Avey Memorial
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When the Great Scorer comes to write beside
your name, |
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Coach Jud Avey |
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Avey Memorial
When the Great Scorer comes to write beside your name,
He asks not if you won or lost but how you played the game.
Coach Jud Avey
Judson R. Avey was born in Clinton, Arkansas on April 19, 1935 to Mr. and Mrs. Melvin R. Avey. He attended Clinton City Schools and graduated from Clinton State Vocational Training School in 1953. In his junior and senior years in high school, he was selected for the All State Basketball Team.
Avey entered Kilgore Junior College in 1953 for one semester, then transferred to Arkansas State Teachers College in 1954 (now the University of Central Arkansas) in Conway. While there, he was named to the Arkansas Interscholastic Conference. In 1957, he graduated with a B.S.E. Degree and in 1963 received an M.S.E. from the same college.
Avey then coached Varsity Basketball and Junior High School Football at Paragould, Arkansas for two years. Avey had met Bill and Maunelle Martin while he was in high school through mutual basketball friends and became interested in moving to the Navajo Indian Reservation. He moved to Sanders, Arizona in 1959 where he coached football and baseball. In 1960, he came to Window Rock High School where he taught and coached baseball and football. He remained at Window Rock until his death in 1964.
While at Window Rock, Avey spent summer vacations in Arkansas where he continued to work on his Masters Degree. He was especially happy that in the summer of 1964 he had completed his degree and could spend the entire summer on his parent's farm in Clinton. On July 11, 1964 Avey was driving a tractor, removing stumps from a field. A chain, that was attached to the back of his tractor, caught on a small stump. Avey was so large that he had his legs wrapped around the back of the seat and was unable to jump. The tractor was pulled over backwards and landed on top of him. Despite the weight of the tractor and severe internal injuries, Avey was able to lift the tractor enough to move out from under it. That was the Avey we all knew: super human and extraordinarily strong. Avey's father and uncle, with Jud's assistance, was able to get him into a truck. They raced to the nearby hospital stopping along the way to alert Jane and Avey's mother. Avey died two hours later.
Avey's death was a tremendous shock to all who knew and loved him. He was buried in Clinton, Arkansas and was survived by his wife, Jane, and their two children, Jud Avey, Jr., 9, and Jay, 2.
In the fall of 1964, the student council at Window Rock High School sent a letter, written by President Pat Mann, requesting that the athletic field be named in Avey's honor. The request was immediately granted by the school board. At the first fall football game in 1964, Window Rock Stadium became known as the Jud Avey Memorial Field. At the dedication, the Columbia Blues and the Varsity and Junior Varsity Cheerleaders formed an "A" on the field, saluted and observed a moment of silence. The Reverend Donald Fredericks gave a dedication speech in honor of Avey.
Prior to Avey's death, he and Fermin Echeverria and Bill Speicher had made plans to start a Quarterback Club. In the fall of 1964, two groups were formed. The men called themselves the Quarterback Club and the women's auxiliary groups went by the name of Sideline Coaches. Because the women's group was much larger than the men's group, the two merged in November 1964. The combined group was known as the Window Rock High School Booster Club.
In 1974, the Larry Arnold Award (Defensive Player of Year), Leonard Hickson Award (Offensive Player of Year), in 1980 the Dennis Fredenberg Award (Most Inspirational Award) and in 1975, Harold Y. Foster, Senior Award (Sportsmanship Award) began. The Jud Avey Memorial Sportsmanship Award ceased to be exist sometime after 1979. The exact year of the last award is unknown.
Coach Avey lives on in the hearts of those who knew and loved him and the Judson Avey Memorial Field has served as a reminder of a special friend, teacher and coach.
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Jud Avey Memorial Sportsmanship Award
*Attends practice when at all possible. |
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Recipients
1964- Vernon
Cohoe |
Name:
Jane Avey Hawkins
Email:
lurajh@ aol.com Memories:
Jane Avey
1961-62Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of my young husband and our love of the school there and the Navajo people. I have a very vivid memory of him as a coach at Window Rock. One night our team of rather small Navajo boys was playing some team of great big white guys. Our boys were a little nervous, and sure enough, one got hurt on the field. Unlike most head coaches, Jud did not let his assistants or trainer handle the situation. He ran onto the field and did something that I have never seen before or since--he himself lifted the injured player and carried him off the field. He was a gentle giant with a heart of gold. He was also a great dad and so proud of his sons. He now has a beautiful granddaughter, Ashlee, who is a senior this year. When we lived at Ft. Defiance, I was the superintendent's secretary. After Jud's death, I went to school and have been teaching English for 32 years. We were very fond of the Martins, and I really appreciate the effort and talent that Nancy has put into creating this website. Thank you. Jane
January 7, 2003
Name:
Jud Avey Jr.
Email:
judson.avey@ic-corp.com Memories:
Jud Avey Jr.
May 2003I have just been notified of this site and I think you have done a great job in presenting a dedication to the memory of my dad. I'm glad my dad left so many good memories with all the people he was around. I was only 9 when my dad died but with all the things I read about him from other people my knowledge of him is always growing. I just want to thank everyone that knew him for keeping a little of him alive for us all to enjoy.
It would be great to hear from anyone who wants to drop me a line. I have a few paintings done by students for my dad and I would like to get in touch with the artists. My wife and I are planning on coming by the school sometime in June. I hope to be able to tour the school at that time.
