When crowds packed the OB for HS games...

[305 MOUNTAIN MAN]

This SOB father

all time Miami scum politician

 

[Hold My Beer]

We moved into the Miami area in the early 1970s.
It's football culture was not unlike what you see today in the small southern and Texas towns.
Youth football was pretty big too.
There was an Optimist football game played at the OB which also drew alot of folks, between 20 and 30k.

Makes sense as Miami was indisputably a Southern town at those days

 

[Hold My Beer]

I feel like community investment/camaraderie/pride began to fall as South Florida became more and more transient.
Gentrification, people moving in from other states, etc etc etc...
Most of the people who live here AREN'T EVEN FROM HERE. So why would there by any community pride and fanhood?

Spot on as usual coach.

A few years back, I had this conversation with an friend of mine who'd grown up in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's where there were three black high schools before integration. I mentioned all this transferring you see kids (with parental approval) doing these days.

He just shook his head. "That wouldn't have happened back then. If you left to transfer to one of the two rival schools, you better never come back home. If you did, guys would've been waiting on the corner for you."

 

[MedleyCane]

Fascinating...

It is.
If you have Facebook account, I would recommend joining the "Ghosts of the Orange Bowl" page. Lots of historical stuff on soFla football, baseball, hoops, including local high schools, colleges, NFL and Orange Bowl Classic stuff.
I think the person who runs that page used to work for local TV station, so he posts alot of old interviews and highlights as well.
I also like that he sheds some historical light on the black high school and college games and personalities which had been historically under reported. Especially stuff on Jake Gaither, Walt Frazier, old ***** League baseball personalities including folks who were kin to latter day stars like Warren Cromartie, James Colzie and Andre Dawson, etc. Lots of sports culture in South Florida. It's not just the Miami Heat and that so-called "Wade County" rubbish.

 

[Applecane]

Will check it out... thanks

 

[Fatboycane]

1967

Don't know if it's still the case, but for a long time it was the highest attendance at a HSFB game in Florida

 

[MedleyCane]

Gotta understand locally at the tme here outside of UM there was nothing else really, outside of spring ball at Bobby Maduro. Fins came in ‘66 and were irrelevant until Shula showed up. Canes were a mid program, and in Florida high school at that time Miami High and Gables were the football powerhouses.

Growing up in the 1970s, I used to listen to sports radio in my room while doing school work. Listened to WKAT who had Sonny Hirsch and Chris Myers hosting local sports talk. Hirsch was a long-time announcer for UM athletics and he was associated with the Miami Orioles, single A franchise for Baltimore. So he did a lot of baseball talk as well UM stuff. Myers later became local TV anchor and later worked for ESPN before becoming based out of soCal. He was classmates with David Shula at Chaminade HS, so he talked a little about local sports plus interviewed the Miami Dolphin players. On the other radio station you had Hank Goldberg and Rick Weaver. Weaver did play-by-play for the Fins and the old Ft Lauderdale Strikers. So basically in those days pro sports was confined to Fins, Strikers, Yankees, Dodgers (from the old Brooklyn folks), horse and dog racing, Jai Alai and occasional UM stuff. The audience being some local and many snowbirds. We had to wait for spring training to get interviews with players. We did get Atlanta Braves baseball games on one of the other stations but they were terrible, although I liked their announcers. Really, it was a different era. Front page of local papers showing Fins, Strikers, HS sports and some UM stuff. Local college basketball coverage consisted of Biscayne (now St.Thomas) College hoops.

 

[MedleyCane]

Makes sense as Miami was indisputably a Southern town at those days

We originally lived on 68th street in Hialeah.
On Friday and Saturday nights, you could hear stock cars roaring at the local Hialeah Speedway a few (two?) miles away right around twilight.
Quite a few future NASCAR greats cut their teeth on that track, including the Allison family who I think were known as the "Alabama Gang" but who actually lived in northwest Dade (Palm Springs North area).
Yeah, it was a little different back then.

 

[305 MOUNTAIN MAN]

We originally lived on 68th street in Hialeah.
On Friday and Saturday nights, you could hear stock cars roaring at the local Hialeah Speedway a few (two?) miles away right around twilight.
Quite a few future NASCAR greats cut their teeth on that track, including the Allison family who I think were known as the "Alabama Gang" but who actually lived in northwest Dade (Palm Springs North area).
Yeah, it was a little different back then.

