Rebel 5ive
Rebel 5ive
Rebel 5ive with Chad Huck
This week’s Rebel 5ive podcast interview is with Dr. Chad Huck R’77. In the mid 70’s, Roncalli High School was widely known for our outstanding marching band while athletic success was modest. That reputation changed in a big way when the Fountain Square native, Chad Huck, would quarterback the Rebels to the school’s first of 20 football sectional championships at the end of the 1976 season. Dr. Huck still has a significant presence in the Rebel football record book, holding six offensive records. He would graduate from Roncalli and head to IU to play for Lee Corso and the Hoosiers. Today, Dr. Huck is the Clinic Director at The Eye Center of Southern Indiana. He and his wife, Dr. Patricia Henderson, have two children and reside near Bloomington.
Read the full transcript.
You're listening to Rebel 5ive, an interactive interview podcasts with alumni, past and current parents and friends of Roncalli high school. I'm your host, Gary A rmbruster, director of alumni and corporate relations at R oncalli. And each week I will ask our guests five questions regarding how their lives have evolved and how key connections o f e xperience, opportunity and alumni networking and propelled them to where they are today. A nd we'll talk challenges, how to overcome challenges and what they've learned along the way. Stay tuned. Our guests this week on the Rebel 5ive podcast is Dr. Chad Huck. Chad graduated from Roncalli in 1977 and Chad's claim to fame, at least at that point in time i n his life, was he was our starting quarterback. He led the Rebels to our very first football sectional championship. Chad, I've interviewed John Wirtz. I've interviewed K athy Schembra, both fountain square natives. You went to St. Pats. Talk a little bit about fountain square and why is, why is there still such an affinity for people that grew up in fountain square?
Chad:Probably. Um, because we're survivors. Uh, it went through some hard times and the school closed after my brother Rick graduated from there, which was just a couple of years after me. But, you know, it was an Irish Catholic kind of inner city school. In fact, that takes me back to when I first walked into Roncalli is the, you know, the eighth grade want to be a Rebel sort of thing. And it broadened my horizons considerably right then. So, u h, so it's a pretty humble background.
Gary:Your first job when you were growing up, did you, um, do you remember, I'm sure you remember your first job. What was it,
Chad:a newspaper route. So were my brothers before me, Ed and Joe both had one. My sister had one. In fact, I think probably dad required us to have one. Uh, so a newspaper route would be the first official job. Yeah.
Gary:So how old were you when you started a paper route?
Chad:I was in fifth grade
Gary:star or news?
Chad:afternoon. The news.
Gary:Any lessons you learned from that paper route?
Chad:Yes. That it gets very cold in the winter and snow. And, and certainly life lessons about responsibility and, and how to present yourself and how did we respectful and, uh, how to count your quarters and stuff like that.
Gary:Well, I know sports was a huge, huge part of your upbringing. Uh, you had older brothers that I'm sure like to bang around a little bit with you. Uh, maybe your older sister as well. I don't know. Uh, so how did you do that with an afternoon paper rout? How were you able to, to be involved in sports at St. Pats and carry your papers?
Chad:Oh, that's a really good question. I hadn't thought of that, but nothing was more important than the CYO sports for sure. I just remember getting out of school, hustling, going to deliver the paper and still making it to practice. I can't remember how, how we reconciled conflicts there.
Gary:You mentioned your dad just a minute ago. Uh, he, he probably demanded that. Talk a little bit about your dad and why did he demand that?
Chad:My dad was a labor. Um, he sacrificed tremendously for our family. He, he was actually a phenomenally good bowler. He's in a bowling hall of fame. He had an opportunity to go pro. He used to bowl with Dick Weber and yeah, so they had a travel team that was really, really phenomenally good. And Dick Weber was a crony. So dad chose family life. Instead, he had aspirations to do engineering kind of work and stuff like that. But, uh, apparently decided he wasn't well suited for that one thing after another. He's married, he's, uh, raising big, big family and he was a Glazer, so he was a construction worker who put in big panes of glass in downtown Indianapolis and wherever. So the amount of sacrifice that he went through to be able to put us through eight years of St. Pats and then four years of Roncall for a family. They on those wages, I just still can't believe it to be honest. Um, so he, he also was extremely supportive about sports, uh, and your, you know, your activities. Uh, but he also wanted to have us understand how to manage money a little bit and how that paper route was critically important to, uh, those kinds of developments. In fact, my older brothers, Joe and Eddie both did it in a much bigger way than say Tom and I did because they were competitive about expanding their route and stuff like that. And they took these elaborate trips, uh, as a reward sort of thing. But, but we all learned how to go pay the bill on Saturday morning and get in line and, and go through that. And so dad wasn't like iron fisted about it or anything, but we all had, we all had a coffee can where the money got from collections and there was hell to pay if it did more. But it was an expectation very much so. Yes,
Gary:you enter Roncalli in the fall of 1973. The merger really was pretty, it was still new. Did you have any memory of that you had older siblings that were involved in that? You personally, would you have any memory of the Kennedy/ Chartrand merger at all?
