Page 178 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

Tigers of 1935: Unfinished Business

By Tim Kirby (Lake City Reporter)

Columbia High football was the cock of the walk heading into the 1935

season—the fifth under coach Hobart Hooser. The Tigers were facing a
rebuilding year, but their fate proved worse than losing games could

ever be.

Columbia’s season was suspended midway through the year, with a

bitter foe playing a major part.

The circumstances may explain why Columbia High School students are

bom with an enmity toward a couple of Gainesville schools.

The Lake City Reporter was doom and gloom anticipating the new
season after the loss of 22 lettermen from 1934’s 10-0-1 team. Three

starters (Ashton Terry, Eugene Wheeler, Homer Boyette) returned for

fall practice, along with “15 lambs, some so light they can’t find
uniforms to fit.”

Expectations could hardly be worse than this entry from the Reporter.

“The Tiger mentor feels like war clouds hanging over Ethiopia.”

Still, Columbia started out 3-1 in 1935 before the bombshell appeared in

the Oct. 18 edition of the Reporter. At an executive meeting in Daytona
Beach, the Florida High School Athletic Association suspended CHS

from the association.

The action was taken upon the recommendation of Frederick William

(Fritz) Buchholz, then principal of Gainesville High School, who is the
namesake for a certain school that is now the biggest rival of Columbia

High in the Alachua County area.

Buchholz based the penalty on eligibility concerns while checking on

Columbia player John M. Carter. The investigation was requested by

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