The good ole days…there was Dale Bennett the Mayor of Hialeah, confederate flags flew in Hialeah like they did in South Carolina, there was Hialeah Speedway, Follies International and Mae & Dave’s on Palm Avenue. How many of you remember that !

 

[Fatboycane]

Growing up in the 1970s, I used to listen to sports radio in my room while doing school work. Listened to WKAT who had Sonny Hirsch and Chris Myers hosting local sports talk. Hirsch was a long-time announcer for UM athletics and he was associated with the Miami Orioles, single A franchise for Baltimore. So he did a lot of baseball talk as well UM stuff. Myers later became local TV anchor and later worked for ESPN before becoming based out of soCal. He was classmates with David Shula at Chaminade HS, so he talked a little about local sports plus interviewed the Miami Dolphin players. On the other radio station you had Hank Goldberg and Rick Weaver. Weaver did play-by-play for the Fins and the old Ft Lauderdale Strikers. So basically in those days pro sports was confined to Fins, Strikers, Yankees, Dodgers (from the old Brooklyn folks), horse and dog racing, Jai Alai and occasional UM stuff. The audience being some local and many snowbirds. We had to wait for spring training to get interviews with players. We did get Atlanta Braves baseball games on one of the other stations but they were terrible, although I like their announcers. Really, it was a different era. Front page of local papers showing Fins, Strikers, HS sports and some UM stuff.

Back when golf was a spring sport in HS (now it's fall) many of us fb coaches "coached" golf too. Vince Zappone was the Chaminade coach in the 70's and golf coach in mid 90's, long story short, he and I would ride around when we had a golf match with Chaminade and he told of a playoff game they had vs Glades Central sometime when David Shula was there...huge brawl breaks out, both benches emptied, cops on the field and all of a sudden like Moses parting the Red Sea, Don Shula is in the middle of the field separating both teams

 

[JD08]

We originally lived on 68th street in Hialeah.
On Friday and Saturday nights, you could hear stock cars roaring at the local Hialeah Speedway a few (two?) miles away right around twilight.
Quite a few future NASCAR greats cut their teeth on that track, including the Allison family who I think were known as the "Alabama Gang" but who actually lived in northwest Dade (Palm Springs North area).
Yeah, it was a little different back then.

There was a short track at the South Florida Fairgrounds that closed in the late 50's. South Florida was where NASCAR went in the winter.

 

[QuattroCane]

Joe Brodsky was our coach Hialeah-Miami Lakes HS, and he left my sophomore (JV) year so he wasn't my coach the last 2 years.
Anyways, even though Brodsky left for UM, alot of his stuff remained in the HC office, among the items was an old Miami Herald (or News?) article on the Jax-Miami HS game. I think it was a front-page with picture of Brodsky scoring a TD. It was framed and hanging in the office.
We moved into the Miami area in the early 1970s.
It's football culture was not unlike what you see today in the small southern and Texas towns.
Youth football was pretty big too.
There was an Optimist football game played at the OB which also drew alot of folks, between 20 and 30k.
In Hialeah, part of the main street (49th) would be closed on the week preceding the first week of season, so they can parade the Hialeah teams, including Hialeah, Palm Springs, Miami Springs and Medley optimist clubs. Firetrucks and everything.
Generally speaking, the kids from the different Hialeah teams were well-coached, with many assistants who had played at the HS level, minimum, and the kids knew each other from elementary to HS. It made for some good rivalries, unlike today where it is more of a frontrunning "join the hottest private school" deal.
Anyways, those Miami High school teams from the 1940s through mid1960s were very good. They sent alot of talent to big-time schools, including Army and Navy which in those days were perennial top10.
The black schools of those days also had their great players and coaches. Many of the players from the area attending the HBCUs, which had very powerful teams, especially FAMU.

Good stuff. I also went to HML and lived off Cow Pen Rd. I had moved away, then my dad died, so we moved back. I was bummed when we settled in Miami Lakes. The HC at the time was a big Gator fan, so everything was similar to their style, right down to the script Trojans on the helmet. A couple of my buddies ended up at Marshall. They recruited heavily down there at that time, except for Michael Timpson, who went to Penn St.

