Seminole Boosters Unconquered Magazine Summer 2019

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2019

What the doctor ordered Moises Issa’s gift sparks fundraising for football operations

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

Head Coach Mike Martin and the Florida State baseball team celebrate clinching a berth in the College World Series.

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John Pak became the first FSU men’s golfer since 2007 to win the ACC title. The FSU softball team captured its sixth straight ACC championship. The FSU women’s outdoor track & field team claimed the program’s fifth ACC title.

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W H AT ’ S I N S I D E

THE GRADUATES Class of 2019

38 54 THE TROYERS Making a Difference

TABLE OF CONTENTS Q&A with Andy Miller............................................................6 10 Reasons Why the FSUAA Will Help Florida State and You ...8 The Southern Game ............................................................10 An Eventful, Productive Year for Russell ............................... 13 Dr. Moises Issa Makes Major Gift to Football Operations.......14 We Plan to Talk More Often ................................................. 18 Year Two Adjustments ........................................................20 Booster Events ...................................................................22 Winning Isn’t the Only Thing ...............................................24 Early Successes in Unconquered Campaign .........................27 Adopted Alumni..................................................................30 Seminole Boosters 2019 Membership Drive ......................... 32 Jacksonville Offers Fans a Fun Weekend Before, After 2019 Opener .............................................34 2019 Football Spring Tour ....................................................36 Meghan King: Commanding the Circle ................................42 Building a Championship Tradition ..................................... 44 2

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Legendary Coach Mike Martin Enjoys One Last, Magical Postseason Run .................................50 Q&A with Rita Coolidge ......................................................56 CollegeTown .......................................................................58 Golden ’Noles .....................................................................60 The Eternal Flame ...............................................................62 Newest ’Noles ....................................................................64 The More You ’Nole .....................................Inside Back Cover

ON THE COVER Dr. Moises Issa, who came to FSU in 1989 to major in biology, sparks campaign for football facilities with major leadership gift.

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Thank you to all Seminole Boosters donors. Your generous contributions to FSU Athletics are greatly appreciated. You make it possible for us, as student-athletes, to compete and excel at the highest level.

We are grateful for each and every one of you! Go Noles!

CHASE HANEY Baseball

THANK YOU, SEMINOLE BOOSTER MEMBERS P.O. Box 1353

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Tallahassee, FL 32302

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(850) 644-1830

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SeminoleBoosters.com

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DIRECTORS AT LARGE

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS INC.

2018-19 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

DOUG RUSSELL Chairman

BOB DAVIS Chairman Elect

BOB FREY Secretary

JOHN CROWE Treasurer

Don Everett Eric Friall Ernie Garcia Bill Hagen Kevin Hawkins Dan Hendrix Nick Iarossi Bob Johnson Pete Law Brett Lindquist Scott Madden John McCann Richard McMullen DeVoe Moore

Diana Azor Byron Bailey W.O. Bell Jim Boyd Kevin Carpenter Eleanor Connan Marilyn Cox Clif Curry Bill Dawkins Mary Demetree Craig Dewhurst Charles Dudley Doug Dunlap Linda Dupree

Brian Murphy Parrish Owens Warner Peacock Craig Ramsey Mark Shelnutt Jim Steiner Bill Stephenson Mike Summey Philip Troyer Richard Welch Jerry Williams

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS Tom Jennings .................................................................... Presidential Designee Ed Burr .....................................................................Board of Trustees Chairman David Coburn ..................................Interim Director for Intercollegiate Athletics Nan Hillis .................................................................. Foundation Chair Designee Nada Usina.....................................................Women’s Athletics Representative Max Oligario ............................................................................. Alumni Chairman Pam Parrewe ................................................................. Athletic Board Designee Wade Wallace....................................................................Varsity Club Designee Manuel Osaba ............................................................Student Booster Designee Doug Russell .................................................................Seminole Boosters Chair Bob Davis ..............................................................Seminole Boosters Vice-Chair Gary Thurston ..................................... Seminole Boosters Immediate Past Chair Nylah Thompson.......................... Seminole Boosters 2nd Immediate Past Chair

PAST CHAIRS

TOM JENNINGS Presidential Designee

ED BURR Chairman of the Board of Trustees

DAVID COBURN Director for Intercollegiate Athletics

GARY THURSTON Immediate Past Chairman

NYLAH THOMPSON 2nd Immediate Past Chair

ALAN FLAUMENHAFT At-Large

Kathy Atkins-Gunter W.G. Babe Starry* Bob Lee Bannerman* Tom Barron Hurley Booth Dennis Boyle* Steve Brown Spencer Burress* Bob Camp* Joe Camps Bill Carraway Jim Carter Ken Cashin Bob Caton Raymond Cottrell Dave Cowens Carl Domino Bill Dubey* Frank Fain

Mike Fields Bob Fohl* Andy Haggard Kim Hammond Bruce Harrell Mike Harrell Ed Haskell, Jr* Sherman Henderson Charlie Hill* Lou Hill* Ron Hobbs Jim Kirk* Chris Kraft George Langford* Lawton Langford W. S. Bill Lee* Douglas Mannheimer Payne Midyette, Sr* Russ Morcom

John Olson Syde P. Deeb* Bill Parker Doyle Pope* Frank Pope* Theo Proctor, Jr David Rancourt Gene Ready* Charles Rosenberg* Godfrey Smith* Lomax Smith Brian Swain Nylah Thompson Gary Thurston Gary Walsingham Herschel Williams* Tommy Williams* Albert Yates* *Deceased

FLORIDA STATE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

JIMMY GRAGANELLA At-Large

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KRIS INCHCOMBE At-Large

DELORES SPEARMAN At-Large

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JOHN THRASHER At-Large President

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Todd Adams Maximo “Max” Alvarez Kathryn Ballard Edward E. “Ed” Burr, Chair William “Billy” Buzzett Emily Fleming “June” Duda Jorge Gonzalez Jim W. Henderson Mark Hillis Craig Mateer Stacey Pierre Bob Sasser Brent W. Sembler John Thrasher (President, Florida State University)

S TA F F

EXECUTIVE STAFF

Andy Miller ................................................................................ President & CEO Greg Hulen ....................................................................Executive Vice President Paul Phipps .....................................................................Chief Marketing Officer Derril Beech ..................................... Vice President, Marketing & Annual Giving Eric Carr ...... Vice President of Development Coordination, Training & Oversight Mike Dasher ................................................Senior Vice President, Development Jerry Kutz ................................................Senior Vice President, Communication JP Sinclair ..........................................................................Chief Financial Officer Kari Terezakis ....................................................... Vice President of Stewardship Ben Zierden.................................................... Senior Vice President, Operations

DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS

Tom Carlson .................................... Senior Vice President, North Florida Region Chris Wilson ............................................Director of Development, Atlanta Area Javi Garcia-Tunon .......... Associate Director of Fundraising, Goldcoast of Florida Colson Hosford .......................................Director of Real Estate & Development Billy Sexton ............................................ Director of Development South Florida Kevin Smith .......................Director of Development, Greater Tampa Bay Region Hugh Tomlinson ...................................Director of Development & Gift Planning James Warren .............. Associate Director – Panhandle Area & Big Bend Region Max Zahn ............................................................ Regional Annual Fund Director

TICKET SALES & BOOSTER MEMBERSHIPS

Mark Cameron .................................. Senior Director of Ticket Sales and Service Forrest Brewton ..................................................Account Executive – New Sales Andrew Pope ......................................................Account Executive – New Sales Justin Schaefer ....................................................Account Executive – New Sales Fernando Segura ......................................... Account Executive – Premium Sales George Seliga ............................................................. New Ticket Sales Manager Ray Silva ..............................................................Account Executive – New Sales Brian Wagner.........................Account Executive – Premium Service & Retention Danielle Friedel ....................................Account Executive – Service & Retention Mikey Drinkard .....................................Account Executive – Service & Retention Ed Servil ...............................................Account Executive – Service & Retention TBA .......................................Account Executive – Premium Service & Retention Nicole Sullivan ..................................................... Manager – Service & Retention Analisa Trstensky .................................Account Executive – Service & Retention Elena Hooven .......................................Account Executive – Service & Retention

ACCOUNTING/HUMAN RESOURCES

Chyenne Bibik .......................................................................... Accounting Clerk Amy Hanstein .....................Director of Employee Relations & Accounts Payable Mark Majszak ................................................................................... Comptroller

ADMINISTRATIVE

Patti Barber ..................................................................................... Receptionist

ADVANCEMENT SERVICES

Patrick Harrity ............................................................Web Application Specialist Pheobe Metzger ................................................... Director of Advanced Services

COACHES CLUBS

TBA .............................................................. Assistant Director of Annual Giving

FSU TRADEMARK LICENSING

Katie Watt ......................................................... Director of Trademark Licensing Garrett O’Connor ...............................Assistant Director of Trademark Licensing

GIFT PROCESSING

Logan Byrd ....................................................................Gift Processing Manager Rob Neal ..................................................................... Gift Processing Specialist Alex Pope .................................................................... Gift Processing Specialist David Newman..................................... Mail Processing & Records Management

MARKETING

Monica Perez ..................................................................Director of Graphic Arts Kristin Tubeck......................................................... Director of Events Marketing Joanna White .......................................................... Assistant Director of Events

STEWARDSHIP

Blake Moore .................................................. Stewardship & Events Coordinator

VARSITY CLUB

Betsy Hosey ....................................................................Director of Varsity Club

Unconquered magazine (USPS 18182) is published quarterly by Seminole

CONTACT Send correspondence to Derril Beech, at the address shown above or

Boosters, Inc., 225 University Center, Suite 5100, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306.

by email to derril.beech@fsu.edu. Telephone: (850) 644-3484.

(850) 644-3484, Fax: (850) 222-5929. POSTMASTER: send change of address to, Unconquered magazine, care of Seminole Boosters, Florida State University

MAGAZINE STAFF

Center, Suite C-5100, 5th Floor, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306. Periodicals Postage

Publishers: Andy Miller, Jerry Kutz

Paid at Tallahassee, FL, Volume 35, Issue 2.

Managing editor: Derril Beech Design, layout, production, pre-press: Learfield IMG College

All advertising revenues directly support programs of the Seminole Boosters,

Featured photographers: Ross Obley, Mike Olivella, Ryals Lee Contributing

Inc. For advertising rates, please contact the sales representatives listed below.

photographers: Seminole Boosters, FSU Sports Information, Andrew Salinero/

© 2019, Seminole Boosters, Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed herein

FSView, Sara Davis/ACC, the ACC, Maury Neipris

do not necessarily reflect those of Florida State University faculty, staff or

Columnists: Charlie Barnes, Jerry Kutz

administration.

Contributing writers: Derril Beech, Jim Crosby, Jerry Kutz, Tim Linafelt, Jeff Romance, FSU Sports Information, Bob Thomas, Kerry Dunning, Jim Crosby,

OVERVIEW

Jim Henry

Unconquered magazine celebrates Seminole athletics and the indomitable spirit

Copy editor: Bob Ferrante

of its student-athletes who overcome adversity, the passion of its coaches and

Photo purchasing information: derril.beech@fsu.edu

educators who help students reach beyond their limits and the devotion of donors who redefine the boundaries of generosity by giving scholarships that change lives and who make donations that build first-class athletic facilities. By sharing their stories of transformational experiences — on the athletic playing field, in the classroom and in life — Unconquered magazine encourages the growth of responsible world citizenship and cross-cultural understanding. Each issue carries stories on what makes student-athletes great and how they were shaped by their experience at FSU, features on Seminole community sports legends and profiles of donors who make contributions.

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Q&A Boosters President

Andy Miller SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: Supporters frequently ask you about the state of the program and how fundraising is going? How are we doing?

ANDY MILLER: Leadership is very solid at the University.

