Central Michigan University Athletics
Photo by: Steve Jessmore
Pedigree, Pride, Destiny: Hunter Buczkowski Was Meant To Be A Chippewa
10/7/2021 7:06:00 PM | Football
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – There they are on the wooden door to office No. 174 in the Central Michigan University Student Activity Center.
Horizontal pencil marks chart the growth of Hunter and Logan Buczkowski, two born and bred favorite sons of Mount Pleasant who matriculated from Mount Pleasant Public Schools to Central Michigan University.
The door leads to what was once the office of Don Peddie, the Buczkowski's maternal grandfather, a CMU physical education instructor and an assistant football coach who served as the offensive coordinator on CMU's 1974 Division II national championship team.
The CMU connections run deep and broad for the Buczkowskis: Their parents are CMU grads; their maternal grandmother and Don's wife, Barbara, was a dance instructor at the university; their aunt and uncle, Heather and Jade Peddie, were both student-athletes at CMU; cousin Chase Peddie is a freshman teammate of Hunter's on the football team.
Hunter is in his sixth and final year with the program, nearing a degree in physical education with the hopes of landing a teaching job and, someday, a spot on a high school football coaching staff.
A future with a nod to the past. A life that he will likely spend molding young minds and using sports as an educational vehicle. That's what his family and the Mount Pleasant community did for him.
Papa -- that's what he calls his grandfather, Don Peddie -- regularly picked up Hunter and his brother for Sundays at CMU's Rose Center. Layups in the gym, swimming in the pool, volleyball, badminton, running laps, whatever.
Papa was well aware with his own background in athletics – he played running back at Miami (Ohio) in the early 1960s – that the foundation is almost always laid early in life. Also, and perhaps just as importantly, idle hands are the devil's workshop, as the old saying goes.
"He just wanted to keep us active as much as he could," Hunter says, adding that that carried over to daily life for him and his brother, who would eventually become a pitcher in the CMU baseball program. "You name it, we did it. … Just try to do anything athletic and stay outside."
In high school, the brothers became standouts in back-to-back strong athletic classes at Mount Pleasant High School. They helped the baseball team to a state championship and a state runner-up finish and were members of some outstanding football teams as well as stalwarts on the basketball court.
Certainly, talent, size and athleticism helped to get Hunter to CMU. Still, it was more than that, and his maroon-and-gold blood clearly showed.
"In the long run (the work) paid off and it gave me the opportunity to become an athlete of that caliber to be able to get a scholarship here," he said. "And growing up, in Papa and Nana's house you see all the CMU gear and trophies and he always wears the CMU ring. I was just kind of surrounded by that. And kind of an expectation to go perform at that level.
"I remember a lot of times we would go watch the CMU football games when we were kids and go to the tailgates and stuff. We probably never missed a football game."
Buczkowski was a fullback from the time he set foot in Kelly/Shorts Stadium, and then, with the arrival of Jim McElwain as coach in 2019, he switched to tight end. No need for a fullback in McElwain's system.
Nevertheless, Buczkowski, now a 6-foot, 255-pound wrecking ball, still refers to himself as a fullback. It's semantics, really. At both positions, the No. 1 priority is to block.
Still, he has made seven receptions for 59 yards in his career; two of those catches have gone for touchdowns, and both came at Kelly/Shorts Stadium, where his family and friends were on hand to watch.
"I got to do this in front of my home crowd, and being a townie as well," Buczkowski said. "You really get that feeling of community. It's like, 'hey, an Oiler's playing for the Chippewas.' Now maybe that draws more attention from the locals and they maybe attend a CMU football game. I felt like I've made Mount Pleasant a little more proud in that aspect."
Who knows? Perhaps the success that Buczkowski has found at CMU may inspire somebody in the next generation of Mount Pleasant youngsters.
A door in an out-of-the-way office on the CMU campus is evidence of Buczkowski's physical growth. A mature outlook and a college degree from that university represent intellectual and emotional maturation that has come with an education and a half-decade-plus in the CMU football program.
And those horizontal pencil marks signify a vertical climb that comes only from the beginnings of an understanding of the complexities of life.
"I'm thankful for the opportunity to come here, I'm thankful for the friendships I've made," Buczkowski said. "Coming out of high school, I thought that football was just run to the left, run to the right. College football is way different – way different. I am thankful for all the things that football at CMU has taught me, be it leadership, X's and O's, whatever. CMU has taught me a lot."