Chad:Oh yes, absolutely. I remember going to watch my brother ed play at Kennedy. I remember idolizing a lot of those great Kennedy athletes. Like I say, I was extremely focused on athletics. So I remember that. And I remember then likewise the early years at Roncalli and I, I attended every game and idolized those guys too.
Gary:You enter Roncalli as a, as a f reshman, the fall of 73. Was Roncalli going to be it? Ca use y ou wo uld h a ve c athedral was downtown at that time. Was it always Roncalli? I mean obviously your older siblings went there, so was there any question about that?
Chad:Uh, no, not really. I if I remember because our CYO team, uh, we actually did pretty well and football playoffs and stuff. And I remember some discussion cause we had some cousins and stuff who went to cathedral. It seems like there was, uh, some discussion about that possibility, but nothing that was really worth thinking about. So, so it was always Roncalli. Yes.
Gary:You mentioned your, your success at St. Pat's. Were you always the quarterback?
Chad:Uh, no, actually that's uh, a very, uh, interesting thing now. I was a running back and a linebacker and we had a hardscrabble kind of team. It was combined with Holy cross, if you're familiar with Holy cross, cause me neither school had enough, uh, people to field a team. And if I remember right, we had, you know, maybe one or two guys who would be on the sidelines. And so everybody else kind of went both ways and stuff. So, um, but yeah, we did pretty well. We had, we were pretty gritty and, and did well, um, made it to the, uh, city championship game, which of course meant everything back then. Yeah, we did that a couple of few times, did pretty well in basketball too. Going on to Roncalli. Then of course I was all about football and, and uh, at the outset of course, and, and came time to, you know, get to know the other guys on the team and, and it was really a very simple thing. And that is, uh, our coach for a freshman team was Bob Tully. And he said, uh, who wants to go off quarterback? And guys started getting in line to play quarterback. And I thought, Hmm, I think I'm going to do because, and while I did, I ran the ball a lot and in grade school and stuff, I also threw the ball a lot, so we did. We did half back passes, so if there was passing plays then I would throw the ball and in fact I just recently had a conversation with one of the coaches from my grade school team who kind of was apologizing for not knowing that I wanted to play quarterback. I was like, I know I didn't. I didn't really have any aspirations play quarterback at that point in time. It just kind of came to me at Roncalli.
Gary:Who was your sports idol back then as a young kid?
Chad:Dick Nalley was probably my most immediate one. You talk about a phenomenal player, phenomenal athlete, and he grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same grade school, so I would just there in awe of him was not blessed with his kind of athleticism for sure. He, he's the most immediate one. Yeah.
Gary:Your freshman year you play freshman football. Obviously the freshman year, the varsity was 3-7. Your sophomore year, you didn't start out playing a starting. I know you played behind Chris Amore maybe. Does that sound right?
Chad:Yeah, Chris and I were competing against one another for the position. He was a year ahead of me, but actually I still, uh, started and played the majority of times. It was not anything I was terribly proud of of how that, how some of those games went. But, uh, anyway,
Gary:I'm very similar to you as far as I had older siblings who went to Roncalli in those first years. And so I was o ut a lot of games and so I'm gonna throw this game a t you. I hope you don't disconnect from the conversation because I know the end was not good, but it's what I remember about that season. And it's the game at CYO field against cathedral. And I think both w inless I think w e were both schools row 0-3 it's our chance t o, t o play cathedral and we had a chance, u m, I know how i t unfolded. You have any memories of that game that you want to share?
Chad:I'll be honest, I think I'm probably blessed with a selective memory and, and then, uh, the way things went at IU, which was not the way I planned them to go. I think I got all the more selective with my memory, so I don't remember a lot of that stuff, but I do, I remember the game was critically important to me because of the cathedral connection because it was a CYO field. Uh, and um, and I had cousins and stuff on the East side of the city and stuff and it was that rivalry, if I remember right. It was, I don't, it wasn't raining. I don't,
Gary:I just remember it was cold. It ended up being, it was a 7, 7-6 loss. We had an opportunity to go for two at the end and it didn't work out. Right. But yeah, we'll move on because I'm going into your junior year. We finished that season 8-2. did, did, did you know going into that season that we were going to be pretty dang good?