President Thrasher made a great decision appointing David Coburn as Athletic Director. He has earned the respect of staff, the leadership of the Seminole Boosters, the FSU Board of Trustees and the greater University community.

David is the right person at the right time to navigate the program during a very challenging time.

From a fundraising perspective, Seminole Boosters is experiencing the best year in our history, in terms of dollars pledged for development of facilities and the scholarship endowment. That being said, the most important area of need is unrestricted dollars to fund operational costs — the annual Seminole Booster membership fund in particular — and that’s the challenge we are facing.

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: What are the contributing factors affecting our ability to fund operations and how are we responding?

ANDY MILLER: In the last decade, we have seen unparalleled growth in sports. Along with the growth, the cost of underwriting athletic programs has dramatically increased. To compete at the highest levels, to support comprehensive excellence and provide academic support, demands increased operational funding from a variety of sources.

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: How are we responding?

ANDY MILLER: There are no magic bullets. We are tightening our belts on the expense side and looking at ways to maximize operational revenues.

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: What are the major sources of revenue available?

ANDY MILLER: On the Corporate side, Learfield IMG College is our media partner who has rights to activities such as radio, coaches’ shows, corporate sponsorships, advertising on scoreboards, a variety of publications and Internet opportunities.

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Nike, who has the rights to our sideline apparel, is also a significant contributor on an annual basis.

On the ACC side, it’s annual distribution generated by television contracts.

On the Booster side of the equation, the annual fund, club and skybox seating, royalties, investment income and concessions are major contributions to the operating fund. Ticket revenue goes directly to Athletics.

While corporate support is on the rise, we will not experience a noticeable bump until 2021 when the revenue becomes available, same with conference revenue when the ACC network is fully operational.

Our best opportunity over the next two years will be driving ticket sales and the Seminole Booster annual fund. Along with increases in ticket sales and attendance comes increases in royalty, merchandising, food and beverage.

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: How do we drive ticket and Booster revenue?

ANDY MILLER: First thing we have to do is stabilize and increase our renewal rates for season tickets and Boosters. Since the dynasty years of Coach Bowden and a short period under Jimbo Fisher, we have seen renewal rates drop into the 80 percent range.

In order to grow, we need the renewal rate to be better than 90 percent. Until last year, we were able to overcome the loss of renewal revenue by upgrading existing donors and finding new donors, however, based on the current trends that will not be enough to meet future needs.

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: How are we going to respond?

ANDY MILLER: Fortunately, Seminole Booster Leadership had the foresight to develop alternative streams of revenues and accumulate assets that can be used to stabilize the program over the next two years until the other revenue sources such as conference, apparel and media contracts kick in.

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Q & A

Endowment and investment revenues have increased.

Successful capital campaigns have resulted in increased real estate assets that have been monetized. Burt Reynolds Hall (valued at $5.2 million), Champions Hall ($12.6 million in equity) and the CVS building at the corner of Woodward and Pensacola are all assets that provide annual funding and can be monetized.

In 2019, the Dunlap Champions Club and University Center Club provided $3.4 million in revenue and CollegeTown provided $3.6 million in revenue. CollegeTown is projected to produce $3.6 million this year.

We also have to see continued improvement on the football field to go along with our highly successful sports program.

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: What can our loyal Alumni and Boosters do to help?

ANDY MILLER: We need volunteer support at this critical

time. In Tallahassee recently 75 volunteers under Chairman Chuck Urban generated over 500 new Boosters. The approach was simply to ask the volunteers to reach out to their respective network of Seminole Family and Friends and ask them to join at whatever level they are able.

Just imagine an effort of 1,000 volunteers. This is what it will take to overcome the challenges. Loyal alumni and boosters soliciting their networks to support a program that we all love. If you wish to join the effort, please contact Joanna White at 850-644-2169 or email Jwhite9@fsu.edu SEMINOLE BOOSTERS: Any final observations?

ANDY MILLER: We are going through a challenging time but we will prevail because of the loyalty of our supporters.

Thank you all.

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FSUAA

David Coburn, John Thrasher, Ed Burr, Andy Miller and Doug Russell at the June Board of Trustees meeting.

10 REASONS WHY THE FSUAA WILL HELP FLORIDA STATE AND YOU

By JERRY KUTZ The Florida State University Board of Trustees made an announcement in June that history may remember as transformational.

The leaders of athletics, boosters and the university invested months studying the dynamics — good and bad — and came away with a mutually-crafted memorandum of understanding to foster a better relationship.

“There were times when the organization — administration, Athletics and the Boosters — were not always in line with the same goals and missions,” said FSU Board of Trustee Chairman Ed Burr, who started the review that led to the FSU Athletic Association.

“Communications were informal and not always as effective as they could be. The creation of this FSUAA will perfectly align those goals not only between the Boosters and Athletics but also the FSU administration.”

The Seminole Booster Board gave their blessing the day before it was presented to the Trustees, who won’t give their final approval until the fall Trustee meeting.

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The FSU Athletic Association will become a collaborative governing body charged with setting policy, reviewing athletic and Booster budgets, strategic planning, facility planning, prioritization, financing, football scheduling and other issues. The FSUAA will require joint financial statements.

“A couple of structural changes and reporting lines will bring athletics and boosters closer together with ticketing, marketing, communications and operations consolidated,” said FSU Athletic Director David Coburn. “I think we’re going to save money, we’re going to operate more cohesively and effectively and it’s just going to make the whole relationship a lot smoother.”

Seminole Booster President and CEO Andy Miller opened his remarks by saying his Board approved the structure unanimously.

“I want to give a shout out to Chairman Ed Burr, President Thrasher, David Coburn and Tom Jennings,” Miller told the Trustees.

“From the very beginning they said this would be a collaborative process and we’re going to put something on the table everyone can support and that’s exactly what it was.”

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“The (FSUAA and Memorandum of Understanding) establishes a formal structure for communication no matter who FSU hires as President, Athletic Director or President/CEO of Seminole Boosters,” Coburn said.

Coburn and Miller each praised Booster Chairman Doug Russell for his steady influence through tough discussions and debates. “Doug should be given a lot of credit for enabling us to reach this outcome,” Coburn said.

“Doug harnessed a lot of Type A personalities and helped me navigate the process,” Miller said. “Our organization has always been blessed to have the right leader at the right time.”

By NCAA rules, the university president must chair the FSUAA comprised of five members, including the Faculty Athletics Representative and a faculty or staff member. The other two members include the Chairman of Seminole Boosters and a member of the FSU Board of Trustees.

Decisions of the past — scheduling, athletics budgets, capital projects, Nike contract, the grant of rights — will come before the FSUAA.

“The alignment goes both ways,” Burr said. “It will put the administration, boosters and athletics in the same room when making decisions that collectively affect the university.”

In years past the AD and Boosters President had to report to the President only not always together. The FSUAA provides formal communication among the stakeholders.

“The AD by NCAA rule has to report directly to the President but this connection with the FSUAA gives us a lot more input to that decision,” Thrasher said.

“Under NCAA and ACC rules, the president is the one who is responsible for athletics,” said Burr. “There is nothing in here that usurps his power. This just puts it in a place where it can be collectively discussed and debated but ultimately it will be the president who makes that decision.”

Thrasher agrees the FSUAA formalizes what has been informal communication for him too.

“I certainly consult with my lawyers and consult with other people but I didn’t have the formality of having (collaborative) input and I thought that was a mistake,” Thrasher said. “We are saying let’s all be on the same page when it comes to synergies, staffing, projects, fundraising.”

While the FSUAA will meet quarterly, Thrasher said a lot will be resolved before those meetings.

“I think a lot of the work will be done before an issue ever gets to the FSUAA because of the structure,” he said, pointing to daily interaction between the Seminole Booster President/CEO and the athletic director, who will serve on every formal board the Boosters have.

UNANIMOUS SUPPORT There were declarations of victory from each organization. Here they stood at the podium, together, making their presentation to the Trustees. Their words, praising a move toward unity and transparency, seemed authentic but the shared smiles were convincing.

Coburn and Miller have not had issues. They’ve been friends for years. And friendship helped this process. The timing for change was ideal. Coburn, Miller and Thrasher will be retiring within the next few years, so a transition plan was necessary. The sting of relationships past, still fresh, also gave clarity to issues.

“We all know people move, and change, and retire, so we need a structure when new people come in they are all working together for the same things,” Thrasher said. “They have been but sometimes it has been a little bit difficult. This gives us more opportunity to be structured, to be on the same page, to have, as Andy Miller says, ‘input from both sides.’ ” Thrasher said this was not about the current FSU Administration, Boosters or Athletics, nor was it about individuals within those organizations. This was about the future and creating structure for those who follow.

GOOD FIRST STEPS This exercise will bear fruit but it’s not a silver bullet. Really bright minds wrote the United States Constitution, but it now has 27 amendments and 11,000 more proposed.

I’ve highlighted 10 solid points to get excited about: 1. The FSUAA sets formal expectations for Boosters, Athletics and the FSU Administration and provides a scheduled format for discussion with all stakeholders in the room.

2. The Boosters President/CEO has a dual reporting line, one to the Booster Board and another to the Athletic Director.

“I have always had an informal line to the AD but this formal line will make us a lot better,” Miller said. “Strengthening the involvement of the AD in the Booster organization by serving on key committees is a very good move.”

3. The AD will serve on the Booster Board and every significant committee. When a past AD chose to participate, communication and decisions were better so this is a good requirement.

4. The Boosters President/CEO has a reporting line to the AD, which puts him in executive staff meetings when decisions are being made. As Thrasher said, many issues will be resolved organically in either Booster committee or Athletics meetings which the AD and Booster President/CEO are required to attend.

5. The Boosters’ new reporting line also means the AD now has fundamental fundraising responsibility as the FSUAA will evaluate the AD based on fundraising performance. This will help align the AD with Booster needs.

6. The Boosters’ annual volunteer Chairman will have a seat on the FSUAA. In years past, the Boosters had no formal voice or forum when it came to athletics decisions such as scheduling, changing head coaches or logos. Now everyone is at the table and can be heard, including the AD and Booster President/CEO. 7. The Booster Chairman has one of the five votes on the FSUAA. “The FSUAA is a really good opportunity for us because now we are definitely in the room and can bring donor and fan issues,” said Miller. “Scheduling, pricing, hotel issues, service issues, the fan experiences that affect our fundraising program… Facility master planning and priorities is a good opportunity to bring our ideas forward in strategic planning.”

While the Boosters did have an informal voice, some ADs listened more than others, Thrasher noted.

8. Two-way street: The Boosters are now required to present budgets, plans and fundraising goals to the FSUAA. Again, the Boosters have been providing financials to the President and BOT but this allows the AD and others a formal forum.

9. Miller complimented the group for seeing the benefits of retaining Seminole Boosters as a Direct Support Organization.

“We have to always rely upon the entrepreneurial spirit of (the) dedicated individuals who serve on our board who have a lot of good ideas to bring forward,” Miller said. “The President and Chairman Burr could see that is a strength of our organization.”

10. The FSUAA provides stability as University Presidents, ADs and Booster executives come and go.

“You need a structure that no matter who is there the structure works on behalf of the University and for the student athletes,” Thrasher concluded. “It’s a compliment to Andy and Doug Russell for the leadership they have shown and Chairman Burr for the leadership he has shown, so we can accomplish the great things FSU is used to accomplishing into the future.”

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Columnist

THE SOUTHERN GAME

Charlie Barnes is the retired Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Seminole Boosters; he is also President of the Seminole Greek Alumni Foundation.

It is said that history is written by the winners. Therefore, it is written that the first football game was played in New Jersey between Rutgers and Princeton four years after the end of the Civil War. That first “season” was to consist of three games between those two teams, however, the third game was canceled because professors from both colleges complained about football’s disputative effect on academics.

