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Who was Traz Powell?

RVACane said:
I don't know Mickey Rourke.

The coach was a short, lean, white haired, bronze skinned, Greek barking dude who was rumoured to have lost a nut in the Korean War and that's what made him so brutal.

I later confirmed with a relative of his who I met when I was in my 30's that the lost a nut in the war thing was untrue.
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My father owned a store on Washington Ave called the Mustang Shop it was still around even a few years ago Mickey Rourke worked in the store for my dad. Apparently back than he was a very shy anti-social fellow according to my dad
 
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kperez4446 said:
My father owned a store on Washington Ave called the Mustang Shop it was still around even a few years ago Mickey Rourke worked in the store for my dad. Apparently back than he was a very shy anti-social fellow according to my dad
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Wow!!! As a kid I shopped with my parents there and Dorwin’s. Wasn’t there a Mustang II as well? I’m getting old so these memories of mine aren’t always perfect.
 
Couple of other funny stories my aunt went to Miami High and graduated with Steven Bauer or aka Manolo from Scarface.

Also an old coworker of mine played with Traz Powell together at Carver and said he was a beast and a great teammate. He also told me he used to play against Larry Little at BTW and he was like nothing you’ve ever seen at pulling guard.
 
RVACane said:
Wow!!! As a kid I shopped with my parents there and Dorwin’s. Wasn’t there a Mustang II as well?
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It used to be called Manny’s mustang shop in the 70s my fathers name is Manny. I have no idea about a part 2. My father did tell me that Cassius Clay had come in once.
 
kperez4446 said:
It used to be called Manny’s mustang shop in the 70s my fathers name is Manny. I have no idea about a part 2. My father did tell me that Cassius Clay had come in once.
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I remember the store absolutely. Ali would train at the 5th Street gym with Angelo Dundee.
 
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kperez4446 said:
Couple of other funny stories my aunt went to Miami High and graduated with Steven Bauer or aka Manolo from Scarface.

Also an old coworker of mine played with Traz Powell together at Carver and said he was a beast and a great teammate. He also told me he used to play against Larry Little at BTW and he was like nothing you’ve ever seen at pulling guard.
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Those early Dolphin teams OLs with Little...Langer and Keuchenberg weren't no joke....Lol....How many times I watched Mercury Morris with his hand on Littles back on sweeps...smh
 
sfbomber said:
@TheMatador you are a treasure trove and we are all better for having you bless us with your remembrances. Thank you.

Yeah, Marty's daughter did go to FSU. That was the "cool kid" school at the time for the NMB kids. The smarter kids went to UF or the Ivy League.

And Bertman was AD at LSU after heading their baseball program. He was the coach when Robbie Morrison gave up the gopher to Warren Morris in '96. I can still see it in my mind and it gives me a headache every time.

What could have been if we were able to hold onto Bertman...
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Skip installed much of what Miami did when he got to Coral Gables. The famous hidden ball trick against Oklahoma State was a play we practiced a lot at Beach when I played. Everything was choreographed to including the bat girl. Miami used the same signals that we used at Beach. Much of the creativity was due to Skip. At Beach, we always pitched well and played great defense. We would manufacture runs anyway we could and Skip was the master of doing so.

Skip was the brightest amateur baseball mind in the country at the time and his success at Miami and LSU were guaranteed. He was a funny guy, too. Unfortunately, his replacement was a real douche and the program fell apart.
 
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kperez4446 said:
My mother and father graduated from Beach High around 66-67. My dad owned a clothing store on Washington Ave and Mickey Rourke was his employee.
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Don't remember your father's store. There was a clothing store within the old Flagler building where my dad owned a garage in downtown Miami. Really nice Cuban gentleman that treated me like royalty whenever I needed new clothes.

By the way, there used to be an athletic shop around 1st street and Washington Avenue. Owner was really good friends of my dad's. Remember buying my first pair of PF Flyers with polyurethane soles. State of the art at time. Suede, too. LoL. Before that you bought Chuck Taylors in white or black.
 
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caneinorlando said:
Those early Dolphin teams OLs with Little...Langer and Keuchenberg weren't no joke....Lol....How many times I watched Mercury Morris with his hand on Littles back on sweeps...smh
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My father has always said that Little was the best lineman he'd ever seen play. Those other guys were no slouches of course.....I never saw Little or Langer, but I did get to see Kooch and Stephenson play together.
 