Chad:Yes. Because we had a really good couple classes there. The class in front of us, we had really good athletes, has some good leadership, good dudes, and we had some good skilled positions. The receiving corps was particularly good. Yes. And also, you know, that first year, the sophomore year was our new first year with a coach.
Gary:Oh, that's right. Yeah. Butch Branson.
Chad:Yeah. So we were just kind of learning how to put schemes and you know, so we learned a lot that first year was that another thing was, uh, my sophomore year, the center quarterback exchange was never something to take for granted. It was painful how unpredictable that center quarterback exchange would go. Uh, but we got through it and that got behind us after that. So I'm not sure what the solution was, but so yeah, going into junior year, I distinctly remember thinking we're going to be pretty darn good.
Gary:Senior year we have this, uh, in the state of Indiana, a new football format, post-season format. I'm not sure it was started that particular year, but, uh, we, you had to get certain amount of points to make the post season, not like now where everybody gets in. So we were 8-2 I think again, and we get into the post season and we're at Warren central playing Noblesville for our first football sectional opportunity to win a game. If you remember how much you remember about that, what a big deal that was.
Chad:Uh, yeah, it was, it was tremendously fun and exciting. The junior year, if I remember correctly, we, it was the first year for the playoffs system and we missed out by like a hundredth of a point or something like that to be able to make it. Uh, and so we got over that hurdle then the next year. And I was blessed with a lot of really good players around me, some tough son of a guns. I was also blessed that the coach had confidence in, uh, my ability to kind of see what was going on on the field and allowed me to call plays, which that even at that, even in that era, it was a very, very rare that a coach would give out, that sort of thing. So I was able to call plays and that meant we, we passed the ball a lot. So to be honest, I don't remember the details of the game other than we won. Uh, I remember celebrating, uh, I remember feeling good, but you know, I honestly remember that like yesterday because I have kept the bigger poster of that. Really. Yeah. So I had a very large poster of that. I think it used to be on display in the trophy case or something like that. And then now somehow they made room for other stuff for like, like state championships. Funny how that works. And then ended up getting handed back to me. And, yeah, I'm very proud of that picture because I was holding that trophy and Jeff Jourdan and was holding that trophy and Tim Dant was holding that trophy and John Conover is holding that trophy. Uh, it was, it was fantastic. That's the stuff I remember best. Yeah.
Gary:Yeah. And, and obviously our listeners aren't going to know what picture I'm talking about, but there's a picture in the 77 yearbook and it's that night after the game and there's a trophy being held high with all of the football team holding that picture up as one. And this came up just an on Facebook, uh, just uh, yesterday maybe uh, someone was talking about those helmets because in 85, I think maybe rough, roughly around 85, we went to the running R and how much fun it would be to bring those helmets back because those were cool.
Chad:They were slick. They were really slick. They looked good under the lights.
Gary:So the next week we play in the regional, it was a once one game sectional back then play the regional. We played Jasper got beat by one. Any memories of that at all?
Chad:That's the one I remember best because I'm still not over it. It was a two, two things. A, it was bitterly cold. It was unseasonably cold, made it really difficult to uh, throw the ball. So it really challenged the passing game. And B, I believe we had been, uh, and again I'm surprised I even, this comes to mind and I might be wrong, but it seems like we got called for some obscure penalty three or four times on, I think it was a punt. W you know, we're, we're receiving a punt and I don't know if it was off side what it was, but, but like three or four times we did not get the ball spite of them having, you know, tried to turn it over on a punt. So, so, so those are some really bad calls that worked against us. Jasper was really darn good though, and they had a running back who actually went to IU and I got to know him and I knew he was he was very, very good. So I, I just really, really think that we should have won that game and it, and barring those two things, I think we would have
Gary:you graduated 40, 43 years ago. Can't be right. Well do the math. Chad, do the math. Here's the thing. Our record book still has Chad Huck's name all over it for, for example, uh, now over 40, we'll just say over 40 years, most passing yards, season and career, most past completion's career, most TD passes, game season and career. You still hold six offensive football records from 40 some years ago. You actually had more up until about eight years ago and Oh yeah, the most yards receiving and the most past receptions. Go to Jeff Jourdan who you were throwing the ball to. So talk about Jeff A. Little bit cause that's another story that's pretty unusual. Just talk a little bit about that because that's pretty neat.
