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Larry Little High School - Booker T. Washington (Miami, Florida) College - Bethune–Cookman NFL - San Diego Chargers (1967–1968) Miami Dolphins (1969–1980)

Check out some of the famous alumni from St Thomas Aquinas. No doubt some of these people know people of influence in the political realm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Thomas_Aquinas_High_School_(Florida) The Archbishop of Miami is the face of the Catholic Church in south FL, and there is a huge Catholic contingent in south FL. Can you imagine how politically important he is to the politicians down there? That said, how much do you think politicians want to poke at the Archdiocese of Miami, recognizing it is important to the survival of their schools(or at least perceived to be) to have the marketing edge of great football programs. I am convinced a lot of what we are seeing today is about marketing. Good students don't bring notoriety to high schools in the news, but good football teams sure do. Back in the 80's and before, mention St Thomas Aquinas to somebody on the West Coast and nobody knew who were were talking about. Now, because of their football team, people from all over the country know who they are. It's incredible advertising...no different than what colleges do. From what I understand, some of the Catholic schools had financial issues back in the day. Archbishop Curley and Chaminade were both all boys schools who merged with their sister schools back in the 80's. Back then, people assumed all of the the private schools were dripping with money, but that was not completely true. I got to see the facilities of one of the "rich" private south FL private schools back in the day and was shocked at how primitive they were. I believe these schools were forced to start marketing themselves very aggressively when demographics started changing rapidly in south FL. And part of the marketing plan included raising the visibility of their sports programs...something the priests probably didn't care much about when they were running the show at those schools. The private schools started bringing in non-religious administrators to help them run the schools more like real businesses. I just read that one of the Catholic "powerhouse" schools currently have their first non-clergy President ever. There is a message there.