Submitted Photo Randy Hedberg, playing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, coached and played at MSU and is a member of the MSU Hall of Fame.

FARGO – North Dakota State University (NDSU) associate head coach Randy Hedberg announced his retirement on Wednesday, January 29, after an impressive 45-year college football coaching career.

A native of Parshall, he was named one of North Dakota’s 50 greatest sports figures of the 20th century, checking in at No. 31 on the list published by Sports Illustrated. He passed for a school-record 5,737 yards and 49 touchdowns at Minot State, where he played football, basketball, baseball and threw the javelin.

He was inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1985, and the football field in Parshall was named in his honor at a dedication ceremony in 2020.

Most recently, Hedberg, the quarterbacks coach at North Dakota State since 2014, was part of eight Missouri Valley Football Conference championships and seven NCAA Division I FCS national championships with the Bison.

“I have been fortunate to have coached for the last 11 seasons at NDSU with three different head coaches in Chris Klieman, Matt Entz and Tim Polasek,” said Hedberg. “Being a North Dakota native, it is extremely gratifying to be ending my college coaching career at NDSU. Thank you to the NDSU administration, fellow coaches, Bison Nation, and especially the players for this tremendous time of my coaching life. I would also like to thank my family, and especially my wife, Dr. Chery Hysjulien.”

Hedberg, named the 2020-21 FCS Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association, mentored three NFL draft picks in 11 seasons at North Dakota State, including two quarterbacks selected in the top three overall at the NFL Draft. He was part of Bison teams that produced 10 of the top 11 seasons of total offense in NDSU history including a school-record 7,076 yards in 2018 and 7,512 yards in 2019.

Redshirt freshman Trey Lance in 2019 won the Walter Payton Award and Jerry Rice Award as the top offensive player and top freshman player in the Football Championship Subdivision. Lance accounted for 42 total touchdowns, led the nation in passing efficiency (180.6), and set an NCAA all-divisions record for most passing attempts in a season without an interception (287) before being selected No. 3 overall by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Hedberg coached FCS all-time winningest quarterback Easton Stick, who led the Bison to the national championship game with eight wins as a freshman in 2015 and finished 49-3 in his career with two national title victories as the starter. Stick set NDSU career records for passing yards (8,693), passing touchdowns (88), total offense (11,216) and total touchdowns (129) before being selected in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Chargers.

Hedberg tutored eventual No. 2 overall pick Carson Wentz to a record-setting season as a first-year starter in 2014. The Bison junior passed for a school-record 3,111 yards while also setting school marks for passing attempts and completions. Wentz was 20-3 as the Bison starter and led NDSU to victories in the 2014 and 2015 national championship games before starting as a rookie in 2016 with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Most recently, Hedberg coached four-year starter Cam Miller, who set NDSU career records for total offense yards (11,998), pass completion percentage (.694), passing completions (759) and yards (9,721) and finished second in attempts (1,094) and touchdowns (81) while winning 45 games as the Bison quarterback including two national championships.

No stranger to the Bison program, Hedberg was the head coach for nine seasons at former North Central Conference rival St. Cloud State and came to NDSU after six seasons as the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator at Southern Illinois in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

He was the head coach at St. Cloud State from 1999-07 and at Minot State for eight seasons from 1982-89 compiling a 92-75-2 mark overall. Hedberg was the offensive coordinator at Central Missouri (1990-95) and North Dakota (1996-98) in between head coaching jobs.

An eighth-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1977, Hedberg started four regular-season games including his first game as a rookie in 1977. He appeared in seven games with the Bucs that year before spending time with the Oakland Raiders in 1979 and the Green Bay Packers in 1980.

Hedberg graduated from Minot State in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a minor in mathematics. He earned a master’s of education in health, physical education and recreation from North Dakota in 1987.

He and his wife, Dr. Chery Hysjulien, have four children, Jennifer, Kate, Christopher and Maddie, and eight grandchildren.