Chad:Well, my name on those records is silly. His, is really, really well deserved and awesome. Uh, Jeff and I buddied up very quickly, became best of friends, did not know him, uh, prior to freshman year. You know, because we were an inner city school and we didn't play st Jude and much stuff. So, but, but yet I had an awareness of him because of course he was born with a short left arm and hand and he was incredibly, incredibly well-skilled despite that disadvantage. Phenomenally, uh, well-skilled and a really, really good athlete and a really, really good guy. Uh, tremendous fun. So we buddied up, uh, right away and, and virtually everything. And as the careers went on, I became, of course then more and more dependent on Jeff Jordan and it became a bigger challenge or burden, so to speak for him because our junior year, you know, he, he had a compliment of other really good receivers around him. Okay. And, uh, Jim Talhelm uh, and Bob Kocher and Eddie Perry. And, but then, then going into senior year, it was really more and more focused. And dependent on Jeff, that's not say there weren't other good receivers there, but it was, it was different challenge for him. And I'll be honest, I made it clear to him that I was depending and we were depending on him. In a lot of different ways. So I remember that that part of it, I also, uh, is very special to me that, uh, after I was recruited then to go to IU and had, uh, been offered a scholarship, et cetera, they were also very interested in Jeff and like almost everybody else who's ever seen us play in high school, it would be almost immediately mentioned. How can that guy do that with one hand? And I've seen him play baseball that way and, and he'd wear a glove and rip it off and throw, I mean it was just incredible. So, and then he was going to come to IU. So they offered him an invite on, uh, and it really went down to the 11th hour where it was literally time to pack up and leave and go. And that's why I found that he wasn't, he wasn't going to go, you know, I was disappointed. Of course. Uh, cause I still love the guy and still owe him a lot. He really carried me a ton. I mean, two tons. Jeff Jourdan was awesome.
Gary:Huck to Jourdan, that was, I remember that vividly. We're going to go to a break. But before I do, I have to throw out some more accolades of the young Chad Huck class of 77, some uh, personal accolades. You were all city and football junior, senior season. You were junior, Allstate, you were Catholic, all American junior and senior year. You participated in the North, South, all star game. You were Indiana Allstate player, both in the coaches poll and the UPI poll back then. You look back on that and uh, Dick Nalley was Roncalli's first star athlete. No question about it, but you were our first probably division one recruit. What does that mean? Does that mean anything to you still today or, or for me as a student who came in after you, it still is a significant accomplishment in a big, big way.
Chad:Uh, thanks. Uh, I didn't know what you just said that, that it was like the first, I was the first one. I was super proud of Dick's heroics at Indiana central and we'd go and watch him play. And uh, he took me under the wing and a lot of ways. So I used to train with them and work out with him and stuff like that. And what a, what a character he was. I was really, really proud of, of the heritage and from CYO and st Pat's to Roncalli and carrying that forward. And, and I'll be honest, I had extremely high, uh, goals and expectations and, uh, I knew what I wanted to do and, and the way it should go, it just didn't go that way. But that's not to say, um, uh, you know, life turns out great and, and maybe it was a blessing in the end that it didn't go the way I had planned it to go, but as far as that, those kinds of recognitions or whatnot, I'll be honest, I don't, I don't remember quite that way as I knew there. I knew there were some awards and recognitions and stuff like that, but, but I think truly I was kinda more focused on what's next.
Gary:All right, we're going to take a break and we'll be back in just a moment with Chad Huck on the Rebel 5ive podcast.
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Gary:We're back on the Rebel 5ive podcasts with Chad Huck. Dr Chad Huck, thanks for being here today. We really, really appreciate, uh, taking a step back and talking about some of our foundation as a Roncalli football team. During the break we talked about, uh, Roncalli's won 20 football sectionals and you quarterbacked the first. You can only be the first once and so you got us started. That's pretty, that's pretty neat. So let me say we got it started out. Okay. Fair enough. What kind of coach was Butch Branson?
