- Jun 14, 2014
- 25,397
- 29,513
Founding Member
Ohhh whyyy y'all say. Because it's still offseason that's too still. Truly, any mod-rater that judges this
unworthy can cancel this thread. I got no ego by now.
High School, Ribault, Jax Florida 1961, pre-integration. Our cross country team won every meet in Jax.
Won the Gateway Conference CC Crown too. Statewise Jax was considered "in the sticks" by the huge
South Florida high schools.
Here's how the '61 Cross Country state championship transpired and perspired. It was held in Gainesville.
UF's track coach, Percy Beard was the meet director... 'cause he had the whistle. So coach Beard tweeted,
back when you needn't blow it on a keyboard. He shouted: "All right, schools line up when I call you. (Left
to right by your W-L record and some rating system where most S. Fl schools were 5*. We were 3*.
Our best runner & captain, senior John Waring, decided to run barefoot. So off came all our shoes.(We'd
never ever run barefoot before.) As us boys from the sticks walked up to the start-line, barefoot, I saw
those 5* S.Florida guys' derisive smirks with those "look-see elbow jabs" down the line. Those guys all
had colorful cc shoes on. Of course we didn't know such shoes existed. I'll admit that on that backside
downhill part, (hottest tar asphault, large guage gravel embedded) my nude feet got denuded (tortured).
Then right there, through the finish line "chute" all the best runners were bundled for handing out the
Top-10 medals. (There was an audience of UF students, stuffing their curiosity.)Coach Beard started
calling names: "First, Ernie Drown, Bishop Kenny... Second, John Waring Ribault .." Third, fourth, fifth -
he gave those medals to S. Fl guys (Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Largo). The next thing coach Beard said
garnered a collective laugh from our UF students spectators. He said: "All righty, all you guys from Ribault
line up." We had taken 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 = 6 pairs o' bare feet in the top 10 in the State. In CC we had
achieved a very low score to win it.
Coach Beard spoke to us top-tenners - something about what a great school UF is. Wow did he perk up
when Waring told him I was just a sophomore. Anyway, I was already a Gator since I moved to Jax at
age 6... every year Dad got choice tickets to the Fl-Ga game (via St. Regis Paper Mill as a corporate
Gatorbowl supporter.) Weird, but he also got tickets for my aunts & uncles from Waycross, Ga. That's
5 UGa fans vs us 2 UF fans. Back then Ga beat us annually ... (but Spurrier was on the horizon, same
class as me.) Anyway, we'd get our butts beat and then we had to take 'em home and feed them thick
steaks. Awful.
Back to CC State Championship = We owed our success all to coach Luten, a football assitant-coach
who got stuck coaching CC. On weekends he was an Army Recruiter, at nights an insurance salesman.
When we trained, he'd follow us in his Jeep, over rough terrain. Anybody that fell too far behind the
leader-pack, he'd pick up on the hood of his Jeep and drive 'em back up to the leaders.
On the trip back to Jax, it popped into his head as he lead our 3-car caravan to the Big Ape
Radio Station - WAPE (all rock n roll back then). While coach Luten was negotiating with
the station chief, I slipped into their Koi pool and swam under their glass wall, and inside I popped up
on the DJ. After a startled look, he didn't miss a beat ... went right into reading the card the chief gave
him on the particulars, crediting us for a Jax-school rare State Championship. (Of course, me & coach
were the only two outsiders allowed in the mike room.)
Postscript > My second year at UF, Ribault became integrated. Now 20 years later ('85), my lifelong
friend, Bobby Lee, hauled me to Piccadilly where Ribault graduates of any year just showed up for
grub & gab. I didn't know anybody, so I didn't gab. Then I heard a table-mate lady gabbing. She had
wound up working at Ribault in administration, for years now. She said that Ribault's trophy-case was
full and they just won a Gateway Conference trophy but there was no room for it. So they presented
that dilemma to the students and they voted to throw into the dumpster all the trophys won by whites.
