Leon is one year younger than me. He went to Evans High School (family moved to Orlando a few years before Leon signed with UM, before Leon enrolled at Evans) which is one of the closest Orange County high schools to my alma mater, Lake Brantley (Evans, Edgewater, and Apopka are the 3 closest high schools, Wekiva wasn't built yet at the time, so it's a high-quality football area). Lake Brantley used to play all those Orange County schools in football, and Evans is near the bustling Orlando suburb of Crime Hills. Leon did not play until his senior year of HS (my freshman year at UM) because his mother wanted him to raise his GPA first, so I never got a chance to see Leon play in HS. Also, and this will make @caneinorland and/or
@SWFLHurricane happy, Leon was coached by Bill Gierke at Evans.
Anyhow, before my dad got a job at Disney, he worked at the Orlando Airport with Leon's dad. I remember my dad telling me that he talked to Leon's dad about Leon being recruited during the 1986 football season, and I thought it was weird because Miami was so good and Leon had just started to play football. Leon's best offers besides UM were FAMU and Grambling (cue the cheers from the pro-HBCU crowd!).
So, yeah, whatever the UM coaches were doing to scout kids was AMAZING back in the JJ/Butch days.