Chad:Butch? was, I think today's term would be, he had a lot of swag. He was very confident in what he was teaching. Uh, he was very confident in, uh, team building. One of my many, many blessings, and I've had been terribly fortunate was he saw something in me that gave me the reins to call plays, like I said, and, and allowed me to compete and start as a sophomore, pretty much unheard of these days. Uh, uh, so he was, he was really good. And, uh, and at that level, you know, he brought in some offensive concepts that were, uh, deceptive. Uh, he taught me the importance of, uh, ball handling, uh, in every way. And some of our best plays were when we'd would bootleg sorta stuff and we'd do this misdirection stuff. And, uh, there were, there were two or three times where the official blew the whistle because the guy who carried the fake out got tackled. And I've got the ball around end and throwing it into a wide open receiver and the whistles blown dead, the place called dead. Uh, so, so that was all Butch Branson, uh, teaching that. Um, and so I was really fortunate to have had that too.
:Which would coincide with, uh, coincided with your career. Uh, you were your three years playing varsity were or his three years as our head coach. Uh, moving on, something I didn't mention. Um, Patty Henderson, she's your wife of 35, 35 years. Correct. Where did you meet Patty Henderson?
Chad:Well, and it's actually Dr. Patty Henderson, so she kept her maiden name. Uh, we met in optometry school. Uh, we met also my fifth year of playing football at IU, which was my first year of optometry school, which was a, uh, an interestingly challenging year to try to go through a professional school and at the same time play big 10 football. Uh, and that was the year that, uh, I was most, uh, likely or expected to get the nod and play and stuff. And so we met early that semester became good friends. And then what do you know, uh, it, uh, uh, advanced to more than that and here we are this many years later happy as a clam.
Gary:Yeah. That's awesome. Uh, your son Andrew is completing his residency in ophthalmology in Oklahoma city and your daughter is a doctor as a dentist in Bloomington, a high achieving family. What's the motivation behind that?
Chad:I married well, for one,
Gary:I know the feeling. Yes.
Chad:Yeah. So, uh, Patty is with the school of optometry, so she's an academician. She's, she was salutatorian I think of her class at Franklin. Really, really, really smart woman. And we've been blessed and I don't know how's it happened, but our kids have just done fantastic stuff. So what, it couldn't be more proud.
Gary:Well that's, that's great. Uh, you graduate from Roncalli in 1977 and you're recruited to play at IU b y a coach by the name of Lee Corso. And that's going to be a surprise to some of our listeners c ause they won't even maybe even know that Lee Corso coached h im at, u h, at IU. How did that go? C ause that I'm sure that had there had to be some humor involved, maybe or, or maybe not, but he's known for his sense of humor. So how did that go?
Chad:It, it was interesting. I remember the first time I met him was at a banquet for, I think the whole all city team. And it was, uh, uh, the mayor back in the day had this luncheon sort of thing. And then you got to meet other players in the city and stuff. And I remember meeting him in the men's room and, you know, he has this larger than life kind of presence where he's, you know, yeah, acts acts like he knows me really well and stuff. And, and, and was asking me about recruiting. And back in that time, uh, my plan was to go to Notre Dame. I really very much intended to plan to just knew that was going to happen. I was recruited there, uh, but in the end, uh, they said that I was third on their list. They probably told a hundred other players that they were put on the list too. Uh, and so they, they, these other two kids went there. So when I met, uh, Corso, uh, he, what he said was implying that I thought you were going to Notre Dame, you know, and, and coach Branson says that, no, you're not going to, or something along that line. It was like this fore gone conclusion that you're going to Notre Dame. And I'm thinking, this is a really odd conversation in a rest room. Uh, and, and so that's what really kind of started the, the recruitment by, uh, Indiana. And then, uh, he handed it off to the position coach, the quarterback coach Morris Watts. And I said, that's great. Uh, uh, I'll be honest, I, I didn't, uh, you know, I wasn't a real sophisticated recruit or I should say, uh, you know, it was just so flattering to think people want you to come to their school and, and it's a great school. And I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to not only go and do the football thing, but still love, love, love Indiana in Bloomington, still live here. So next thing you know, I sign and we're gone.
Gary:If you had gone to Notre Dame, would you be, would you be the clinic director of the Eye center of Southern Indiana?
Chad:Uh, it was pretty unlikely. Uh huh.
Gary:Would you have been an eye doctor? Was that something that was out there or where did that turn come?
