One
of the milestone accomplishments in college sports history was the formation of
a new athletic conference in 1948, made up of nine southern colleges/universities
that took a stand and “just said no” to offering scholarships to
student-athletes.
The
new league was the brainchild of Dr. Howard Danford, athletic director at
Florida State University in Tallahassee, which fielded its first intercollegiate
sports teams in 1947.
Member
institutions agreed to adhere to the principle of “complete amateurism.” These
schools bought into the belief “that intercollegiate games, including football,
might be played just for fun.”
Imagine
that…especially coming from FSU.
“Vires, Artes, Mores” translates from Latin to “Strength,
Skill, Character.” The motto expresses the core values of Florida State
University.
Here is a bit of FSU history: The university originated in 1851 as the West Florida Seminary, a
state-supported school for men. It began admitting
women in 1858.
The name was changed to Florida Military and Collegiate
Institute in 1863 to reflect the school’s changing mission; in 1901 it was
renamed Florida State College.
When Florida’s institutions of higher education
were reorganized in 1905, the school became the Florida Female College, open to
women only; the male students were moved to the University of Florida in
Gainesville.
The name was changed to Florida State College for Women in 1909.
It became Florida State University in 1947 and at that time reinstituted a
coeducational policy. The university was racially integrated in 1962.
The
other eight members of the newly formed Dixie Conference in 1948 were: Howard
College of Homewood, Ala. (now Samford University); Lambuth University of
Jackson, Tenn. (now part of the University of Memphis); Mercer University of
Macon, Ga.; Millsaps College of Jackson, Miss.; Mississippi College of Clinton,
Miss.; Oglethorpe University of Brookhaven, Ga.; Stetson University of DeLand,
Fla.; and Tampa (Fla.) University (now the University of Tampa).
Read
a bit of Dr. Danford’s philosophy about college sports, attained largely from
the archives of the Tallahassee Democrat:
“The
boy who makes the varsity volleyball team at Florida State University gets just
as big a letter to wear on his sweater as the football star. So does the
golfer, the tennis player and the swimmer,” Danford said.
It’s
part of the university’s plan to prevent over-emphasis of football and other
so-called major sports, the Democrat reported.
“We
don’t have any major or minor sports here,” Danford asserted. “In most colleges,
a major sport is simply one that brings in the most gate receipts. We feel we
have no business going into the field of commercial amusement.”
The
Democrat stated: “The ticket price for home games of the Seminole football team
this fall (1948) will range from 90 cents to $2.40, including tax. Danford says
that won’t meet expenses, but he would prefer to have the university budget
carry the sport as a function of education.”
He
said he believes the “athletic program exists primarily as a means of
developing health, teaching fair play and other characteristics of good
citizenship, and developing skills for use in later life.”
“Who
plays football or engages in track events after he graduates?” Danford asks.
“As
an educational proposition, he feels golf, tennis, volleyball and such sports
are better for later life,” the Democrat continued.
The 1947 FSU football team official portrait...with most of the players in the picture.
Dr.
Danford didn’t fret over FSU’s 0-5 record on the gridiron in 1947, and he was supported
in his efforts by Florida’s Gov. Millard Fillmore Caldwell (shown below), who offered this
endorsement: “Florida State University proved that (college) football can be
played on a non-commercial basis. And their amateur schedule was a breath of
fresh air in the commercialized football situation.”
For
FSU’s second year of football, Dr. Danford hired Don Veller (shown below) as coach. Veller had
just one year of head coaching experience under his belt – at Hanover (Ind.)
College. He stayed at FSU through the 1952 season.
Coach
Veller wanted football to be fun as well, but in his mind, football wasn’t much
fun unless his teams won. And win they did. Veller registered a stellar 16-2 in
1948-49, which stoked the town’s appetite for FSU football.
Dr.
Danford scolded Veller, saying: “You incite these people!”
“Boosters”
entered the picture and got the ear of FSU President Doak Campbell (shown below), expressing
their vision for FSU to do “whatever was necessary” to rise to football
supremacy.