Such is Google’s long reach that they have retroactively awarded the first college football National Co-Championships to both Princeton and Rutgers on the basis that each team won one of the first two games constituting the entirety of that first season in 1869. ESPN proclaimed 2019 the 150th year of football.

But the real origins of the game may be found earlier, and further south of New Jersey. A wonderfully entertaining but obscure book called Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia by Carlton McCarthy, first published in 1882, recounts that Confederate soldiers enjoyed playing football to relieve the boredom of camp life.

Lonely and far from home, Yankee soldiers enjoyed playing baseball.

The claim that Union General Abner Doubleday invented baseball is sketchy, but there’s no doubt his game was the most popular pastime among his boys in blue.

The Confederates were a somewhat different breed. Many were descendants of the 17th Century Scots-Irish immigrants who poured into the original colonies, then across the mountains and on to the frontiers.

Former Secretary of the Navy James Webb’s 2004 book, Born Fighting, explores the history of this large ethnic group, which populated the south, and whose “cultural identity of acute individualism and military tradition” defined the southern soldiers and most all of their leaders.

One example of what historians call this

CHARLIE BARNES

Contact him at cbarnes161@comcast.net

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“Celtic war mentality” manifested itself when bored Confederate soldiers in winter encampments organized themselves into companies and battalions and happily engaged in snowball “wars,” maneuvering around each other as if on the battlefield.

After the winter passed and before the next campaign began, they played football.

College football has been embedded in the soul of southerners and southern culture since the 19th Century. And in the lexicon of the game – air assault, ground attack, blitz, in the trenches, field general, throw the bomb – you’ll hear echoes of the militaristic origins of football.

One more whimsical but enormously entertaining book puts our southern obsession with football more succinctly.

Maryln Schwartz’s delicious work, A Southern Bell Primer, breezily explains it this way: “Ask Southerners what the most popular religions are in the South and they are quick to tell you – Baptist, Methodist and football. Southern women have a ready answer for this obsession with the gridiron. They say Southern men lost The War and they are determined not to lose anything ever again.

Well, maybe. Until the end of World War II, teams from the north, the midwest and the west coast seemed to dominate, not the southerners. At least that was the appearance. The south was rural and sparsely populated, and the vast majority of sportswriters were located in the large metropolitan areas from New York through the Big Ten corridor and out to Los Angeles.

Considerable measures of humility and self-examination were required for the south to eventually take its rightful place at the head of the college football banquet table.

A persistent legend surrounding the Alabama vs. Southern Cal game to open the 1970 season may be apocryphal, but without question one outcome was that Bear Bryant no longer felt constrained from recruiting African-American athletes to his team.

CHARLIE BARNES

Peter Warrick and Bobby Bowden No one can know what’s in a man’s heart, and it’s unlikely Bryant would deliberately plan to lose a game.

It is entirely reasonable to think scheduling a series against the jewel of the California coast would serve to further magnify Alabama’s profile. But neither is there any doubt that Bryant was a master of thinking in terms of the long game.

Except for one recruit, ineligible under NCAA rules to play as a freshman, Alabama was still an all-white team in 1970. The Trojans featured a cadre of talented AfricanAmerican players, including their starting quarterback, fullback and

tailback. In fact, USC was the first fully integrated college football team to play in the state of Alabama.

Some writers have called it the game that changed football forever in the south. On that hot Saturday night in 1970, USC pulled their starters in the third quarter and still cruised to a 42-21 win. Trojan sophomore fullback Sam Cunningham got his first start that night, running for 135 yards and two touchdowns on only 12 carries.

Of course, black kids in the south had been playing championship football all along, just not on white teams. More than anything, southern football fans want their teams to

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win and so things began to change quickly.

According to Google, 24 college football programs won national championships between 1869 through the end of World War II (1945). Of these, the Yale Bulldogs won an astonishing 18 titles, the last one coming in 1927. Princeton followed with 15 championships. Harvard is third with eight titles, followed by Michigan (7), Notre Dame (5) and Minnesota (5).

Among those 24 pre-1945 programs, only four from the south had been awarded national championships (Alabama already had

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CHARLIE BARNES

three by 1930; Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and LSU were the others).

But after the War, it seemed a bright line began to be drawn dividing southern football from the rest of the country. Since 1946, a total of 28 college programs have won national championships, and southern teams account for half of those winners over the last 73 years! The SEC can claim seven of those programs while the ACC boasts four.

Some of the pre-War old guard programs have faded dramatically.

Minnesota, winner of five national titles in the 1930s and 1940s, now can count fewer than 20 winning seasons over the last 50 years, including the embarrassment of finishing 11th in the “B1G Ten” in 2007.

A case was often made that big city newspapers and their sportswriters’ bias favored northern teams, and especially Notre Dame. Look no further than the 1956 Heisman trophy

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being awarded to Paul Hornung who quarterbacked his Notre Dame team to a 2-9 record that season. Hornung threw 13 interceptions, but still collected enough votes to beat out running back Johnny Majors and his 10-1 Tennessee Volunteers. One can imagine someone in some newsroom somewhere saying, “What the hell, let’s just give it to Notre Dame. I don’t know anybody in Tennessee.”

The rise of ESPN and 24-hour programming turned the world upside down, and expanded Internet coverage vastly increased the national exposure of southern football. The new college football playoff system is creating considerable angst among those who already think southern football gets too much attention.

USA Today frets about the fatigue factor of seeing the same teams dominate. Radio talk show host and national college football writer George Schroeder complained, “The

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College Football Playoff appears to be contracting, becoming more regionalized. Vast swaths of the country are left out.”

Without saying it directly, those “vast swaths of the country being left out” seem for the moment to be everyone outside the deep south.

The official College Football Playoff National Championship began in 2014 with the game between Ohio State and Oregon, who defeated Florida State in a semifinal. Since then, participation in the title game has been confined to Alabama, Clemson and Georgia, and those bright southern lights are only becoming more brilliant.

We Seminoles enjoy more advantages then we sometimes care to acknowledge. But that’s OK. We’re fans and we’re Southerners. Florida State is in the right place, and our time at the head of the table will come again soon enough.

DOUG RUSSELL

AN EVENTFUL, PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR RUSSELL

By JERRY KUTZ It was a hot summer day and Doug Russell was enjoying a leisurely round of golf with his friend Van Champion, who is President of Childers Construction. While waiting to tee off Van asked Doug how he liked being this year’s volunteer Chairman of Seminole Boosters.

“Fine,” Russell said. “It has been uneventful thus far.”

That was then. This is now.

No sooner had Russell uttered those words than reality set in. FSU Athletic Director Stan Wilcox announced his retirement the next day to take the No. 2 job at the NCAA. And David Coburn would take over as interim AD and discover significant budget deficits.

Those two landmines were just the half of it.

Longtime Seminole Booster President and CEO Andy Miller, who had been working on a transition plan for the Boosters, announced his intention to retire in December 2020. And the Boosters, Athletics and the University decided to conduct a study of organizational structures at other universities to see if they could find a model that would foster better integration between Athletics, Seminole Boosters and the University.

So much for golf.

As every Seminole Booster Chairman before

him had discovered, this “volunteer” position is a full-time job.

“The year as chairman has been wonderful,” Russell said. “Deb and I are both Florida State Seminoles so we bleed garnet and gold.”

Debbie grew up in nearby Perry, Fla., where her parents, Roy and Mary York, have been longtime Seminole Booster members. Doug grew up in Tampa, attended Chamberlain High School before coming to Florida State, where he pledged Pi Kappa Alpha. Friends told him about this girl he needed to meet named Debbie, an ADPi, and the couple built a lifetime of memories together.

They have two sons, Austin and Tyler, who is an FSU graduate and works in the Governor’s office.

“You hope to make a difference serving Seminole Boosters, Inc., and I think we have,” said Russell, who owns a lobbying firm.

The challenges consuming most of Russell’s time have been the leadership transition for Andy Miller and realigning the relationship with Seminole Boosters and Athletics.

“We want to make sure Florida State and Athletics is good but I also want to make sure the transition is good for Andy too,” said Russell.

“Andy Miller is on the Mount Rushmore of FSU athletics along with Bobby Bowden, George Langford and Mike Martin.”

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In terms of realignment Russell believes the juice will ultimately be worth the squeeze.

“With better alignment we will be able to set goals together, set budgets together, set five-year plans together and have better communications, better efficiency, better operations, better execution,” he said. “We wanted to look at ways to be more collaborative, more efficient. Your fundraising becomes much more efficient when the athletic director makes himself available and then the head coaches will too. David Coburn making himself available, along with the coaches, clearly drives home better results. It is absolutely fabulous to know Seminole Boosters and Athletics will be pulling together moving forward.”

The Russell’s tenure ends this June and the couple will leave with many fond memories … and a ring.

“We are local so we have been able to attend a great number of university and athletics events,” Russell said. “President Thrasher and Jean have been very gracious to invite us into their home and their box and we’ve enjoyed getting to know him and the First Lady. One of the unexpected surprises was being presented a national championship ring by David Coburn and (coach) Mark Krikorian, with my name on it, for the soccer championship, which I will display and honor forever.”

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DR. MOISES ISSA MAKES MAJOR GIFT TO FOOTBALL OPERATIONS

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By JERRY KUTZ

Dr. Moises Issa’s love for science and love for people are the keys to his success in the practice of medicine. He is thankful to Florida State University for the preparation — and the good times — and he is grateful to be able to make a $5 million leadership gift to the Unconquered Campaign for football facilities.

“Dr. Issa’s commitment is huge. It is a big help to the campaign,” FSU Athletic Director David Coburn said. “We really, really appreciate it.”

Coburn believes Dr. Issa’s gift is a true testament to his leadership, not only because it moves the campaign closer to the goal but also because of who it is coming from.

“I’m hoping his leadership gives us a little momentum with his demographic — younger, loyal supporters — who we need to be cultivating,” said Coburn.

The 49-year-old Issa calls his gift an investment in the university.

“All the publicity from athletics helps to create the prestige for the university, which helps drive applicants and gives pride to the alumni.”

He has felt FSU’s impact on his own career.

on the football team, as well as a soccer player, Moises dreamed of attending FSU. His older brother, Harby, was already at FSU and spun fantastic tales of student life.

When he began visiting colleges, he attended Gator Growl in Gainesville.

“It was fun but it didn’t feel like a perfect fit,” he said. “I went up to Florida State for the Miami game (in 1987) and watched it in the student section. I had so much fun that I set my heart on being a Seminole and didn’t even apply to UF.” The 1987 FSU-UM game determined the national championship. FSU scored late and went for the win but a Danny McManus pass to tight end Pat Carter for the two-point conversion was defended by the ‘Canes, who went on to win the national championship.

The heartbreaking outcome did not dissuade Issa’s desire to be a ‘Nole. But as Lee Corso likes to say, Issa’s journey to Tallahassee was: “Not so fast my friend.”

“I applied and was deferred,” Issa said. “Writing was not my strong suit, I was great in anatomy and biochemistry but putting an essay together was the most painful thing for me to do at the time.”

“University athletics often breaks the ice and can also bridge the gap, so it’s important to develop an esteemed and renowned athletic department to represent the greatness of Florida State University.”

Dr. Moises Issa “I went for an interview at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and all we talked about was Florida State football and basketball.

University athletics often breaks the ice and can also bridge the gap, so it’s important to develop an esteemed and renowned athletic department to represent the greatness of Florida State University.”

A graduate of Miami’s Coral Park High School, where he was a punter and kicker

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His acceptance to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa might have been a dream come true for a kid from Birmingham but was a nightmare for the South Floridian.

“I spent the most challenging year of my life in Tuscaloosa.” Issa said grimly.

“I would often make the five hour drive from Alabama to Tallahassee, almost every other weekend. I wanted to go to Florida State so bad.”

