John Huard didn’t like to talk about himself, even when his football career took him from the University of Maine to the NFL. Off the field, family members and former teammates said Huard was quiet and humble. On the field, one of Maine’s most accomplished players had “an intense work ethic.”

“He never talked about himself, he was very humble in that regard,” said Huard’s grandson, Matt Michaud. “I think he always attributed his success to his teammates. He never made it about himself. Whenever he gained some recognition or award, it was always about his team, the players that he played with. He always made note of how he grew up, his family. He always said he grew up with parents who instilled in him to do things the right way.”

Huard, 80, who is Maine’s only member of the national College Football Hall of Fame, died Wednesday morning at his South Portland home while surrounded by family.

“He’s without a doubt the most powerful figure in Maine football history,” said Colby College football coach Jack Cosgrove, who played quarterback at Maine in the 1970s when Huard was an assistant coach. “For me, growing up in the ’70s, it wasn’t as common for Maine players to be playing in the (NFL) back then. … He was that figure that just personified toughness, intensity, leadership.”

Huard, a 1963 Waterville High graduate, played three seasons at Maine, beginning in 1964. Twice he was named a first-team All-American, in 1965 and 1966. In 2014, he became the first-ever Mainer to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

“It’s a nice honor,” Huard told the Portland Press Herald in 2014. “I was blessed. My parents brought me up the right way and I had great mentors. It is what it is. Life goes on.”

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Huard was a defensive captain for the Black Bears in the 1965 Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida, which East Carolina won, 31-0. It is Maine’s only appearance in a Division 1 bowl game.

“His work intensity (stood out) in everything he did,” said Walter Nelson, who played with Huard at Maine. “John always looked forward to competing. He was a great competitor. Just a quiet guy, but played with great intensity. It was a period where you could play middle linebacker at 6-1 and 215 (pounds). He dominated the Yankee Conference back then.”

John Huard signs a football before a 2015 homecoming football game at Kents Hill School. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

In 1967, the Denver Broncos selected Huard in the fifth round of the American Football League draft. Huard played three seasons with the Broncos. After sitting out the 1970 season, he went to the NFL with the New Orleans Saints. The NFL and AFL officially merged in 1970.

“John was the trailblazer for the Maine kid getting into professional sports,” Cosgrove said. “You don’t hear of many before John. He did some great things. … It was a much tougher time back then to reach those levels, and for him to do it speaks volumes. To be in the NFL, you have to be a special player, and he was that, too.”

Sports Illustrated in 1999 named Huard one of the top 20 athletes in Maine’s history.

Huard, who earned All-New England and All-Yankee Conference honors at Maine, returned to Orono as an assistant coach in 1974. Cosgrove, then a quarterback for the Black Bears, recalled Huard as a fiery coach who held his players accountable.

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“At the end of a long drive, (Huard) didn’t like my presentation coming back to the sidelines. He said I, ‘looked gassed,'” said Cosgrove, who would go on to be Maine’s head coach from 1993-2015. “On the sideline, after a long touchdown drive, we’re celebrating, but I’m getting my butt ripped for that. As a quarterback, I’m not allowed to display any type of weakness, because if the guys in the huddle see it, they’re going to say, ‘What’s going on here?’ I’ve never forgotten that, and that’s something I coach to this very day, about presentation, especially with the quarterback.”

Huard would go on to become the head football coach at Acadia University in Canada. He guided the program to two national titles from 1979-81.

“He took a whole bunch of Yankee Conference fifth-year guys, and in one year, won the national championship,” Cosgrove said. “My brother (Michael Cosgrove), he took him out of UMaine, and my brother (won at Acadia).”

Huard also coached at Maine Maritime Academy (1987-93), where he went 32-33. In 2000, he coached the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

“It was a tough day for a lot of us from Maine Maritime (on Wednesday),” said Dave Sterling, who played safety under Huard from 1988-91. “He pushed everyone to their higher limits. He essentially had a Maine all-star team. He wanted to put together a team based on Maine athletes.”

Sterling, who went on to become a high school head coach at Scarborough and Edward Little, credited Huard’s tough coaching style to make players better.

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“We had to jump rope every morning after a Saturday game,” Sterling said with a laugh. “That was part of his regimen. I told them in the summer of ’88 that, ‘Sure I could jump rope, but for how long?’ They said, ‘Half an hour.’ I kind of was out of gas. I realized that he was really going to push people. Those Sunday morning jump rope sessions were intense. If we won, it was half an hour. If we lost, it was closer to an hour. But it made us all excellent athletes. I have former teammates who are close to 300 pounds who can still jump rope like a boxer.”

When his coaching career ended, Huard became CEO of Northeast Turf Hue, Inc., in South Portland. The company installed turf fields all throughout the East Coast, including at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Off the gridiron, Huard was known as a loving and devoted husband to his wife of 59 years, Helen Huard, whom he met in middle school. The couple had three children — Kim, Johnny and Kristi — and have eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

“He was a truly special person,” Michaud said. “Gramp cared deeply for his family, friends, players, and people he worked with. He wanted to be the best he could be in all facets of his life.

“To this day, people light up when they speak about him and share the impact that he had on their lives. Everyone is very proud of what he accomplished, but more so, the person that he was.”

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