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RIP Jim Otto

SWFLHurricane said:
Alot of UM HCs back in the day were from up North, hence alot of connections.
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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).
 
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MedleyCane said:
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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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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Silver King said:
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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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.
 
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