53

a while

44:53

As a player on that

44:55

76 team, having

44:58

the awesome career that you had

45:00

on that field, Roncalli ,

45:02

and you played baseball your freshman

45:05

year. You played basketball all four years as well.

45:07

If you haven't been on campus in a w hile, it's changed.

45:10

Do you have a sense of everything that we've done

45:12

in the last 30 years?

45:14

Uh, I wouldn't say everything, but a lot of things for

45:17

sure. You know, as

45:19

a South sider , especially a big

45:22

Irish Catholic family and everybody's

45:24

related and everybody knows each other. So,

45:26

so yeah. And obviously

45:29

a majority of my family still living

45:31

there and they're in the neighborhood of Roncalli. So

45:34

yes, I'm aware of that, but, and

45:37

I'm proud of it too. So mentioning the

45:39

Zionsville thing, a little thing there

45:41

was, you know, they , people

45:43

like to uh , explain a way,

45:47

certain program's successes or

45:49

certain school's successes as

45:51

being a function of this or that, that's not

45:54

accurate. And so I used to

45:56

love to get in those kinds of arguments.

45:58

Well that's, that's awful. It politically correct what

46:00

you just said, how you put that. That's awesome. I

46:03

forgot one of the most important

46:05

people that we've had in our hallways

46:07

and in the history of Roncalli.

46:11

And that's your mom. Tosie she

46:13

was worked in the front office for

46:16

30 plus years. You talked a

46:18

little bit about your dad, but before we go,

46:20

I want you to talk about your mom a little bit because

46:22

a lot of our listeners are gonna remember Tosie

46:24

really, really well and how much

46:26

she meant to Roncalli ,

46:27

Tosie Rosalene

46:29

McHugh Huck was

46:33

a very special person. Uh,

46:36

my siblings and

46:39

I are all real close and

46:41

we stay in touch and have the tech extra

46:44

as and different things. And lately the zoom parties

46:46

and stuff, and we very commonly

46:49

talk about the virtues and

46:51

stuff that she instilled in us. And we

46:53

didn't even know she was doing it at the time.

46:56

I just can't say enough , uh,

46:58

glowing wonderful things about her

47:00

and her influence on me. And

47:02

, uh, my siblings would just real

47:04

quickly cut to the chase and say, Oh,

47:07

Chad was the only child of eight with

47:09

respect to mom. In fact,

47:11

she, her toast at my wedding

47:14

was something along the lines of, Chad

47:16

thinks he's an only child. Uh , but

47:19

, but we always had a very special

47:21

relationship, a very special bond and,

47:23

and, and I miss her but, but

47:25

man that she , she'd do a lot of great things

47:27

for me.

47:28

Yeah, she was wonderful, wonderful

47:30

lady and represented not

47:32

only Roncalli but your family

47:35

and really the South side Catholic community

47:37

really, really well for a long, long time.

47:40

We normally go into t he Rebel 5ive, but we're

47:42

a little long today and that's

47:44

okay c ause I've really, really

47:46

enjoyed visiting with you and taking

47:48

a step back. So I'm g

47:50

oing t o give you one last

47:52

chance here for some final

47:55

words, some life

47:57

advice maybe that you'd like to share with

47:59

us and then we'll finish up.

48:01

Probably the best thing

48:03

that I've ever come across is the

48:06

notion of choosing your attitude , uh,

48:10

learning , uh , uh , from a book that

48:12

a man's search for meaning

48:15

by Viktor Frankl. Uh, he

48:17

was a Holocaust survivor and

48:20

I've always kind of relished that

48:22

general saying of choosing your attitude

48:24

and you become what you think you are sort

48:27

of stuff from a psych psychology background.

48:29

But, but this guy has founded a

48:31

, uh , division of psychiatry while

48:34

surviving Nazi Germany. So

48:37

, uh, choosing your attitude

48:39

I think is the best advice I could give.

48:41

I try to remind myself of that all

48:43

the time and I think it's something great

48:46

to live by.

48:46

Well, thank you for that. That's awesome advice.

48:49

I want to thank you for being here

48:51

today and , and visiting, looking

48:53

back and in my lifetime

48:55

there are about five

48:57

or six athletes in the Roncalli community

48:59

Roncalli family that always rise to

49:01

the top and you're one of them. And so

49:03

it's a thrill for me to interview you

49:06

today and maybe share

49:08

some of that history with people that

49:10

don't know or don't have a full appreciation

49:13

of the contributions that you've made to our

49:15

community a long time ago. And still

49:18

to this day, there are patients

49:20

that visit you, I'm sure

49:22

from up here. And so thank you very

49:24

much for representing Roncalli so well

49:27

over all these years.

49:29

That's really, really kind of you.

49:31

I thank you. I'm honored to have done

49:33

this,

49:34

Chad . Thanks a lot. We really appreciate it. And I always

49:36

say, Go Rebels.

49:37

You bet. Go Rebels.

49:40

I'm Gary Armbruster and thanks for joining

49:42

us today for this episode of the Rebel 5ive podcasts.

49:44

To learn more about the Rebel 5ive podcast,

49:46

please visit roncalli.org/about/podcast.php. Again, thanks

49:54

so much for joining us today and until next time,

49:56

We'll fight ahead!