Claude Woodruff
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Claude Woodruff
Claude E. Woodruff (died June 15, 2009) was a U.S. marine, college football player and head coach, as well as an assistant football and assistant track coach at various high schools in Central Florida including Union Academy in Bartow, Florida. Programs he coached in produced many players who went on to college football stardom, often at Florida A&M University (FAMU). Several became NFL players. As a player, he was on the 1950 FAMU team that won the Black College National Title. As a coach his teams won five track and field state titles. He is a member of the FAMU and Central Florida Sports Hall of Fame. Early life Woodruff dropped out of school and served as a United States Marine in Japan. He returned to Union Academy a war hero and became a star athlete who was recruited by the coaches at Florida A&M University. As a 175-pound lineman he helped the Rattlers win the Black College National Title in 1950 playing for Alonzo “Jake” Gaither. He planned to enlist in the Army ...
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Union Academy (Bartow, Florida)
Union Academy is a magnet middle school in Bartow, Florida. It dates to 1897 when it opened as an elementary school for African Americans. It was expanded to include a high school in 1923. The high school was merged into Summerlin Institute in 1969 following the desegregation era and its students became part of Bartow High School on the Summerlin campus. Union Academy became a Middle School. Union Academy has a dress code and follows the International Baccelaureate (I.B.) program. It is at 1795 East Wabash Street. History Union Academy was founded for the education of African Americans and named for the Union Academy, the fourth school founded in Florida for African Americans by the Freedmens Bureau in Gainesville. A.N. Ritchie was the school's first principal. The school was underfunded and only went to the 8th grade. A secondary education program added in 1923 to make it a high school. The old school was demolished and a new high school built on East Wabash Street in 1929. ...
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Bartow, Florida
Bartow ( ) is the county seat of Polk County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1851 as Fort Blount, the city was renamed in honor of Francis S. Bartow, the first brigade commander of the Confederate Army to die in combat during the American Civil War. According to the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 17,298 and an estimated population of 20,147 in 2019. It is part of the Lakeland− Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 584,383 in 2009. As of 2020, the mayor of Bartow is Scott Sjoblom. Located near the source of the Peace River, Bartow is approximately east of Tampa, Florida and southwest of the Greater Orlando area. The city is near the center of "Lightning Alley" and has frequent afternoon thunderstorms in the summer, but typically has sunny and mild winters. Government, mining, and agriculture are the major sectors of the area's economy. The primary roads in the Bartow area are U.S. Route 17, U.S. Route 98 and State ...
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Florida A&M University
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the United States by enrollment and the only public historically black university in Florida. It is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, as well as one of the state's land grant universities, and is accredited to award baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. FAMU sports teams are known as the Rattlers, and compete in Division I of the NCAA. They are a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). History Black abolitionist Jonathan C. Gibbs first introduced legislation to create the State Normal College for Colored Students in 1885, one year after being elected to the Florida Legislature. The date also reflects the ...
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Black College Football National Championship
The black college football national championship is a national championship honor that, since 1920, has been regularly bestowed upon the best football teams among historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) within the United States. History Background In college football's early years, HBCUs generally lacked the opportunity to compete against predominantly white schools due to segregation, which was practiced in much of the U.S. at the time—leaving HBCUs with few scheduling options other than to play games among themselves only and sponsor their own championships. The first football game between HBCU schools was played on December 27, 1892. On that day Johnson C. Smith defeated Livingstone College. As it was the only game played by HBCU schools that year, Johnson C. Smith's team could no doubt claim to be that season's HBCU national champions by default. However, the earliest documented claim to such a title was Livingstone's 1906 team, led by captain Benjamin Butler ...
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Alonzo “Jake” Gaither
Alonzo Smith "Jake" Gaither (April 11, 1903 – February 18, 1994) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Florida A&M University (FAMU) for 25 years, from 1945 to 1969, compiling a record of 204–36–4. His won–loss record is among the best of any college football coach. Gaither was born in 1903 in Dayton, Tennessee. His father was a preacher, and as a youth Gaither expected to also become a preacher. He graduated from Knoxville College, where he played football as an end in 1927. Gaither's father died around that time, and Gaither became a high school football coach to help support his family. Gaither later completed a master's degree at Ohio State University in 1937. Gaither went to work as an assistant to head coach William M. Bell at Florida A&M College for Negroes (as it was called then) in 1937. The FAMC Rattlers had an undefeated (8–0) season that year, and won their first black college footb ...
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James E
James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (other), various kings named James * Saint James (other) * James (musician) * James, brother of Jesus Places Canada * James Bay, a large body of water * James, Ontario United Kingdom * James College, a college of the University of York United States * James, Georgia, an unincorporated community * James, Iowa, an unincorporated community * James City, North Carolina * James City County, Virginia ** James City (Virginia Company) ** James City Shire * James City, Pennsylvania * St. James City, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * ''James'' (2005 film), a Bollywood film * ''James'' (2008 film), an Irish short film * ''James'' (2022 film), an Indian Kannada-language film * James the Red Engine, a character in ''Thomas the Tank En ...
