Former UNC basketball captain Jim Hudock dies at 67
Tarheel Times
Jim Hudock was a captain on Dean Smith's first North Carolina basketball team in 1961-62, and he exuded the qualities his Hall of Fame coach admired. "He was a tremendous competitor, a good leader and a good student,'' Smith said. Hudock, 67, died Friday in Kinston after a recurrence of cancer. A four-sport letterman at Tunkhannock (Pa.) High, Hudock also was recruited to play college football, but he opted to sign with then-North Carolina coach Frank McGuire. (Raleigh News & Observer)
Jim Hudock
A.J. Carr, Staff Writer
Raleigh News & Observer
Jim Hudock was a captain on Dean Smith's first North Carolina
basketball team in 1961-62, and he exuded the qualities his Hall of
Fame coach admired.
"He was a tremendous competitor, a good leader and a good student,''
Smith said.
Hudock, 67, died Friday in Kinston after a recurrence of cancer.
A four-sport letterman at Tunkhannock (Pa.) High, Hudock also was
recruited to play college football, but he opted to sign with then-
North Carolina coach Frank McGuire.
He earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial relations,
completed dental school at UNC in 1968 and practiced in Kinston until
retiring in 1990.
Hudock also was involved in various community activities, which
included coaching youth-league basketball teams for many years.
He is survived by his wife, Deborah Walton Hudock, and five children.
A celebration of life service will be held at a 5 p.m. mass today at
Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Kinston.
Memorials may be made to the Children's Home Society of North
Carolina, P.O. Box 14608, Greensboro, NC, 27415.
James John Hudock
Wyoming County Press Examiner 5/16/07
Dr. James John Hudock passed away May 11, 2007, at his family home in Kinston, N.C. He was married to Deborah Walton Hudock for 30 years.
He was born in Kingston, on March 14, 1940, to the late Michael and Dorothy Hudock. After graduating as an award winning four-sport letterman from Tunkhannock High School (1958), he was heavily recruited in both football and basketball. Ultimately, he chose to play basketball at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the state where he made his home.
As an undergraduate, he played basketball for Coach Frank McGuire and Coach Dean Smith (1958-62). During Hudock’s senior year, he served as the captain of Coach Smith’s first team at UNC. After finishing his B.S. in Industrial Relations (1972), he was drafted by the ABL (American Basketball League), but returned home to Chapel Hill to start dental school. He finished his D. D. S. in 1968 and moved to Kinston, where he practiced dentistry until he retired in 1990 and was a member of the North Carolina Dental Society.
Sports, community, and family have always been an important part of Hudock’s life. He played in Kinston’s adult basketball league until 1985, and spent years coaching in the city’s youth league as well as serving one year as assistant coach at Wayne Country Day. Hudock had a commitment to encouraging young people to succeed, even serving as president of the PTA two times during his children’s school years. He was also a former member of the local Elks Lodge 570.
In 1998, Hudock was inducted into the Northeastern Region Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame where he was recognized for his excellence in football, basketball, track, baseball, and volleyball. In 2006, he was recognized by his high school, where he still holds numerous records, as one of the school’s most outstanding athletes.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Michael “Oz” Hudock.
In addition to his wife, survivors include children, Amy Hudock of Summerville, S.C., Stacy Proscia of Sanford, Fla., J. J. Hudock of Charlotte, N.C., Jenny Renfroe of Rosewell, Ga., and Steve Hudock of San Diego, Calif.; grandchildren, Michael Smith, Josh Renfroe, Dominic Proscia, Nicolas Proscia, Sarah Hudock, and Kayla Toney; a sister, Dorothy Smichowski and husband, Vince, a sister-in-law, Eula Hudock, a brother-in-law, Jerry Walton and his wife Gale, numerous loving nieces and nephews and their children; and many close, loving friends.
Sports legend dies in N.C.
Wyoming County Press Examiner
5/16/07
BY ROBERT L. BAKER
Fellow Tiger teammate Roger Shupp who grew up with Hudock in downtown Tunkhannock and still lives there, said Monday that Hudock was destined for stardom from a very early age.
“He was not only the biggest kid on the block, he was the biggest kid in the area,” Shupp said of his much bigger buddy who was 6-4 at the age of 12.
