TheMatador
All-ACC
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2012
- Messages
- 13,849
No, not still in the area. Have not been for decades. You might not have been born when I left. Around that time, my old high school coach, Eddie Feely, was starting to build a powerhouse at Merritt Island. Before that, Brevard H.S. football was pretty mediocre.
The most interesting thing I remember is that Merritt Island had a stud LB on a state championship team in the early '70's who is now a woman. I can't remember her name, but I read about her a few years ago. I think she is now a realtor somewhere in central Florida. He was known for being a fierce hitter. I think he went to East Carolina. There weren't as many guys from Brevard going to bigger programs back then. I don't know when Brevard started to emerge as a major football center.
Over the years, Brevard produced a lot of guys who made it big, e.g., Clint Hurdle (big as a baseball player, he was a Merritt Island QB who committed to UM; Leon Bright Joe Kohlbrand, Matt Walters, Kenny Calhoun, Derrick Brown, the Ham Brothers, Hurley Brown, Darrell Spencer, those kids at Palm Bay, etc.) When I lived in Broward in the '60's, the talent was not so hot.
Kind of disappointing this kid from Cape Canaveral is going to Cocoa High and not Cocoa Beach. I guess the program at Cocoa Beach is not too impressive so he wanted to play in a better program. When I was in H.S., it was just about unheard of for kids to select their own school out of their living area. I never heard of it. Some kids played for parochial schools like Curley (bigger in Dade in the early '60's than it is now) or Columbus. There was the proliferation of private schools like there is now. I lived in south Florida before i lived in Brevard, went to HS in Dade and then Brevard, and things have changed a great deal.
For those interested in Brevard football, you've probably never heard of the most illustrious Brevard product ever, I think the only Brevard kid to ever make it to the College Football Hall of Fame:
Inductees - Players & Coaches Interactive Feature & Info
Anderson Consensus All-American At West Point |
Bob Anderson was one of the very best players in college football at Army in the late '50's. He was a rare sophomore A-A back then (when freshmen didn't play varsity). Army used to have very good teams back then, probably better than all the Florida schools. I met him after a college all star game played in the Orange Bowl when i got his autograph. It was probably the old North-South game that was a tradition in south Florida.
Back then, south Florida had a plethora of great post season games in the Orange Bowl: the North-South game, the Orange Blossom Classic, with FAMU playing the best black college from elsewhere in the country, the Orange Bowl game, and then the NFL runner up game. The latter was before there was a Super Bowl. It featured the number three and four teams in the NFL.
Bob Anderson was perhaps the greatest player ever out of Brevard given his accomplishments in college and the one nobody remembers (except for me.) If anybody can tell me if there is another Brevard product in the College Football Hall of Fame, please let me know.