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In mid-December 1988, Issa’s dream came true as a transfer for the fall of ‘89.

A pre-med major, Issa was accepted into Florida State’s PIMS program where he majored in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. He earned a medical degree from the Ross School of Medicine in 1997. A one-year internship in Family Practice at Prince George’s Hospital in Maryland preceded a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Crozer Chester Hospital, an affiliate of Temple University.

The long love affair with medicine began as an eighth-grader. “My neighbor was a doctor, a surgeon, and he took me to Palmetto Hospital to observe surgery,” he recounts. “He asked if I was going to faint. I saw it, loved it, and from then on I wanted to be a doctor.”

Dr. Issa is board certified in Internal Medicine and specializes in treating diabetes, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and pain management.

He enjoys the diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of illnesses — what he calls “the bread and butter” — helping maintain optimal health through prevention.

“I love being a doctor. I thoroughly enjoy the practice of medicine more than the business. I love interacting with people. I love being able to find solutions for my patients. That is the most satisfying part for me, being able to help another human being in pain and assuring them that ‘we can fix this’.”

While he may enjoy the practice of medicine more than the business, he discovered a highly successful business process.

“When I first got into medicine it was more for the science but when I came to South Florida I realized I had to become adept at the business,” he said. “When I opened this office the guy immediately doubled our rent. The value-based medicine model changed how we thought of medicine.”

“We quickly had to change gears. I love science and I like to heal people but I realized in order to understand the business behind the science, I first had to learn the science behind the business.

The days of the mom and pops, who charged what they wanted and received payment, was not going to happen. The HMOs took over so we had to learn the business aspect of it.”

He learned to hire physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners who could see more patients.

“I was reluctant at first, but realized that I could make it work,” he said. “I could hire providers who are licensed professionals that could care for patients in an efficient rate and not compromise the health care.”

He realized the physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners could provide service to patients who would not otherwise receive care from doctors too busy to see them in a timely manner.

“They are able to be seen and taken care of quickly,” Dr. Issa said. “It is really good. You come in with a sore throat or a sprained ankle and you get seen quickly.”

Dr. Issa’s practice saw 220,000 patients last year. Yes, two hundred and twenty thousand patients, that is not a typo.

Issa’s practice consists of 17 offices with 18 Management Services Organizations.

He has 16 physicians and 13 Physician’s Assistants or Nurse Practitioners affiliated with his practice. The doctors include a pulmonologist, neurologist, podiatrist and 13 primary care doctors, mostly internists.

“We also have optometry with a retinal scanner,” he adds.

The practice ranks among the top five practices in South Florida.

“We were the biggest privately-owned practice,” Issa said when asked how his practice compares. “The other big practices are partly owned by Humana or other insurance companies.

“Two hundred thousand of our patients are young so we actually do a lot of preventative medicine,” he said.

“Primary care starts early. Out of 1,000 colonoscopies, we found 40 polyps. That saves lives. We promote preventative care.”

A tour of Dr. Issa’s facilities reveals the process he has evolved, which enables his practice to provide care to so many patients.

A phone room rivals anything you will see in a sales office only this phone bank is comprised of licensed nurses who take in-bound calls from patients and re-direct those patients to the appropriate provider based on the symptoms described.

He has turned the business of medicine into a science.

So where did he acquire this business acumen and work ethic?

“From my dad,” he said. “My dad

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owned a valet parking company in South Florida on the beach. My mother was an accountant but did not work once she came over from Nicaragua.

“My dad is super energetic. He is 82 and still works, for me. I used to work for him when I was a kid but he fired me for being late,” he says to make a point.

Issa’s time at FSU was fun filled with football and basketball games, noting his friends who attended UF came to Tallahassee for fun on the weekends, but it also prepared him very well for the rigors of medical school.

“There was a couple of us from Florida State at Ross,” Issa said. “The people who went to Ross came from the University of Wisconsin, UCLA, NYU. Even though those schools ranked higher than FSU, I felt better prepared than they were. It was not that I was smarter. It seemed like I had seen the subject matter before.”

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Issa regarded FSU’s PIMS program as a great stepping stone but wishes FSU had a medical school when he was an undergraduate. He is thrilled FSU now does.

“We were at a disadvantage as a university without a medical school,” he said. “There were three medical schools then — UF, UM and USF was just opening up. There was no FIU, FAU or FSU.” When Issa applied for medical school, there were just 117 in the entire United States. When FSU President Sandy D’Alemberte received approval to start the FSU College of Medicine, it was the first in over 25 years.

“The FSU Medical School helped to make us a premier university and it can only help us move up in the academic rankings,” Issa said. “Everyone has a law school but having a med school makes you a serious university.”

While some will argue medical students need more exposure to research hospitals, where rare diseases are referred, Issa believes FSU’s approach to teaching primary care is equally important.

“When FSU med students come to work in our clinic, or to the other campuses, they are seeing the ‘bread and butter’ you won’t see in a research hospital like Gainesville,” Issa said. “Zebras have stripes and horses don’t. Common things are common.

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How many times are you going to see that lymphoma? One out of 10,000 patients you treat.

“Being in a research hospital like Gainesville, which gets these referrals, isn’t good either because you don’t see the bread and butter. I did my residency in Tampa and saw the most acute things but when I started to work here, a guy with dizziness came in and I didn’t know how to treat it. I did not know how to treat back pain.

“I’m hoping his leadership gives us a little momentum with his demographic — younger, loyal supporters — who we need to be cultivating.”

FSU Athletics Director David Coburn “If you want a scientist, a guy who is going to do research, send him to Gainesville. If you want a guy who is going to go out into the real world and treat you, send them to a primary care medical school where they will still have some access to the big cities and to seeing both things.”

Issa is also giving back to the FSU College of Medicine, funding three scholarships a year and he is providing experience in his practice.

The “Ahora is Now” Fund — ahora means now in Spanish — provides $15,000 in funds per year; $5,000 each to three students who are the first of their family to go to college.

He also provides opportunities to Florida State’s College of Medicine students after the summer of their first year concludes.

“Physical Diagnostics is required and I thought it was the most important class,” he said. “You have been hitting the books all year and then you come encounter a patient for the first time. You are like, ‘Ah, I remember reading about this!’ So, we have those students for six weeks, rotating through here.”

The students are exposed to one of Issa’s best clinicians, a former Harvard graduate and professor, who he describes as a charismatic teacher.

“He teaches more of the science of medicine and I teach the business,” Issa said. “We donate the money we are paid back to the school.”

Dr. Issa’s gift to Florida State Athletics will help fund the new football operations facility with the new football weight room named in his honor.

Football is important to Issa because it brings recognition to his alma mater and attracts the best and brightest students.

Of course, a successful football program comes with bragging rights in South Florida, where University of Miami and Florida doctors are everywhere. Issa’s gift to the new facility will help Florida State recruit the very best student-athletes and help in their development.

FSU’s success is important to Issa, on and off the field.

“I can’t see myself wearing any colors except those of Florida State,” said Issa. “I can remember riding my bike to the old Orange Bowl and watching the games through the chain link fence in the corner of the exposed end zone. “But I converted.”

Which was a great day for Florida State University.

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Columnist

WE PLAN TO TALK MORE OFTEN

Jerry Kutz is the owner and publisher of the Osceola and can be reached at jkutz@ theosceola.com or by calling (850) 508-8690.

They say the key to a good relationship is communication so Seminole Boosters would like to communicate with you more frequently.

The Unconquered magazine is one way we communicate with you but four times a year just hasn’t been enough.

There’s so much to share. So many issues of importance to discuss with you. So many events to plan and events to attend.

And, most importantly, we need to let you know how you are making a difference for FSU more frequently.

If this sounds a lot like a marriage encounter conversation, well, that’s because frequent communication is the glue that holds relationships together. And you matter to us.

Rather than sending Unconquered on a quarterly basis, we’ll now communicate monthly with three printed issues (August, November and March) of the Unconquered Magazine and nine digital issues. Stay tuned as we also plan to produce monthly podcasts of Seminole Booster interest.

All of this will be produced by Osceola Media. The Osceola is a publication I helped start in 1982, sold in ’99 before I came to work for the Boosters, and recently bought back. As much as I loved my 19 years as a Seminole Boosters employee, I couldn’t pass the opportunity to buy my baby back and help re-chart its course in the digital space.

I retired as a Seminole Booster employee in April and will now publish the Osceola and the Unconquered Magazine.

If you are getting dizzy, me too, as it is one great circle that puts me right back where I began.

And I couldn’t be happier.

In 1982 when my college friends and I started the Osceola, an independent newspaper covering FSU sports, Seminole Boosters asked us if we would also publish a monthly newsletter for them and we did. The Report to Seminole Boosters was an early version of the Unconquered Magazine. It was a tabloid newspaper with updates on projects the Boosters

JERRY KUTZ

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were planning, fundraising updates, donor features and news about upcoming events. There would also be a few sports stories inside written by the Osceola staff.

Again, Seminole Boosters asked us if we would publish a monthly version of the Unconquered for them and we will.

The Osceola staff and I will continue to provide the content for the Unconquered Magazine, which will be mailed to you.

And we’ll post Booster content on an Unconquered website — with a few select Osceola sports stories — which you can access via your laptop, tablet or phone starting in July.

If you want full access to daily Osceola coverage of sports, recruiting and the fan experience — much of which cannot be included in Unconquered — we ask that you subscribe to the independent Osceola, which is updated numerous times daily.

Visit www.theosceola.com, where you will find a subscribe tab, or call me at 850.508.8690.

While I am back to what I started in 1982, I feel like I’m moving forward and at warp speed.

When considering purchasing the Osceola, and the negative connotation of “trying to go back,” I found this quote attributed to Heraclitus and it struck me as true.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

There’s no question this river we call Florida State has changed dramatically since 1982. Even its riverbed has expanded and meandered.

I’ve watched it. Written about it. And even had a hand in guiding it during two decades of work for Andy Miller and his hard-working staff.

I’ve had the pleasure of covering the Seminoles under the leadership of six FSU presidents and seven athletic directors since 1982.

There’s been a lot of change and I’ve changed as a result.

As a reporter, I appreciated administrators who weren’t afraid to

JERRY KUTZ

Jerry Kutz retired from Seminole Boosters but will continue to publish the Unconquered Magazine as well as The Osceola, which is devoted to FSU Sports and Fan Experiences. discuss an issue, secure in their ability to explain and in the ability of the reader to understand. As an administrator, I appreciated the value of good reporting and clear explanations for readers who want to know and understand the issues.

I’ll bring all of that to the pages of the Osceola and Unconquered.

Becoming an administrator altered my understanding of the river and deepened my respect. There are currents constantly swirling at depths you don’t see from the bank.

The river analogy brought back

a memory of a five-day whitewater rafting trip I took and wrote about many years ago. The guides knew every inch of that stretch of river.

They knew where all the boulders and waterfalls were, yet they still had an eager excitement to show their river to each of us. As awesome as the river views were by daylight, their campfire tales were even more vivid.

I feel the same way about our river and why I bought The Osceola back. And why I agreed to continue publishing this Unconquered magazine, a publication I also had a

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hand in starting. They are distinct and different publications, telling stories from multiple vantage points, about the same river we love.

The Osceola (https://theosceola. com) is up and running with the Unconquered site to debut in July.

We invite you to take a look and to provide your feedback. We have a vision for the content that will be presented in each publication moving forward, for the podcasts we’ll produce, and hope you will enjoy the river with us.

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WILLIE TAGGART LEARNED TO DELEGATE AND HAS USED THAT TIME TO WORK WITH DEFENSE, FOCUS ON IMPROVEMENTS FOR 2019 SEASON

By BOB FERRANTE

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W

illie Taggart smiles and says he is done talking about last year, exuding optimism as he looks forward to the season ahead.