The son of Mike and Dorothy (Mawhinney) Hudock was born in Kingston years after his dad played professional basketball with the old Penn State League’s Tunkhannock Tritons. One of his dad’s teams lost the 1936 national professional basketball title game to the Philadelphia Sphas.
Son Jim, after a stellar basketball career at the University of North Carolina, would himself be drafted by the NBA Philadelphia Warriors in 1962, but opted to pursue a dental career instead.
Tunkhannock attorney Gerald Grimaud, who was a couple of years behind Hudock at Tunkhannock and played on four of the five teams that Hudock did, acknowledged his “bigness,” but said people should know that it was not just his sheer size, but rather, “He would inspire others to perform their best.”
“I don’t want to overstate this because his teams had a lot of very fine athletes on them,” Grimaud said. “But, frankly, he inspired the great ones to do even greater things and even the mediocre athletes looked like stars.”
He added, “His athleticism and attitude really complimented well what Coach George Bunnell was trying to achieve here.”
Actually, it probably surpassed Bunnell’s wildest imagination.
The 1957 volleyball team he was on won the state title. He was a receiver on the Tiger football team that never lost a football game while he was on it. His discus throw on the 1957 track & field team was first in district competition.
In baseball, he took the Roosevelt Trail little league team to the state tournament in Williamsport in 1951, and later while in high school he had a 21-2 career as a pitcher and batted .600. Former Tunkhannock Area athletic director Stew Casterline said that Hudock was offered a professional baseball contract to play for the Detroit Tigers organization following his senior year in high school.
Hudock’s 1,896 career point total on the Tunkhannock varsity basketball team has not been surpassed at the school, and he ranked fourth in scoring average in Pennsylvania during his senior year. Numerous colleges took notice of his talents, but it was the legendary Frank McGuire who was able to get him to sign with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Hudock also was offered a football scholarship to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Grimaud said Hudock once told him that he decided against football because of a serious knee injury his older brother, Mike “Oz” Hudock, experienced while playing for the professional New York Titans.
While at UNC, Jim Hudock played for the legendary Dean Smith who until last year won more collegiate basketball games across his career than any other coach. Hudock was on Smith’s first team in 1961-62.
Smith said of the 6-7, 220-pound forward in 1962 that he was “very agile for a big man.”
He added, “Carolina is lucky to have had an athlete who was so dedicated to the game and contributed so much to the Carolina winning tradition in basketball.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Shupp.
He noted that a sportswriter once said of Jim Hudock, “Aw, he was just too big for them.”
“Not so,” Shupp said. “He was also just too talented for them.”
A few years ago he was enshrined in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, joining his biggest hero, his brother ‘Oz,’ who had then recently passed away, also in May.
“Together they leave a legacy in Tunkhannock sports history that will likely never be matched,” Shupp said.
Wyoming County Press Examiner 5/16/07
Dr. James John Hudock passed away May 11, 2007, at his family home in Kinston, N.C. He was married to Deborah Walton Hudock for 30 years.
He was born in Kingston, on March 14, 1940, to the late Michael and Dorothy Hudock. After graduating as an award winning four-sport letterman from Tunkhannock High School (1958), he was heavily recruited in both football and basketball. Ultimately, he chose to play basketball at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the state where he made his home.
As an undergraduate, he played basketball for Coach Frank McGuire and Coach Dean Smith (1958-62). During Hudock’s senior year, he served as the captain of Coach Smith’s first team at UNC. After finishing his B.S. in Industrial Relations (1972), he was drafted by the ABL (American Basketball League), but returned home to Chapel Hill to start dental school. He finished his D. D. S. in 1968 and moved to Kinston, where he practiced dentistry until he retired in 1990 and was a member of the North Carolina Dental Society.
Sports, community, and family have always been an important part of Hudock’s life. He played in Kinston’s adult basketball league until 1985, and spent years coaching in the city’s youth league as well as serving one year as assistant coach at Wayne Country Day. Hudock had a commitment to encouraging young people to succeed, even serving as president of the PTA two times during his children’s school years. He was also a former member of the local Elks Lodge 570.
In 1998, Hudock was inducted into the Northeastern Region Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame where he was recognized for his excellence in football, basketball, track, baseball, and volleyball. In 2006, he was recognized by his high school, where he still holds numerous records, as one of the school’s most outstanding athletes.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Michael “Oz” Hudock.