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Ken Riley
Kenneth Jerome Riley (August 6, 1947 – June 7, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a cornerback. He spent his entire career with the Cincinnati Bengals, first in the American Football League (AFL) in 1969 and then the National Football League (NFL) from 1970 through 1983. Riley recorded 65 interceptions in his career, which was the fourth most in NFL history at the time of his retirement behind three members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dick Lane, Emlen Tunnell, and Paul Krause. But despite his accomplishments, he was never an exceptionally well known or popular player. Riley was never once selected to play in the AFL All-Star Game or the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, and to this day, has not been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Early career Riley grew up in Bartow, Florida. Claude Woodruff was his high school coach at Union Academy. College career Before his professional career, Riley played quarterback for Florida A&M University. Under coach ...
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Osceola High School (Kissimmee, Florida)
Osceola High School (OHS) is a public high school located in Kissimmee, Florida, USA. The school was established on September 5, 1887 along with 20 other schools in Osceola County. It was referred to as "the Kissimmee school" until it received the name "Osceola High School" in 1889. OHS enrolls students in grades 9- 12 and is part of the School District of Osceola County. The school serves students within Kissimmee and enrolled 2,336 students as of the 2012-2013 school year. It is a minority-majority school in that students who identify as Hispanic outnumber students who identify as other ethnicities. Demographics As of the 2012-2013 school year, the ethnic makeup of OHS is as follows: Smaller Learning Communities Osceola High consists of small learning communities within the school, teams of teachers who work together to meet the individual needs and interests of their students. Air Force JROTC (FL-921) Osceola High School's JROTC ranked second in the category of Bes ...
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Kissimmee
Kissimmee ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,226. It is a Principal City of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2010 population of 2,234,411. History This area was originally named Allendale, after Confederate Major J. H. Allen who operated the first cargo steamboat along the Kissimmee River—the ''Mary Belle''. It was renamed Kissimmee when incorporated as a city in 1883. The modern town, which is the county seat of Osceola County, was founded before the Civil War by the Bass, Johnson and Overstreet families. The etymology of the name Kissimmee is debated, apart from general agreement that it is Native American in origin. Its growth can be credited to Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia, who based his four-million acre (8,000 km2) drainage operation out of the small town. Disston had contracted with the financially wobbly state of ...
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Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The club's home games are held in downtown Cincinnati at Paycor Stadium, Paul Brown Stadium. Former Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown began planning for the creation of the Bengals franchise in 1965, and Cincinnati's city council approved the construction of Riverfront Stadium in 1966. Finally, in 1967, the Bengals were founded when a group headed by Brown received franchise approval by the American Football League (AFL) on May 23, 1967, and they began play in the 1968 season. Brown was the Bengals' head coach from their inception to . After being dismissed as the Browns' head coach by Art Modell (who had purchased a majority interest in the team in ) in January , Brown had shown interest in establishing another NFL franchise in Ohio and l ...
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Nate James
Nathaniel James Speas, known as Nate James, (born 15 September 1979 in Lakenheath, Suffolk, England) is an English singer-songwriter. James released his debut soul album '' Set the Tone'' in 2005 which won him two MOBO Nominations for Best Newcomer and Best R&B Artist, featuring his revered first release "Set The Tone" He released on his Frofunk imprint via Independent Labels around the world and became one of the most successful independent soul recording artists globally. James has sold over 1,000,000 albums and he has had airplay hits in both Europe and Japan. He won the Festivalbar in 2006, which was an Italian summertime singing contest that took place in the most important Italian city squares such as the Piazza del Duomo in Milan. In 2007, James won the Urban Music Awards' Best Album (''Kingdom Falls'') and Best Neo-Soul Artist. In February 2008, James and his band performed on the BBC show '' Later... with Jools Holland''. Nate was a contestant on the BBC's prime time ...
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Major Hazelton
Major Hazelton (born September 19, 1943) is a former professional football player. He played for the Chicago Bears after being drafted from FAMU where he was a football and track star. He went to Union Academy, a high school for African Americans in Bartow, Florida established during the segregation era. The school produced several star FAMU and NFL players, especially during Claude Woodruff Claude E. Woodruff (died June 15, 2009) was a U.S. marine, college football player and head coach, as well as an assistant football and assistant track coach at various high schools in Central Florida including Union Academy in Bartow, Florida. P ... era. Hazelton played professionally as a 6'2" defensive back after being drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 3rd round (57th overall) during the 1968 NFL Draft. He played in 26 NFL games, starting in two. In college, he played football under legendary coach, Alonzo A. S. Gaither. He earned All-American honors as a defensive back in 1966 and 19 ...
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