A
first step required FSU to exit the Dixie Conference in 1950, becoming “independent,”
free of the shackles of a league alignment.
Florida State opted for
‘sports independence’ in 1950
In
December 1950, after winning the first three Dixie Conference football titles
without losing a single conference game, Florida State University announced it
would exit the league to become “independent”…and begin to offer football
players scholarships and other nebulous “grants-in-aid.”
This
news was a very bitter pill to swallow for Dr. Howard Danford, who was FSU’s
athletic director. Since his arrival on campus in 1947, he had preached that all
college sports are equally subordinate to education, and none of the players on
FSU’s athletic teams would receive financial assistance of any description.
In
Dr. Danford’s view, college sports should be played strictly by amateurs and
just for fun.
However,
by 1950, Dr. Danford was clearly outnumbered within his own academic
institution. As FSU’s football team began to dominate its opponents, faculty
and fans alike were feeling their oats, exerting pressure on university
President Doak Campbell to “move up” and schedule more challenging foes.
Local
businessmen and other professional people in the community organized a “boosters’
organization” to raise funds that could be invested in “university
development.” (That was a code term for “football program.”)
The
first name mentioned in the list of contributors compiled by Bill Bunker, FSU’s
venerable sports information director, was Tallahassee businessman Rainey
Cawthon (shown below), a former University of Florida football running back. Many U-F alumni in
the Tallahassee area supported FSU’s fledgling program because they felt it was
in the best interest of the local community.
Another
booster was G. Harrold Carswell (shown below), a prominent local attorney. He went on to hold
a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals and was nominated by U.S. President Richard
Nixon in 1970 to become a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately,
that didn’t go so well for Judge Carswell.
Albert
Yates, a building contractor, was credited with introducing alcohol as “the
booster club’s beverage of choice,” citing a poem by American humorist Ogden
Nash that specified: “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.”
Bringing
in booze was a bit of an obstacle for social events like barbecues, fish fries
and oyster roasts held in and around Tallahassee in Leon County, which was a
“dry county.” (The solution, according to Bunker, was for the boosters to import
cases of liquor on a Greyhound bus from Taylor County, the nearest “wet
county.”)
The
boosters’ primary goal was to build a stadium worthy of a football program “on
the rise.”
They kept building...and building. Today, Doak Campbell Stadium has a capacity of 79,560 and is the 17th largest in the NCAA.
One
of the first prized recruits to sign with FSU was Lee Corso, who came to campus
in 1953 to play quarterback on offense and cornerback on defense. Corso wore jersey No. 20. His roommate
was a running back named Burt Reynolds, No 37. (Early in his sophomore year, Reynolds
was sidelined with a serious knee injury that cut short a promising football
career. He moved on to Hollywood.)
Reynolds (above) starred in the 1972 film “Deliverance,” while Corso (below) became a television sports analyst with the cast of the popular ESPN program “College Gameday,” making predictions about who would win the game of the week.
During
the early years, the Seminoles’ football team cashed in on a relationship that began
in 1947 with the “FSU Flying High Circus,” an extracurricular program that
engaged both male and female student amateur performers.
The
circus provided several acrobats known as the “Flying Seminoles” to perform “electrifying
acts during pregame and halftime shows, combining baton twirling, gymnastics,
juggling and dancing.”
“Seminole Sammy” was the FSU mascot for a short period, before being thankfully retired. (He is shown below.)
In
1978, the Seminole-authentic Osceola made his debut. Osceola, representing the
historical Seminole leader Osceola, rides bareback on his trusty Appaloosa
horse named Renegade. Today, the duo “introduces” home football games by planting
a burning, feathered spear on the 50-yard line.
Osceola
wears Native American-themed regalia that is designed and approved by the
Seminole Tribe of Florida.
FSU joined the
Atlantic Coast Conference in 1991, and the football team entered league play in
1992.
From the FSU photo gallery over the years:
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