A Huguenot Academy alumnus is in the process of putting together a complete history of the school’s football program.
Michael Pulley, 60 and currently residing in Staunton, graduated from Huguenot Academy in 1984 and is now undertaking the task of recording the school’s 35-year football history all in one place. In his time playing football at Huguenot Academy, Pulley was a standout quarterback, later competing at Emory & Henry as a tight end.
Since he retired, Pulley says he’s been looking for a project to dive into, and was inspired to write a book after seeing current Blessed Sacrament Huguenot athletic director Chuck Thomas’ efforts to honor the school’s athletic history.
"When Chuck Thomas came and became the athletic director, he started inviting teams back, he started replicating their trophies that had been lost, he also started a Hall of Fame,” Pulley said. “It was all those things that made me think we don't have any one place for any kind of history of the football program at Huguenot, so I just decided that was what I'm going to do."
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Pulley is currently six weeks into the researching process, currently focusing on old newspaper clippings from the Richmond Times-Dispatch and archives of the now-defunct Powhatan Gazette and Richmond News Leader to fill in gaps around his time at Huguenot.
To Pulley, any information, from stats to team rosters to team captains, is helpful in his quest to tell the program’s storied history.
"There's nothing off-limits,” he said. “There's nothing that I've come across and in my head thought I'm not interested in that. If it has to do with the football program, I'm interested."
Pulley has already gotten a helping hand from multiple people, including fellow alumni Chris Jones and Paul Mitchell, who have provided information that helps with the team’s history through the 1970s. Gary Brock, the current head coach of the BSH Knights and Pulley’s own coach at Huguenot, has also expressed interest in helping with the project. Pulley’s former teammates from the 1983 team, which he describes as "the best team in school history that never won anything,” have also added additional resources to his research.
Like many Huguenot athletes that have been honored with new trophies throughout the past few seasons, Pulley has been back to the campus twice with his former classmates, rekindling that familiar feeling on the football field where the Knights of today work on their own high school legacies.
"It's been really cool to be reconnected with the school and to be on campus,” he said.
If anyone has information or resources useful to Pulley's project, you can reach out to him at pulleyruns@yahoo.com or at 804-335-8435.