Horizontal pencil marks chart the growth of Hunter and Logan Buczkowski, two born and bred favorite sons of Mount Pleasant who matriculated from Mount Pleasant Public Schools to Central Michigan University.
The door leads to what was once the office of Don Peddie, the Buczkowski's maternal grandfather, a CMU physical education instructor and an assistant football coach who served as the offensive coordinator on CMU's 1974 Division II national championship team.
The CMU connections run deep and broad for the Buczkowskis: Their parents are CMU grads; their maternal grandmother and Don's wife, Barbara, was a dance instructor at the university; their aunt and uncle, Heather and Jade Peddie, were both student-athletes at CMU; cousin Chase Peddie is a freshman teammate of Hunter's on the football team.
Hunter is in his sixth and final year with the program, nearing a degree in physical education with the hopes of landing a teaching job and, someday, a spot on a high school football coaching staff.
A future with a nod to the past. A life that he will likely spend molding young minds and using sports as an educational vehicle. That's what his family and the Mount Pleasant community did for him.
Papa -- that's what he calls his grandfather, Don Peddie -- regularly picked up Hunter and his brother for Sundays at CMU's Rose Center. Layups in the gym, swimming in the pool, volleyball, badminton, running laps, whatever.
Papa was well aware with his own background in athletics – he played running back at Miami (Ohio) in the early 1960s – that the foundation is almost always laid early in life. Also, and perhaps just as importantly, idle hands are the devil's workshop, as the old saying goes.
"He just wanted to keep us active as much as he could," Hunter says, adding that that carried over to daily life for him and his brother, who would eventually become a pitcher in the CMU baseball program. "You name it, we did it. … Just try to do anything athletic and stay outside."
In high school, the brothers became standouts in back-to-back strong athletic classes at Mount Pleasant High School. They helped the baseball team to a state championship and a state runner-up finish and were members of some outstanding football teams as well as stalwarts on the basketball court.
Certainly, talent, size and athleticism helped to get Hunter to CMU. Still, it was more than that, and his maroon-and-gold blood clearly showed.
"In the long run (the work) paid off and it gave me the opportunity to become an athlete of that caliber to be able to get a scholarship here," he said. "And growing up, in Papa and Nana's house you see all the CMU gear and trophies and he always wears the CMU ring. I was just kind of surrounded by that. And kind of an expectation to go perform at that level.
"I remember a lot of times we would go watch the CMU football games when we were kids and go to the tailgates and stuff. We probably never missed a football game."
Buczkowski was a fullback from the time he set foot in Kelly/Shorts Stadium, and then, with the arrival of Jim McElwain as coach in 2019, he switched to tight end. No need for a fullback in McElwain's system.
Nevertheless, Buczkowski, now a 6-foot, 255-pound wrecking ball, still refers to himself as a fullback. It's semantics, really. At both positions, the No. 1 priority is to block.
Still, he has made seven receptions for 59 yards in his career; two of those catches have gone for touchdowns, and both came at Kelly/Shorts Stadium, where his family and friends were on hand to watch.
"I got to do this in front of my home crowd, and being a townie as well," Buczkowski said. "You really get that feeling of community. It's like, 'hey, an Oiler's playing for the Chippewas.' Now maybe that draws more attention from the locals and they maybe attend a CMU football game. I felt like I've made Mount Pleasant a little more proud in that aspect."
Who knows? Perhaps the success that Buczkowski has found at CMU may inspire somebody in the next generation of Mount Pleasant youngsters.
A door in an out-of-the-way office on the CMU campus is evidence of Buczkowski's physical growth. A mature outlook and a college degree from that university represent intellectual and emotional maturation that has come with an education and a half-decade-plus in the CMU football program.
And those horizontal pencil marks signify a vertical climb that comes only from the beginnings of an understanding of the complexities of life.
"I'm thankful for the opportunity to come here, I'm thankful for the friendships I've made," Buczkowski said. "Coming out of high school, I thought that football was just run to the left, run to the right. College football is way different – way different. I am thankful for all the things that football at CMU has taught me, be it leadership, X's and O's, whatever. CMU has taught me a lot."
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