Buddy Wood

Fifty-one Wildcat seasons later, William “Buddy” Wood’s once-tied career record of 10 touchdown receptions was broken in 2006. The big 6-foot-4, 185-pound, All-State end was the favorite target of Hall of Fame quarterback Donald Fuell. The 1955 Marshall County High School Wildcats were unbeaten, 10-0, and Buddy was named to play for the North squad in the 1956 Alabama North-South All-Star Football game.

Buddy and his father are the only father-son combination known to have played on undefeated teams in the history of Wildcat football. His father, I.B. “Highpockets” Wood, was a member of the 1927 unbeaten MCHS Wildcats, which had the school’s first win ever over the Albertville Aggies with a 6-0 victory. “Highpockets” was known for always helping the youth and led the fundraising effort to build a new stadium for coach Joe Chorba’s Wildcats.

Buddy made the All-District 8 Team while playing forward and center on the 1956 MCHS basketball team. He was even better in Wildcat baseball, playing shortstop and utility from 1951-56. He also played for the hometown independent Guntersville Redbirds through 1958. After his high school career, Wood received an offer to play professional baseball but chose to accept a football scholarship to the University of Alabama. He earned a letter in football from Alabama in 1957.

In the summer of 1958, Buddy signed a professional baseball contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. After two years of professional baseball, Buddy commented, “The fundamental problem was that I could not hit a Major League curveball.”

Buddy married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Ann “Tootsie” Carruth, and they currently live in Salado, Texas. The Wood family includes two sons and five grandchildren. After high school graduation, both sons received basketball scholarships and subsequently earned college degrees.

Buddy spent almost 30 years working at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. During the Apollo Moon Program, he worked in Mission Control during all but one of the moon missions. He has also worked on the shuttle, the space station, and military jobs. One of his last jobs was site manager and lead system engineer at the Army Battle Command System Integration Facility at Fort Hood, Texas.

Coach Percy Lee was Guntersville’s first recreation director and named Buddy one of his first assistants for the salary of one dollar per day. When asked about Wood, Coach Lee commented, “Buddy was a great kid, coachable, versatile, dedicated, and very competitive in all three sports.” According to Buddy, “The time, the activities, and the people with whom I came in contact made a lasting impression on me and contributed to my future success in life, particularly the ‘anything that needed to be done’ part.”

In the early 1970s, Buddy coached youth baseball and was named coach of the Little League All-Star Team from Clear Lake City, Texas. This team won 11 games in the playoffs and was the first team ever from the NASA area to make the State Tournament. This team lost in the second round to a team that eventually made the finals.