When asked to describe Willard Hunt’s impact on Tabb High athletics, Doug Baggett, who coached at the school for 33 years, said, “He was the whole thing. He started it all.”
“All” became so much during Hunt’s tenure as coach and athletic director, he eventually founded a hall of fame known as Legends of Tabb. No legend looms larger than Hunt, who died on Friday at 81.
Hunt virtually created the Tabb athletic program from the ground up upon the school’s founding in 1972. The legendary coaches he hired — Baggett (boys basketball and baseball), Charlie Hovis (football), Freddy Mitchell (football, track), Paul Kirby (boys soccer, field hockey), George Coulter (cross country) and David Walton (football, softball) among them — combined to win 11 state championships and 211 district titles before his 1997 retirement.
Hunt was a standout coach in his own right, guiding the Tigers to the 1977 Group AA wrestling state championship in addition to stints as golf and field hockey coach. He is perhaps best known as offensive coordinator for Tabb football teams that went 143-27-2 from 1980-93, advancing seven times to the state playoffs and winning state championships in 1981, ’87 and ’90.
“Coach Hunt ran the entire offense and he taught me about giving as much as I had,” said Terry Kirby, who set state rushing records in high school and at the University of Virginia before playing 11 seasons in the NFL. “I learned from him that whatever you think you have, you have more.”
That was most evident on the night of the greatest victory in Tabb athletic history, the 10-7 win over Hampton in September 1988 in front of 6,000 at Bailey Field. Kirby, injured the week before, ran the ball 40 times for 187 yards as the Group AA Tigers upset the preeminent power in larger-schools Group AAA.
“When we talked about the game plan, it was Kirby left, Kirby right and Kirby up the middle,” said Kirby, who was joined in the NFL for more than a decade by Tabb and UVA teammate Chris Slade. “He told me, ‘If we’re going to win this game, it will be with you doing what you do best, so I’m just going to give you the damn ball and you just do what you do.’
“He knew exactly what I had in me.”
Hunt was given free rein on the offense because of his close relationship with best friend Hovis, for whom he played at York before graduating in 1960 and playing collegiately at Bridgewater. When York inexplicably fired Hovis as coach, Hunt speed-dialed him to become head coach at Tabb and a 15-year football dynasty ensued.
Tabb struggled on the gridiron in its early years, but Bruce Cunningham, now a longtime Baltimore-area sportscaster and public address announcer for the Baltimore Ravens, says Hunt was a joy to play for.
“Coach Mitchell ran very stern practices, so the last thing you wanted was to be seen laughing,” said Cunningham, a linemen on Tabb’s first three teams. “But if you were within 10 feet of Coach Hunt, he would make you laugh.
“I can’t tell you how many gassers Coach Mitchell made me run because of Coach Hunt, but the one consistent message from both was that we were building a tradition at Tabb.”
Hunt began his coaching career in 1965 at York, but upon being assigned to new school Tabb in 1972, he set about surpassing his alma mater athletically. His wrestling team struck first with the 1977 state title.
“Coach Hunt told us that within two years we were going to beat York and that within four years we were going to win the state championship,” said Dennis Herndon, who became Tabb’s first individual state champ the day the Tigers won the wrestling state crown. “He did that.”
Mike Meyers, an all-state wrestler on that team, said, “There were consequences if we broke rules, but he taught us that sports are supposed to be fun and you should laugh some. He was proud of that state championship and he should’ve been.”
Baggett said that Tabb athletics — which twice won state Group AA all-sports trophies during Hunt’s tenure as athletic director — were successful because Hunt supported his coaches unfailingly. Parents who came to Hunt’s office to complain about tactics or their child’s playing time almost always walked away disappointed, Baggett added.
“Willard Hunt was the foundational brick of the Tabb High athletic department and he can be really proud of what he did while there,” Cunningham said.
Hunt is survived by Carolyn, his wife of 60 years, and three children. A celebration of his life will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Amory Funeral Home Chapel in York County.
Marty O’Brien, mjobrien@dailypress.com
