I was happy to get the following information from Bettye Irby Hudgens after I published the last post. Seems one of our former classmates has racked up quite a few honors. The most recent one is for the SWC Hall of Fame. I know that HAROLD would never brag or let me know this himself, so I owe Bettye a world of thanks. He has quite a legacy in the world of college sports. Congratulations, HAROLD!
 |
| (HAROLD HUDGENS - 50TH CLASS REUNION) |
2019 SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE HALL OF FAME CLASS
LUBBOCK, Texas – The Southwest Conference Hall of Fame will add eight Texas Tech greats to its wall this fall as part of the 2019 induction class that was announced Wednesday afternoon.
Seven former student-athletes in Ecomet Burley (football), Denton Fox (football), Harold Hudgens (men's basketball), Noel Johnson (women's basketball), Richard Little (men's basketball), Phil Tucker (football) and Ted Watts (football) will all be part of the induction class along with former head football coach and athletics director JT King.
The SWC Hall of Fame is one of four separate hall of fames housed within the Texas Sports Hall of Fame located in Waco. Members of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame are automatically included in the SWC Hall of Fame and each member of this year's class is already a member of the Texas Tech Hall of Fame.
Harold Hudgens (Men's Basketball, 1959-62)
Texas Tech produced quite a few excellent basketball players in the late 1950s and early 1960s and one of the very best was Harold Hudgens. The center averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds per game over his junior and senior seasons en route to leading the Red Raiders to its first two Southwest Conference titles during the 1960-61, 1961-62 campaigns. Hudgens scored in double figures in 31-consecutive games as a sophomore and reached the 20-point mark in 11-straight games that same year, which remains the longest such streak in school history. He was a unanimous All-SWC selection as a junior and earned All-SWC honors again a year later before leaving Tech as the school record holder for single-game points and points in a conference season. He was chosen with the No. 22 selection of the 1962 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, which at the time, marked the highest all-time for a Red Raider. Hudgens was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Fame in 2006.
I also found the following article on Inside the Red Raiders:Salty Sixty: No. 27 Harold Hudgens
No. 27 Harold Hudgens
Texas Tech produced quite a few excellent basketball players in the late-50s and early-60s, and one of the very best was certainly Harold Hudgens who put the “ball” in his hometown of Ballinger, Texas, where he still lives.
Hudgens was a 6-foot-10, 220 center who played for Tech in the 1959, 1961 and 1962 seasons. He redshirted in 1960. Hudgens was a key figure for Southwest Conference champion teams as a junior and a senior.
Over the course of his career Hudgens averaged 15 points and nine rebounds per contest, while shooting 45 percent from the floor and 61 percent from the free throw line. However, those numbers are distorted somewhat by his sophomore season in which he played only 14 games and was not a factor at all. The suspicion is that Hudgens was plagued by injuries that season, and that health problems forced him to miss half of that season and redshirt the next.
When Hudgens returned from that redshirt year, however, he was a brand new man, averaging 22 points and 11 boards per game while shooting 47 percent from the field and 67 percent from the stripe. In terms of playing consistently at a very high level, Hudgens has had few peers among Red Raiders. He scored in double figures 31 straight games, beginning on December 1, 1960 versus Hamline and concluding on January 13, 1961 against Baylor. Even more impressive, Hudgens scored 20 points or more in 11 straight games commencing on February 7, 1961 against Arkansas, and finishing on March 18, 1961 against Houston in the NCAA tournament. That second streak is the best in Texas Tech history. His high-point game was 38 against Rice on January 7, 1961.
Hudgens was named to numerous All America, All Southwest Conference and All District teams, and concluded his Tech career by being selected No. 22 in the 1962 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. Until Tony Battie’s selection in 1997 draft, Hudgens was Tech’s highest drafted player.
In 1963 Hudgens, along with his Texas Tech teammate Del Ray Mounts, played for the Phillips 66ers.
Bettye told me that even though HAROLD was drafted by the Detroit Pistons, he did not want to go professional.
**********************************
I have had such a good response from the last post that I hope everyone continues to fill us in on any recent news! I know several of you are still working. At least I think you are. Isn't it great that in today's world people continue to keep working after the "old" retirement age of 65? In the news lately, there are tales of women in their 90s winning swimming meets - even breaking records. And how about the 77-year-old woman sailing solo around the world?
Let me know of any awards you (or your spouse) have won or records you have broken. We want to applaud you!
Peace and love,
Marilyn
