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Lee Hedges, elected to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2010, is the winningest high school football coach in Shreveport-Bossier City history. The stadium next to the school where he spent most of his coaching career was renamed Lee Hedges Stadium by the Caddo Parish School Board in 2001. A star athlete at Fair Park High School in the mid-1940s and then at LSU a few years later, Junior Lee Hedges (born Nov. 2, 1929, in Fifty-Six, Ark.) was a high school coach in Shreveport for four decades (1955-84). Through the 2014 season, he was the last Shreveport-Bossier public school coach with a football state championship team (1973, Captain Shreve). Hedges was head coach at three Shreveport public high schools -- Byrd (1956-59), Woodlawn (1960-65) and Captain Shreve (1967-84) -- and guided teams from each school into state championship games. In 28 seasons, Hedges' teams posted a 216-92-9 (.698) record and had 24 winning seasons, reaching the playoffs 19 times and winning 11 district championships. Five of his teams reached the state semifinals. Three teams which did not make the playoffs had either 9-2 or 8-2 records. The most prominent of the athletes Hedges coached was quarterback Terry Bradshaw, the four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pro Football Hall of Fame selection. He was a first-year starter on Hedges' 1965 Woodlawn High School team that reached the state championship game. ---       Hedges' record might have been more impressive if not for two seasons in which he started programs at brand-new schools. His 1960 Woodlawn team went 0-9, not scoring for the first six games, but the 1961 team went 9-3 and won the District 1-AAA championship. His 1967 Captain Shreve team went 1-7; the 1968 team finished second in its district and made the state playoffs. Without those two first-year seasons, his teams averaged more than eight wins per year. The Shreveport coach whose win total he surpassed was his own coach at Fair Park, F.H. Prendergast, who in 23 years as the Indians’ head coach had a 154-78-13 (.655) record. In addition to Bradshaw, other star athletes he coached (with school and senior seasons) included punter-receiver Pat Studstill (Byrd, 1956), linebacker Bo Harris (Captain Shreve, 1970), running back Roland Harper (Shreve, 1970), receiver Carlos Pennywell (Shreve, 1973), defensive back Robert Moore (Shreve, 1981), running back Derrick Douglas (Shreve, 1985). All played in the NFL. Hedges' primary reputation was as a football coach, teacher of the passing game and developer of star quarterbacks, running backs and receivers, but he also was respected as a classroom teacher (math) and tennis coach/instructor. His Captain Shreve tennis teams won 15 state championships and Hedges worked with young tennis players at various country clubs and organizations in Shreveport until he was into his 80s. ---      From a chapter on Lee Hedges in Jerry Byrd’s Football Country (published 1981) … “ … Nothing will put a lump in the throat of a high school football coach in North Louisiana faster than looking across the field at a slump-shouldered, bespectacled Algebra teacher with a clipboard in his hand talking to his quarterback. "Even before he got his 25-year plaque from the Louisiana High School Coaches’ Association in July of 1981, Lee Hedges was in a class by himself." More from Football Country ...       "Lee Hedges was not a holler guy. He couldn’t make an emotional dressing room speech if he wanted to. He was a teacher who prepared his students for each week’s test, figuring adrenalin would take care of the rest in due time.        "He was not a strict disciplinarian. Even during the crewcut era, when emulating Vince Lombardi was the “in” thing for football coaches, Hedges was as low key as a librarian. Players from two generations, black and white, responded to his coaching because they respected his knowledge and teaching ability, and loved him as a man. "Hedges would be a winner at any level of football. Nobody did a better job of analyzing game films and matching his team’s strengths against the opponents’ weaknesses. If you let your slip show, Lee Hedges was going to see it." Athletic career Hedges was a three-sport star (football, basketball, baseball) at Fair Park, an All-State running back in 1947 who help Fair Park run its winning streak against crosstown rival Byrd to five years in a row in the annual Thanksgiving Day game at State Fair Stadium. He then played football and baseball at LSU. He was a quarterback for a time at LSU, then switched to running back and was part of the "Cinderella" 1949 Tigers team that won its last six games and took an 8-2 record into the Sugar Bowl, a 35-0 loss to undefeated and No. 2-ranked Oklahoma (coached by Bud Wilkinson, quarterbacked by Darrell Royal). An outfielder in baseball, he played two years professionally (1952-53) with the Baton Rouge Red Sticks of the Evangeline League. “Football was really what I loved more than baseball, but I played summer baseball every year,” Hedges said in 2010. “I went to a tryout camp with the Yankees in Joplin, Mo., after my sophomore year at LSU. I had a chance to decide which one I liked the most. I chose football. “I love baseball, but after you play in Tiger Stadium, there’s nothing like it so I went back for my last two years at LSU.” Coaching career In 1954, as he finished work on his degree, he helped coach the LSU freshmen in football, then began his coaching career at Fair Park under Prendergast in 1955. That Fair Park team went to the state-championship game and lost to Istrouma (Baton Rouge), led by running back Billy Cannon. The next season, 1956, Hedges became head coach at Byrd at age 26 and his first team also went to the state title game. Istrouma again was the opponent and won 14-7, the fourth of Istrouma's eight state titles in a 13-year period. After four years at Byrd (23-19-3 record), he moved to Woodlawn, the new school in the southeast part of Shreveport. Following the rough first season, most of the team returned