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Sumner: Looking Back... Duke's Leo Hart Revolutionized The ACC At Quarterback
9/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
GREENSBORO, N.C. ? Wes Chesson was a high school senior in 1966 and the star quarterback at Edenton (N.C.) High School. Recruited by Duke, Chesson asked the coaching staff if they were recruiting other quarterbacks in his class. Duke coach Tom Harp believed that the best high school athletes played quarterback and he told Chesson that he was recruiting several but most would be moved to other positions.
Anybody in particular? "Well, there's one kid from Kinston, a lanky guy named Leo Hart. We'll probably move him to wide receiver." "Good," replied Chesson. "I'll need someone to throw to."
Chesson and Hart ended up at Duke. They did become one of the most potent pass-catch tandems in ACC history, but not the way Chesson envisioned. It was he who was switched to wide receiver, while Hart revolutionized the ACC at quarterback.
If that seems like a strong statement, bear with me. Leo Hart did things that no ACC quarterback had ever done. It's not like the ACC didn't have good quarterbacks before Hart. Duke's Sonny Jurgensen, North Carolina State's Roman Gabriel, Wake Forest's Norm Snead, and Maryland's Dick Shiner were strong-armed throwers who went on to long and distinguished NFL careers. But ACC coaches adhered to the Woody Hayes axiom that "three things can happen when you throw a forward pass and two of them are bad." Jurgensen, for example, passed for exactly 371 yards as a senior in 1956. Gabriel for 937 in 1961, his senior campaign. Hart came into a ground-oriented league. He didn't leave it that way.
After the required year on the freshman team, Leo Hart became eligible for varsity competition in the fall of 1968. Fifth-year senior Al Woodall, the presumptive starter at quarterback, had been dismissed from school, leaving the starting spot wide open. Hart and fellow sophomore Dave Trice split playing time early before Trice was injured. By the time Trice recovered, Hart had solidified the starting spot; Trice became a defensive back. Hart says, "You never know when your number is going to be called but you had better be ready because if you're not, it might not be called again."
Check out theACC.com for the full story.
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