Gary Thomas Parris (born June 13, 1950 in

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

), is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Lik ...

. He played for three different teams from 1973–1980, including the San Diego Chargers,

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

and St. Louis (Arizona) Cardinals.

Early life

Parris was born June 13, 1950, in East St. Louis, Illinois. He later moved to Vero Beach, Florida. He attended

Vero Beach High School Vero Beach High School (VBHS) is a 9–12 public high school in Vero Beach, Florida, United States that was established in 1925. The school is operated by the Indian River County School District. The campus of VBHS encompasses approximately , w ...

, where he started playing football, earning the Indian River County Athlete of the Century Award. Parris helped start a Florida Flag Football dynasty by playing with the Palace (WCTV) team from Tallahassee, which won their first state championship in 1971. The team went on to win four consecutive championships. To date, this record has not been surpassed. He is an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle S ...

. Parris graduated from

, in 1969 and played at Florida State University.

Adulthood

Parris served on the Vero Beach City Council from 1984 to 1986 and ran for the

Indian River County, Florida Indian River County ( es, Condado de Río Indio, link=) is a county located in the Treasure Coast region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 159,788. Its seat is Vero Beach. It is Florida's 7th richest count ...

Commission District 3 seat in 2008, losing to incumbent Gary C. Wheeler. Parris has served as president on several local committees and organizations including Indian River County Little League, Fighting Indians Football Booster Club, Fighting Indians Baseball Booster Club, the March of Dimes Fundraising Committee, Cubmaster of

Cub Scout Cub Scouts, Cubs or Wolf Cubs are programs associated with Scouting for young children usually between 7 and 12, depending on the organization to which they belong. A participant in the program is called a Cub. A group of Cubs is called a 'P ...

Pack 515 and District Chairman for

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

Indian River District of the

Gulf Stream Council Gulf Stream Council is a council of the Boy Scouts of America in southeast Florida with the headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens. Founded in 1914, the Gulf Stream Council serves Scouts in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Okeechobee ...

. Parris served as a deacon at First Baptist Church of Vero Beach. Parris served in the U.S. Army National Guard for 6 years. Parris is employed as a citrus and produce broker with Sunny Fresh Citrus. He calls the football and basketball games for the Vero Beach High School Fighting Indians on Christian FM (WSCF 91.9 FM Vero Beach, 96.3 FM Port St. Lucie) with his sons. Gary is also an announcer for the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

football team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parris, Gary 1950 births Living people Sportspeople from East St. Louis, Illinois American football tight ends Florida State Seminoles football players San Diego Chargers players Cleveland Browns players St. Louis Cardinals (football) players Vero Beach High School alumni