November 30, 2002
Name:
Ashlee Avey
Email:
hotbabe_avey@yahoo.com Memories:
Ashlee Avey
Granddaughter of Jud Avey, Sr.
High School Graduation
June 4, 2003I am Jud Avey's only grand daughter and though I never knew my grandfather, I know he was a great and wonderful man through all I have heard. My grandmother tells me that my dad, Jud Avey Jr., is so much like his dad and that makes me very proud to have both a father and grandfather with such a loving and caring heart. I think it is great that so many people have such great memories of my grandfather and hope that he will always be remembered for what a great and loving man he was. Ashlee Avey
January 14, 2003
Name:
Rod Hewett
Class of:
1975 Memories:
Jud, Jr. was at the banquet in 1974 when I won the Avey Award and he presented it to me. It seemed to me that he was probably in college then, so I don't think he would be very much older than me. His dad must have been a wonderful man as many during that era were. They were just different in a good way. Back when the real men stood out in a crowd.
December 3, 2002
Name:
Joan Robertson
Class of:
1969
Memories:
Walking down the hall in Junior High and Coach Avey picking me up in the air like I was a feather and within minutes hearing on the loud speaker the President of the United States John F Kennedy had been killed.
Name:
Joanne Speicher
Class of:
Booster Club
Memories:
I have many loving memories of Jud. I had the honor and pleasure of presenting the first trophy to Vernon Cohoe along with Yvonne Masters. Vernon was a real sweet boy and deserved the award. I remember Jud, and our time at WRHS with much love.
Name:
Marty Ashley
Class of:
1977
Memories:
1975 recipients of the Judd Avey award were Ken Todakonize, Bruce Tso and Don Hubbard. The 1976 recipients were Marty Ashley and Jeff Taliman.
Name:
Charlotte Ray Avey Southworth
Class of:
N/A
Memories:
On February 10, 2009 Charlotte Ray Avey Southworth was born. She is the great grand daughter of Jud Avey, I wish she could have known her Great Grandpa. Lucky for her she will have great stories to hear about him from her Great Grandma Jane and her Grandpa Jud.
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Name: |
Don Nelson |
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Class of: |
1961 |
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Memories: |
I played on the Scouts football team the first
year Coach Judd was at WRHS. He was a father figure to all of us.
You really had to avoid a headlock from Coach Judd. I always felt that he cared about each and every one of us. He even talked coach Bridges (during the baseball season) to let me pitch a game up at Ganado. I only had one pitch and that was a slow fastball. But he knew I wanted the feeling of being on the mound just once in my whole life. I'll never forget it when he named me starting pitcher. P.S. Don't ask me how many innings I lasted. He was a great guy. I was in the Navy when I got news of his death. It really hurt. |
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Name: |
Leonard Foster |
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Class of: |
1967 |
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Memories: |
I remember Mr. Jud Avey as a big man who was
very understanding and very athletic in his demeanor. In 1963-64 I
played freshmen basketball and Jud Avey was our coach. In the spring
of 1964 I played varsity baseball and Jud Avey was the Head baseball
coach. We had a winning season and we made it to Class B-North
playoffs and we were upset by St. Johns in a playoff game for the
state tournament. It was very disappointing but he assured us that the
next season we would go all the way to the Class B-North state
baseball finals.
Some of my teammates as a freshman were Larry Echeverria & Steve Echeverria, Homer Ashley, David Long, Freddie Hardy, Lawrence Johnson, Freddie Goldtooth, Joe Long, Willie Morgan, Larry Anderson, Melvin Smiley among others that I can recall. Window Rock High School "Scouts" had an excellent baseball team and an outstanding baseball program. Jud Avey could very well have become one of
the top winning coaches and an icon in Northern Arizona high school
sports. He was well versed in football, basketball and baseball. I
only played for him one year 1963-64 and that is how I remember him. |
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Name: |
Bob Schryver |
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Class of: |
1978 |
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Memories: |
By the time I was a freshman at WRHS (Fall of
1974), Jud Avey had already been deceased for several years. However,
during the 1970s, the Annual Jud Avey Awards Banquet was still a very
big event. In November 1974, the Award was given to Rod Hewett. I
remember attending the banquet to see Rod get the Award. I remember it
being very emotional and a lot of fun.
Our guest speaker at the banquet that year was Reggie Jackson – he was playing for the Oakland As at that time. It was a couple of years before Jackson would play for the New York Yankees. Jackson was at the top of his baseball career in the Fall of 1974. We were able to get him, because he had gone to ASU with the WRHS Athletic Director at that time – Roger Totter. I remember that during his presentation Jackson said that he had originally gone to ASU not on a baseball scholarship, but on a football scholarship to play for Frank Kush. He said that Frank Kush had a tremendous positive influence on his life. After his presentation, he allowed the audience to ask any questions they wanted. I remember that the audience and in particular one of the WRHS seniors who played football and baseball (Alfred Yazzie – a great guy) asked Jackson some pretty candid questions about his relationship with his baseball manger and other teammates with the Oakland A’s. Afterwards Jackson said to the audience that he was impressed with all the questions they asked. He asked how many people had been to a Major League Baseball Game (not a spring training game – he made that difference). When he saw how many people raised there hands, I remember he said “Wow! I thought you people out here lived in the sticks – you people have seen more baseball games than I have! August 15, 2009 |
