He was a backup in Super Bowl XIV as a member of the Los Angeles Rams, he was a backup to Super Bowl MVP Phil Simms in Super Bowl XXI as a member of the New York Giants, and was a backup in Super Bowl XXVI as a member of the Washington Redskins. On October 2, 2019, his wife gave birth to a daughter. Woodlawn High School had a much longer history that went back to 1916, when the community of Woodlawn was annexed into Birmingham. jeff.rutledge@mcmillanvantage.com. A three-year starter, he also led Alabama to the #2 National ranking in 1977. "There is no doubt in my mind that the delay in the game helped us,'' Banks' Grefseng says. Bold denotes league leader. Drafted in the ninth round of the 1979 NFL Draft (246th overall pick) by the Los Angeles Rams, Rutledge played in 14 NFL seasons from 1979 to 1992 for three different teams. In May 2013, Rutledge was hired by Valley Christian High School in Chandler, Arizona as a full-time staff member and also to lead the football program. Banks quarterback Jeff Rutledge, who would later lead Alabama to a national championship and play on two Super Bowl-winning teams, and Woodlawn running back Tony Nathan, who would become Rutledge's teammate at Alabama and go on to play in two Super Bowls of his own, were the marquee attractions. A three-year starter, he also led Alabama to the #2 National ranking in 1977. He resigned in the Spring of 2012 to return to Arizona to spend time with his family. Six years later, he led the Tigers to an undefeated 15-0 season and a 4A state championship. In overtime, he hit Art Monk with a vital 40-yard p* on third and 15 to help set up Chip Lohmiller's game-winning field goal. He is now a bailiff for Miami-Dade County Court Judge Edward Newman, a former Dolphins teammate. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Experienced backup quarterbacks can be valuable when injuries strike. In the 1980s, Banks High School -- home of those mighty Jets for all those years -- was closed as part of a city schools reorganization and it became Banks Middle School. Tony Nathan will sign copies of his new book, "Touchdown Tony: Running With a Purpose," at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, at the Alabama Booksmith, 2626 19th Place South, Homewood. He received his degree from Alabama in Business Administration and in 2011, was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. "You wouldn't have known him to be any different from any of the other players on the team," Hendrix, who went on to play briefly with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers, says. So I ended up saying, 'Thanks, coach, but no thanks.' Tony Nathan holds his youngest brother, Cedric, after he announces in December 1974 that he will attend the University of Alabama. Rutledge, first, and then Stan Humphries were knocked out of the game, leaving emergency quarterback Brian Mitchell (a kick returner and former college quarterback) to finish the game. Jeff Rutledge III - Facebook So I had never beaten them.". Ragland, the Woodlawn quarterback, grew up in a house divided. "I was like, 'All right, it's that time.'". It took him 36 years, but Nathan kept that promise to his coach. "I think back about our team, and I think about the players who played then and who could play now in terms of their strength and speed and ability," Legg says. His parents met at the University of Arkansas, and when he was almost four his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Add to that the fact that, back in those days, only one team from each region made the state playoffs. That iconic Banks jet was turned over to the Southern Museum of Flight, where it has been restored to its Korean War glory days. After Thursday morning's practice, the Giants will leave for their annual welcome-home lunch at the Sheraton Centre. On one particular visit, Bryant brought his overnight bag, Tony's father remembers. ''Maybe it will make them think a bit or at least make their decision tough. "He looked like he had a jet pack on his back," Baumhower recalls. They all came to see Tony.". So it's tough for her to hear that she should wait. Mike Perez was waived Tuesday, leaving Rutledge as the only other quarterback on the roster. In the spring of 2007 Rutledge got his first NFL coaching job when he was hired as quarterbacks coach with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, with direct charge over Kurt Warner. 1972 His brother Gary Rutledge was also a quarterback at Alabama from 1972 to 1974. "They do a great job of keeping us involved in what's going on and keeping us involved with the fans. (Linebacker) Barry Krauss could play today. Gerelds, recognizing Nathan's underutilized potential, thought he needed to have the ball in his hands more often and moved him to offense his junior year.Before the start of that 1973 season, something else happened that changed the Woodlawn football team's fortunes. "Before I signed to go to Alabama, Coach Bryant told me, 'Well, look, you can try out (for basketball), but if you're not within the top six, you've got to come back out for spring ball.'''