James Judd casts a towering shadow over Southwestern Michigan College wrestling — past and future.

“He was like Ted Lasso,” his son, Todd, said. “It’s nice to win, but he was more about developing good young men than winning and losing.”

Lasso, a television character played by Jason Sudeikis, is an American college football coach hired to coach an English soccer team whose owner secretly hopes his inexperience will lead to failure. But Lasso’s folksy, optimistic leadership proves surprisingly successful.

Judd was one of three original SMC coaches, along with Cross Country/Track Hall of Famer Ron Gunn and Jim Tansey, who played basketball for John Wooden at South Bend Central before the “Wizard of Westwood” won 10 NCAA national championships in 12 years with UCLA, including seven straight.

The Jims tossed a coin to decide Judd would also coach golf. His late brother, Ken, a professional golfer, was the teaching pro at the Lake Geneva, Wis., Playboy Club.

Judd developed Todd Hesson, SMC’s current head coach, whose Roadrunners three-peated the Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) championship and captured the 2025 Great Lakes District Championship in Illinois in the three years since the sport’s revival after a 30-year absence.

In Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 8, Hesson was named National Wrestling Coaches Association Coach of the Year as the Roadrunners finished 14^th in the NJCAA Division I. Sophomores Colby Klinger and Nathan Andrina were honored as All-Americans.

Hesson, Great Lakes District Wrestling Coach of the Year, is only SMC’s second coach. Judd started the program in 1968 and continued until its 1992 elimination.

Judd spent 38 years with the college, continuing to teach physical education until 2006.

Judd’s Studs

“Judd’s Stud’s” were known for wearing colorful singlets and for classroom success.

“Those shirts were so popular” among all the athletes, Todd, himself a retired 32-year physical education teacher and coach, recalled. “Wrestlers, basketball players, cross-country runners, we all hung out together. They all wanted Judd’s Studs shirts. My dad would tell them, ’Pick out a wrestler. If you can take them down, I’ll give you a T-shirt,’ — but no one ever could.”

Todd, red-shirted one year, was at SMC from 1982-85. The third generation of Judds was here in Todd’s son, Gavin, the inspiration for a semi-professional soccer league Judd planned to launch.

“My dad had a big influence on him, too,” Todd said. “He wants to teach and coach. Matter of fact, during break in Florida he’s going to parachute out of an airplane.”

When SMC dropped wrestling in 1992, Grand Rapids Junior College and Muskegon Community College were the only comparable opponents remaining. Grapplers often competed against four-year universities.

Travel expense was more than student participation justified. The 1991-92 program had 10 students — not enough to fill the weight-class quota.

More than 150 of Judd’s former wrestlers went on to four-year colleges and universities.

Nine former Roadrunners served as coaches in the immediate area, including John Johnson and John Green, Judd’s SMC assistants.

His 1972-73 team received an NJCAA award for its number of academic All-Americans.

Hesson continues to emphasize academics. In 2024, National Wrestling Coaches Association released its awards for NJCAA Scholar All-Americans, including five Roadrunners, Nathan Andrina, Hector Garcia, Hunter Heath, Colby Klinger and Vinny Patierno.

Coach Judd was named to the NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., in 1990.

Before SMC he taught and coached football, baseball and track with the Spencerville Public School System; Ottawa-Glandorf; and Otsego Schools, all in Ohio.

Coach Judd, who passed away on Christmas Eve 2021 at 83, was born Dec. 29, 1937, in North Baltimore, Ohio, to Kenneth and Elsie (Nigh) Judd. He graduated from North Baltimore High School in 1956.

“My grandfather, my uncle and dad are all in the North Baltimore Sports Hall of Fame,” Todd said.

Army paratrooper and ‘Honest John’

Following high school, Judd enlisted in the U.S. Army and served from 1956 until 1960 as a paratrooper, making more than 50 jumps.

Judd, who spent three years in Germany, was one of eight men commonly referred to as the “Honest Johns,” entrusted to guard atomic bombs.

Once honorably discharged, Judd continued h