But it doesn’t mean Taggart didn’t learn useful lessons that he has already implemented for the 2019 season.

Taggart knew he had to make changes going into Year 2 at Florida State. Not just because of the 5-7 record – it was how he evaluated the players, the assistants and the head coach.

Yes, how he viewed his role in the program that he wants to return to national prominence.

He had the opportunity to make a significant hire when offensive coordinator Walt Bell left to become the head coach at UMass. Taggart realized the complexity and time constraints of the FSU job and knew the solution, naming Kendal Briles as his new offensive coordinator.

“I spent more time with the defense this spring, been able to talk through things, talk about what offenses do and why they are doing those things,” Taggart said. “(Hiring Briles) allows me to get around our entire team.”

Taggart had experience taking over programs at Oregon, South Florida and Western Kentucky but those transitions were not the same.

“I took it over like I did any other job that I took over but this was different. The situation was different,” Taggart said.

“If I had to go back I probably would have done it at the beginning, something that our football team needed.”

What specifically did this Florida State team need?

“They needed me,” Taggart said. “My entire team needed me, not just the offensive side of the ball.”

In 2019, Briles will have the keys to the offense while Taggart leads the team. We saw signs of the transition during spring practices. While Briles ran the offense, Taggart did everything else, roaming from position group to position group, observing, offering advice, encouraging. Taggart had the time to sit in on various position meetings instead of focusing so much on the offensive side of the ball.

He has now become the CEO of the entire FSU football team, which should pay dividends for the Seminoles in 2019.

“I think last year my ego was telling me, ‘No, don’t give it up, coach.’ But my instincts were telling me that I should,” Taggart said. “And it was the first time that I was going against my instincts because of my ego. I pushed my ego out of the way for the betterment of the team and I think it’s going to pay off big time for us.”

These are candid comments from a coach who took time to reflect, evaluate and seek solutions. While coaches are busy in the offseason – there are two signing periods, offseason conditioning, spring practice, junior days and camps – part of the time is allocated to self-evaluate.

All coaches have done this, even FSU legend Bobby Bowden, who had a losing season in his first year, 1976, and charted a course for the program.

“You have to analyze what went wrong and get it corrected,” Bowden said. “Coaching is learning from your mistakes and not repeating them.”

Evaluation has proven to lead to better results in Taggart’s second year at previous schools. Western Kentucky made

a big jump, from 2-10 in 2010 to 7-5 in 2011. South Florida went from 2-10 in 2013 to 4-8 in 2014, which may not look all that impressive on paper. But the results show that the Bulls lost to Maryland by a touchdown and had road losses to No. 13 Wisconsin and No. 25 Memphis.

“Going back to when he first came in, he brings a sense of hard work and accountability to get where you need to go,” said Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle, who developed into an all-Sun Belt player at WKU. “And sometimes it takes a year for the players to develop and understand what he’s wanting. And after a year of working hard and maybe not winning games but you’re getting the culture and understanding the culture.

“Everybody’s got to trust each other and what we’re doing and it helps when you have a whole year and you understand each other a lot better. It’s easy to trust when you have more time to spend with them, to build those relationships.” Willie Taggart “It really jumped for us going into that year two because the players were more understanding of what he was looking for and we were able to have success.”

Doyle mentioned culture and it’s clear that the Seminoles also needed time to build trust with the coaching staff, something Taggart has emphasized throughout the offseason.

“Everybody’s got to trust each other and what we’re doing and it helps when you have a whole year and you understand each other a lot better,” Taggart said. “It’s easy to trust when you have more time to spend with them, to build those relationships.”

Quarterback James Blackman was among the Seminoles who agreed, saying “you have to build that as we go.”

“I feel like the chemistry is getting a lot better and we are understanding the coaches a lot more,” Blackman said. “Our coaches are understanding us a lot more. I feel like we are coming together as a family, a real big family.”

FSU players felt more confident and comfortable this spring. The spring of 2018 was a whirlwind as the Seminoles made the transition from a pro-style offense to a no-huddle spread. With a year under their belts, they knew what to expect.

From Taggart to the assistants and the players, there is a sense that the struggles of 2018 were a learning lesson and could also be the foundation for the program’s success in 2019 and beyond.

“I’ve been with coach Taggart for nine years,” linebackers coach Raymond Woodie told fans on National Signing Day. “We’ve been to four universities, and that first year is always that ‘sputter’ year. But I tell you what, that second year, now we got it figured out, we want to see who has bought in and who has bought out.

“Just like an airplane going down the runway, we take off.

I want you guys to just relax, we appreciate you supporting us and we’re going to be ready to go.”

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BOOSTER LIFE

A

B 22

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BOOSTER EVENTS Summer 2019

A) Burt Reynolds family and friends with Coach Bobby Bowden at the Pillar of Champions Event honoring Burt Reynolds.

B) Softball supporters with the Softball staff during the FSU vs. Louisville trip.

C) MICCO DeVoe Moore, Mike Martin, and MICCO Larry Strom.

D) Golden Chiefs and major gift contributors Paul and Mary Ann Broome, Gene Deckerhoff, Hugh Tomlinson and MICCO & Golden Chief Eleanor Connan at A Night with 11 & Friends - Mike Martin Celebration.

C

Anna Shelnutt before throwing out the first pitch at FSU Softball.

F) MICCO’s and Legacy Chiefs Paula & Bill Smith, President John and Jean Thrasher, and Wendy & Ron Spencer (photo by Ross Obley).

A

B

E) Scott and Tiffany Price with Elizabeth Mason and

D

E F

E

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WINNING ISN’T THE ONLY THING Hotel prices, flex tickets and fun count too

By JERRY KUTZ OSCEOLA EXPERIENCE Florida State fans, who have been on the fence about attending 2019 home games, now have more to chew on as prices of hotels have dropped, ticket packages have become more flexible, game day has more fan experiences and off-season developments would lead you to believe this football team is going to be fun to watch again.

I know. I know. You got the 60-inch television mounted in your Man Cave with a refrigerator right next to your recliner and bathroom. You’re good.

But if you’re even a little bit inclined to be thinking about coming to a game — even if it is just one game — to tailgate with friends, see Osceola and Renegade, hear the Marching Chiefs, feel the roar of the crowd and personally participate in the action by getting really, really loud ... read on.

A number of things have changed in the offseason to make your home game experience more convenient, affordable and memorable.

HOTEL PRICES ARE LOWER Let’s start with hotels and the cost of attending a home football game. In recent years, Seminole fans have faced two-night minimums at local hotels with rates often exceeding $400-$500 per night. But a recent survey of Book Direct, conducted

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by The Osceola, revealed more than half of local hotels are offering rooms below $299 per night for 2019. And 15 of the 60 available properties are asking $199 or less.

Our Osceola silent shopper also found major hotel websites that are no longer demanding one-night minimums.

Why? The supply of hotel rooms is coming into line with demand. There has been a hotel construction spurt locally, with another 1,000 rooms coming on line by 2020, so there’s more supply. With ticket sales declining gradually since the 2013 National Championship season there’s been less demand for those rooms, too.

It all adds up to a good deal for Seminole fans.

Mark Cameron, who heads up Florida State’s ticket sales and service operations, has been talking to FSU ticket customers for eight years and has managed the department for three. He and his team talk to more than 10,000 existing season-ticket holders and prospects every year.

Hotel price is one of the main objections cited by season-ticket holders and prospective new ticket buyers when making a purchase decision. The other common objections are performance on the field and life circumstances such as age, children or physical inability of husband or wife.

“Price, specifically hotel prices, are a topthree objection for out-of-town season ticket holders and prospects,” Cameron said. “Many will say $700 for two season

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tickets isn’t an issue but tell us they will have to spend $700, or more, for hotels for one weekend alone with the two-night minimum.”

Cameron believes the availability of rooms in the $149 to $299 price range should help his team with both the renewal rate and new sales in the 100 days prior to the first home game and was glad to hear hotels now offering a one-night rate.

“The two-night minimum is always a sticking point,” he said. “Some of our customers only want a room for one night so they view the $199 per night rate as $398.”

Stop a little short, save a lot The Osceola’s survey of hotels found that 85 percent of hotels 30 to 90 minutes on your side of Tallahassee are offering rates ranging from $50 to $179 a night and most accept one-night stays.

If you can’t arrive in time for the Friday Night Block Party in College Town or other festivities why not stop a little short, get a good night’s sleep and enjoy a wellrested day of tailgating, visiting friends and college football. If you choose to spend Saturday night in the hotel room, then your Sunday drive is that much shorter.

There are numerous, creative ways, to find very-affordable houses, cabins and waterfront properties for families and friends to share. For ideas, visit The Osceola Experience stories at www.theosceola.com.

Photos by Mike Olivella

NEW TICKET PACKAGES OFFER ULTIMATE FLEXIBILITY Florida State announced a variety of ticket packages designed to provide Seminole fans with nearly-unlimited flexibility in terms of schedule and price.

The Tribe Flex Packs come in two flavors: 6 games for $340 ($56.66 per game) or 12 games for $570 ($47.50 per game).

These mobile-only flex passes give you the option to choose the games you want.

Passes can be redeemed for the games/ quantities you choose with a maximum of four for the Miami game and 10 for all others. Seat location will vary from game to game and will be delivered via mobile app 48 hours before the game.

The market for this package will be for those people who can’t commit to a schedule six months in advance.

The location of these seats will be primarily in sections 27-29 and 37-39 on the West Side of the stadium, which is the side to receive shade first. The seats will be assigned based on a random drawing.

“There could be seats assigned elsewhere in the random drawing depending on what other sections are not selected by season ticket holders,” Cameron said.

People can buy the flex pass and later select the games they want within an app.

What makes the package especially flexible is two individual flex pack buyers can later decide they want to sit together and the app will allow them to link their accounts for a game, or games, they would like to be seated together.

“There are steps in the app on how to do the ‘sit with friends’ option and the screen shots are pretty simple,” Cameron reports.

To see how the app works, visit: desktop. expapp.com/fsufb/pass_select “You simply put their email address in and it will send you a text confirming ‘Jerry, you are now linked with Mark for the following games.’ ” These packages also come with Seminole Booster Iron Arrow level ($70) membership benefits, which FSU will credit toward any membership level you choose for parking or other benefits.

While the Tribe Flex Pass cannot be resold online (Stubhub), the mobile passes can be transferred to friends and family after being redeemed.

PICK A SEAT 3 PACKS This is a traditional “pick a seat” plan where you choose the three games you want or the three games that meet your schedule. In years past FSU offered a “fixed” plan where FSU picked the games for you, which didn’t meet everyone’s schedule.

These seats will be located in sections 8 to 12, sections 15-16 and sections 27-28 with price points based on location.

Three packs are for people who like the traditional hard ticket and want to sit in the

same seat but can’t commit to six games.

There are six different price levels ranging from $105 ($35 per game) to $190 ($63.33 per game) depending on location and the Miami game. Three game packs are available in the Dunlap Champions Club for $699, which includes a reserved club seat, food and beverage (soft drinks) with access to a cash bar, air-conditioned club level, terraces and elevators. The location of seats will be assigned after season tickets have been allocated.

THE 850 PACKAGE The 850 is designed for families who live in the 850 area code to buy four full season tickets with a Booster membership ($70) for one price of $850.

Don’t take the name too literally; no one is checking birth certificates or marriage licenses. If your family includes more or less than four, the ticket office will pro-rate the price for any family unit. If you don’t live within the 850, you are still in luck.

“For those who don’t live in the 850 we offer something similar, a $199 season ticket which requires a $25 per seat donation requirement. So four seats at $224 comes to $896,” Cameron said. Close enough.

These seats are located at the top of sections 15 and 16 (East Side) above the visiting team’s fans with some in sections 27-28 (West Side). These season tickets are just like a regular season ticket without the guaranteed right to renew the same seat.