and the "Team Named Desire" won its first six games, most of them close and with fourth-quarter heroics. The team's 9-2 regular season, district title and state playoff berth earned Hedges several "Coach of the Year" honors. He was the state's "Coach of the Year" in 1965 when Bradshaw led a surprising team -- with only one returning starter from the year before -- to an 11-2-1 record. The district champions then won two playoff games before a 12-9 loss to Sulphur in the state championship game. In his final five seasons at Woodlawn, Hedges' teams had records of 9-3, 9-2, 8-3-1, 10-2, 11-2-1 -- a combined 47-12-2. His quarterbacks included Billy Laird, second-team All-State choice, then a star at Louisiana Tech and later a prominent college and high school coach; Trey Prather, an All-State choice who played at LSU for two years; and Bradshaw. College coaching After the 1965 season, Hedges resigned from the Woodlawn job and accepted a position as offensive backfield coach at Louisiana Tech University under legendary head coach Joe Aillet. At the time, a dozen ex-Woodlawn players had gone on play at Tech. In the 1966 season, Tech's quarterbacks were sophomore Phil Robertson -- the future "Duck Commander" and head of the Duck Dynasty family -- and Bradshaw, a freshman. But the team had the worst season (1-9 record) in Aillet's 26 years as Tech coach, and he retired from football (but remained as athletic director) a couple of months after the season ended. Hedges, in turn, returned to Shreveport, becoming the head coach at Captain Shreve High School, opening in the fall of 1967. Captain Shreve In 18 seasons at Shreve, Hedges' teams had a 146-52-4 (.733), with eight district championships (the first in 1970, the fourth year of the program). His 1971 and 1983 teams made it to the state semifinals; his 1973 team, with its 14-0 record and average margin of victory of 26 points, gave him his only state championship and is considered one of the most talented teams in Shreveport-Bossier history. It had eight shutouts in 10 regular-season games, gave up only 15 points in those games, and its closest games were two 11-point playoff decisions. The team had five All-State selections -- quarterback Joel Thomas, 2,344 yards passing and 35 touchdowns, receivers Pennywell (58 receptions -- a state-record 21 for TDs -- and 1,240 yards) and Rod Foppe (picked as a defensive back and 40 catches, 860 yards, 12 TDs), 1,064-yard rusher Willie B. Mosely, and linebacker Curley White, leader of the big, strong, rough defense. Yet, Shreve -- which never trailed in the regular season -- had to come from behind in each of its four playoff games, culminating with a 26-15 victory against Glen Oaks (Baton Rouge) for the state championship. “You work so many years to get to the finals,” Hedges said in 2010, reviewing his career. “We went a couple of other times and it looked easier to get there. Then it was (eight) years before we made it to another final. It felt like a dream. They felt like they could win it. I wasn’t always sure it would happen. I remember it very well. When you’re a part of only one, it stands out in a hurry.” The 1973 team was the first of three Captain Shreve teams with perfect regular-season records (the 1971 team went 9-0-1). The 1974 team extended the Gators’ winning streak to 24 games before falling to Southwood in the state playoffs. The 1980 team also was 10-0 in regular-season play. Legacy “He was very well-organized,” said A.L.Williams, part of Hedges' coaching staff at Woodlawn in the early 1960s and his successor as head coach. “His practices were well-planned. We spent so many minutes on one thing, then another. He was heading all that up. He had to get four new coaches together. The four [assistants] had never coached together. He’d never coached with any of them. I can’t imagine how hard it was for him.” Bo Harris: "He was the master of motivation through positive reinforcement. It was a core-shaping of my athletic career. Coach Hedges knew how to do it. You wanted to please the man. You put out all the effort just to hear him say, "Thataboy.' "         Williams: "He didn't want any of the accolades or credit. He always gave that to someone else. He was 100 percent sincere in that. He appreciated the people and the students and he was the one who should have a stadium named after him. The athlete always came first ...    "When we'd go to the high school athletic association [meetings], he would always vote for what was best for the student and what was best for the game. There were a lot of people who would vote for what would help them. He was the type of guy you want to work with and you want to be leading. He was a natural leader. He just didn't have an ego. It wasn't about what he could get." Family Hedges was married for 58 years to Nell Womack Hedges (1933-2013), who grew up in Minden, La. They had two sons -- Russell and Douglas. Nell Hedges was a teacher in Caddo Parish schools for 27 years. “I’ve had the good fortune of having some sound backing at home,” Coach Hedges said in 2010. Honors In 1963, Hedges was chosen as Outstanding Teacher in Caddo Parish by the parish teachers association. In 1973, he was elected president of the Louisiana High School Coaches Association. He was selected for the Louisiana High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1987, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2010, and the Ark-La-Tex Sports Museum of Champions in 2013. The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame selection was in the "oldtimers" category. "It's a real honor," Hedges said in 2010. "I wasn't that good, to tell you the truth. I had some good help, but nobody enjoyed it more than me. They may care, but not as much as I did about having the players having a chance to win and develop some other characteristics.    "When you go in a place and the guy looks at your credit card and asks, 'Is the stadium named after you?" it's a real honor. I can't help but be [proud]. I'm proud of everyone who was with me and even those we played again st.     "They made it better."