We’re going back in the archives for you, back into the 1990s. Rickey Dudley is a former Ohio State tight end and basketball player. He played for John Cooper on the gridiron and Randy Ayers on the hardwood. He ended up being a first-round NFL draft pick, but you may not know his background very well.
He was quite the legend during his high school days in Henderson, Texas.
And back in a time when there wasn’t a ton of recruiting videos to consume and massive recruiting websites to sift through, the legend of some high school players never made it to the light of day until their college careers started.
Enter Rickey Dudley. ESPN asked some of its writers to single out the best high school prospects they ever covered, and Dave Wilson highlighted his time covering Dudley. Here’s what he said about the eventual Raider, Brown, and Buccaneer.
Next … Wilson’s memory of Dudley
Covering Rickey Dudley in high school
What ESPN’s Dave Wilson said
“In small-town East Texas in 1989, playing against my hometown Kilgore Bulldogs for the district championship, Henderson’s Rickey Dudley put on an incredible display,” writes Wilson. “In local parlance, he could run a hole in the wind, despite being a 6-foot-7, 225-pound tight end. He could run by you, sling tacklers off with a hip shake, or hurdle people like Randy Moss. Athletic enough to play safety, he probably was most dangerous as a punt returner. (He had more than 100 yards and a TD on returns when I saw him — in the first half alone.)”
“One theory? ‘He’s so tall, he knocks two seconds off the hang time,’ said Dickey Meeks, a legendary high school coach in the area. He was also so tall that he went to Ohio State on a basketball scholarship despite being the Texas 4A football player of the year. After a couple of years, he decided he wanted to give football a try again. His senior year at Ohio State, he averaged 13.3 points and 7.5 rebounds and also started at tight end for the Buckeyes, catching 37 passes for 575 yards (15.5 YPC) and seven touchdowns. He was selected with the No. 9 overall pick in the 1996 NFL draft and played eight years in the league. He would be a problem as a stand-up tight end in today’s offenses.”
