THE QUARTERBACK WITH 600 WINS
By Angela Lento

This story was originally published in Basketball Times


633 wins. The all-time wins leader at three different schools and the only coach to take two different programs to their first and only Final Four appearance. The numbers and the numerous accolades guarantee Hugh Durham’s place as one of the best to ever coach the game. But his legacy lies beyond the numbers. In his own words, he’s a coach’s coach.

Durham spent nearly fifty years on the hardwood, from his days as a high school and college player to his three stops on the coaching trail. Along the way he racked up some impressive accomplishments, making him one of the more recognizable names in the game. But all of it nearly never happened.

“I signed a letter of intent to play football at Kentucky,” says Durham. “Bear Bryant had just led Kentucky to three straight bowl games (Cotton, Orange and Sugar). People don’t think of Kentucky as being a college football powerhouse today, but at that time they were very good.”

Durham, who was an option quarterback in his first three seasons on varsity team, was moved to halfback as a senior. It was this position that UK intended to have Durham play at the collegiate level. By this time, Bryant was coaching in College Station (Texas A&M), and Blanton Collier was responsible for luring Durham to the gridiron. Basketball was still his first love, but committing to the Kentucky football program was a very memorable moment for Durham.

“In high school I went to a lot of football games in Lexington,” says Durham. “The idea that I was now going to be playing instead of watching was exciting. I didn’t come from a strong financial background so I was fired up about being a part of the Kentucky football.”

In many respects, it was the fulfillment of a dream for the young gridiron star. A product of Eastern High School, in Louisville, KY, Durham idolized the signal-caller of the local university. Long before he became a hall of fame quarterback with the Baltimore Colts, Johnny Unitas shared the same training room with the lanky Durham.

“Back then the high schools didn’t have the proper facilities to deal with injuries,” Durham says. “I had a little injury so they sent me over to Louisville to get treatment. I was lying there, waiting to be looked at, and there was Johnny Unitas. I know I didn’t make much of an impression on him, but it was a pretty exciting moment for me.”

Durham couldn’t even dream of someday being the player that Untias had become, but the self-described “good” quarterback was anxious to make his mark down south in Lexington.

But as Unitas was moving onto to bigger and better things, the movement of another would play a major role in determining Durham’s future.

Dave Kleiser, an assistant coach on the Eastern High football staff, took a job in St. Petersburg, FL, where he became good friends with Lee Benjamin, the varsity basketball coach and graduate of Florida State University.

“If he [Dave Kleiser] didn’t move to Florida I probably would have played football at Kentucky,” says Durham. “That move changed everything and Florida State would eventually offer me a scholarship to play basketball. I wasn’t good enough to play basketball at Kentucky, but Florida State thought I was good enough to play there.”

And the rest is history, as they say.

Durham likes to downplay his playing days, describing himself as a decent player, but the FSU archives tell a different story.

Durham's name still decorates the FSU record books in a dozen different categories after scoring 1,381 points during his three-year career. His 21.9 ppg average in 1958-59 ranks seventh all-time at FSU, while his career average of 18.9 ppg ranks ninth in the Seminole record book. Durham's 43-point performance against Stetson on Jan. 19, 1957 still ranks second all-time at Florida State for a single game, but there was one game in particular that stands out for Durham.

“In my senior year I scored 30 points in Lexington,” says Durham. “We weren’t real good, but Kentucky was. They had won the national championship the year before so that was quite a day for me.”

To say that things worked out well for Durham is an understatement. His playing career would lead to an assistant coaching position and eventually the head-coaching job, but his time in Tallahassee also produced his most important recruit ever, his future wife, Malinda and a link to one of FSU’s most recognizable gridiron stars.

“She was in the same sorority as the girl Burt Reynolds was dating,” Durham says. “But things worked a little better for me. She took Burt home to meet her mother and her mom told her to break up with him because he wasn’t ever going to amount to anything.”

Northern Florida proved to the right trail for Durham.

“Every once in a while I think about how everything worked out and how things could have been so much different,” he says. “Everything worked out pretty well.”

After six years as an assistant and thirty-seven years as a head coach, Durham decided to call it a career. With just one year remaining on his contract with Jacksonville, Durham was concerned that it would have a lasting effect on the schools recruiting efforts. With six seniors next season, Durham wanted to ensure that the program would continue to move forward so he stepped aside.

“It was time,” says Durham. “I am sure that come October it will be a little strange for me, but I will just have to find some things to fill the void.”

Gone from the sidelines, but not gone from the game.

Durham has no immediate plans to remain active in the basketball world, but his name will grace the front of the newly created Hugh Durham Mid-Major Coach of the Year award, which will be presented each season by CollegeInsider.com. Upon learning of the award, Durham was visibly moved saying, “I have always considered myself to be a coach’s coach.”

How true.

And that will be the legacy of the man who almost threw the pigskin for a living.