. He resigned in the Spring of 2012 to return to Arizona to spend time with his family. Jeff Rutledges income source is mostly from being a successful Player. (Birmingham News file/Charles Nesbitt). "I came to stay until Tony makes up his mind," Bryant replied. "It was a miserable way to end your season.". Wore number 17 for the New York Giants. A few years ago, though, Nathan realized one thing was missing in his life. Last year, Nathan was inducted into the Dolphins' Walk of Fame, immortalized alongside such legendary Dolphins as Dan Marino, Bob Griese, Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka and Nick Buoniconti in the sidewalk outside Miami's Sun Life Stadium. Some of those who were in the stands that night can't say for sure who won, and even many of those who were on the fieldare hard-pressed to remember the final score. That same night, Banks' 35-game unbeaten streak came to an abrupt end when Rutledge blew out an ankle and the banged-up Jets lost 34-27 to West End. Rutledge was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. "It touched me," he says. "I was like, 'What?'" "I wanted to go home. "And then they told me that that guy (Nathan) was an All-American basketball player, and he wasn't going to be playing football. All rights reserved (About Us). He finished his college career with a 33-5 record as a starter, which currently ranks him as the University of Alabama's seventh all-time winningest quarterback. Rutledge led Montgomery Bell Academy to a 41-17 record from 20022006, with two state *les in 2002 and 2003 and a #15 ranking in the final USA Today Super 25 poll in 2003. (Birmingham News file/Robert Adams). An estimated 42,000 people poured into Legion Field that night -- a state high-school attendance record that still stands -- but as big as the game was, just as many people were curious to see its two superstars, Woodlawn's Nathan and Banks' Rutledge. "It was an amazing thing to see all of those kids -- who grew up together and went to church together, played at Wahouma Park together - in that room together that night," Stearns says. While Nathan ran for 112 yards and scored a touchdown that night, the Colonels lost to the Jets 18-7, with Rutledge completing eight of nine passing for 185 yards and a touchdown. Some were easier. "That Banks-Woodlawn game our senior year, that was all about Tony and Jeff Rutledge," Hendrix says. "Everywhere Tony lined up, there was Greg," Rutledge remembers. But he made a great play and I just kept running, and he threw it and I caught it.". Trailing 35-14 with 10:37 left in the third quarter Rutledge replaced an ineffective Stan Humphries and led a great comeback. "Including his wife. Nathan says. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Jeff Rutledge was born on 22 January, 1957 in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, is an American football coach and former quarterback. I knew it even before that, when Plan B came along.'' After games, fans mobbed Nathan to get a piece of his jersey. ", Tony Nathan strikes a Heisman-like pose as he tries to avoid a linebacker. 1957 Following his senior season at Alabama in 1978, Banks' Jeff Rutledge went on to play 13 years in the National Football League. He completed 30 of 42 p*es for 363 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 12 yards for the game-tying touchdown with only 24 seconds remaining. He was the starting quarterback on the 1978 National Championship team. Rutledge was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. How old is Jeff Rutledge? So, how much is Jeff Rutledge worth at the age of 65 years old? "I get to meet a ton of people -- lawyers, defendants, victims -- and they all are different," Nathan says. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. ", Tony Nathan runs behind his Miami Dolphins teammate Jeff Toews in a game against the New York Jets. Josh Rutledge - Wikipedia Nathan played his entire NFL career with the Dolphins - retiring in 1987 after nine seasons in the aqua and orange - and he has continued to make Miami his home, even when NFL assistant coaching jobs took him to Tampa Bay, Baltimore and San Francisco. Rutledge, first, and then Stan Humphries were knocked out of the game, leaving emergency quarterback Brian Mitchell (a kick returner and former college quarterback) to finish the game. , money, salary, income, and assets. "I said, 'If we win (the next game) and they win, we are both going to be undefeated when we play each other, and it's going to be the biggest high school crowd there ever will be,'" White recalls. He also led the Crimson Tide to two Sugar Bowl appearances and two SEC Championships. I still get chills thinking about it.". As a senior, he was a member of the 1974 Parade High School All-American team. Everybody else was gone home for Christmas vacation, and I was like, 'What am I doing here?' Bryant sealed the deal by promising Tony he would get a shot at playing basketball at Alabama, too. (Photo courtesy of Tony Nathan). The night after that chat, in an exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Rutledge completed all 8 of his passes for 156 yards. There are 90+ professionals named "Jeff Rutledge", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. "It really did.". Today, Ken O'Brien, the Jets' starter, broke a toe. It wasn't anything boastful for him. A title search shows that Mr. Rutledge and his wife bought a property in Naramata for $1.15-million on Oct. 31, 2016. 6'1", 195 lbs. "I played with older guys, and I wanted to be able to play on their level," Nathan says. It's tough for me to tell her to wait. Meanwhile, the recruiting letters continued to pour in from schools such as USC, Notre Dame, Texas and Oklahoma, as well as SEC schools Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Tennessee. By WARNER HESSLER Staff Writer. Rutledge led Montgomery Bell Academy to a 41-17 record from 20022006, with two state titles in 2002 and 2003 and a #15 ranking in the final USA Today Super 25 poll in 2003. 