FSU has needed an affordable option for local families to attend games and this package – at an average season price of $212.50 ($35 per game) – is designed to offer a family an affordable way to create family memories on game days.

“We have been meeting for months to give everyone every option we can think of,” Cameron said. “I feel like we are throwing the kitchen sink at everyone. Because it is new and the options are not necessarily self-explanatory, we encourage people to call in and talk to our representatives so we can help them. Our goal is to make it easy, and affordable, for everyone to get out to the stadium.”

CREATING FAN EXPERIENCES FSU took steps to addressing fan experiences in the offseason with the announcement of home games against Georgia and Notre Dame in coming years.

While the quality of the opponent is important to the fan experience, the quality of the home team is more important.

FSU asked its season ticket holders about what matters to them. It will not surprise you that “winning” came in at No. 1.

The first losing season in 40 years has driven even more Seminole fans into the man cave, where they will wait-to-see what develops before returning to the arena.

Willie Taggart and the FSU administration

SEMINOLE-BOOSTERS.COM

addressed many on-field concerns in the offseason with sweeping changes on the offensive coaching staff and with a change in command of the special-teams units.

Offensive coordinator Kendal Briles was hired and he brought with him offensive line coach Randy Clements, who he has worked side-by-side with for 10 years. Continuity translates into better communications among the staff, clearer player understanding and better execution on game day. Former FSU wide receiver Ron Dugans, who has worked with Taggart at South Florida, will add further continuity.

Another area fans were glad to see Taggart address in the offseason was special teams.

Taggart replaced a long time assistant with a member of the staff, Mark Snyder, who has had many years of experience handling similar duties. Special team plays comprise nearly one third of all plays in a football game, so this could help create a much cleaner performance in the fall.

While the second-year head coach made strides to improve the performance on the field, Seminole fans have not beaten a path to the ticket office door just yet. Sales and renewals reflect a wait-and-see attitude. An opening day win against a very good Boise State team is what many fans need to see to end the wait.

FSU CONTINUES TO ADDRESS FAN EXPERIENCES Gate entry will be more effective and welcoming. A new event-services company will assist with gate entry and security.

The player’s Legacy Walk and pregame festivities and tailgating enhancements in the surrounding area will continue into year two, which fans enjoyed last year.

Seminole fans start their weekend with live entertainment every Friday before a home game, at the Block Party on Madison Street in College Town, and with the lighting of the Unconquered Statue on Langford Green. Saturday begins with tailgating but doesn’t end there. Meet, chat and have a selfie with many of the legendary players from FSU’s storied past at the regularly scheduled “Sod Talks.” Check out the current players during their Legacy Walk. See Osceola’s face painted prior to kickoff. Enjoy a free, pre-game Marching Chief “scull session” in Dick Howser Baseball Stadium and follow the Chiefs on their parade route into Doak.

And stay tuned for more fan-friendly experiences still in the works.

While winning is always important, those lower hotel prices, flexible and easyto-buy tickets, improving schedules and fun fan experiences are what is needed to encourage fans to leave the man cave and enter the arena to participate in, and enjoy, the sights and sounds of college game day.

For more on the Osceola Experience visit www.theOsceola.com.

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IT’S

IT’S

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Food by the University Center Club and 4Rivers Smokehouse

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EARLY SUCCESSES IN UNCONQUERED CAMPAIGN, BUT LOTS OF WORK LEFT TO DO

By JERRY KUTZ As it moves into its second year, the five-year Unconquered Campaign has now crossed the $70 million mark for donor commitments in support of Florida State Athletics priorities. Seminole Booster Donors have made cash gifts of more than $9 million towards these pledges.

“The campaign is going really well,” athletics director David Coburn said. “I’m very pleased and frankly pleasantly surprised coming on the heels of Raise the Torch Campaign.”

Seminole Boosters raised more than $350 million in the Raise the Torch Campaign for Athletics over the previous seven years and is well on its way to raising another $100 million for the Unconquered Campaign.

Led by co-chairs Nylah Thomson and John Crowe, the campaign seeks to raise $100 million for investments in: • Football Operations • Phase II of improvement at the Tucker Center • Phase I of the Master Plan for Dick Howser Stadium • Renovation of the course at the Don Veller Seminole Golf Course • Enhancements to the softball stadium • New student-athlete scholarships • Improvements to the Moore Athletic Center • $5 million in honor of 50 years of women’s athletics at Florida State and scholarships (completed as of April 28)

“The campaign is off to a good start thanks to the generosity of many donors including those featured in this issue of the Unconquered Magazine and to the leadership of Nylah (Thompson) and John (Crowe),” said Andy Miller, President and CEO of Seminole Boosters. “Our challenge is well documented, but our donors’ desire to provide our student-athletes with the resources they need to excel is even greater. We are thankful for those who have given and who are considering what they can do to help, too.”

Co-Chairman John Crowe, who starred in football in the 1960s, echoes Miller’s remarks.

“We got off to a really fast start with some very significant contributions from the Dunlaps and other donors,” Crowe said.

“It’s been enjoyable being involved and because of the staff Greg Hulen has involved. They are go-getters. People generally don’t give money unless you ask and get them involved. The group is good about going out and asking people. They are good at making the case for why this is important to the university. They get very personal.”

Crowe distinguishes carefully between the money pledged ($70 million) and the cash received on those pledges ($9 million). You build buildings with cash, not pledges.

“Of the $70 million we have pledged we’ve collected a little over $9 million, which is a good ratio of cash because most of these pledges are multi-year pledges,” he said. “If

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we keep that ratio going we can get it all in within five or six years.”

Crowe said FSU will not break ground on any of these projects until they know the project can be fully funded.

“Some of our projects have reached their funding goals so we can start them,” Crowe said. “The golf course project is underway and we’ve had great response to softball. It is a tribute to coach Lonni Alameda. People have come forward to commit so we will start some of those projects because we have the funds to do it.”

Football Operations has received $36 million pledged toward a $60 million goal with more than $5 million given to these commitments.

“Football is important,” Crowe said. “If you are going to have a strong athletic program, you pretty much have to have a strong football team to fund it.”

“I have people ask me about the campaign who say you are spending a lot of money on football, and I say you have to. If you don’t, the other (sports) will suffer too because football generates directly and indirectly a majority of our revenue.”

On April 28, FSU hosted an event to mark the conclusion of its year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of women’s athletics. During the celebration, Unconquered Campaign Co-Chair Nylah Thompson announced that more than $7 million had been committed in support of Seminole women’s athletics over the past 12 months.

Thompson also recognized long-time donors Russ and Genie Morcom as the department’s philanthropists of the year for women’s athletics. The Morcoms were the lead donors to the construction of the Morcom Aquatic Center and have made key gifts to the Unconquered Campaign in support of softball and golf this past year.

“The goal was $5 million during the first year of the campaign, so people really responded well,” Crowe said.

“The excellence on and off the field of our female studentathletes has really inspired many to give. They are great ambassadors for our athletic department and university.”

Since announcing softball as an addition to the campaign in November, Seminole Boosters has received overwhelming support for the project. The renovation has a goal of $1.5 million to build a permanent roof over the stadium. Over $1.25 million in support has been pledged with gifts of $765,000 received. Construction can begin as soon as the funding is secured.

The new Seminole Golf Club is under construction and scheduled to debut this fall. Golf is the first project to meet its goal in the campaign with over $4.5 million in pledges and $1.25 million in gifts toward them. When it opens, it will be the nation’s first Jack Nicklaus Legacy Course and a destination for any golfer visiting Tallahassee.

The Unconquered Campaign has seen good response to the scholarship endowment efforts with $12 million from pledges and planned gifts.

MICCO’s Russ & Genie Morcom with President Andy Miller and VP of University Advancement Tom Jennings receive the Philanthropist of the Year Award at the Garnet & Golden Finale.

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Photo by Jerry Kutz

“Our scholarship endowment went well beyond the $9 million goal,” Crowe said.

So, with a sail full of wind, where does the Unconquered Campaign head from here?

“Our fundraisers will be concentrating on the areas not yet fully funded – basketball, baseball and football – which are projects we have to raise higher dollars for, so it will be a continuing focus,” Thompson said. “But if a donor wants to give to another area, we will never say no.”

The campaign is donor-centric, where donors decide how their contribution will be applied.

Thompson is encouraging FSU fans to stay engaged over the next four years.

After the 50th anniversary of women athletics celebration, which exceeded its goal, Thompson reminded everyone of this: “That goal was completed but this doesn’t mean you don’t have to be involved any more, or give any more. We need people to continue to step up in all these different areas.”

Florida State raised $12 million on a $9 million goal for scholarships the first year but Thompson reminds Seminole fans that FSU has a long way still to go to catch up with schools who have fully funded their scholarship endowments years before.

“Scholarships are near and dear to a lot of people’s hearts,” Thompson said. “They want to see a studentathlete receive their education and take their next step in life. I was really proud to see everybody stepping up and making those pledges to scholarships. I would love to see our scholarships funded fully at some point but that takes a lot of time and a lot of money but we continue to grow the scholarship endowment, which are so important to our student-athletes.”

Thompson attributes the quick start to the love and passion donors have for their university and athletics but echoes her co-chair’s sentiments about the donor relationships Seminole Boosters fundraisers have and

Florida State University and Seminole Boosters, Inc. recognize the following donors for their selfless generosity by contributing $50,000 or more to athletic scholarships and facilities. It is because of these gifts that Florida State University remains UNCONQUERED.

Catherine Copeland James M. Doss Charitable Foundation Patrick and Sheryl Maroney Jeff and Aggie Stoops The Vaughn Family As of May 24, 2019

continue to develop with donors.

“The fundraiser is the conduit between what athletics needs and what the boosters are trying to raise money for, and knowing what the individual Booster is interested in,” Thompson said. “Because of that relationship, they are able to make a presentation to that donor saying, we’ve got this new campaign starting and I know you really enjoy baseball.

You have given a lot to baseball. Would you consider a gift to baseball or is there something else in the campaign you are interested in supporting?”

She says that relationship is why donors, like herself, continue to give to new projects.

“I think our fundraisers do a really good job of keeping up with their donors, making contact with them on a regular basis and keeping them informed about what is going on around the program. That is where we get the repeat customer and develop relationships with so many first-time donors. It is because of the relationship with the fundraiser.”

It is that pipeline of relationships — new and mature — that will sustain the campaign over the next four years.

“It is certainly going a lot faster than any of us though it would,” Thompson said. “If we continue to do this over the next four years, we can reach our goals and take care of these projects. Then we’ll get onto something else out there that athletics needs to be taken care of. We are so blessed to have great people who really love Florida State and Seminole athletics and are willing to give of their time and treasure.”

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DENNIS AND BARBARA JARVIS HAVE DONATED $100,000 TO CREATE THE DENNIS L. AND BARBARA L. JARVIS ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP.

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ADOPTED ALUMNI

BOOSTERS DENNIS AND BARBARA JARVIS CELEBRATE FIVE DECADES OF SEMINOLE SUPPORT WITH AN ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

By JEFF ROMANCE Dennis and Barbara Jarvis never attended a class at Florida State University, but that hasn’t stopped them from being loyal Seminole Boosters for nearly 40 years.

Growing up in Orlando, Dennis and Barbara were sweethearts at Colonial High School who got married after graduation in 1969. The newlyweds were quickly separated as Dennis spent two years serving his country in the Vietnam War. Upon his return from Vietnam, Dennis started DJ’s Drywall in Orlando with the help of Barbara and began their involvement in the Central Florida building industry. One of Dennis’s associates early in his career was Rupert Hawks, a local landscaper who just happened to be a die-hard Florida State fan. Rupert and his wife, Carol, invited Dennis and Barbara to Tallahassee to attend their first Florida State football game in 1978 against Navy. And as they say ... the rest is history.

