FSU sports has always enjoyed spring

By Bob Perrone

As Florida State is in the midst of a very good spring sports year, it is interesting to look back at the success achieved 60 years ago when the Seminoles were new to college athletics.

In the spring of 1950 FSU was in just its third year of varsity athletic competition, and its second year as part of the Dixie Conference. The conference was formed in 1949 and made up of small southern schools. It did not allow scholarships, although freshmen and transfers could participate in the contests. The makeup of the conference changed each year as schools joined or dropped out. At the time the Dixie Conference had six members: FSU, Florida Southern, Howard, Mercer, Mississippi College and Oglethorpe. FSU won league championships in all four spring sports for the first time in 1950.

The 1950 FSU baseball team finished the season with a record of 13-7. One of the highlights was splitting a two-game series with eventual College World Series participant Butler. Five starters had batting averages over .300, led by first baseman Ronald Melton with a .341 clip and outfielder Glenn Gresham at .325.

Only five pitchers were used that season and four of them won three games each: T.J. Lanier, Ed Lockard, Ed Sessions and John Witt.

The golf team finished the regular season with a 6-2-2 record. Each golfer went head-to-head against an opponent at this time, similar to tennis, and points were awarded by winning the front nine, back nine and total score. One of FSU's highlights of the regular season was beating Georgia.

Joe Bassett, Ted Hewitt, Jimmy James and Dick Montney made up the nucleus of the team at the beginning of the season, and Sonny Tinney, the leader of the 1949 team, returned from a broken wrist for the final three weeks. All five golfers had a scoring average better than 75 with Tinney leading the way at 73.67.

The tennis team had a successful 9-6 regular season record but struggled against larger schools such as Davidson and Indiana. FSU gave Georgia a good match before losing 5-4. Herb Quay finished the season with a 13-1 singles record and Larry Dickson, Bob Lanigan and Don Seiffert each won nine singles matches.

Track and field did not have a team in 1948 and did not win a meet in 1949. After losing the first meet of the year to a strong Miami team, the 1950 team did not lose again and finished with a 5-1 record. Tom Bowman was a big reason for this turnaround. Bowman played football for Florida the previous year, but he transferred so he could concentrate on the decathlon. Bowman scored 140 points during the year and set school records in the 100 and 220-yard dashes, 120-yard high hurdles, 220-yard low hurdles, high jump and long jump. Al Bradford in the shot put and discus, Bill Duncan and Pete Fraschetti in distance events were also major contributors.

The Dixie Conference did not have a baseball conference tournament at the end of the season so FSU was awarded the conference crown based on its 6-2 regular season record. The Dixie Conference golf, tennis and track championships were decided on the weekend of May 19-20, in Macon, Ga. on the campus of the Mercer Bears.

FSU effortlessly won the golf championship beating second-place Mercer by 77 strokes. Tinney took medalist honors for the second year in a row with teammates Montney, Hewitt and Bassett taking the next three places.

The tennis team also easily won the conference crown. One point was awarded for each match won. With 19 points, FSU finished ahead of Florida Southern (11), Mercer (4) and Oglethorpe (2). Individual honors were earned by Quay in Class B singles, Lanigan in Class C singles and Quay and Seiffert in doubles.

Track and field provided the closest competition of the conference championship weekend. FSU and Mercer battled for the team title with Bowman and Mercer's Bob Reeder vying for individual honors. Reeder took four first places and nipped Bowman 20¾-20¼.

FSU completed the conference championship sweep, winning the track title 71-61 2/5 over Mercer. FSU set five new Dixie Conference records: Pete Fraschetti (880), Bowman (high hurdles), Bradford (shot put), Joe Fracassi (pole vault) and Bowman, Charlie Mahoney, Dick Mize and Frank Pearson in the mile relay.

Only three years into its intercollegiate history, FSU had established winning traditions in spring sports that would lay the foundations for the successes the Seminoles achieve today.