Our State Champs Trophy was the first for Ribault. I asked her why didn't she ask for them. Her answer
shut me up. She said she was afraid to. Both the trophy-trashing and the fear mad me sad.
unworthy can cancel this thread. I got no ego by now.
High School, Ribault, Jax Florida 1961, pre-integration. Our cross country team won every meet in Jax.
Won the Gateway Conference CC Crown too. Statewise Jax was considered "in the sticks" by the huge
South Florida high schools.
Here's how the '61 Cross Country state championship transpired and perspired. It was held in Gainesville.
UF's track coach, Percy Beard was the meet director... 'cause he had the whistle. So coach Beard tweeted,
back when you needn't blow it on a keyboard. He shouted: "All right, schools line up when I call you. (Left
to right by your W-L record and some rating system where most S. Fl schools were 5*. We were 3*.
Our best runner & captain, senior John Waring, decided to run barefoot. So off came all our shoes.(We'd
never ever run barefoot before.) As us boys from the sticks walked up to the start-line, barefoot, I saw
those 5* S.Florida guys' derisive smirks with those "look-see elbow jabs" down the line. Those guys all
had colorful cc shoes on. Of course we didn't know such shoes existed. I'll admit that on that backside
downhill part, (hottest tar asphault, large guage gravel embedded) my nude feet got denuded (tortured).
Then right there, through the finish line "chute" all the best runners were bundled for handing out the
Top-10 medals. (There was an audience of UF students, stuffing their curiosity.)Coach Beard started
calling names: "First, Ernie Drown, Bishop Kenny... Second, John Waring Ribault .." Third, fourth, fifth -
he gave those medals to S. Fl guys (Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Largo). The next thing coach Beard said
garnered a collective laugh from our UF students spectators. He said: "All righty, all you guys from Ribault
line up." We had taken 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 = 6 pairs o' bare feet in the top 10 in the State. In CC we had
achieved a very low score to win it.
Coach Beard spoke to us top-tenners - something about what a great school UF is. Wow did he perk up
when Waring told him I was just a sophomore. Anyway, I was already a Gator since I moved to Jax at
age 6... every year Dad got choice tickets to the Fl-Ga game (via St. Regis Paper Mill as a corporate
Gatorbowl supporter.) Weird, but he also got tickets for my aunts & uncles from Waycross, Ga. That's
5 UGa fans vs us 2 UF fans. Back then Ga beat us annually ... (but Spurrier was on the horizon, same
class as me.) Anyway, we'd get our butts beat and then we had to take 'em home and feed them thick
steaks. Awful.
Back to CC State Championship = We owed our success all to coach Luten, a football assitant-coach
who got stuck coaching CC. On weekends he was an Army Recruiter, at nights an insurance salesman.
When we trained, he'd follow us in his Jeep, over rough terrain. Anybody that fell too far behind the
leader-pack, he'd pick up on the hood of his Jeep and drive 'em back up to the leaders.
On the trip back to Jax, it popped into his head as he lead our 3-car caravan to the Big Ape
Radio Station - WAPE (all rock n roll back then). While coach Luten was negotiating with
the station chief, I slipped into their Koi pool and swam under their glass wall, and inside I popped up
on the DJ. After a startled look, he didn't miss a beat ... went right into reading the card the chief gave
him on the particulars, crediting us for a Jax-school rare State Championship. (Of course, me & coach
were the only two outsiders allowed in the mike room.)
Postscript > My second year at UF, Ribault became integrated. Now 20 years later ('85), my lifelong
friend, Bobby Lee, hauled me to Piccadilly where Ribault graduates of any year just showed up for
grub & gab. I didn't know anybody, so I didn't gab. Then I heard a table-mate lady gabbing. She had
wound up working at Ribault in administration, for years now. She said that Ribault's trophy-case was
full and they just won a Gateway Conference trophy but there was no room for it. So they presented
that dilemma to the students and they voted to throw into the dumpster all the trophys won by whites.
Our State Champs Trophy was the first for Ribault. I asked her why didn't she ask for them. Her answer
shut me up. She said she was afraid to. Both the trophy-trashing and the fear mad me sad.
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