Chad:Yeah. Uh, so I was premed. Uh, so I had high aspirations, um, uh, academically, uh, was able to do pretty well academically. But, uh, while I was going through football and then the premed thing, what really bothered me more and more was I just didn't like, you know, it wasn't appealing to be in a hospital setting all the time to be with terribly sick people. I just knew that wasn't where I would be able to thrive or do well. One of my counselors, uh, with the football program said, well, why don't we do, you know, a career counseling sort of thing. There's somebody on campus so you could talk to and stuff. So it was one of the more important things I did cause I learned so much about myself without knowing really what, what I was kinda geared for to a greater extent. And out of that came the notion that I'm certainly someone who for me to thrive or do well, I need to be around people, that that's my comfort zone, my wheelhouse sort of thing. Something in the, you know, healing and medicine sort of thing. But, and why not? Look at, uh, optometry and, uh, Indiana university has one of the best optometry schools in the country and at that point in time, one of the few, or I should say, so they, they've really proliferated. So, so I looked at an optometry and uh, got to know more about it and I was like, yeah, that's, that's the direction I want to take it. Uh, so that's kinda what happened.
Gary:Yeah. Well we'll come back to that. But you go down there to play football, you red shirt your freshman year or your take a red shirt year. Correct. Is that right? Through injury and then your sophomore year you go to the Holiday Bowl. Uh, now I know you alluded to it earlier, your football career, you didn't go as, as you had hoped. Do you have a favorite memory of, uh, I mean there's still some value of standing on the sideline holding a clipboard and getting your education taken care of and not getting hit.
Chad:Yeah, absolutely. No doubt. Yeah. So favorite memory of all that. It's certainly the holiday bowl experience would have to jump to the top. That was awesome. It was a, it was a major life experience to go out to San Diego. That reminds me when I was recruited at Northwestern, I distinctly remember, wow, I'm actually on an airplane. It was my first time to fly. Well then by then, now I'm accustomed than we are accustomed to traveling as a team and very first-class way. So Corso it was all about, you know, doing things right, et cetera. Boy did we step it up for the holiday bowl experience. It was, uh, phenomenal. Um, so, and, and he also had at that time a pretty unusual approach and that is, he thought it was critically important that players have a great experience and fun. So it wasn't all work and you know, cut throat sort of approach. And a BYU on the other hand did make it that way and we were able to upset them in the game. And so that was cool. Probably a competing alternative for that was my sophomore year going to LSU for the home, for the opening game, first game of the season. And what was so cool about that was, uh, part of the, uh, travel trip was to arrive a day early and see the Mohammad Ali/ Leon Spinks fight in the Superdome. Yeah. And so now I'm a sophomore. Okay. And as a freshman, uh, I didn't travel with the team, so this is literally my first travel experience. Okay. And furthermore, I was also so without boring people to tears, uh, of Corso wanted me, Corso wanted me to flip over to defense. So he was, he was somewhat, uh, had a history of taking quarterbacks and converting the defense. And I made the mistake after throwing an interception and a practice of making a angry tackle. And so from that point on, I think he thought, Oh well that's where we to play him cause we got this other kid playing quarterback sort of thing. So at the end of my freshman year, he, this re this huge trip have gone to the, to the Muhammad Ali fight and then playing in LSU stadium on Saturday night for their home opener, blah, blah, blah. That was what the whole buzz was about. And, uh, after spring ball, he gave me the rundown as, uh, well you can be second team strong, safety, uh, make the trip to new Orleans, see Muhammad Ali, Leon Spinks fight, and then perhaps play on Saturday night against LSU or you can be 5th team quarterback and have no chance to move up and have no chance to make the, you know, the trip, et cetera. And so what do you want us, what do you want to do? Uh, and, and I told him very honestly, coach, I'm a quarterback. Defense is not what I'm suited for. Fine. You'll be 5th team quarterback, no chance of moving up, no chance of making a trip and reiterate that stuff. I mean, it's just kind of right between the eyes. And so I'm proud to say then I was second team at that point in the season going down there and made this unbelievable trip. Yeah. And even got in the game. Uh, that was also interesting cause I threw an interception. Uh, and uh, but I, and that came out in the sidelines and my position coach was just in my face, like livid. Just giving me the full treatment and I was looking right over his head at the crowd saying, wow, that just happened. Uh, so, and I did not get back in. That was a pretty close game though. Yeah, it was. Yeah,
Gary:I remember the score, but I know, um, it was fairly close game, I assume, uh, living in Bloomington, uh, for the last thirties, five years or so. You still spend time on campus, go to football games, basketball games. Is that something you do a lot?
Chad:Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Love it. Love it. Love it. Still have a lot of relationships in the athletic department and uh, and you know, Bloomington's a really nice small community. It's easy to know people and stuff like that. Yeah. So, yeah, that's my highlight.