In addition to his wife, survivors include children, Amy Hudock of Summerville, S.C., Stacy Proscia of Sanford, Fla., J. J. Hudock of Charlotte, N.C., Jenny Renfroe of Rosewell, Ga., and Steve Hudock of San Diego, Calif.; grandchildren, Michael Smith, Josh Renfroe, Dominic Proscia, Nicolas Proscia, Sarah Hudock, and Kayla Toney; a sister, Dorothy Smichowski and husband, Vince, a sister-in-law, Eula Hudock, a brother-in-law, Jerry Walton and his wife Gale, numerous loving nieces and nephews and their children; and many close, loving friends.
Sports legend dies in N.C.
Wyoming County Press Examiner
5/16/07
BY ROBERT L. BAKER
Fellow Tiger teammate Roger Shupp who grew up with Hudock in downtown Tunkhannock and still lives there, said Monday that Hudock was destined for stardom from a very early age.
“He was not only the biggest kid on the block, he was the biggest kid in the area,” Shupp said of his much bigger buddy who was 6-4 at the age of 12.
The son of Mike and Dorothy (Mawhinney) Hudock was born in Kingston years after his dad played professional basketball with the old Penn State League’s Tunkhannock Tritons. One of his dad’s teams lost the 1936 national professional basketball title game to the Philadelphia Sphas.
Son Jim, after a stellar basketball career at the University of North Carolina, would himself be drafted by the NBA Philadelphia Warriors in 1962, but opted to pursue a dental career instead.
Tunkhannock attorney Gerald Grimaud, who was a couple of years behind Hudock at Tunkhannock and played on four of the five teams that Hudock did, acknowledged his “bigness,” but said people should know that it was not just his sheer size, but rather, “He would inspire others to perform their best.”
“I don’t want to overstate this because his teams had a lot of very fine athletes on them,” Grimaud said. “But, frankly, he inspired the great ones to do even greater things and even the mediocre athletes looked like stars.”
He added, “His athleticism and attitude really complimented well what Coach George Bunnell was trying to achieve here.”
Actually, it probably surpassed Bunnell’s wildest imagination.
The 1957 volleyball team he was on won the state title. He was a receiver on the Tiger football team that never lost a football game while he was on it. His discus throw on the 1957 track & field team was first in district competition.
In baseball, he took the Roosevelt Trail little league team to the state tournament in Williamsport in 1951, and later while in high school he had a 21-2 career as a pitcher and batted .600. Former Tunkhannock Area athletic director Stew Casterline said that Hudock was offered a professional baseball contract to play for the Detroit Tigers organization following his senior year in high school.
Hudock’s 1,896 career point total on the Tunkhannock varsity basketball team has not been surpassed at the school, and he ranked fourth in scoring average in Pennsylvania during his senior year. Numerous colleges took notice of his talents, but it was the legendary Frank McGuire who was able to get him to sign with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Hudock also was offered a football scholarship to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Grimaud said Hudock once told him that he decided against football because of a serious knee injury his older brother, Mike “Oz” Hudock, experienced while playing for the professional New York Titans.
While at UNC, Jim Hudock played for the legendary Dean Smith who until last year won more collegiate basketball games across his career than any other coach. Hudock was on Smith’s first team in 1961-62.
Smith said of the 6-7, 220-pound forward in 1962 that he was “very agile for a big man.”
He added, “Carolina is lucky to have had an athlete who was so dedicated to the game and contributed so much to the Carolina winning tradition in basketball.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Shupp.
He noted that a sportswriter once said of Jim Hudock, “Aw, he was just too big for them.”
“Not so,” Shupp said. “He was also just too talented for them.”
A few years ago he was enshrined in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, joining his biggest hero, his brother ‘Oz,’ who had then recently passed away, also in May.
“Together they leave a legacy in Tunkhannock sports history that will likely never be matched,” Shupp said.
I was just scrolling to see if I could find any info on Jim Hudock . I never met him but heard of him . Jim and my mother Eleanor Hudock Pellegrini were first cousins I did meet his brother Oz Hudock. Jim has many family members in Luzerne County Pa
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