Wagnabbit: Florida State led the charge for college sports ‘purity’

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.