Tampa Plant vs Lakeland

[181pl]

Historically its not even a good debate... Lakeland all the way I picked Plant but was not thinking all time.

Not sure that's accurate Peez. Plants been playing for a long time, almost as long as Lakeland. They both have lots of championships. Plants got Big Ten championships from way back in the day. If you don't know what that is you have to research it. I'd like to know how many Big Ten championships Lakeland had, if any. Steve could tell us. When he gets time.

[gwdrum75]

Here's what I have for the Pre-FHSAA time period for Lakeland.

 

1923 10-0 (Named "State Champs")

1925 7-0-1 (Named "State Champs")

1928 7-3 (Big Ten Runner-Up)

1929 8-0-1 (Named Big Ten Champs)

1930 12-0 (Named Big Ten Champs)

1935 10-0-1 (Named "State Champs")

1949 9-1 (Big Ten Runner-Up)

[181pl]

Good job! Plant had a few big 10 titles, as well.

[DisabledAccount]

Here's what I have for the Pre-FHSAA time period for Lakeland.

 

1923 10-0 (Named "State Champs")

1925 7-0-1 (Named "State Champs")

1928 7-3 (Big Ten Runner-Up)

1929 8-0-1 (Named Big Ten Champs)

1930 12-0 (Named Big Ten Champs)

1935 10-0-1 (Named "State Champs")

1949 9-1 (Big Ten Runner-Up)

We had 3 undefeated seasons in 30s and 2 in 50s, maybe we should have claimed those as state championships lol

[gwdrum75]

As I've said, I think its way too hard to do an overall comparison of teams with this much history. I think there is a key distinction in Florida High School football between the "Pre-FHSAA" era and the "FHSAA" era.

 

I've been following Lakeland football since 1986 and really started researching the history about 5 years ago. When you really dig in to how high school football was played back then, you realize it was just an entirely different era of playing and rules.

 

I know in researching Lakeland that they would put local colleges on their schedule. They would also send their "B" teams to play certain games.

I found a game with St. Pete in 1926 that was cancelled because both teams were tired of playing football and wanted to move on to basketball season.

 

Both Plant and Lakeland have had their up stretches and down stretches. I think the biggest distinction there is that Plant's "down-stretch" was more recent (90's-early 2000's). Lakeland hasn't had a sub .500 season since 1970.

[gwdrum75]

We had 3 undefeated seasons in 30s and 2 in 50s, maybe we should have claimed those as state championships lol

 

It was the press that named the State Champs. Like I said above, just a different era. Back then, you could find state-wide scores and articles all weekend long in your local paper. The St. Pete Times use to report on pretty much all of the state's teams since the "Big-Ten" conference covered most of the state.