An Inspirational Story of a FL State Champion Team

[OldSchoolLion]

For those who think that beating the powerhouses of today is an insurmountable challenge....please read this.  Having the odds stacked against you is not a new phenomenon in Florida.  Wildwood's coach at the time, Byrd Whigham, was a legend.  After Wildwood, he led little Melbourne High to a shocking upset of Fort Lauderdale in the 1970 state finals.  In 1964, there were 2 classes.  Think there were some significant differences in talent between rural schools and big city schools?   If you think playing St Thomas today is bad, you should have seen what some of these teams were up against in the dinosaur days.  Before their title game against Columbia, Wildwood had to travel to Hollywood to face "big city" Chaminade in a state final.  Ask your 75 year-old Grandpa what it was like traveling across the state back then.  So, please understand if some of us don't seem too sympathetic about today's transfer issues.  Adversity is nothing new.         

 

Wildwood grew out of watermelon fields and railroad tracks.  But the passion of Wildwood was, and is, high school football.  Never was that more true than in 1964, when the Wildcats lived out a story similar to the one chronicled in the Indiana high school basketball movie, Hoosiers. Often undersized, overmatched and outnumbered, the Wildcats finished 12-0 and won the state championship by beating Lake City Columbia 12-7 in the Class A championship game at Florida Field in Gainesville.  The opponent was typical of the teams Wildwood faced.

The Wildcats, with an offensive line that averaged just 168 pounds, were built around a core of 18 players. When Columbia took the field on Dec. 11, 1964, it made Lester Lucas, Wildwood's all-state left tackle, pause.  "I wondered, 'What was the University of Florida doing here? They weren't supposed to be practicing.' It looked like they had 60 or 70 players," said Lucas, 60. "They beat us to death in the first half. At halftime, it was 0-0. That was the only game that year where I felt defeated."  Wildwood, which never trailed during the season and outscored opponents 348-58, had been beaten down: By halftime, Columbia had 11 first downs, Wildwood one; Columbia had 181 yards rushing, Wildwood 27.  In his final game as Wildwood's coach, Byrd Whigham delivered an inspirational speech before the final two quarters.  "He was a genius," said Ronnie Phillips, 61, the starting left guard.

Suddenly, the Wildcats scored two touchdowns by the Jones brothers -- Danny and Randy -- stunning the crowd of about 6,000, and putting Wildwood up 12-0. Danny Jones scored on a 52-yard pass from quarterback Hamp Johnson. Later, concluding a 65-yard drive, Randy Jones scored from 2 yards.  "We were quick, we were well-coached and we ran a ball-control offense," said Johnson, 60, a cardiovascular surgeon in Ormond Beach. "That was how we did it."

The late Van McKenzie, former sports editor of the Orlando Sentinel, covered Wildwood as an assistant sports editor for the Ocala Star-Banner. McKenzie wrote in an e-mail to Lucas in 2001 that Wildwood's victory against Columbia was one of the 10 most memorable events he covered.  "It was one of the gutsiest performances I've ever seen," wrote McKenzie, who was sports editor at six papers and covered World Series, Super Bowls and Olympics. "Lake City had a great, great team, much bigger and faster and with lots more depth than Wildwood. . . . Facing a third-and-inches for a first down . . . at about midfield in the third quarter, Whigham called for the bomb. It went for a TD, and you guys won the game.  "Afterwards, I asked Whigham why he didn't just go for the first down, and he deadpanned, 'Cause first downs don't win football games. Touchdowns do.' "

It was the first of two state titles for Wildwood (the second came in 1970).  Back in '64, few people gave Wildwood a chance.  The FHSAA's state football championship program was in its second year. It was offered only for the state's largest schools -- Class AA and Class A.  With 97 boys in its top three grades -- then the standard used to determine a school's classification -- Wildwood didn't qualify among the state's biggest schools. But Whigham wanted his players to have a chance to compete for a state title and asked the FHSAA whether the school could move up to Class A.

Wildwood already played in the Orange Belt Conference against mostly Class A schools, including Leesburg, Kissimmee Osceola, Winter Garden Lakeview (now West Orange), Lyman and DeLand. The conference's coaches picked Wildwood to finish fifth.  Wildwood, a team of proud, rural farm boys, dominated the conference but still needed a late schedule change to make the playoffs, which were determined by points on a strength-of-schedule basis. Wildwood replaced Class B Lake Weir with Class A Eustis as the season was winding down. A victory against undefeated Eustis, a tougher, bigger opponent, would give Wildwood the points it needed to reach the playoffs.  Wildwood won its second game in three days, 27-13.  "It wasn't like we sat around, wringing our hands saying, 'How are we going to do this?' " said captain and starting center Ronnie Perry, 61, who now lives in Granite Falls, N.C. "We were so conditioned to winning back then that I truly believe if we had to play back-to-back games, we would have won both of them. Losing never was an option. We were going to win. There was no question about it."

The Wildcats were small, strong, swift -- and united.  Summers spent working in the town's watermelon fields, picking and throwing melons, did wonders for strength and conditioning in the days before weight training. The players were inseparable, working and playing together.  "I don't think it is a word that we used back then, but we loved each other," Lucas said.  Most stay in touch today, and many live, or have returned, to their hometown.