The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 7

7 4-IIcartland THE TAMPA TRIBUNE, Monday, October 25, 1971 Now Assistant Principal At Bartow Ex-Union Coac HEARTLAND cKennie Mad 'The Pros Jack Slayton This'N' That Coach Fulton Beck reports knee injuries to fullback Darrell Livingston and linebacker Gary Dubose that sidelined both for. the balance of the season have progressed satisfactorily so will be able to play next fall should they receive deserved college scholarships. The Booster Club of Winter Haven flew former Winter-: Haven basketball and football star Nathan McCoy back Miami to Winter Haven to view the Winter Haven-Haines City game. McCoy will need a dialysis machine because of a kidney breakdown. Eventually it is hoped a kidney donor will be found.

He was stricken at the outset of the football season after he signed a grant-in-aid football scholarship to the University of Miami. Area football fans of the Miami Dolphins can hear the play- hy-play broadcast of the Miami-Los Angeles Rams game next Sunday at 3:50 p.m. over radio station WVFM-Stereo (94.1). The Lakeland station handles all Miami Dolphin games. football scholarship at Southern Illinois University.

SIU went looking because of Battle and signed Sam Silas right out of Union. The two joined the pros. Battle became a fulltime member of the Minnesota Vikings for a couple of seasons, left to play Canadian football and came back to the St. Louis Cardinals for a year. Silas went right out of SIU along with Jim Hart to the Cardinals where he was a star for four seasons before being traded to the New York Giants.

Last fall he was a member of 1 the San Francisco 49ers and was on their taxi squad as of a week ago. He's already acquired his five years service in the NFL and will be eligible for a pension. Jerry Simmons was a wide receiver who was signed out of Bethune Cookman by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Football fans who followed the fortunes of the Lakeland Brahmans in the dofunct North American Football League in the early 1960s will remember Simmons as the star receiver of the Pennsylvania Mustangs. Later, the Steelers brought him up and then traded him to Atlanta.

From there he joined the Chicago Bears where he suffered a broken ankle. He was sent to the San Francisco 49ers. R'ght now he is a first stringer with the Denver Broncos. Now conies the quartet all of whom have played in the secondary for NFL teams. The best of the lot, ironically, played only sparingly on defense when he was at Union.

"I didn't play him much on defense until his senior year. Then I crossed my fingers and prayed he wouldn't get hurt," said McKennie of his DAVIS MONUMENT COMPANY Largest Selection of Monuments and Markers in Florida. Wide' choice of colors on display Sec what you're buying. Imagine a high school coach having four players who eventually were all to see defensive secondary action for National Football League teams. And a small high school at McKennie, currently assistant principal at Bartow Senior High School, was in that enviable position some six, or seven years ago when he was head coach at Union Academy.

McKennie sent seven players to the National Football League who stayed at least a year with the pro team and two others who went down to the final cut before being dropped. Quite an accomplishment for a school that was listed as "Class in its last year as a high school. McKennie was raised in Lakeland and went to the old Vtashingion Park High School and then palyed football as a center for the Florida Rattlers in '44, '45 and '46. He came to in 1947 as a coach "I was the only coach at the time so I coached both football and basketball. Later I added track," he leaned back in his office and talked about his days as football and basketball coach with the powerful Union Academy Tigers.

l'You once said that you liked to coach basketball better never played basketball. Only watched it. And I think it was more of a challenge to coach the sport. But, in truth, I would have to say my football coaching days were the most satisfactory," he pointed out. McKennie coached at Union through the mid 1960s "I think '64 or '65 was my last year." During that time Union was always a power among Central Florida black teams.

And he had five unbeaten teams as the Tigers truly ruled Polk County football. Ifl think I just came in at the right time. I was like a good jockey with a great horse. The horse made me look good. k'My coaching staff, with the exception of J.

J. Corbett, all had played for me in high school. They had real dedication for tSe school. For the job. And for the community.

They were able to get the boys to feel the same way. Certainly we were helped bictories. Nothing beats winning," he grinned. I "After I first came here one of my players, Claude Woodruff, went on to end then returned to He handled thejoffense. We changed quite a bit as he brought in a whole nw.

approach to the offense. started with a squad of about 25 or so. Later we were to gos high as 90- we never cut anyone. But we played tough football and. some of the kids cut.

themselves. I came along at the right time in the right I also had a fine principal, Jatfies Stephens, who sought to develop our athletic program. Biit those assistants were the reason that we were successful. SAME LOCATION SINCE 1952 Serving Polk, Highlands, Hardee, DeSoto Pasco They all had their assignments. And they carried them out totally.