“We are so grateful to our good friends Rupert and Carol for taking us to our first Seminoles’ game. Everybody was just so nice at Florida State and the enthusiasm for the football team was so amazing,” Barbara said. “It was a great experience for our entire family. We got to bring our kids up to Tallahassee and they got to join the junior Boosters. We were totally hooked.”

The Jarvis’ enthusiasm for FSU led them to become seasonticket holders and Seminole Boosters in 1981 by joining the Renegade Club. Although their contributions were modest in the beginning, as their drywall business grew, so did their contributions to Seminole Boosters.

“We enjoyed our visits to Tallahassee so much, we got more and more involved following the team. We also increased our Boosters’ donations as we went along,” Barbara said. “We moved up our Booster levels until we eventually reached the Golden Chiefs in 2000.”

After celebrating so much Seminole success over the years, they attended the Champions Beyond the Game Gala in 2017 with the intent of donating $50,000 to endow an athletic scholarship. After hearing stories from the studentathletes at the event, they decided to double their donation to $100,000 for athletes across all sports at FSU. “We checked our finances and knowing we could retire comfortably we saw the opportunity that we could donate a scholarship and help out the university,” Dennis said. “We enjoy watching all of the Florida State sports so we wanted our scholarship to go to good use supporting all of them.”

The couple knows that the Dennis L. and Barbara L. Jarvis Athletic Scholarship will allow future Florida State studentathletes to excel in their chosen sport and provide them with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Dennis and Barbara Jarvis with movie star and former Seminole Burt Reynolds.

“We have been with FSU for so long and we have seen the progress that the school and athletics have made,” Barbara said. “It makes us happy to know that we contributed to the growth of FSU and the athletic department and provided an opportunity for student-athletes.”

One of the added benefits of being Florida State fans for the past five decades is that the Jarvis’ have so many fond memories of traveling to watch FSU football games.

One of Dennis’ fondest memories was flying out to Nebraska in 1985 to watch the underdog Seminoles defeat the Cornhuskers, 17-13. Dennis and Barbara flew out on a private jet provided by U.S. Gypsum and they even managed to get his pilot and co-pilot tickets to the game to cheer on the Seminoles.

The Jarvis’ love of traveling to be with their beloved Seminoles is still alive and well today. The couple is celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this summer on the Seminole Boosters’ 12-night cruise across the Mediterranean. The Booster cruise will undoubtedly provide them with more FSU memories and perhaps an additional souvenir to go in their Florida State “man cave.”

Of the many prized possessions in the couple’s FSU room, Dennis’s favorite is a limited-edition Bobby Bowden bust that he picked up after the Seminoles’ win in Nebraska in 1985 that commemorated Bowden’s victory. Barbara’s favorite piece of memorabilia is a picture of the couple with Burt Reynolds on the Florida State tour in 1987.

Although neither of them graduated from FSU, their love and devotion for all things Florida State prompted former FSU President Bernie Sliger to officially proclaim them “Adopted Alumni” in 1988 for their unwavering enthusiasm and support of the Seminoles.

And 30 years after being named honorary alumni, the Jarvis family’s continued generosity will enhance the Florida State student-athlete experience for years to come.

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MEM B ER S H IP D R I VE

Many of our Captains and Chairman of the Membership Drive pose with FSU Football Coach Willie Taggart at the Kickoff Celebration. From left to right: Chuck Urban, Michael Steiner, Eugene Harris, Jerry Kutz, Terrance Barber, Tyler Thimmes, Coach Taggart, Ian Clark, Hugh Tomlinson, Shawn Noles, Anthony Campana.

SEMINOLE BOOSTERS 2019 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE Volunteers raise more than $100,000 in five-week

By JOANNA WHITE Leading up to the spring football game, the Seminole Boosters kicked off a grassroots campaign, led by our selected Chairman of the Membership Drive, Chuck Urban of Tallahassee Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Fiat.

Volunteers were utilized to fundraise and enroll new Booster members for the 2019 Annual Fund, which supports the overall athletics budget for all 20 men’s and women’s Sports, including scholarships, medical services, academic support, and more.

In total, the volunteers, known as Nole Reps, enrolled more than 500 new Booster members and raised over $101,000 in a 5-week span.

Our Top Performers received on-field recognition during the Spring Game and were able to select a prize for their efforts. Prizes ranged from tickets to events like the Dunlap Champions Club for a 2019 FSU Football game or one of the Open Air Suites for a FSU Baseball game for up to 20 people, to a Nike Gear Package, which included a duffle bag, a polo, a jacket and shoes.

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The Top Performing individuals and team were invited onto the field during halftime at the 2019 Spring Game for a recognition ceremony, during which they were able to pose and take pictures with Chief Osceola and Renegade.

These volunteer efforts are a part of an ongoing campaign, which will continue moving forward into the 2019-20 seasons and beyond.

The next phase of the campaign will run Aug. 1-Sept. 30.

Nole Reps who can enroll 10 new Booster members during this timeframe will receive 2 tickets to the Dunlap Champions Club during one of the 2019 home games.

If the Nole Rep enrolls 20 new Booster members, they will receive a

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Nike Gear item in addition to the Dunlap Champions Club tickets.

The Seminole Boosters, along with FSU Athletics and all of our student-athletes, are so thankful for the efforts made by our Nole Reps thus far and are excited to see where they can take us into the future!

If you are interested in becoming a Nole Rep please contact Joanna White at 850-644-2169 for more information or go to boosters.fsu.edu/nolereps to enroll.

OUR TOP PERFORMERS Nole Rep

New Boosters

Sunny4Pack

40

Terrance Barber

75

Lorne Reinstein

10

Janine Thomas

16

Nick Lowe

15

Mike Steiner

1

Chris Sumner

3

Jason Franza

6

Cassandra Jenkins Philip Browning

11 7

Tony Brown

15

Nole Rep

New Revenue

Sunny4Pack

$10,000

Terrance Barber

$5,330

Lorne Reinstein

$2,090

Janine Thomas

$1,670

Nick Lowe

$1,500

Mike Steiner

$1,300

Chris Sumner

$1,200

Jason Franza

$1,140

Cassandra Jenkins

$1,130

Philip Browning

$1,070

Tony Brown

$1,050

SPECIAL MENTIONS Nole Rep

New Boosters

Tom’s Angels

23

Chuck Urban

98

Eugene Harris

13

Cindy Miller

11

Hugh Tomlinson

26

Jerry Kutz

11

Nole Rep

New Revenue

Tom’s Angels

$13,739

Chuck Urban

$11,440

Eugene Harris

$4,049

Cindy Miller

$3,300

Hugh Tomlinson

$3,205

Jerry Kutz

$1,640

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Jacksonville offers fans a fun weekend before, after 2019 opener

By BOB THOMAS The relationship between Florida State football and the city of Jacksonville, moreover, Florida’s First Coast, is steeped in history. Following a decade-long absence, it’s time to add a new chapter.

The Seminoles open the 2019 football season against Boise State at TIAA Bank Field on Aug. 31, marking the program’s first appearance at the venue since its Jan. 1, 2010, sendoff of legendary coach Bobby Bowden in a 33-21 Gator Bowl victory over West Virginia.

With an abundance of planned activities centered around the game and a wide range of recreational opportunities in the area, there might not be a better way to launch your Labor Day Weekend festivities, while supporting the ‘Noles as they begin their second season under Coach Willie Taggart.

“I think this is a rekindling of the relationship with Florida State and the City of Jacksonville,” said Rick Catlett, President and CEO of Jack-

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sonville Sports Council and the Gator Bowl Association since 1992, who has been instrumental in bringing nine FSU football games to the city.

The 2019 opener is very much an event, thanks to the joint efforts from the Florida State University community and the game organizers.

While the highlight of the weekend is a 7 p.m. Saturday kickoff, there’s no shortage of things to do in the days leading up to the first matchup between the Noles and Boise State.

• The Jacksonville Jaguars entertain the Atlanta Falcons in an exhibition game on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. Tickets: noles.co/2ZrJ1cU • If you’re looking for some Friday night entertainment, R&B singer Chris Brown headlines the Indigoat Tour 2019 at the Vystar Veterans Arena, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: noles.co/2WM2V0M The Game Day experience leading up to the contest marks a first as FSU Athletics is teaming up with Seminole Boosters, the FSU Alumni

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Association and FSU Foundation for the “Official Florida State University Tailgate,” which will be held on the field at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. A short walk across the parking lot from TIAA Bank Stadium, the minor league home of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp will be the social hub of the day. From 3-6 p.m. there will be music, entertainment and games, football on the stadium videoboard and a pregame appearance by the Florida State Marching Chiefs and Cheerleaders.

This ticketed event will include allyou-can-eat hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue and sides, including beverages (beer and wine for those of age).

Tickets are $60 for adults and $45 for those under 21 and can be purchased here: noles.co/2KrOux9 Catlett said the Gator Bowl Association and the Jacksonville Sports Council also plan to have activities in and around the stadium.

“Jacksonville has been a second home for us over the years and our roots run very deep there,” said Jason Dennard, FSU associate athletics

director for marketing and new revenue. “It is important to everyone on campus to make sure we bring Florida State University in full force to Jacksonville on Labor Day weekend.”

A variety of ticket options for the game remain available. You can buy tickets and keep up to speed on all activities surrounding the game by visiting seminoles.com/kickoff2019/ From TIAA Bank Field to the surrounding area that makes up the First Coast, much has changed since the Seminoles’ last game in the area.

“The biggest change is the $200plus million spent on the facility by the city and the owner,” Catlett said of the stadium, which is loaded with new amenities, ranging from the world’s largest in-stadium video boards, a two-story north end zone fan plaza – “FanDuelVille” – the Smart Pharmacy Spas and the US Assure Clubs’ 50-yard-line patios.

Those in-stadium changes are emblematic of the overall growth and development in and around Jacksonville.

“Jacksonville is changing,” Catlett said. “There are more recreation and hospitality opportunities than ever before.”

The downtown area is in the midst of a revitalization and offers a growing variety of restaurant options, which extend across the St. Johns River to the South Bank. Regardless where you’re staying you can find a family-friendly neighborhood nearby, whether it’s Avondale/Riverside, Five Points or San Marco, with multiple shopping, dining and night-time options.

The Jacksonville area is also home to a growing brewery scene with dozens of options to fit the taste buds for those inclined to visit craft breweries along what is promoted as the Jax Ale Trail (visitjacksonville.com/ jax-ale-trail).

A short drive from downtown, the St. Johns Town Center, an outdoor lifestyle mall, is home to 150 stores and a wide range of dining establishments. For entertainment, Top Golf Jacksonville and iFly Indoor Skydiving are close by.

And for those who prefer the real

thing, the First Coast is home to countless public and semi-private golf courses, including TPC Sawgrass and the World Golf Village.

Of course, there’s no shortage of outstanding beaches, with Amelia Island to the north and St. Augustine to the south, flanking Jacksonville Beach.

In short, it is the perfect destination for the last hurrah of summer, while kicking off the start of football season.

“It’s going to be fun,” Taggart recently told a gathering of the Jacksonville Seminole Booster club. “I think we’re all looking forward to it.

Coming here to Jacksonville, playing Boise State, it will be a good ballgame against a good football team. I know our guys are excited.

“We know we have a lot of ‘Noles here excited about the season and we know we’ll have a lot of fans ready to see our football team. We have to make sure that we go out there and give them what they’re looking for.”

