John Clinton Eudy Jr., part of China Grove High’s last graduating class in 1961, may have been the most decorated athlete in the history of the school.
He went by Clint and was a devastating high school tackle for the Red Devils, playing both ways. He made the All-State team as a senior in the fall of 1960, started in the Shrine Bowl and shined in the East-West All-Star Game in the summer of 1961.
Eudy was more than just a football star at China Grove. He ran the 440 for the track and field team and stood out on the basketball team. He was president of the senior class.
Eudy’s father was future evangelist Billy Graham’s high school baseball coach in Charlotte in 1935, but Eudy Sr. was a native of Rowan County. A graduate of Newberry College and the University of North Carolina law school, he returned to Rowan County in 1940 to practice law. He served not only as an attorney, but as a prosecutor and judge. He practiced in Salisbury but lived close to China Grove. His son was born in 1943.
Eudy Jr. had a stack of athletic scholarship offers when he graduated from China Grove, but he also excelled in the classroom and ended up attending UNC as a prestigious Morehead Scholar.
He was a standout on the UNC freshman football team in 1961 and was named to the All-State Freshman team by the Greensboro Daily News.
Eudy was 6-foot-2, but weighed only 200 pounds when he first reported to UNC’s football program, but he matured to 220 by his senior season.
He lettered for three years for the Tar Heels and was a starter for two. He performed well on both lines for the Tar Heels from 1962-64, although he is mostly remembered for his work as a pulling guard on the offensive unit.
As a junior, Eudy was a teammate of future NFL stars Ken Willard and Chris Hanburger and helped the Tar Heels go 9-2, share the ACC championship and smash Air Force, 35-0, in the 1963 Gator Bowl.
Eudy graduated from UNC in 1965 and entered the training program for U.S. Marines officers in Quantico, Va.
He married Glenda Lee, Miss Kannapolis for 1964, in December 1965.
Eudy was sent to South Vietnam as a second lieutenant not long after that. He was wounded twice near Da Nang by friendly fire in May 1966, although he continued to serve as a Marine after he recovered from his wounds. He held the rank of captain when he was discharged honorably in 1968.
Eudy returned to UNC to attend law school after he left the Marine Corps. His remarkable working life included not only decades as an attorney, but 10 years as a nurse after he graduated from UNC Greensboro’s nursing program.
Eudy, who died at 79 in 2022, will be on the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame ballot (Senior Division) for the first time in 2027.
