NCCU Football Visits Pro Football Hall of Fame

A Look Back: The day FAMU's Bob Hayes came home an Olympic champion

Jacksonville, FL -  I can remember it as if it were yesterday.

Joe Livingston, who did public relations for the city, came into the newsroom on the fourth floor of The Florida Times-Union building at 400 W. Adams St. with a release that said in two hours, the city parks and recreation department along with the Florida A&M band would stage a parade downtown to welcome home Bob Hayes.

The Matthew Gilbert High School and Florida A&M football and track athlete was to be welcomed home from the 1964 Summer Olympics in Japan, where he won two gold medals.

Executive Editor John S. Walters happened to be in his office and I took Livingston's release in to him. After glancing at it, Walters told me to put it in the Star Edition's mailbox. The Times-Union started the Star Edition on Jan. 1, 1950, to report on "news for and about the colored people." It was distributed to the city's African-American readers.

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Videographer: jesudomine
Bob Hayes (#702)  winning the 100m final in a time of 10.0 seconds, equaling the world record. Taken from Kon Ichikawa's documentary Tokyo Olympiad (東京オリンピック Tōkyō Orinpikku) from 1965.



Videographer: sportnotv3
USA wins the 4 x 100m relay at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in a then World Record time of 39.06 seconds. The improbable victory was made possible by the phenomenally swift anchor leg run by Robert Lee "Bullet Bob" Hayes (#702).  His leg was quite possibly the fastest ever (8.50 seconds hand timed) according to many pundits. This relay race was Hayes' last race as a track and field athlete, as he permanently switched to NFL football (Dallas Cowboys) after the 64' Olympic games.

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VISIT: FAMUATHLETICS
VISIT: PROFOOTBALLHALLOFFAMERBOB HAYES

State of Florida's Pro Football HOF status on rise

Former Florida A&M University 3-times All-American and Cincinnati Bengals 3-times AFC interception leader, Ken Riley is long overdue to be called for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


Bragging rights over which state plays the best high school football is an argument that rages on in Ohio, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and California, among others. With 28 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame born in Texas and 27 in Pennsylvania, both can make good arguments. Ohio checks in with 23 Hall of Famers, while California has 16.

What about Florida? The Sunshine State boasts eight — but that’s a figure growing rapidly. With Rickey Jackson and Emmitt Smith entering the Hall this year, that gives Florida five Hall of Famers in the last four years. Expect that number to continue to grow in years to come as Deion Sanders, Derrick Brooks, Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp become eligible.

For a further example of Florida’s excellence, check out this 33-player All-Century team selected in 2007 by the Florida High School Athletic Association’s panel of experts. It’s an all-state team sure to stack up well against any other.

Excerpt:

Ken Riley, Union Academy (Bartow), 1965. Played offense and defense in high school and QB at Florida A&M, where he was a three-time All-American. Moved back to the secondary in the NFL, where he played 14 seasons with 65 interceptions. Was later head football coach (1986-93) and athletic director (1994-2003) at FAMU.



Willie Galimore, Excelsior High School (St. Augustine), 1952. “He was perhaps the greatest running back I ever saw or coached against,” said Earl Kitchings, former head coach of Matthew Gilbert and Raines high schools. Considered by some experts to be the best Florida high school RB prior to Emmitt Smith. Remains leading rusher in Florida A&M University history. Killed in an automobile accident in 1964. Played football for the NFL Chicago Bears.

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Virginia Award named for Richmond -- Morgan State gridiron great Willie Lanier

RICHMOND, Va. -- The greatest football player ever to come out of Richmond wasn't recruited by Virginia or Virginia Tech. When Willie Lanier graduated from Maggie Walker High School in 1963, those schools weren't an option for him. College football still was a segregated game, so the best African-American players went to play in the CIAA or MEAC. Lanier had a scholarship offer from Virginia State College, now Virginia State University, but he turned that down because he wanted to escape the segregation that still ruled the South.

Instead, he called Morgan State College coach Earl "Papa Bear" Banks, who told him he could play but that he had no scholarships to give. It didn't take long for Lanier to earn a scholarship. By his senior season, he was a Small College All-American and attracting the attention of pro scouts. Lanier went on to become one of the greatest linebackers in football history. He earned a place in both the College and Pro Football halls of fame. He also returned to Richmond and became a successful businessman and community leader.




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'Crow' could fly: Bob Hayes' legendary career began in Jacksonville

"People are coming by the bus loads; it's going to be an amazing sight," said Bob Hayes Jr., a Dallas resident who will help present his father for induction along with Roger Staubach, the Cowboys' Hall of Fame quarterback." Many of Hayes' Gilbert High classmates and football players from the 1958 black state championship team are taking a charter bus to Canton. Dr. James Ammons, the Florida A&M president, and three past presidents of the school will also be in attendance.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You called him "Bullet." But they called Bob Hayes "Crow." Long before he became the world’s fastest human by winning double gold medals at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo — and well before he came to Dallas to play for the Cowboys, earning a Super Bowl ring and in the process changing the game — he was "Crow."

On the brink of his posthumous induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, his former high school teammates and childhood friends shared their memories of Hayes as a youth. Not of the world-renowned "Bullet" Bob Hayes, who is still the only man in history to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring and was so fast that opposing teams had to revise how to play zone defenses. But of "Crow:" the playground speedster yet reluctant athlete who honed his skills in the sand and muck on the east side of Jacksonville in an area called the black bottom.

