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| Leon High School of the 1920s (State Archives of Florida) |
High school athletes with one or more track and field seasons in their history know how difficult it is to get to State. Of course, we're talking about qualifying for the State Championship Meet. But once upon a time, in the days before easy travel, getting to State was difficult in that transportation wasn't a simple problem. In 1920, the trip to the State Champtionship Track Meet in Gainesville, Florida from Tallahassee was an adventure--such an adventure, that one Leon High School student felt compelled to write about it for the school newspaper, The Hill Top. The article ran on 30 April 1920, less than two weeks after State. The day of their departure, 16 April 1920, this short notice ran in The Hill Top:
The track team left today to attend the State High School track meet at Gainesville. We just know they are going to come back with honors and Leon High will be proud of them.
Those going were: Rees Williams, Alton Towles, Orion Parker, Burton Williams.
Now that we know the names of the players, here is what one of them wrote about their trip to State.
The Hill Top
Volume 1, Number 8
Friday, 30 April 1920
"Rees Williams Wins Ribbon At Track Meet"
We left for Gainesville about four-thirty on Friday morning [April] the sixteenth (a long time before daylight it seemed to us).
The Quincy track team was also on its way to the "meet," so we had companions that we were acquainted with even if they were rivals. As soon as we were well started we composed ourselves as best we could to sleep a little, tho not much. We changed cars at Lake City about 9 o'clock and had breakfast there.
Robert Parker, in ordering breakfast at the cafe, ordered, among other things, two eggs which were listed on the bill of fare as "two eggs, any style, 20 cents." So when asked by the waiter whether he wanted them fried on one side or both, Robert insisted that he wanted them "any style," just as they were listed.
After changing cars twice more we arrived at Gainesville about 1 o'clock. We were met at the depot by some autos which took us to the hotel where we were to stay while in the city. Some of us were to stay at the College dormitories and some in private homes.
Saturday morning came with a promise of a fair day. We were certainly glad, because the track was wet and slippery from Friday's rains. The preliminaries of 100 and 200-yard dashes and also the hurdles were run off Saturday morning and then we stopped for the noon hour.
Finals to all the events were to come off that afternoon, so of course there was a great deal of excitement. The grand stand was packed with a crowd from different schools cheering for their favorites.
The boys taking part in the different events outwardly appeared as calm as usual, but the air was charged with a nervous tension, especially to those who were waiting for their events to come off.
The high jump and broad were over with, the mile and half-mile had been run, and still our team had no points.
We were feeling rather badly, but we still had one hope yet--that of Rees in the pole vault--and we certainly were not disappointed even when he tied with another boy for fourth place at nine feet. But we were greatly relieved to see him clear the bar at nine feet two and to see his opponent fall.
The medals and blue ribbons were awarded that night at nine-thirty. We left next morning at six, and again stopped at Lake City for breakfast, and speaking of eating, you ought to have seen us then, because it was late and we were surely hungry.
On the trip back we again had the Quincy boys for company and with some friendly scraps and tricks played on each other, we arrived here about 330, and whether you believe it or not, Tallahassee sure looked good to us.
Travel seems to have been by train. The trip to the meet took eight-and-a-half hours, so the average speed was somewhere in the range of 15-20 mph. By comparison, today's school buses seem marvelously swift.
Florida's State Meet goes back to 1915 and possibly earlier. The FHSAA wasn't founded till 1920 (Leon High was a charter member), so this was either the last non-FHSAA State Meet or the first FHSAA State Meet. There would be another 55 years before FHSAA sanctioned a girls' State Meet, although the Florida State College for Women hosted a state championship track meet for high school girls for several years during the 1920s. 1920, by the way, was the first year of publication for The Hill Top. No byline appears on the article, but Rees Williams (c/o 1921) was the circulation manager of The Hill Top. Draw your own conclusions.
Rees Williams had placed in the pole vault. It wouldn't be until 1922, two years later, that a Tallahassee athlete won an event at the State Meet. That year, Clifford Blitch of Leon (c/o 1922) won the 100-yard dash in 10.2--the State Meet record at the time. In 1927, Billy Chittenden of Leon (c/o 1927) won a State title in the pole vault, Rees Williams' event, going 10' 9-3/4", while also winning the high jump in 5' 10".
Since 1920, Tallahassee athletes have run faster, jumped higher, thrown and jumped farther. Neverthless, they are all following in the footsteps of Williams, Towles, Parker, and Williams.
Links
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