RIP Jim Otto

Alot of UM HCs back in the day were from up North, hence alot of connections.

Yeap. Also, up until the mid-1960s UM was a whites-only school so they had to rely on white talent from elsewhere. Of course, there were good white players in soFla, especially Miami HS, Edison and Jackson hs, but this was a relatively small talent base. States like Pennsylvania were loaded with talented white players, much more in the 1950s and 1960s when there were a little small towns with big football squads (think Texas).
 
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Yeap. Also, up until the mid-1960s UM was a whites-only school so they had to rely on white talent from elsewhere. Of course, there were good white players in soFla, especially Miami HS, Edison and Jackson hs, but this was a relatively small talent base. States like Pennsylvania were loaded with talented white players, much more in the 1950s and 1960s when there were a little small towns with big football squads (think Texas).


UM integrated in 1962, but college athletics remained segregated throughout the South.

We were the first Division I-A school south of the Mason-Dixon Line to give a full-ride to a black football player (Ray Bellamy) in 1967.
 
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Here's another South Florida connection: I played NAIA ball out in Dodge City, Kansas. This was back in 1972, and Otto was just hitting his prime. The NAIA scouted South Florida before the NCAA blew it up for their type of athletes; they knew the state didn't play small college ball, and they could find some of us who weren't big enough or good enough for D-1 but could flourish in the NAIA. Me (Charlotte/Punta Gorda), and our center, Donnie (Cardinal Newman/WPB), started together for four years on the OL.

Donnie was obsessed with Jim Otto. So much so that he had our coach petition the NAIA to wear 00 for our senior season in 1975. Somehow, they agreed. Guarantee he was the first college OL to wear it in America. Check out this picture of me and him springing our fast-as-a-scalded-dog, Belle Glade, running back, Roy (he was running those rabbits down 35 years before ESPN discovered it). Note Donnie has the same helmet and the U-Bar as Otto wore, had the same foam collar, and wore back leggings while the rest of us were in blue. That OL blocked for four different 1,000 yard backs, think he would have made his idol proud!
 

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Here's another South Florida connection: I played NAIA ball out in Dodge City, Kansas. This was back in 1972, and Otto was just hitting his prime. The NAIA scouted South Florida before the NCAA blew it up for their type of athletes; they knew the state didn't play small college ball, and they could find some of us who weren't big enough or good enough for D-1 but could flourish in the NAIA. Me (Charlotte/Punta Gorda), and our center, Donnie (Cardinal Newman/WPB), started together for four years on the OL.

Donnie was obsessed with Jim Otto. So much so that he had our coach petition the NAIA to wear 00 for our senior season in 1975. Somehow, they agreed. Guarantee he was the first college OL to wear it in America. Check out this picture of me and him springing our fast-as-a-scalded-dog, Belle Glade, running back, Roy (he was running those rabbits down 35 years before ESPN discovered it). Note Donnie has the same helmet and the U-Bar as Otto wore, had the same foam collar, and wore back leggings while the rest of us were in blue. That OL blocked for four different 1,000 yard backs, think he would have made his idol proud!
Cool story and picture. I remember him well in the NFL. Otto was one tough hombre
 
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How much involvement did he have with the program over the decades? Did he come visit? He’s been in ill health for quite a long time, so would have made that difficult.
 
Here's another South Florida connection: I played NAIA ball out in Dodge City, Kansas. This was back in 1972, and Otto was just hitting his prime. The NAIA scouted South Florida before the NCAA blew it up for their type of athletes; they knew the state didn't play small college ball, and they could find some of us who weren't big enough or good enough for D-1 but could flourish in the NAIA. Me (Charlotte/Punta Gorda), and our center, Donnie (Cardinal Newman/WPB), started together for four years on the OL.

Donnie was obsessed with Jim Otto. So much so that he had our coach petition the NAIA to wear 00 for our senior season in 1975. Somehow, they agreed. Guarantee he was the first college OL to wear it in America. Check out this picture of me and him springing our fast-as-a-scalded-dog, Belle Glade, running back, Roy (he was running those rabbits down 35 years before ESPN discovered it). Note Donnie has the same helmet and the U-Bar as Otto wore, had the same foam collar, and wore back leggings while the rest of us were in blue. That OL blocked for four different 1,000 yard backs, think he would have made his idol proud!
Did you play for Cardinal Newman? Just seeing if you did and if so if you ever played forest hill or lake worth high schools
 
... now ashamed about grumbling to the wife about my sore back after 2 hours of yardwork 🤦‍♂️

From Wikipedia:

"Otto's body was punished greatly during his NFL career, resulting in nearly 74 operations, including 28 on his knee (nine of them during his playing career) and multiple joint replacements. His joints became riddled with arthritis, and he developed debilitating back and neck problems.[3] In his book, The Pain of Glory" Otto described near-death experiences from medical procedures, including fighting off three life-threatening infections due to complications from his artificial joints. During one six-month stretch, he was without a right knee joint because he had to wait for an infection to heal before another artificial knee could be implanted. Otto eventually had to have his right leg amputated on August 1, 2007.[4] Despite his maladies, Otto said he had no regrets and wouldn't have changed a thing even if given the opportunity to do it over again."


Lin Manuel Miranda Love GIF by Tony Awards
TUFF

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FYZICAL
 
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I always wondered what the connection was back in the day when the Canes would get these players like Jim Otto from way outside Florida

There weren't all the recruiting services and what-not back then.

More often that it seemed like there was some tie between high school coach and someone at Miami
Are you familiar with SunTan U? Back before recruiting became an industry, and they had a winning football history, schools used whatever they could to attract recruits and students fire that matter. At Florida it was their CFB tradition, at Miami it was the weather and women😺.Kids from the north trekked down to enjoy that. A guy like Otto from Wisconsin would be attracted to playing in Miami. I was at Miami in the 70’s and most of the students and athletes I encountered were from every place but Fla. The school played it up also. They sold banners with SunTan U on them. So yes, sometimes there were connections, but what worked for tourism also worked for recruiting. Just sayin’
 
Seeing his knees years ago was just hard to look at. You knew by looking, this man has dealt with incredibly pain with every movement. It couldn't have been worth it. Him, Hendricks and Foreman were really before my time. As a young kid, I did know of Hendricks and Foreman in the NFL. Imagine having a player that could do what all Hendricks did in this era. A monster.
 
I was at Miami in the 70’s and most of the students and athletes I encountered were from every place but Fla. The school played it up also. They sold banners with SunTan U on them.

Good salesmen know what they have to offer and to whom to sell it (y)

I grew up mostly in rural/small town North Florida. Might as well have been on another planet compared to Dade County.

The University of Miami would've been a pipe dream for me and the kids I knew. Junior college was even a reach for many of us
 
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