56Mustang

Also hard to compare private to public schools over time since private schools can recruit, gove scholarships, and arent subject to districts changing and new schools taking away student numbers Take away bolles and glades day above and glades central and MI are tied for number one in playoff appearances among public schools

They had some great teams in the 80's as well but so did vero beach with coach billy livings.... they had some epic showdowns especially in 86 i believe..13-10 vero win in OT at vero in front of 10,000 plus. MI finished 9-1, runner up didnt go to playoffs back then...Growing up in merritt island, it was all about the mustangs, it was a true football community...town shutndown on friday nights in the fall...like friday night lights....the space programs continual decline has hurt the program more than anything

Must be alot of young people on this forum... Florida High School football tradition would not be complete without Merritt Island Mustangs, and they ran the big boy classification fo football in the 1970's. The 1980's still had winning teams and a state champ loss.... the 1990s and on have all produced teams with runs into the playoffs the school opened in 1967 State champs in 72, 78, 79 in the largest classification at the time which was 4a I believe Undefeated in 72, 78, 79 101-15 for the decade 30 game winning streak 32 years out of 49 years school has made it in FHSAA Playoffs (tied for 3rd all-time with glades central, trailing Bolles with 34 and glades day with 33) all time FHSAA playoff record 45-29 (9th most wins in FHSAA Playoff history) (7th most FHSAA playoff games played) 4 state champ appearances, 3 wins ( TALLY Leon in 72, Pensacola Pine Forest in 78 and 79) lost in 89 to Dillard heres some info http://www.fhsaa.org/news/2007/1211 - FHSAA announces top teams by decade The 1970s. MERRITT ISLAND Finishing 13-0 and Class 4A state champions, the high-powered 1972 Merritt Island High School Mustangs, coached by Eddie Feely, scored 519 points for a 39.9 point-per-game average, and ran up more than 5,000 yards in total offense. They beat Leon (Tallahassee) 40-21 in the state championship game.The entire backfield – quarterback Jimmy Black, fullback Waldo Williams and tailback “Neon†Leon Bright, a member of the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame – all made the all-state team. It was the first time that’s happened in the history of Florida high school football. And it hasn’t happened since. The entire backfield signed with FSU. On that staff were three future hall of fame coaches – the head coach, Eddie Feely, along with assistants Gerald Odom and Dwight Thomas ( later @ ESCAMBIA- Emmitt Smith), who also eventually became head coaches. http://spacecoastdaily.com/2013/11/mustangs-72-champs-set-benchmark-for-excellence/ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1985-09-22/news/0330140296_1_mustangs-merritt-odom GERALD ODOM FHSAA announces coaching staff for All-Century football team Gerald Odom • FHSAA All-Century Team Coach • Back-To-Back State Championships • 268-85-2 Career Record