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Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

Game 11 matches the Tigers against Tallahassee Rickards in a re-match in the first state

playoff game ever played at Memorial Stadium. CHS struggles to a 13-0 win. Playoff win number
one!
Game 12 is also at Memorial Stadium and CHS defeats Tampa Jesuit 27-7 in a drizzle.

Tampa quarterback Steve Noriega had set his school’s record for TD passes with 26 but was unable
to muster even one against the Tigers. Playoff win number 2!

Game 13 saw 2,000 Lake City fans travel to Auburndale to see the Tigers beat the
Bloodhounds 27-7. Johnson passed for one TD and ran for two. A ferocious Tiger defense stymied

the Auburndale team and the magical season was history. State Champions!
Coach Quinn was given a new car. The team got a huge trophy. Pat Summerall spoke at the

awards banquet. There were magic memories for everyone. Twenty-five years ago! But it seems
like yesterday!

Ray and Karl

November 10,1992

Ray Morgan of White Springs died a year ago. An overflow crowd attended his funeral in

Jasper. Karl Planko of Graz, Austria, was among the saddest to learn of Ray’s death.
This is the true story of the extraordinary friendship between Ray and Karl - of how a war
brought them together and a great distance kept them apart.

Karl was a quiet Austrian teen in the early 1940s. He liked school, especially English. War

was far from his mind. Then one day, as World War II got worse, he was drafted into the German
army and was sent to North Africa to fight. There he was captured and became a “prisoner of war.”
Along with his fellow POWs, Karl was shipped to the USA for internment, and Karl ended

up at the POW camp in White Springs. Ray Morgan was a work supervisor at the camp and Karl
was assigned to Ray’s work unit. Karl could speak English so he and Ray were able to talk and the

friendship began.
Ray worked Karl and the other POW’s hard. Each day Ray took them deep into the woods

to cut timber and they stayed until they met their daily quota. The POWs liked Ray because he was

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