We rarely practiced more than two hours a day many of our kids lived quite a ways from Bartow and the coaches had to carry home. Once in a while the kids would ask for a few additional minutes to get something correct. "But we told them plainly, 'Look, the other guys are going to practice much longer than you are. So you're going to have to bear down all the time and get things done within the time "We kept our rules to about five or six. But there they were.

If the kids didn't want to go by those, they were free to drop the sport. And no hard feelings. We also told the kids that if 'you had to go to the office all the time (because of discipline problems), you can't do a good job of practicing." "And it was a community effort. We had solid support fron the school. From the community.

And from the players," he added. The assistants who helped build the Union Academy Tigers into a grid power included, besides Woodruff and Corbett, Ralph Anthony, who was an assistant at Bartow Senior last fall but is currently at the University of Miami working on his masters degree; LeRoy Hardee, the first Union player to ever reach the pros and currently a jayvee coach at Bartow High; Andrew Lawrence and Joe Pete. Hardee Was The First Hardee was the first from Union to get a chance in the NFL. He came out of Florida and was with the Green Bay Packers as a running back in the summer of 1959, staying until the final cut. Two years later, Louis Johnson, who was a sophomore when Hardee was a senior at Union, reached the final cut as a fullback prospect with the Houston Oilers in 1961.

Then two Union players reached the NFL and made it. Jim Battle had played with Hardee and Johnson but had gone into the service. When he got out of the service, he obtained a Authorized Dealer LOCATED ONE MILE SOUTH OF CITY LIMITS ON HWY. 98 PH. 686-0605 P.O.

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After being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, he was switched to defense by coach Paul Brown. He's been a star there ever since his rookie year. The player with the most publicity was Major Hazlton, who was an Ail-American pick by the pro scouts at and drafted high by the Chicago Bears. He was later sent to New Orleans. Nat James was one of the sprinters at along with Hazleton.

He was a defensive star for Union and has been with the Cleveland Browns. Alton Levan played at Union only in his sophomore year with the other three before moving to Orange, N.J., where he was a star player. He went to college in the west and has been in and out of the Atlanta Falcons' lineup since joining the pros as a defensive back. McKennie is reluctant to single out any of his pro gridders as "the best athlete." He paused, "I've been asked that before and it's hard to say which one was the best. "I'd have to say that Louis Johnson the fellow who didn't make the last cut seemed to do everything he tried real well.

You'd teach him a new sport in physical education and he'd master it in a short time," McKennie pointed out. Asked about missing coaching since assuming his new job, McKennie paused, "What I miss most of all is having personal contact with a group of boys each day. I looked forward to it. But then maybe my methods wouldn't work now. It's a whole new generation.

And attitude," he added. He paused, "You know the other day I was looking back over those days. Do you realize we never had one fejlow, who played at least a couple of years for us, ever get into serious trouble?" Maybe McKennie's methods aren't as outdated as he imagines. V- Nine pros from one small school. That's got to be a pretty good record.

There must be something constructive in his coaching techniques. And theories. BETTER HEARING List Of Ridge Unbeatens It Is important that all of us support President Nixon in his efforts to help our economy, we intend to do just that. Effective for the balance of 1971, all Hearing Aids, Batteries and Accessories will be sold at a ten percent discount. This is your opportunity to save.

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Haven-Phone 293-0121 Sports The Jake Gaither of Polk ence competition in two seasons will try again when they travel to Dade City and face the Pasco Pirates in another loop game. Frostproof Bulldogs finally snapped a four-game winless string that included two ties with an impressive 14-6 win over the Moore Haven Terriers. That left the Bulldogs with a trio of twos for their record. They'll be heavily favored in another Caloosa Conference game when they clash with the Ramblers in Alva. WINTER Haven Blue Devils, hoping to snap a four-game winless string that includes a 21-21 tie with Haines City, face a tough foe when thev invade Gainesville to clash with the Purple Hurri Apparently the cheers paid off for the Dreadnaughts got back on the right side of the ledger with a 21-6 win over Bartow.

Lakeland clashes with Dixie Hollins here next Friday night. The Dreadnaughts will be trying to even their record at 3-3. BARTOW'S Yellow Jackets may be without the services of their fine running back Tom Mikell, who was injured in the Lakeland game. The Jackets will be in Lake Wales to clash with the Highlanders in a Southwest Conference game. Rain forced the Lake Wales-Pasco game to be rescheduled for Saturday night.

Arcadia's Bulldogs were blanked by Charlotte County, 19-0. The loss has jeopardized the Bulldogs' chances at canes. Winter Haven is now By JACK SLAYTON Tribune Sports Writer LAKELAND The Ridge's list of unbeatens is down to two and fans can see both in action on successive nights this weekend. KATHLEEN Red Devils saw five-game win string go by. the boards as the Plant City Planters short-circuited their victory string with a 20-0 win.

