Hudson Houck - Pillar of Achievement

It was all about the players for Hudson Houck. Whether he was coaching at Crescenta Valley High, USC and Stanford or during his 29 years as an offensive line coach in the NFL, the former Glendale College football player said the relationships he built among his players was more important to him than anything.

“Working with the players helped me want to be a coach and it kept me in coaching for over 40 years,’’ said Houck. “Playing for championships on any level is great but I take a lot of pride in the fact that I am friends with many of the players I coached over the years and those relationships are very important to me.’’

Those relationships served Houck very well as almost every team at every level he played and coached for was successful, including winning a national championship as a player at USC in 1962 and coaching on two Super Bowl Championship teams with the Dallas Cowboys in 1993 and 1995.He played at Eagle Rock High before earning all-conference honors at Glendale College in 1961for GCC Hall of Fame Coach Don Bennett and those years affected him greatly.

“I would have to say that I first got the idea that I might like to coach someday at Eagle Rock. They were very organized and I really like the way they related to their players and made it fun for us,’’ he said. “At Glendale, they really prepared us academically and we had a staff of coaches that would become well known at the four-year level as well as the NFL and that was just a great experience for me as a young player.’’

Houck was an all-conference center for the 1961 Glendale team that finished the season 9-1, the only blemish a 12-6 loss to Compton College. Houck said he had solid offers from both UCLA and USC but chose the Trojans when on a visit to USC, legendary coach John MacKay asked him, “Sodo you want to play here or not?’’

It seemed that Houck made the right choice as he played for theTrojansfrom1962-64 and later had coaching stints with the USC freshman in 1970-71andonthevarsity staff from 1976-1982. He started his coaching career in 1966 at Crescenta Valley High School and returned to the Falcons staff in 1969 after a two-year stint in the U.S. Army.

While Houck’s 29-year career as an NFL assistant coach for five teams from 1983 to 2011for five teams including the Los Angeles Rams, the Seattle Seahawks, two stints with the Dallas Cowboys, the San Diego Charges and the Miami Dolphins is remarkable in itself, four players he coached including Anthony Munoz, Jackie Slater, Bruce Matthews and Larry Allenhave been inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

After his NFL retirement in 2011, Houck and his wife Elsie returned to California and now call Indian Wells home. He has also returned to Glendale College where he takes his rightful place as an inductee into the Glendale College Athletic Hall of Fame.