The story of the Henry H. Hudson Memorial Trophy: Astronaut vs. Titusville football

It started with an e-mail from Astronaut High athletic director Cheryl Shivel in mid-November of 2022.

"I want to know the bio of Henry Hudson," it began. "We are getting ready to make a new trophy, as 50 years of scores is on it. We want the kids to know its history."

The trophy was the Henry H. Hudson Memorial Trophy. It's given to the winner of the annual football game between the War Eagles and Titusville High and has been since 1972, when brand new Astronaut High opened.

The two play for it again Friday, Week 10 of Brevard County high school football. Despite games involving Cocoa-Palm Bay, Eau Gallie-Rockledge and MCC-Halifax Academy that will determine district champions, the Battle for the Hudson Trophy is foremost on the minds of fans of the War Eagles and Terriers.

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Henry H. Hudson, the Man

The easy part was finding the history. Hudson was publisher of the Star-Advocate for 47 years, having moved to Titusville in 1925, buying a majority of what was then the East Coast Advocate. The paper served the Titusville area.

Previously a teacher in his home state of Iowa, Hudson switched to journalism and started at the newspaper in Des Moines, near his native Algona. He died June 8, 1972, at the age of 83, and the series between the schools started in the fall. Gannett, which owns FLORIDA TODAY, had bought the Star-Advocate in 1965.

All of this information came from archived FLORIDA TODAY stories, most of it from Hudson's obituary. But there was more, and that was what the middle initial "H" represented.

His middle name was Hallock. Here was the beloved trophy coveted by both sides in a heated rivalry, and there had to be some kind of relationship between it and the 19-year coach of the War Eagles, Randy Hallock.

Hallock's sister Sheri — first-year Astronaut head coach Logan Hallock, nephew of Randy, hadn't been hired at the time of the original discovery — said Randy had always insisted they were related, and he proved to be correct.

Sheri and her family learned that the grandfather of Randy and great-grandfather of Logan was the cousin of the former publisher.

Henry H. Hudson, the Trophy

The trophy itself has quite a history. Be sure to find the gallery linked on 321preps.com to see some historical photos of players with the trophy. There is at least one current Brevard defensive coordinator included, along with some dads of younger Hudson Trophy contenders and other familiar faces.

Wayne Lawrence, now an assistant principal at Cocoa, coached the Terriers from 2013-17. After one of his two wins over the Terriers, he took the trophy around to local businesses and youth football games to show it off.

Then there is the story of one winning Titusville head coach taking the trophy home to sleep with it. Actually, with the dominance Astronaut showed for many years, that didn't seem too strange.

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"I took it home," former Terriers coach Bobby Guthrie admitted this week. "That may have been a joke about actually sleeping with it, but I did take it home. It was a big deal when we won."

That was 2006, Guthrie's third year as head coach, and — far more significantly — it was the last year of Draa Field, the field shared by the two schools until their own on-campus stadiums opened in 2007. Regardless of any losing streaks, the team that won last on that historic site was going to hold some eternal bragging rights.

"We hadn't beaten then in about 12 years," Guthrie remembered, "so it was a huge deal."

Henry H. Hudson, the Memories

Guthrie spoke of his 2006 win on Tuesday at noon. The night before, he had watched a tape of the game.

"I still got chills," he said. "It's different now, but you had to show up two hours before the game to get a seat. We each had our own sides."

Guthrie said there were people outside the stadium who couldn't get a seat but were taking advantage of surrounding trees to get a look.

Shivel had similar memories. Now one of the War Eagles, she attended Titusville in her own school days. When the current Hudson Trophy filled up with engraved results, officials from the two schools made a decision.

They took it to a trophy shop but were told there was an area where another 10 years of scores would fit, so the original will be used again, for now. The end of Draa Field and the dwindling space on the trophy begs another question: how big a deal will it be to own that last winning score?

Oh, and what will happen to it then? That will be decided by the parties involved, but it's the year-to-year winning and losing that drives them each time they face off on the field.

Bringing it back to the Hallocks, Randy was particularly bothered by losing to the arch rivals.

"(Randy) just had that competitive spirit," Shivel recalled. "All those coaches knew each other, but this is the week we didn't like each other. This is the week we do not want to lose."

Friday's Brevard high school football schedule

All games are 7 p.m. start times

Astronaut at Titusville

Palm Bay at Cocoa

Cocoa Beach at Jacksonville Stanton

Rockledge at Eau Gallie

Harmony at Heritage

Melbourne at Viera

Halifax Acad at MCC

Merritt Island at Satellite

Four Corners at Calvary Chapel

Late Thursday

Bayside at Jensen Beach

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Henry H. Hudson Memorial Trophy for winner of Astronaut-Titusville FB