Tragic the way we lost Don aka Mouse. I have told this story at many of our get togethers and it is true and very humourous. 1962, we played Haines City away and we got our brains (the ones who had brains) beat out. We were losing 34 - 0 and Don finally got to play quarterback. We only had seconds left and Don called time out!!! We were standing next to the referee, so I told him we did not want the @$^#$%%^^^ time out. He only said, "Son it is too late, he (Don) already called time out." So in language I cannot repeat, I will used the clean version of what I said to Don. I said, "What are you going to do, throw 6 toucghdowns in 32 seconds?" Don said, "Ronnie, we cannot give up." That reall set me off, so I asaid, "First of all, I am not going to block. You will throw it and they (Haines City) will catch it, and I will not tackle him." He threw it, they caught it, the guy who intercepted it ran right by me and I did not even try to tackle him. By the way, he scored and we were behind 40 - 0!!!! Then, because Bobby DeLoachg said so, we had several fights on the try for extra point until their coach came on the field and shouted, "Forget the extra point!!!" I will always remember Cocah Heckman coming on the field and grabbing several of us and saying in so many words, "You guys have thoroughly embarassed me!!" Just the other day, I told him, "How do you think we felt." Saturday morning was not pleasant and we lost a lot of players who "quit." It was a lesson learned and from that game on until we graduated the next year, we never lost like that and we never got embarrassed and I do not think we embarrassed old Vel again during the 2 years he coached us. Don was a fine person and like many others from our class, he died way too young.
Ron Cothern
Tragic the way we lost Don aka Mouse. I have told this story at many of our get togethers and it is true and very humourous. 1962, we played Haines City away and we got our brains (the ones who had brains) beat out. We were losing 34 - 0 and Don finally got to play quarterback. We only had seconds left and Don called time out!!! We were standing next to the referee, so I told him we did not want the @$^#$%%^^^ time out. He only said, "Son it is too late, he (Don) already called time out." So in language I cannot repeat, I will used the clean version of what I said to Don. I said, "What are you going to do, throw 6 toucghdowns in 32 seconds?" Don said, "Ronnie, we cannot give up." That reall set me off, so I asaid, "First of all, I am not going to block. You will throw it and they (Haines City) will catch it, and I will not tackle him." He threw it, they caught it, the guy who intercepted it ran right by me and I did not even try to tackle him. By the way, he scored and we were behind 40 - 0!!!! Then, because Bobby DeLoachg said so, we had several fights on the try for extra point until their coach came on the field and shouted, "Forget the extra point!!!" I will always remember Cocah Heckman coming on the field and grabbing several of us and saying in so many words, "You guys have thoroughly embarassed me!!" Just the other day, I told him, "How do you think we felt." Saturday morning was not pleasant and we lost a lot of players who "quit." It was a lesson learned and from that game on until we graduated the next year, we never lost like that and we never got embarrassed and I do not think we embarrassed old Vel again during the 2 years he coached us. Don was a fine person and like many others from our class, he died way too young.