Page 153 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Chapter Thirteen: 1930 - 1939
Columbia High School

The late Tiny Long, Sr. (CHS
1932) (pictured to the right) was one of
CHS’s best all-around athletes. He once
told this account of a high school
basketball trip he took with the Tigers in
1932. “Coach Hobe Hooser loved to
travel so he scheduled us a pre-season
road trip to play basketball teams in
Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
and West Virginia. Some of us had never
been outside Lake City so we were
thrilled. Our first game was in Macon,
Georgia and we played well but lost. Then we had a beautiful

sightseeing trip to Asheville, North Carolina. We played well again,
but lost again. Then we went to some town in West Virginia where we
again played well but not well enough. Then it was on to Kingsport,
Tennessee, where we lost a close one. Then our last game was in
Rogersville, Tennessee, where we blew a big first-half lead and Coach
Hooser got so mad he would not go to the dressing room with us at
half time so we had to regroup ourselves. Somehow we came back
and made a decent game of it but lost again.

We were all good athletes and hated to lose, but - when we
got back to Lake City - we learned we had played four of the best
teams Coach Hooser could find. In fact Kingsport and Asheville had
been state champions. It turned out Coach knew exactly what he was

doing. Those hard games toughened us up, and we went on to have
one of our best seasons. Some of the other guys on that team were
Jack Herndon, A.H. Stevens, Wallace Jopling, and Crockett
Farnell. I later got a scholarship to UF and played football and baseball
there, but I never enjoyed any trip more than our road trip in 1932.”

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