Sitting in a wheelchair outside a beat-up old house on the corner of Odessa and Iona, Charles Sutton started to laugh. "I would say 'Bullet’ and he would say, 'Stop that, Knotts,’ " said Sutton, whose childhood nickname was Knotts because he would bump his head so many times that it would swell up in, well, knots. "I said, I can’t call you Bullet. They call you Bullet. He said call me what you been calling me."

2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement
WHEN: 7 p.m., Saturday.WHERE: Canton, Ohio. TV: ESPN/NFL Network. Inductees: Bob Hayes, Ralph Wilson, Randall McDaniel, Rod Woodson, Derrick Thomas, Bruce Smith.

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USA wins the 4 x 100m relay at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in a then World Record time of 39.06 seconds. The improbable victory was made possible by the phenomenally swift anchor leg run by FAMU's (#702) Robert Lee "Bullet Bob" Hayes.

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Winter Haven Students Rally to Support Ken Riley

NFL greats Doug Williams (L) and Ken Riley(R). Riley's NFL career: Bengals cornerback, 1969-83; fourth on NFL all-time interception list with 65.

Students want him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.




WINTER HAVEN, FL - What started out as a class assignment has turned into a movement. Winter Haven High School classmates Nick Harper and Jordan Powell hope the movement turns into a tidal wave of support that sweeps Winter Haven High dean Ken Riley into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "We researched it and found out he was pretty good," Harper, an 18-year-old senior, said of Riley, who played for 15 years with the Cincinnati Bengals. "He's had the most interceptions without being in the hall. He went to a Super Bowl. Why isn't he in?"

So, the duo went to work. They have collected more than 1,000 signatures and have contacted some of the Hall of Fame voters, including local voter Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune. They're trying to get everyone to remember the achievements of the Bartow native Riley, who last played in 1983. It may be working. Kaufman said last month that he has received some of the letters and talked with some committee members while at the owners' meeting in California in March.

"He's legitimate," Kaufman said of the Union Academy graduate Riley. "I brought up his name to some of the voters and got a very positive response. It's a wonder why someone with the numbers he has hasn't really seriously been considered."

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Former FAMU Rattlers, Ken Riley displays a game ball and three AFC Interception Leader awards he won during his 15 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. Riley, 61, a dean at Winter Haven High School, resides in Bartow.

LIFE OF RILEY

• High School: Union Academy, Bartow, FL; College: Star QB, Florida A&M University; 6th Round Draft Choice 1969, Cincinnati Bengals-- Played 15 seasons as cornerback.


• Riley also excelled academically and earned his team's scholastic award and a Rhodes Scholar Candidacy.


• NFL career: Bengals cornerback, 1969-83. Fourth on NFL all-time interception list with 65.


• Post NFL-career: 1984-85: Green Bay Packers assistant coach; 1986-93: Head coach, Florida A&M University, compiling a 48-39-2 record with two Mid-Eastern Athletic conference titles and 2 MEAC coach of the year awards; 1994-2003: Athletic director, Florida A&M.


• Personal: Age 61, hometown is Bartow, Fla. Married, three grown children, one grandchild. Resides in Bartow, Fla.


• Riley is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.


• In 2007 Riley was named to the Florida High School Association All-Century Team which selected the Top 33 players in the 100 year history of high school football in the state of Florida's history.
  
• Riley is in other halls of fame, including the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, Polk County Sports Hall of Fame and the Florida A&M Hall of Fame.

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A 'Team of the Century' - Matthew Gilbert H.S.

Photo: Members of the 1958 Matthew Gilbert High School undefeated football team gather with assistant coach William Higgins (right) and New York City Councilman and Gilbert alumnus Larry Seabrook (fifth from left) as the team is honored Friday at the school's reunion at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. Seabrook worked to make sure the team was recognized for its achievement.

50 years later, Jacksonville, Fla. Matthew Gilbert High football champs finally recognized.

They were members of the 1958 Matthew Gilbert High School football team. They traveled as far away as Pensacola and Miami to find opponents and finished 11-0. But they couldn't play against their neighbors who attended Jacksonville's white high schools because of segregation laws. Last month, the 1958 Gilbert team was named one of the "Teams of the Century" by the Florida High School Athletic Association, the same governing body that didn't represent black schools in the '50s.

In 1958, the state association governing black high school athletics held a football championship for the first time. Gilbert's team traveled to Fort Lauderdale where it beat Dillard High School 14-7 in front of a crowd of 11,000. The reaction back home reflected the segregationist attitude of the city. They were a black team from a black school that won a black championship, and the city's white majority generally overlooked them.

The players knew how much they had accomplished that year, but they also knew not to expect widespread recognition. "It was the way it was," said Roy Mitchell, a senior tackle on the team. "Segregation was at its zenith at the time." Instead, they moved on.

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Photo: Bullet Robert "Bob" Hayes

They graduated from Gilbert and went on to college, the military or to work.

One of the players, Bob Hayes (Florida A&M University), eventually became an Olympic gold medalist in track and an NFL All-Pro standout. But at Gilbert, he wasn't even among the best. During the 1958 season, as a junior, he played behind more talented halfbacks.

Today, Bob Hayes remains the only player in history to win both an Olympic Gold Medal and NFL Super Bowl ring. It's a doggone shame that he is not immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.