Junior Lee Hedges (November 2, 1929 – July 9, 2023) was an American high school football coach. His 217 victories are the most wins in the history of Shreveport–Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana. In 2001, the Caddo Parish School Board renamed the football stadium at Captain Shreve High School in Hedges' honor. In 2010, he was elected to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches.
Overview
His 1973 team at Captain Shreve was, as of the 2021 season, the last Shreveport-Bossier public school squad to win a state football championship. Hedges was head coach for three Shreveport public high school teams -- Byrd Yellow Jackets (1956–59), Woodlawn Knights (1960–65), and Captain Shreve Gators (1967–84). He 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, Homer Prendergast, who in 23 years as the Indians' head coach had a 154–78–13 (.655) record.
In addition to Bradshaw, other star athletes whom Hedges coached (with school and senior seasons listed) 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 National Football League.
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 of mathematics and tennis coach/instructor. His Captain Shreve tennis teams won 15 state championships. He worked with young tennis players at various country clubs and organizations in Shreveport, such as Pierremont Oaks, until he was into his eighties.
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 Louisiana State Fair Stadium in Shreveport.
Hedges 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 University of 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 Baseball League.
Football was really what I loved more than baseball, but I played summer baseball every year... I went to a tryout camp with the Yankees in Joplin, Missouri, 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
After a stint in the United States Army, he finished work on his degree and in 1954 helped coach the LSU freshmen in football. He then began his coaching career at Fair Park High School as an assistant to Homer Prendergast in 1955. That Fair Park team went to the state championship game and lost to Istrouma of 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.