Hall of Famer Sam Huff Is A Team Player For Local Issues

After eight seasons with the New York Giants and five with the Washington Redskins, Sam Huff was inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame in 1982. The 74-year-old Redskins broadcaster, who lives in Middleburg and hosts a weekly show about horse racing for the Middleburg Broadcasting Network, spoke recently with loudounextra.com reporter Jeff Koslofsky about his interest in horses and his strong support for Loudoun's rural public schools.

Q What brought you to Loudoun County?

A.I used to travel through here when I was traded to the Washington Redskins. I lived in Alexandria while I played for the Redskins. In the offseason, I used to take my family through Middleburg. Loudoun was convenient for me. I found a property I liked and bought the land 25 years ago.

You are very passionate about retaining the rural elementary schools in Loudoun. Where does that passion come from?

It comes from West Virginia. I went to a small school [there], and walked to school. People don't walk anymore; they all ride buses. But I've learned from that. When you're a football player and you have families, you're involved in local neighborhoods. You become part of the neighborhood. [But] you're moving your family, which is traumatic. So I know how important the local neighborhood schools are to kids. I understand how difficult it is to mix kids together.

A lot of educators don't understand that, and a lot of people don't understand that. Close down Middleburg [Elementary] School, and bus these kids from Middleburg to Leesburg? This is their school. You've got a wonderful baseball field here, and a place these kids can go out and play. It's safe and it's in the middle of town, but these local supervisors were going to close it down.

School consolidation does not work. You're going to cause problems. I couldn't let this happen. Change sometimes is needed, but changing Middleburg is not necessary. I'm not one to sit on the sideline and watch a football game, so I'm in the game. I'm going to stand up and be counted, for the kids.

School consolidation is like me coming from the New York Giants to the Redskins. It's not easy fitting in, especially for kids.

You have a horse racing show that airs every week. Talk about your interest in that sport.

I'm not as good in horse racing as I am at football, let me tell you that. I've always liked horses. It's a great sport. Now, I can't own a football team like Dan Snyder. However, I could own a racehorse and compete against [Snyder] if I wanted, if he had a horse. A 10-horse field, 10 gates . . . my horse could come out of the gate and beat his horse. That's the only sport I can do that, so that's why I'm in it.

When you sit in the radio booth and call the Redskins games, do you ever miss putting on the uniform on Sundays?

Oh, yeah. But . . . [fellow broadcaster] Sonny Jurgensen, he and I, we're teammates now. We work together, and we think so much alike. It's a friendship made in heaven. That kind of friendship, nothing can come between that.