3 QUARTERBACK, https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/24/sports/uneasy-lies-the-head-of-no-3-quarterback.html, Frank Litsky, Special To the New York Times. So it was almost like it was the state championship game that night.". I did believe. They know they're going to get presents when they see me. They came out in such numbers that the start of the game had to be delayed twice so folks could work their way through the jammed Legion Field turnstiles. "It was odd to see people react and want a piece of cloth off of somebody else who was wearing it. "We were down 24-zip and nothing was going right, and that was the play that gave us the spark to come back. "It was time for people to actually get along -- no matter what race or color you were," he says. By Frank Litsky, Special To the New York Times. Rutledge would never start an NFL game again but he did see spot duty in relief of returning starter Mark Rypien in the Redskins' 1991 Super Bowl Championship season, including some playing time in the last game of the regular season, again against the Philadelphia Eagles. Their two-year reign as 4A state champs also ended with a 12-0 shutout loss to eventual champion Homewood in the first round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, Tuscaloosa was just an hour away, and one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game, Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant, had the Crimson Tide not just rolling again, but steamrolling. He played college football at Alabama, where he was the team's starting quarterback for their 1978 National Championship victory, and was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round of the 1979 NFL Draft. "Almost everybody who played in that (1974) game, you may not have been close friends with them, but you knew who they were," Grefseng, the Banks linebacker, says. "Each gate had four openings in it for four lines of people," Garrett says, "but it still obviously wasn't enough.". There's something always new at the courthouse.". Banks came in riding a 34-game unbeaten streak, its last loss coming to Woodlawn, 21-18, three years before. The four of them -- Baumhower, Nathan, Stephenson and McNeal -- played in two Super Bowls together, but the Dolphins lost both games, to the Redskins in Super Bowl XVII and the 49ers in Super Bowl XIX. Jeffrey Hunter - Biography - IMDb That game meant that Rutledge got the nod to start the following week on Monday Night against the Philadelphia Eagles in a game that was to become infamously known as the "Body Bag Game". 100.00 Down Payment and Houses with No Credit Check. We will update Jeff Rutledge's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible. "Up until my eighth-grade year, I had been going to Banks games all my life, watching Jeff Rutledge's older brother, Gary, and Johnny Musso play,'' Ragland says. (Sugar Jets was a reference to a brand of cereal from the 1950s and '60s.). So the magic from that night continues to live on. Rutledge earned MVP honors at the 1978 Sugar Bowl and also earned All-SEC honors in 1978 and 1979. As big as it was, though, even in these days where everything is just a Google or YouTube search away, only a few accounts and descriptions from that night are available, mainly in school yearbooks and newspaper archives. His brother Gary Rutledge was also a quarterback at Alabama from 1972 to 1974. After the season ended, he accepted an assistant coaching position on Paul "Bear" Bryant's staff at Alabama, where he was part of back-to-back national championships in 1978 and 1979 -- the first of which featured Rutledge and Nathan in the starting backfield. American football player and coach (born 1957), Alabama Crimson Tide starting quarterbacks, Washington Commanders starting quarterbacks, 1978 Alabama Crimson Tide footballAP national champions, Alabama Crimson Tide football yearly statistical leaders, History of the New York Giants (19791993), "High School Football Database - All-American (Parade 1974)", "Jeff Rutledge Named as Football Head Coach - Valley Christian High School", "NFL vet Rutledge returning as high school coach", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeff_Rutledge&oldid=1134094507, High school football coaches in Tennessee, Coaches of American football from Alabama, Players of American football from Birmingham, Alabama, Articles with dead external links from October 2010, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 00:15. Jeff Rutledge. Dunn and Anthony Murray and that would go on to make it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, losing to eventual champion Indiana. Jeff Rutledge, of Newport, represents the White River and his term expires in 2024. His finest moment as a professional player came when as a member of the Redskins he came off the bench in a game versus the Detroit Lions in 1990. Jeff Rutledge, Nathan's old rival from Banks, was now his teammate, quarterbacking the Tide. . If Roberts misses Saturday night's game, as seems likely, Damian Johnson will move to left guard and Brian Williams will replace Johnson at right guard. That year, the Cardinals made a late season run and earned a Super Bowl berth, but lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-23. "I told him, me being so far behind, I didn't want to flunk out. Efforts to reach him for this story were unsuccessful. Almost assuredly, Nathan would not be the featured character in the upcoming movie "Woodlawn," which opens nationwide on Oct. 16, and most definitely, he would not have written a book, "Touchdown Tony: Running With a Purpose," which comes out Tuesday. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jeff Rutledge, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. I don't know exactly when, but I'll do it.'". When the other team did not pick up on Rutledge, he took the snap and did a sneak up the middle for yardage that gave the Giants a first down that would eventually lead to a go-ahead score. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title.