Gary:Well, we talked before we started, um, I have two kids, uh, at Purdue and so I had a Purdue sweatshirt on that I took off in your honor. So, um, I'm going to bring this up. Your last game as a senior at U is the bucket game and you hadn't beaten Purdue in the last two years prior to that. If I think that's right. Talk about that last game at IU and the good memories of that.
Chad:It's again, another long story. Uh, with respect to my experience at IU. My last game was actually at Illinois and at Illinois we were losing and it was a very cold day and Tim Clifford was playing, uh, he was a starter. He and I were came in the same year. He had the upper hand on me from day one sort of thing. Cause I think Corso in part wanted me to play defense. So I'm second team there and Corso abruptly late in the game turns to me and he says, you're in. And I go in and I'm running out of bounds to escape a tackle. And I heard something on my knee pop and it had gotten strained on the previous play, uh, after I threw thrown a pass. That's the only way I blew out my knee at Illinois. And there was one week left in a five year career. Uh, and all that's right. So Clifford hadn't been there, so it was Babe Laufenburg who would have been in front of me at that point. But anyway, so, so then that meant that I didn't actually dress for the, uh, bucket game and it was a home. It was a snowy, icy, nasty day. And I watched the game from Nick's, here's your, here's your song. Yeah, yeah.
Gary:That's a, and it was a win for the, for the Hoosier's. So that, that's uh, that's awesome.
Chad:I, I'd already had my leg and so it was really a situation where I couldn't move around very well and stuff. So my leg,
Gary:we're going to take our last break with Chad Huck on the Rebel 5ive podcast. We'll be back in just a minute.
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Gary:We're back on cast with Dr. Chad Huck class of 1977. Chad, you are the clinic director of the eye center of Southern Indiana. You've been in that position for a number of years. You've been with that practice for 30 plus years, you've been in Bloomington all this time. Was, was that always probably in the game plan or did you ever think about coming to Indianapolis or how did that all transpire?
Chad:Yes, it was kind of a foregone conclusion that I would go back to Indianapolis, but my fourth year of optometry school, so it's a four year program, so it was my eighth year in Bloomington. There was an ophthalmologist in practice, Danny Grossman, his son is Rex Grossman from the bears claim. Uh, and Danny and his brother and his father were all IU football alums. So they all played for IU. But he was busting at the seams after having opened his practice three years before and it was a practice on the shadows of campus and nearby. And I had met him after a football game once that I'd forgotten about that and didn't really know that when I saw this posting, uh, in the optometry school, a local eye doctor looking for temporary help sort of thing, I applied for it and kind of sought it out. And I was really fortunate because he was busting at the seams. He had already had established a successful practice and it was unusual in that day for an optometrist and an ophthalmologist. So the difference is the ophthalmologist does surgery, the optometrist doesn't do surgery. There were more turf battles and politics then and then deciding to cooperate. And so when I applied, I was also fortunate because I had a lot of time my second semester of my fourth year of school, so it was all in Bloomington, whereas a lot of the first semester I was in Chicago and these other places. So, so I had time, he was looking for part time help. And I, I immediately recognized, wow, this could be a really, really good situation. And he's a very dynamic good guy, very successful in his own right for sure. And I recognize that I could do more as an optometrist than what he was aware of because there was, you know, optometry has really changed a lot in those days. And so, uh, we decided to join join forces. And this small practice on the shadow of campus grew a lot. And we now have become a clinic upstairs as 19 exam rooms and, and some other special testing areas to a surgery center that's downstairs with two operating rooms and all the gadgets and stuff like that. And it's a staff of six doctors now. And uh, and it's been an unbelievable run. And, and he and I have said so many times, man, what a great sport to play. Uh, because you know, you're taking care of something that's so critically important to people. And that is, you know, their eyesight. And most people would say that's probably right there next to life. And perhaps, you know, brain health. And we've, we were geared to be very innovative about the way we've done it. And so we offer people a lot of services and conveniences along the way. And it's a very much, it's what's unique about it, especially in the history of it, is of a very patient centered experience. Everything's about the patient's experience and, and people recognize that. So when we expanded over to our new facility, which was now 1989, 1990, I became the clinic director kind of as that story goes. So, and my responsibilities are typically too, I see a lot of patients, I do provide a lot of care, but I also do a lot of the managerial stuff and leadership stuff and, and he has since retired and so he's still very much involved. He's essentially an absentee owner, if you want to think of it that way. His daughter, uh, is kind of his surgeon in the practice and as the administrator and, and, and it's, uh, I've been again, really, really dumb, lucky.
