Texas Tech University Athletics
A Homecoming of Sorts
October 20, 2002 | Football
Oct. 20, 2002
By Kristie Le, Texas Tech Media Relations
As homecoming festivities kick into high gear around campus, the game against Missouri will be more than just kings, queens, parades and pep rallies. For Texas Tech's Aaron Hunt and Antoine Duncan of the University of Missouri, it will be a homecoming of sorts. Best friends since high school, the duo will step onto the field and play against each other for the last time.
Growing up in Denison, Texas, Hunt and Duncan met in middle school but did not become best friends until high school. Everywhere the two went, whether they were at each other's house or the local Jack in the Box, they were always together. It was a rarity to see one without the other. They even made a pact their junior year to play football for the same college.
But that pact was later broken and it would test the two friends and the strength of their friendship.
"It took me by surprise," the Lombardi Trophy candidate Hunt said. "When Antoine came back from a recruiting trip to Missouri and told me he had committed, I was so mad at him. It bothered me for a while."
Instead of upholding the pact they made to continue playing football together, Hunt and Duncan headed off to college in two different directions. Even though the two best friends can laugh about it today, Duncan claims that Hunt still holds a grudge against him sometimes. After all, they were not only best friends; they were like brothers.
"It has been hard not having him around," the 6-foot-2 defensive end Hunt said. "I felt like I lost a brother."
Duncan also weathered through some rough storms without his best friend. The 5-foot-10 cornerback underwent three knee surgeries, two in 1999 and one in 2000.
"It would have been better if Aaron was there with me," the 21-year-old Duncan said. "It (the injuries) was a hard time for me but he was there encouraging me to fight through the injuries and not quit."
Though Hunt and Duncan have had to adjust to college and life without each other, the dynamic duo have established successful college football careers at their respective schools.
Hunt was named Playboy Preseason All-American in August 2002 and selected as a Lombardi Trophy candidate and is an All-America candidate. The 22-year-old Hunt is fourth on the team in tackles with 21 solo and 20 assisted and has recorded two interceptions for 54 yards, one quarterback sack, two breakups and seven quarterback hurries prior to the Iowa State game.
Duncan continued to have success on the field despite the knee surgeries and wrapped up last season as the Tigers' most productive defensive back. The resilient cornerback has recorded 15 tackles on the season with 13 solo and two assisted as well as a forced fumble against Ball State in September.
"I just think that college and football would have been better and much easier," Hunt said. "There's nothing like having your best friend around who knows you as well as you know yourself during that time of your life."
No friendship is without its ups and downs. As circumstances change, people change and so do friendships. But being hundreds of miles apart and in different states, Hunt and Duncan share a bond that some of us would be blessed to find in our lifetime.
"It was hard to move away but I had to learn to be my own person," the Tigers' defensive back said. "Aaron knew that and he was very understanding even though he wanted to beat me up."
The friendship Hunt and Duncan share has sustained the test of time and distance, as the two have grown closer. Hunt and Duncan keep in constant contact with each other, talking two to three times a week and sometimes scheduling trips home to Denison.
While Hunt is in pursuit of a NFL career and Duncan plans to return to Texas with his new family after graduation, their friendship will once again reach another crossroad. Regardless of what path life takes them next, the best friends share a unique connection that Harry Emerson Fosdick's quote "No man is the whole of himself; his friends are the rest of him" best encapsulates their friendship.
"I'm excited about homecoming and getting to see Antoine," Hunt said. "It'll be good and sad at the same time."
As fans gather to participate in homecoming activities and attend the football game against Missouri, Hunt and Duncan will step onto the field one last time as rivals but will always remain best friends. This game will be a special one for Hunt and Duncan as both families gather together in Jones SBC Stadium to cheer on and to support Hunt and Duncan on the turf one last time and to celebrate a homecoming of their own.
