The MSU Athletics Hall of Fame inducted five distinguished members as part of the Class of 2013. Ryan Miller, Kip Miller, Jenna Wrobel, Morris Peterson and Henry Bullough all had illustrious careers at MSU and were recognized Thursday at Wharton Center.
—As the forefather of MSU’s most well-known football lineage, Henry Bullough rarely mentioned the gridiron as he answered questions Thursday before being formally inducted to MSU’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
Today’s generation of Spartans associate the Bullough name more closely with his grandsons Max, senior and a three-year starter at middle linebacker, or Riley, a redshirt freshman running back.
But before that, there was their dad, Shane, and uncle Chuck Bullough, both Spartan linebackers in the 1980s.
Even earlier was their father Henry, better known as Hank, who starred as a three-year starter at guard under legendary MSU coach Clarence “Biggie” Munn from 1952-54.
“The first thing I say to (MSU players is) ‘How are you going in school?’” Bullough said.
“‘I’m doing OK, coach.’ I don’t want to hear about that OK. It’s either great, or you’re not doing very good in school. … School’s the whole thing when it’s all over with.”
As a Spartan, Henry Bullough was a member of the 1952 national championship team and the 1953 Big Ten title squad that earned MSU’s first trip to the Rose Bowl, a 28-20 win against UCLA.
After a brief professional career with the Green Bay Packers, Bullough made a name for himself as a football coach. From 1959-69 he returned to MSU as an assistant under Duffy Daugherty where he won back-to-back national championships in 1965 and 1966. Bullough also coached the Spartans for the 1994 season as one of George Perles’ assistants.
For more than two decades, Bullough was a highly successful in the NFL, where he won the 1970 Super Bowl as the linebackers coach of the Baltimore Colts. Bullough also is credited with bringing the 3-4 defense to the professional ranks while he was the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots.
Bullough said he was rarely a “pump-up guy” as a coach, and he isn’t in his grandsons’ ears trying to motivate them on Saturdays, either. If they’re not ready by then, he said, it’s too late.
“That the kids played hard,” he said when asked what he hopes the Bullough surname to represents on the field.
“They played smart and they played hard. I don’t ever worry about them on the football field.”
To read on other inductees of the Athletics Hall of Fame, visit the folowing: Kip Miller, Morris Peterson, Jenna Wrobel, and Ryan Miller
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