Gary:Looking back on your long career at the eye center of Southern Indiana, you have a proud moment, the proudest moment maybe or something that you're just, you look back on anything as that's something that I'm really proud of.
Chad:Uh, not a day goes by that a patient doesn't reach out and, and help me recognize and say thank you for being here. The eye center. Thank you for the services you guys provide. I mean, people come from all, all around. So we see people from an hour, hour and a half away. They come in and they, you know what we do and that is mostly cataract surgery and laser type surgery. And when you do it in a unique way and you really are servicing that person and they recognize it and it gives, gives me back all the time. So that's positively the highlight.
Gary:I have one last question. Uh, we'll go into the Rebel 5ive questions. When was the last time you were on Ron Callie's campus?
Chad:Probably a football game. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably when my nephew who played, uh, for Zionsville played there at Roncalli. Yeah. That's been a while
Gary:As a player on that 76 team, having the awesome career that you had on that field, Roncalli, and you played baseball your freshman year. You played basketball all four years as well. If you haven't been on campus in a w hile, it's changed. Do you have a sense of everything that we've done in the last 30 years?
Chad:Uh, I wouldn't say everything, but a lot of things for sure. You know, as a South sider, especially a big Irish Catholic family and everybody's related and everybody knows each other. So, so yeah. And obviously a majority of my family still living there and they're in the neighborhood of Roncalli. So yes, I'm aware of that, but, and I'm proud of it too. So mentioning the Zionsville thing, a little thing there was, you know, they, people like to uh, explain a way, certain program's successes or certain school's successes as being a function of this or that, that's not accurate. And so I used to love to get in those kinds of arguments.
Gary:Well that's, that's awful. It politically correct what you just said, how you put that. That's awesome. I forgot one of the most important people that we've had in our hallways and in the history of Roncalli. And that's your mom. Tosie she was worked in the front office for 30 plus years. You talked a little bit about your dad, but before we go, I want you to talk about your mom a little bit because a lot of our listeners are gonna remember Tosie really, really well and how much she meant to Roncalli,
Chad:Tosie Rosalene McHugh Huck was a very special person. Uh, my siblings and I are all real close and we stay in touch and have the tech extra as and different things. And lately the zoom parties and stuff, and we very commonly talk about the virtues and stuff that she instilled in us. And we didn't even know she was doing it at the time. I just can't say enough, uh, glowing wonderful things about her and her influence on me. And, uh, my siblings would just real quickly cut to the chase and say, Oh, Chad was the only child of eight with respect to mom. In fact, she, her toast at my wedding was something along the lines of, Chad thinks he's an only child. Uh, but, but we always had a very special relationship, a very special bond and, and, and I miss her but, but man that she, she'd do a lot of great things for me.
Gary:Yeah, she was wonderful, wonderful lady and represented not only Roncalli but your family and really the South side Catholic community really, really well for a long, long time. We normally go into t he Rebel 5ive, but we're a little long today and that's okay c ause I've really, really enjoyed visiting with you and taking a step back. So I'm g oing t o give you one last chance here for some final words, some life advice maybe that you'd like to share with us and then we'll finish up.
Chad:Probably the best thing that I've ever come across is the notion of choosing your attitude, uh, learning, uh, uh, from a book that a man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl. Uh, he was a Holocaust survivor and I've always kind of relished that general saying of choosing your attitude and you become what you think you are sort of stuff from a psych psychology background. But, but this guy has founded a, uh, division of psychiatry while surviving Nazi Germany. So, uh, choosing your attitude I think is the best advice I could give. I try to remind myself of that all the time and I think it's something great to live by.
Gary:Well, thank you for that. That's awesome advice. I want to thank you for being here today and, and visiting, looking back and in my lifetime there are about five or six athletes in the Roncalli community Roncalli family that always rise to the top and you're one of them. And so it's a thrill for me to interview you today and maybe share some of that history with people that don't know or don't have a full appreciation of the contributions that you've made to our community a long time ago. And still to this day, there are patients that visit you, I'm sure from up here. And so thank you very much for representing Roncalli so well over all these years.
Chad:That's really, really kind of you. I thank you. I'm honored to have done this,
Gary:Chad. Thanks a lot. We really appreciate it. And I always say, Go Rebels.
Chad:You bet. Go Rebels.
Gary:I'm Gary Armbruster and thanks for joining us today for this episode of the Rebel 5ive podcasts. To learn more about the Rebel 5ive podcast, please visit roncalli.org/about/podcast.php. Again, thanks so much for joining us today and until next time, We'll fight ahead!