Although he was mostly used as a back-up, he has two Super Bowl rings - one from the New York Giants and another from the Washington Redskins. 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. ", RELATED:Remembering the 1974 Woodlawn-Banks game. Football was going to be it. "People drove up, saw the lines outside and just went on by. Rutledge was born to Tony and Cheryl Rutledge in Cullman, Alabama, on April 21, 1989. He started taking online courses through the University of Alabama's Bama by Distance degree program, and this past May, at 58, he graduated. He is currently single. Jeff Rutledge Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family But she's been through this every year. People around the country were starting to notice him, too. "They all looked at me like, 'OK, don't you think it's your time?'" Rutledge played collegiately at Alabama, where he was a member of three SEC Championship teams under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. "It was a miserable way to end your season.". Birmingham police guessed another 20,000 gave up and went back home when they saw the long lines. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? The regular season game was played in . "Before I signed to go to Alabama, Coach Bryant told me, 'Well, look, you can try out (for basketball), but if you're not within the top six, you've got to come back out for spring ball.'''. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. 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. 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. By WARNER HESSLER Staff Writer. Stearns recalls. They got at least part of that right. Jeff is an experienced communications and public affairs professional with more than a decade working in government and the private sector. "We had a ball. 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". "I think I had lost to Banks four times in three years because my freshman year, I played them as a freshman and on the B-team. "To be a 16-, 17-year-old kid, I had never seen anybody run and do the things Tony did athletically. This Korean War-era Sabre jet, which was loaned to Banks High School in 1961, was repainted in school colors and prominently displayed on campus. 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. 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 Skins last game of the regular season, again against the Philadelphia Eagles. I don't remember that whole week. Welcome. Jeff Rutledge - Wikipedia 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. On Monday night, the Los Angeles Rams lost their backup, Mark Herrmann, for six to eight weeks with broken ribs. 66. "The trouble is, it's on VHS cassette, and my VHS player died years ago.". 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. That year, the Cardinals made a late season run and earned a Super Bowl berth, but lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-23. "It was the thrill of my life," Louise Nathan says. He was indeed a basketball guy, but Tony Nathan would be playing football for a long time. "But I was raised in the church anyway. Nov 09, 1990 at 12:00 am. Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. "I came to stay until Tony makes up his mind," Bryant replied. But there was one catch. (Linebacker) Barry Krauss could play today. "I didn't have to worry about cutting grass because they played all the time.". "I wanted some kind of meat to serve him," William Nathan remembers. See also [ edit] Rule 5 draft results References [ edit] An experienced communications and public affairs professional, with a record of effective strategic planning, outreach and engagement. In a 1982 playoff game with San Diego that became known as "The Epic in Miami," Nathan was the exclamation point on one of the most memorable plays in Dolphins' history -- dashing untouched into the end zone after receiver Duriel Harris caught a pass from quarterback Don Strock and then tossed it back to the streaking Nathan on a legendary hook-and-lateral play that ignited a dramatic Miami comeback. "We knew each other from grammar school.". Rutledge earned MVP honors at the 1978 Sugar Bowl and also earned All-SEC honors in 1978 and 1979.[4]. He was just a humble high school athlete. 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. 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 came out in such numbers that the start of the game had to be delayed twice so folks could work their way through the jammed Legion Field turnstiles. Trailing 35-14 with 10:37 left in the third quarter Rutledge replaced an ineffective Stan Humphries and led a great comeback. "It wasn't hard to grab a piece of it. "We were out there playing in the mud and the rain," Woodlawn's Ragland says. "We dedicated our season to the glory of the Lord, and we played at a much higher level those two years (1973-74) than we probably should have. "He looked like he had a jet pack on his back," Baumhower recalls. And when that happened, that movement, I was touched in my heart to do so again.". Another one of football's coaching greats, Don Shula of the Miami Dolphins, drafted Nathan in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft, and even though it was a long way from Birmingham or Tuscaloosa, Miami was like a home away from home for Nathan. 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. "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. I said, 'You have to wait until you see me.' We prayed together, and from then on, I respected them and they respected me. We definitely love Miami. He was the starting quarterback on the 1978 National Championship team. The film builds to a finale where Woodlawn meets crosstown rival Banks, quarterbacked by Jeff Rutledge, who would eventually play at Alabama with Nathan. 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. I can tell you, Tony had no trouble with his blocking.". 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. An estimated 42,000 fans filled the lower bowl of Legion Field for the 1974 Banks-Woodlawn game. Bryant paid several visits to the Nathan home, and he often brought with him an entourage of assistants and past and current Tide players, including Joe Namath, Johnny Musso and Ozzie Newsome. The Nathans go to the same church, New Testament Baptist Church, with his former Alabama and Miami teammate McNeal and his wife, Rhonda. "What are you doing with that grip?'" On Nov. 8, 1974 -- 40 years ago this Saturday - the two-time defending state champion Banks Jets met their eastern Birmingham rivals the Woodlawn Colonels in front of what was then and remains today the biggest crowd to ever watch a high school football game in Alabama. ''That may make the Giants think,'' said Rutledge. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. No one could be prouder, though, than the mother who wouldn't let him quit the football team back in the 10th grade, who taught him to always finish what he started. 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. When the Cardinals hired a new offensive coordinator at the end of that season, Rutledge and most of the offensive staff were fired. 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. "That's why, for two years, we had a lot of focus and attention on Woodlawn. Rutledge served as the quarterbacks and tight ends coach for the New York Sentinels of the United Football League in 2009. I do believe. Tony Nathan, left, goes to midfield for the pre-game coin toss with his Woodlawn High School teammates Mike Allison, center, and Peyton Zarzour, right. Jeff Rutledge Net Worth Something like that. And I don't know when that will be.'' Contact . If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. Probably, Tony Nathan never would have gone on to play for Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Alabama, and without him, it's possible the Crimson Tide might not have won that 1978 AP national championship. Continue with Recommended Cookies. See the article in its original context from. His most notable play with the Giants came in Super Bowl XXI in the third quarter. Another, a little fireplug of a linebacker who had moved to Birmingham from Texas the year before, became the surprise defensive star of the game. Woodlawn students used to yell, ''Rip those Sugar Jets," which was a reference to this brand of cereal. If it had been up to Louise Nathan, her son Tony never would have touched a football. No One Else Wanted Him. . He was a basketball guy.". He said, 'Well, make sure you promise me you're going to finish what you started. He completed 30 of 42 p*es for 363 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 12 yards for the game-tying touchdown with only 24 seconds remaining. 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. Rutledge was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. That same night, Banks' 35-game unbeaten streak came to an abrupt end when Rutledge blew out an ankle and the banged-up Jets lost 34-27 to West End. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.