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Pentagon Cane said:
Skip installed much of what Miami when he got there. The famous hidden ball trick against Oklahoma State was a play we practiced a lot at Beach when I played. Everything was choreographed to including the bat girl. Miami used the same signals that we used at Beach.

Skip was the brightest amateur baseball mind in the country at the time and his success at Miami and LSU were guaranteed. He was a funny guy, too. Unfortunately, his replacement was a real douche and the program fell apart.
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In retrospect, they should have (and probably could have?) handed the keys over to Bertman when Fraser retired. Of course many programs would kill for what Morris accomplished in his tenure and don't even come close, but you could make an argument that Bertman would have been even better.
 
Pentagon Cane said:
Used to be a athletic shop around 1st street. Owner was really good friends of my dad's. Remember buying my first pair of PF Flyers with polyurethane soles. State of the art at time. Suede, too. LoL. Before that you bought Chuck Taylors in white or black.
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Reisler Brothers on the 400 block of Washington Ave I think. I used to get sneakers there as a kid.
 
LPK2006 said:
In retrospect, they should have (and probably could have?) handed the keys over to Bertman when Fraser retired. Of course many programs would kill for what Morris accomplished in his tenure and don't even come close, but you could make an argument that Bertman would have been even better.
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Skip was my dad’s fraternity brother at UM and a friend of mine played for him at LSU. Skip would’ve been great for us.
 
RVACane said:
Reisler Brothers on the 400 block of Washington Ave I think. I used to get sneakers there as a kid.
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Yep, that's it. It was down lower as I remember. Miami Beach had that small town feel back then. Of course, everybody parked in my dad's garage because everybody banked at Florida National Bank at the time. There was no South America banking on Brickell until later in the 70s.
 
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LPK2006 said:
In retrospect, they should have (and probably could have?) handed the keys over to Bertman when Fraser retired. Of course many programs would kill for what Morris accomplished in his tenure and don't even come close, but you could make an argument that Bertman would have been even better.
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Skippy wasn't going to wait around although I am surprised he left Miami for Baton Rouge. He started the MD-Downtown program and practiced at Flamingo Park. We practiced right after him.

Skip brought Elston Howard, Jr. back to Miami. He had dropped out of Miami and went back home. I think it was Steve Lerner who talked him into coming back to Miami and play for Skip at Downtown. He was one **** of an athlete. Still to this day Steve had the best breaking ball I have ever seen from the left side. He just had no velocity on his fastball. Very accurate and durable. Skip road Steve to the state finals his senior year.
 
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kperez4446 said:
My mother and father graduated from Beach High around 66-67. My dad owned a clothing store on Washington Ave and Mickey Rourke was his employee.
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We could have overlapped. I would have been Class of '65 had I not moved away in '63. What was the name of the clothing store? Since it was on Washington Avenue, I'm assuming your parents were South Beach folks and might have gone to Ida Fisher rather than Nautilus.I would probably only remember the clothing stores from the early '60's do I probably didn't know your father's. I vaguely remember a popular store, I think on Washington Avenue, named Dak's.

EDIT: Maybe Dak's or Dac's was the brand of pants that were popular. Dorwin's seems to ring a bell....Mustang was after my time (although I wouldn't mind a visit to the Mustang Ranch).
 
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Who dat?

84671
 
Earnest T. Bass said:
'60's thru '70's playing Miami High in the Orange Bowl was interesting due to the fact the opposing team would trot out their 35 or so players and then the Stingarees would come out of the South tunnel in single file with what seemed like 100 players in their Darth Vader like all dark blue/black helmets and uniforms as their fight song loudly echoed through the stadium. Message sent!

During those days the high school football powerhouses were Miami High, Edison, Coral Gables and Jackson, with Norland and North Miami starting to come online. When you played South Dade High School down at their place with black players on your roster it was like Mississippi circa 1950 as when you entered the stadium parking lot and exited the "fans" threw rocks and bottles at the opposing team buses along with them screaming "N-word lovers".

How about "Lefty" Schemer who was a Miami superstar in his day.
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Midnight blue
 
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