My Heroes Have Always Been Seminoles
By Jim Joanos
About eight p.m. on October 18, 1947, Stetson kicked off to the first Florida State football team to take the field in forty-three years. Don Grant took the ball and advanced to the thirty-one yard line. There were nearly 8,000 of us at old Centennial Field to see that historic event. I was thirteen years old at the time and have been an FSU fan ever since. For fifty-four seasons, it has been my good fortune to follow a program that came from nowhere to become one of college football's premier programs.
It has been a great ride and there have been a lot of things to enjoy... the pageantry, the social activities, the wins, the national championships. But most of all, there have been the players involved that have been the most interesting. There have been some great athletes, some really good people, and a number of real characters. Let me mention some that I especially enjoyed watching play.
From the beginning, I always had at least one "favorite player". The first of these was Wyatt "Red" Parish. He carried the ball for an eighteen yard run during FSU's first series on offense in that 1947 opening game. Parish was a "big play guy". After Don Veller became FSU's coach in 1948, Parish played wingback in the Single-wing and Cockeyed T formation that Dr. Veller utilized. The wingback lined up off to the side as a wide receiver might today and would come around and take the ball on reverses. Often the reverses would go for big gains. To me, those were the most exciting plays of those early years. Parish led our early teams in scoring. His season scoring record of 60 points set in 1949 was not surpassed until 1964 when Fred Biletnikoff scored 68 points. When I close my eyes, I can still see "Red" going around on those beautiful reverses. Present day fans often chide Coach Bowden about his love of reverses. Early day fans enjoyed the play long before Bowden's days.
Another of my early favorites was a 150 pound end from Bainbridge, Georgia, named, Jimmy Arnold. Although he played on both sides of the ball, as was the custom in those days, he was at his best on defense. He was probably our first really good kick blocker, but I remember him most as a tackler. As I remember it, he would make tackle after tackle during a game. Sometimes, he would tackle the quarterback in the backfield. Today, we would call that a "sack" but the term had not yet been adopted when Arnold played. In my memory's mind he is right up there with Boulware, Wilson, Wadsworth, and Reynolds, as a defensive end. In fact, he did something that they could not do. He was the star mile and two-mile runner on the FSU track team. Yes, you read that correctly, we had a good defensive end that ran long distance events on the track team. I doubt that will ever happen again. Incidentally, Jimmy Arnold now lives in Lake City and is one of those characters that I mentioned earlier. He wears suspenders and bright shirts to team and varsity club reunions each year and has something pleasant to say to everybody.
From 1952 to 1956, I attended FSU with a number of the guys that have become legends to FSU fans, not the least of whom were Buddy (now Burt) Reynolds, and Lee Corso. I wrote Sports for The Florida Flambeau for awhile and, therefore, had more than a general interest in what was going on in Campbell Stadium. I remember one short conversation with Reynolds when we were both waiting on dates at the Pi Phi house. He did not say much and responded to some of my statements with single syllable responses. My impression was that he was quite introverted. Either I was very mistaken or Reynolds has changed quite a bit. The Burt Reynolds of today is needless to say, not an introvert at all. I remember Corso as being quite flamboyant even then. He made quite a splash on campus. He has not changed. As far as I can tell from watching ‘Gameday' on television he is still pretty much the same Lee Corso that was at FSU in the 50's.
My favorite football player schoolmate was Bob Crenshaw. Crenshaw is symbolic of the best that there has been in FSU football. Bobby was Co-Captain of the football team during our senior year(1955 season) and won football letters all four years that he was at FSU. He was not very big and did not run very fast. Every year, Coach Nugent (who became the head coach after Crenshaw's first year here) would recruit bigger and faster guys to play the combination of linebacker on defense and center on offense that was required of the position that Crenshaw played. But each year when all was said and done and the dust had settled, Crenshaw would keep his position on the first team. At the time he played, at 155 pounds, he was the smallest first team center on a major football team in the country. His football abilities were courage, determination and the biggest heart in the game. It is fitting that every year, FSU continues to give an award in his name to the player with the "biggest heart". Bob was much more than a football player. He was a superior student and a leader. He was our Junior Class President, our Senior Class President, and at graduation we elected him our Permanent Class President of the Class of 1956. Two years later, as an Air Force pilot, he died in a plane crash. A lot of us still feel Bob Crenshaw's presence every time that FSU plays a game.
Since my undergraduate days, my "favorite players" have included some of the passing and catching combinations. One of those tandems was, naturally, the Steve Tensi to Fred Biletnikoff combination of 1964. That dynamic duo led FSU to its first win over Florida, the team's first trip to the Gator Bowl and its first appearance in the higher reaches of major football. No football play has ever been prettier than the rainbow pass that Tensi threw and Biletnikoff ran under, caught, and scored against Florida. Another of my favorites was the combination of Kim Hammond and Ron Sellers in 1967. They led a team that also beat Florida and went to the Gator Bowl. Nothing has been more dramatic in FSU history than the 1967 game at Florida Field. Hammond was knocked cold in the first half but returned late in the game with FSU having the ball on its own eight yard line. In three plays, two of which were passes from Hammond to Sellers, the FSU team went 82 yards for a touchdown that put the game away and gave FSU another victory. Hammond and Sellers also led FSU from a 17-0 deficit to a 17-17 tie with Penn State in the 1967 Gator Bowl. Our most recent passing combinations of Chris Weinke to Peter Warrick and/or Snoop Minnis have not been bad either.
After our woes this past season, I hesitate to mention kickers. But one of my very favorite players was a kicker. For the 1970 and 71 seasons, we had a barefoot kicker, Frank Fontes. Fontes came to us as a transfer from a Virginia Junior College. He could really boom the ball even on cold days. He could not do what Sebastian Janikowski could at a later time, but it sure was fun to watch him knocking the ball around with a bare foot. He was our leading scorer for both of the two years that he played for us.
I have also enjoyed several team units that had catchy names. The 1967 team had the "Seven Magnificents", linemen and linebackers who shaved their heads to show unity. That same team also had the "Forgotten Four", the defensive backs who were given a nickname so as not to be left out. Together they made up FSU's most heralded defense up to the time that they played. More recently, FSU has had the "Fab Four", a group of receivers who terrorized opponents in the late 80's. The group of receivers that FSU has now is comparable to the Fab Four. Somebody should give them a name.
It was also a lot of fun to jingle our car keys every time that Larry Key carried the ball in my most favorite season of all, the 1977 season, and to shout out "Snoooooooooop" every time Minnis did something this last year. The excitement involved in watching Charlie Ward lead the team down the field out of the shotgun formation is right there in the memory bank. His scrambles with the ball and making big play after big play was most enjoyable. And who can forget the antics of Deion in the 80's? Nobody has ever been able to "talk the talk" and "walk the walk" any better than Deion Sanders. His pointing at the opposing goal post in Babe Ruth fashion and then taking the punt back all the way for a touchdown in the 1988 game at Clemson was fantastic. Not to mention his interception in the end zone to save the 13-7 victory over Auburn in the 1989 Sugar Bowl. And what about that catch that Peter Warrick made to insure the 1999 National Championship?
All of us have had our favorite players. These are just a very few of mine. There have been a lot more.