City Hornets won "their fifth in six games they had a 21-21 tie with Winter Haven a week ago by edging Rockledge, 14-6. The Hornets will play the Sebring Blue Streaks at Haines City's Yale Field Friday night and will be heavily favored. However, the Hornets must win as the Hernando Leopards have lost only once they nipped Zephyr-hills, 6-0, Friday. Santa Fe's Crimson Hawks unleashed a scoring deluge to blow up the computers Friday night at Kathleen Field as they won their sixth straight an 88-0 thrashing of hapless Florida Air Academy. The Hawks will clash with the Fort Meade Miners Saturday night here at Bryant Stadium.

THE MINERS saw their playoff hopes go astray with a 26-14 loss to Turkey Creek. Along with the loss by Zephyr-hills, the Crimson Hawks are in, the driver's seat all other teams in contention have lost at least two times. Coach Tom Atwell's Red Devils ran into "one of those big teams" that the Kathleen coach feared would crush his 2-3-1. The Hardee County Wildcats snapped an eight-game loss string over two seasons and lighter charges. The fine Planter defense completely bottled up the Kathleen aerial attack dropping quarterback Danny Mucchler repeatedly and picking off three passes.

Despite the loss the Red Devils remain in playoff contention since once-tied Robinson stunned unbeaten Hillsborough. Plant City has lost once and the Planters and Robinson tangle on Nov. 19 while Kathleen will play at Robinson on Nov. 5. Meanwhile, the Red Devils will host Melbourne, which has had a so-so season but downed DeLand, 27-14, Friday night.

LAKE LAND coach Aul Quinn got unexpected support Friday night in the stands when a group of Columbia County (Lake City) fans who came all the way down to watch and root most vocile-rously for Quinn and his Dreadnaughts. Lake City had an open date they're undefeated. One of the visitors from Lake City gazed in amazement at the placidity of the Lakeland rooters. "Are you from Lakeland?" she questioned the dormant fans. "Why aren't you up rooting for them?" five this season with a 35-0 stunner of Palmetto.

The Wild cats will be in Bradenton to play Southeast in a Coral Coast Conference game. The Lake Placid Green Dragons have an open date. I 1 1 "IT WASN'T BORN YESTERDAY" 72 VOLKSWAGEN Now on Display at LEE RAGATZ Volkswagen Winter Haven a playoff berth as DeSoto slipped to 3-3 for the season. Arcadia will host the Avon Park Red Devils, who scored a impressive Lake-Ridge conference win over Clewis-ton. Avon Park still has an outside chance at the playoffs but must win them all and hope for a miracle in a pair of defeats to Santa Fe.

AUBURNDALE Blood-hounds, defending SWC champion, will try to get untracked in Kissimmee when they clash with the Kowboys and try to snap a five-game loss string. They dropped a heartbreaker, 15-14 to Mulberry on a two-point conversion. The Panthers that 15-14 win over Auburndale was their first win in Southwest Confer- i ftnrro nn unun itnur Sebring Tips Lake Placid S3? UKt" ur iuuk numt With DuPanl't I I i I 1 1 1 II 1 1 111 i Ajflt and eliminates paint- mm ing ond year-to-year rlAKE PLACID (Special) -John Jackson scored three touchdowns on short runs here Saturday night as the Sebring Blue Streaks won a seesaw 26-18 Lake Ridge Conference football victory from Lake Placid. Ross Hendricks ran 12 yards with a Sebring fumble for a 6-0 Lake Placid lead early, but Jackson went six yards for his first score and Ron Hanley's PAT gave the Streaks a 7-6 lead at the quarter. Jackson plunged over from the two in the second stanza for a 13-6 lead that stood up untilthehalf, Walt Robinson's 69-yard TD pass to Terry Myers got Lake Placid within one point early in the third period, but Garrett Robinson bucked four yards for a touchdown and a 21-12 Sebring lead at the three-quarter mark.

Jackson put it out of reach with a five-yard TD burst in the fourth. Lake Placid scored last cn an 11-yard touchdown pass from Gary McGhee to Nate Johnson. Sebring's record is 24, Lake Placid's 3-3. Sebring 7 6 6 726 Lake Placid 6 0 6 6-18 Southern Soccer Match Cancelled LAKELAND (By Staff Writer) A scheduled soccer match tomorrow for Florida Southern College and Florida Presbyterian has been cancelled. Shortly after the season opened Florida Presbyterian College dropped the sport following a dispute between coach and players.

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