Charles Hurley's Autobiography

When Charles “Chuck” Hurley passed away the impact was felt throughout the state of Indiana, all of Jennings County and in me. Charles Hurley was so popular that the held is funeral in our high school basketball gymnasium. As we approached the funeral I can remember the stop and go driving all the way to our school parking lot. If you can try to imagine someone that is larger than life it was Charles Hurley. Honorable, loyal, genuine, there are many adjectives one could use to describe him, but to me the most fitting was virtuous. Looking back and assessing life you may be able to recall times when you say “I will never see the likes of that again.” That statement is very fitting for Mr. Hurley. The school went on to name the gymnasium after
Prior to being the principal at Jennings County he attended the school. He was a great athlete and was inducted into the Indiana State High School Athletics Association Hall of Fame. Growing up I have been told many stories about how special of a man he was. He stood over 6 feet tall, well groomed with his dark hair in a side part and he was made of pure muscle. It wasn’t the type you see in body building magazines but the type that could lift a car off of someone pinned underneath, or knock down a horse with a single
Hurley would travel the football field in his wheelchair as his wife pushed him around to greet the players. Diabetes may have taken his legs out from underneath of him but it didn’t take the passion and excitement out of his eyes. “Brandon, you played a great game out there tonight, how are you feeling?” I can remember him ask. As his condition got worse he had told me that he was being confined to a nursing home that way he could be properly cared for. Half way through the season Mr. Hurley wasn’t roaming the sidelines of the football field anymore. His condition had worsened and he had asked me if I could travel to the nursing home and talk football with him on Saturdays after the