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Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy
Chapter Eleven: 1910 - 1919
Columbia High School
Beginning in 1911, Columbia High School (CHS) began one
of the first football programs in Florida. However, the first report of a
Lake City high school game was the previous year when Columbia
College (the successor to the Florida Agricultural College, which had
moved to Gainesville) defeated Columbia High School on October
15, 1910, in a practice game, 17 - 5, at a time when a touchdown
was worth five points. Tradition has it that Thomas H. Bates, who
later became a local physician, scored the very first CHS touchdown.
The first coach for CHS was Buck Harris, and his assistant
was CHS principal J.H. Fulks. Local businesses helped buy the team’s
uniforms, but each player had to provide his own shoes. The only
cobbler in town, Mr. Criswell, put cleats on the shoes, something he
kept doing till around 1920.
The Columbia High School football team around 1915
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