Rivalry Week...The Muck Bowl
- Thread starter PK_FSU_GRAD
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I love when they show how many of those consecutive bowls have produced NFL players.
My sophomore season we played down in Lake Shore in 1969 while they were still all black - we only had two brothers on the team. They merged with Belle Glade in 71 and I played small college ball with 6 Belle Glade/Lakeshore guys and one from Pahokee over four years. They told me about running those rabbits while we were working out around a Universal Gym in the off season, even had a copy of the Clewiston Paper showing a couple little kids holding rabbits they'd run down for their grandmas. Charlotte would have faced them in the 71 semi-finals, but we fell a little short.
I blocked for two Glades backs in college, Roy Brown (RIP my brother),was the fastest human being I ever seen until Mike Bellamy. Our fullback was faster than anyone else in the conference other than him. Both were 1000+ yard rushers for us. I also played with Johnny Banks (S), he's mentioned in the first chapter of the book, The Muck. I loved taking the field with those guys, we all taught Western Kansas and the KCAC about Florida football.
My sophomore season we played down in Lake Shore in 1969 while they were still all black - we only had two brothers on the team. They merged with Belle Glade in 71 and I played small college ball with 6 Belle Glade/Lakeshore guys and one from Pahokee over four years. They told me about running those rabbits while we were working out around a Universal Gym in the off season, even had a copy of the Clewiston Paper showing a couple little kids holding rabbits they'd run down for their grandmas. Charlotte would have faced them in the 71 semi-finals, but we fell a little short.
I blocked for two Glades backs in college, Roy Brown (RIP my brother),was the fastest human being I ever seen until Mike Bellamy. Our fullback was faster than anyone else in the conference other than him. Both were 1000+ yard rushers for us. I also played with Johnny Banks (S), he's mentioned in the first chapter of the book, The Muck. I loved taking the field with those guys, we all taught Western Kansas and the KCAC about Florida football.
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Charlotte was the first high school in the state to integrate without being forced to — 1965/66 school year Peezy, we just put up a plaque in the school last year. In 1968 our Junior high team had maybe 10 brothers on it. Only a few of us off that undefeated team got moved up to varsity, so my 10th grade season it was Ben (S went to FSU) and Reggie, a junior bad ass DT on varsity. The next season it was up to maybe 8 and my senior year probably 10, almost a 3rd of the team. Until 1970 or so, some were still busing from Punta Gorda to all black Dunbar in Ft Myers. Heck if they had some of those cats in the mid-1960s they wouldn't have been a doormat.
The superintendent who ushered that in had been a Tarpon O-lineman in the 1930s. One of the first brothers, G. "Turtle Head" Middleton, ended up being my DE position coach my senior season. But Punta Gorda has a long history of "mixing." One of our northern settlers helped open the first African Baptist Church where whites and blacks actually worshiped in the late 1800's-kind of unheard of in the South. Blacks were involved heavily in the fishing industry here and even Tarpon guided,so it was a little different. Punta Gorda also had the first black postmaster. One of my black teammates, Rufus Taylor taught me how to dance (The breakdown, never found the need for another one after all these years) we're enlightened people in PG bro.
The superintendent who ushered that in had been a Tarpon O-lineman in the 1930s. One of the first brothers, G. "Turtle Head" Middleton, ended up being my DE position coach my senior season. But Punta Gorda has a long history of "mixing." One of our northern settlers helped open the first African Baptist Church where whites and blacks actually worshiped in the late 1800's-kind of unheard of in the South. Blacks were involved heavily in the fishing industry here and even Tarpon guided,so it was a little different. Punta Gorda also had the first black postmaster. One of my black teammates, Rufus Taylor taught me how to dance (The breakdown, never found the need for another one after all these years) we're enlightened people in PG bro.
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