 

[Hold My Beer]

We originally lived on 68th street in Hialeah.
On Friday and Saturday nights, you could hear stock cars roaring at the local Hialeah Speedway a few (two?) miles away right around twilight.
Quite a few future NASCAR greats cut their teeth on that track, including the Allison family who I think were known as the "Alabama Gang" but who actually lived in northwest Dade (Palm Springs North area).
Yeah, it was a little different back then.

North Florida Speedway in Lake City!!

 

[MedleyCane]

Back when golf was a spring sport in HS (now it's fall) many of us fb coaches "coached" golf too. Vince Zappone was the Chaminade coach in the 70's and golf coach in mid 90's, long story short, he and I would ride around when we had a golf match with Chaminade and he told of a playoff game they had vs Glades Central sometime when David Shula was there...huge brawl breaks out, both benches emptied, cops on the field and all of a sudden like Moses parting the Red Sea, Don Shula is in the middle of the field separating both teams

My brother played against Mike Shula's Miami Lakes optimist team at Miami Lakes JHS field. When Coach Shula showed up, he tried to keep a low profile, with big hat and shades away from the crowd. But everyone knew it was him. But people kept a respectful distance. He definitely had a presence to him. From people I knew in Miami Lakes who knew his family from local church, he was a nice guy. I believe Howard Schnellenberger attended same church. What a lineup. Lol.

 

[MedleyCane]

Good stuff. I also went to HML and lived off Cow Pen Rd. I had moved away, then my dad died, so we moved back. I was bummed when we settled in Miami Lakes. The HC at the time was a big Gator fan, so everything was similar to their style, right down to the script Trojans on the helmet. A couple of my buddies ended up at Marshall. They recruited heavily down there at that time, except for Michael Timpson, who went to Penn St.

Coach Mike Uspensky?
I believe he was teammates with Spurrier at UF.
My brother played against Timpson.
He played at American HS.

 

[Silver King]

Man lot of old duffer Cane Fans on here!

Regional Title game in Punta Gorda 1970, Charlotte Fightin' Tarpons vs. Tarpon Springs Spongers. Not 40K but per capita it was pretty good. The local Mullet Wrapper estimated 4,000+ ringed the field. Only 6,000 residents in PG back then, the county had a population of round 25K. I played NAIA Ball in Dodge City with the guy who I played over, and Burton Lalwess (Top 100 players in FHSAA history, 3 Super Bowls with Cowboys) played at Florida with the guy he played over. Our Coach Fred Goldsmith was from Coral Gables. Two time NCAA coach of the year at Rice and Duke. Think he interviewed for one of the Canes openings.

 

[MedleyCane]

Good stuff. I also went to HML and lived off Cow Pen Rd. I had moved away, then my dad died, so we moved back. I was bummed when we settled in Miami Lakes. The HC at the time was a big Gator fan, so everything was similar to their style, right down to the script Trojans on the helmet. A couple of my buddies ended up at Marshall. They recruited heavily down there at that time, except for Michael Timpson, who went to Penn St.

Joe Brodsky was a Gator too, so I always wondered if he played a part in picking the Orange and Blue colors when the school was founded in the early 1970s. Then again, uf has always had a big presence in soFla, especially before FIU grew.

 

[QuattroCane]

Coach Mike Uspensky?
I believe he was teammates with Spurrier at UF.
My brother played against Timpson.
He played at American HS.

That's him, didn't know about the Spurrier connection. Yeah, American was relatively new then as well.

 

[MedleyCane]

Man lot of old duffer Cane Fans on here!

Regional Title game in Punta Gorda 1970, Charlotte Fightin' Tarpons vs. Tarpon Springs Spongers. Not 40K but per capita it was pretty good. The local Mullet Wrapper estimated 4,000+ ringed the field. Only 6,000 residents in PG back then, the county had a population of round 25K. I played NAIA Ball in Dodge City with the guy who I played over, and Burton Lalwess (Top 100 players in FHSAA history, 3 Super Bowls with Cowboys) played at Florida with the guy he played over. Our Coach Fred Goldsmith was from Coral Gables. Two time NCAA coach of the year at Rice and Duke. Think he interviewed for one of the Canes openings.

Lawless was a very good player for the Cowboys.
I remember him well.
He was mentioned in the Facebook I mentioned with regards to the Super Bowl at OB between the Steelers and Cowboys.

 

[Fatboycane]

Another guy who played on that Gables team was John Clifford, who I got to know when he was the coach at PK Yonge in hogtown.