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FSU’S JACKSONVILLE REGULAR SEASON APPEARANCES Year Opponent Outcome 1949 Stetson W, 33-14 1951 Jacksonville N.A.S. W, 39-0 1958 Georgia L, 28-13 1968 Houston W, 40-20 1989 Southern Miss L, 30-26 1999 Duke W, 51-23 2000 Brigham Young W, 29-3 2005 Virginia Tech W, 27-22* 2007 Alabama W, 21-14 2008 Colorado W, 39-21 *Inaugural ACC Championship Game

PREVIOUS GATOR BOWL APPEARANCES 1965 Oklahoma W, 36-19 1967 Penn State T, 17-17 1982 West Virginia W, 31-12 1985 Oklahoma State W, 34-23 2002 Virginia Tech W, 30-17 2005 West Virginia W, 30-18 2010 West Virginia W, 33-21

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SPRING TOUR

A

B

C D 36

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FOOTBALL

2019 Spring Tour

A

A) Adam Laws, Tony McLeod, Dave Barton, Charlie Ward and Lance Barton supporting the 2019 Quarterback Classic at Old Memorial on May 20.

B) Billy Sexton with Nick O’Leary presenting the proceeds from the 2018 Nick O’Leary Scholarship Tournament, which benefit the Nicklaus O’Leary Tight End Position Football Scholarship at FSU.

C) Bob Stahl, Brittany Stahl, Derrick Brooks, Scott Carlson and Denny King supporting the 2019 Quarterback Classic at Old Memorial on May 20.

D) John Schrader, Jameis Winston, Parrish Owens and Bonnie Grizzard supporting the 2019 Nick O’Leary Scholarship Tournament at Lost Tree Club on May 3.

E) Head Football Coach Willie Taggart taking questions from a young Seminole fan during the Spring Tour.

F) Gene Deckerhoff, Head Women’s Basketball Coach Sue Semrau and Head Football Coach Willie Taggart at the Atlanta Spring Tour stop.

G) Nick Stocks, Andrew Basham, Bob Basham (tournament host), Jameis Winston, PT Willis and Bill Kadow enjoy a round of golf at the 2019 Quarterback Classic at Old Memorial on May 20.

E

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2019 Student-athletes thank Boosters for scholarship

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Kiah Gillespie

MEN’S TENNIS Lucas Poullain

SWIMMING & DIVING Front Row (L-R): Megan Brown, Daniella Van den Berg Natalie Purnell.

Middle Row: Mykala Arnold, Georgiana Gardner, Shelly Drozda, Leila Johnston, Caroline Nava, McKenna Keith. Back Row: Neal Studd, William Pisani, Daniel Bis, Emir Muratovic, Kanoa Kaleoaloha, John Vann 38

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FSU STUDENT-ATHLETE GRADUATES Dante Newberg, Marketing SPRING 2019 Brandon Tirado, Timothy Becker, MBA Information Technology Jonathan Foster, Social Science Kiah Gillespie, Social Science Daniel Haney, Lauren Anderson, MBA Commercial Entrepreneurship Alic Easter, Landon Hutchinson, Psychology Family, Child Sciences Tyler Holt, Sport Management Macy Jerger, Biology Dylan Silva, Social Science Brooke Kuhlman, Finance Phil Cofer, Sociology Sara Putt, Dietetics Christ Koumadje, Mackenzie Baysinger, International Affairs Environmental Science Terance Mann, Social Science Sarah Candiano, P.J. Savoy, Social Science Risk Management Insurance Tobias Hardwick, Social Science Elizabeth Cobb, Criminology Demetrius Artis, Hailey Hendry, Accounting Sport Management Fatema Jaffer, Political Science Andrew Basham, Hospitality Jessica Lonas, Calvin Brewton, Social Science Chemical & Biomedical George Campbell, Social Science Engineering Deondre Francois, Social Science Melissa Zyla, Social Science Tyrell Moorer, Social Science Ashley Mangan, Finance John Moschella, Economics Deja Bush, Hospitality Kenny Shaw, Social Science Zoe Casas, Hospitality Bennett Baker, Finance Tessa Daniels, English Education Jonathan Keppler, Abby Evans, Hospitality Sport Management Carsyn Gordon, Daniel Bis, Computer Science Sport Management Kanoa Kaleoaloha, Pyschology Cali Harrod, Social Science Emir Muratovic, Sociology Meghan King, William Pisani, Family, Child Sciences Mechanical Engineer Sabrina Stutsman, Hospitality Jonathan Ratliff, Dallas Dorosy, Social Science Chemical & Biomedical Taylor Hallmon, Biology Engineering Mykala Arnold, Social Science John Vann, Finance & Real Estate Megan Brown, Hospitality Lucas Poullain, Georgiana Gardner, Marketing Sport Management Fabiana Ingram, Bryan Christoff, Social Science Actuarial Science Matthew Butler, Criminology McKenna Keith, Sociology D’Mitry Charlton, Economics Caroline Nava, Professional Sales Michael Hall, Humanities Caroline Neil, MBA Darryl Haraway, Social Science Natalie Purnell, Tobias Hardwick, Social Science Exercise Physiology Conor McClain, Michelle Turek, Sociology Environment & Science Daniella Van Den Berg, Finance Montel Nevers, Geography

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GR ADUATIN G SEN IORS

Julia Mikulski, Psychology Ariana Rahmanparast, Sport Management Shauna Helps, Exercise Physiology Jogaile Petrokaite, Sport Management Ieva Zarankaite, Sport Management Brianne Burkert, Public Relations WINTER 2018 Christina Ambrose, Hospitality Natasha Calkins, Sport Management Cecilie Woie, Social Science Olivia Bergau, Exercise Science Megan Connolly, Social Science Macayla Edwards, Exercise Science Natalia Kuikka, Criminology Kaycie Tillman, Management and Risk Management Insurance Emily Edwards, Exercise Science Hailey Luke, Sport Management Tyler Roberge, Psychology Abdul Bello, International Affairs Demarcus Christmas, Social Science Alec Eberle, Social Science Derrick Kelly, Social Science Nyqwan Murray, Social Science Jacques Patrick, Social Science Izaiah Prouse-Lackey, Sport Management Darvin Taylor II, Communication Media Studies Adonis Thomas, Economics Levonte Whitfield, Social Science Steven Wells, Social Science

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD Brandon Tirado, Dante Newberg, D’Mitry Charlton, Darryl Haraway, Christoff Bryan, Corion Knight, Tyson Murray, Istvan Szogi, Conor McClain

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD Althea Hewitt, Melissa Zyla

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD Mackenzie Baysinger, Jessica Lonas, Fatema Jaffer, Jogaile Petrokaite, Sarah Candiano, Elizabeth Cobb

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WOMEN’S SOCCER Macayla Edwards, Dallas Dorosy, Caroline Jeffers, Megan Connolly, Natalia Kuikka, Kaycie Tillman, Olivia Bergau

MEN’S BASKETBALL PJ Savoy, Terance Mann, Head Coach Leonard Hamilton, Christ Koumadje, Phil Cofer, David Nichols

GOLF Corey Carlson, Bennett Baker, Jonathan Keppler, Ashley Mangan

FOOTBALL Claudio Williams, John Moschella III, Andrew Basham, Calvin Brewton

BEACH VOLLEYBALL Macy Jerger, Ali Eager, Sara Putt, Payton Rund, Brooke Kuhlman

VOLLEYBALL Kelsey Wicinski, Brianne Burkert, Christina Ambrose, Ashley Murray

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GR ADUATIN G SEN IORS

SOFTBALL Connor Evora, Tessa Daniels, Zoe Casas, Cali Harrod, Carsyn Gordon, Head Coach Lonni Alameda, Abby Evans, Meghan King, Sabrina Stutsman, Alex Gleicher

BASEBALL Trainer Trey Johnson, manager Ryan Kelleher, bullpen catcher Trent Herzog, Gage Hutchinson, Chase Haney, Drew Mendoza, Tim Becker, Jonathan Foster, Mike Salvatore

FOOTBALL Kenny Shaw

WOMEN’S TENNIS Julia Mikulski, Ariana Rahmanparast

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COMMANDING THE CIRCLE

By JIM CROSBY Seminole softball pitcher Meghan King had aspirations of playing in the Big Ten. She had even committed to play at Maryland and then fate stepped in when her family moved to Florida. That move was one of the best things that happened not only to the King family, but the Seminole family as well.

Raised in an Illinois suburb of Chicago, King was familiar with Big Ten softball. ACC softball? Not so much. Her Sunshine State softball education started when she first met FSU coach Lonni Alameda at a softball event in Tampa.

“When I first met her, she was still kind of a young, gangly lefty. Then, through recruiting her catcher, I watched her grow up. When her family moved to Florida and Maryland had a coaching change, she wanted to go to school closer to her family,” Alameda recalled.

Four no-hitters, winning the national championship game and breaking lots of records later, everybody is glad she made the move. Well, not everybody. Maryland probably isn’t overjoyed about it.

So what was it about FSU that attracted Meghan to settle in, a seven-hour ride from her new home in Parkland, Florida? “I loved how I could feel the energy from all the other sports. I liked how all the stadiums are close.

I like how everyone pulls for each other. I liked the camaraderie. The coaching staff is just the most incredible people. From a good coaching staff, it trickles down to leadership and it trickles down to good teammates.”

It’s been quite a ride for the senior southpaw with the smile that lights up the pitcher’s circle and an assortment of pitches that baffles batters. A few minutes of conversation with Meghan reveals not only an engaging personality but the passion with which she attacks life.

“Meghan as a teammate and a person I can honestly say she is one of the greatest people you ever get a chance to meet,” said her battery mate, junior catcher Anna Shelnutt.

“She is truly one of the kindest people that I’ve known. She never makes you feel like you are left out. She always includes you and never ‘big times’ anybody.”

Coach Alameda adds: “I think that people are starting to see how much passion she has for people. That’s one thing she has had trouble with because she cares for people and sometimes doesn’t take care of herself enough.”

Coming off pitching her St. Thomas

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Aquinas High School team to back-toback (2013 and 2014) 7A State Championships she was excited to take control of college softball. After all, she had just posted a 20-2 record, a 0.25 ERA, 226 strikeouts and just 19 walks. With 15 shutouts, three no-hitters and a perfect game, she was unstoppable.

Then the air went out of her balloon.

“Meghan wasn’t too excited about the redshirting idea,” Alameda said. “One of the biggest characteristics of Meghan that makes her so successful is her competitiveness, and that made her unhappy to have to sit a year.”

King remembers the deflating feeling she had. “I think I was crying in the parking lot. Redshirting, you are watching other freshmen go out and compete and watching older players, and you just want to be in that moment with them.”

One thing that made the idea more acceptable was that star pitcher Jessica Burroughs, who was her mentor, had redshirted to start her career. In retrospect she realizes it was the right thing to do. “I know because of that redshirt year, I am the pitcher I am today. I am thankful for Jessica Burroughs’ support and for the coaches’ support, too.”

That support contributed to a career that hit overdrive when Meghan got started: 25 wins as a redshirt freshman in 2016, 27 as a sophomore and 26 wins plus three saves in the National Championship Year of 2018.

The year 2018 was the stuff that dreams are made of for King and her teammates. Dubbed the “Cardiac Kids,” they lost the first game of the Women’s College World Series and then won four elimination games in a row to become the champions. King recorded four of those wins and added a save. She was in the circle for every pitch of the final two games against

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Washington.

Looking back, King talked with Unconquered about dealing with the ultimate pressure, that of having the responsibility to not do anything to ruin that National Championship dream. “I’ve been put in a lot of situations … pressure situations that prepared me for that moment — the WCWS Championship Game. I have failed in some of these moments, so I wasn’t afraid to fail.

I know that my teammates had that same mentality. I could make a bad pitch and I knew that my teammates would pick me up at the plate. We understood not to pressure ourselves and we should just enjoy the moment. I know that every single one of us were committed to going out there and enjoying it.”

If there is one aspect of Meghan’s game that she has to guard against, it’s going too fast.

Doing this has the potential to get her into a jam.

“Sometimes she gets going so fast she is

THE SEMINOLES ARE HAYDEN’S HEROES

By JIM CROSBY

In December 2018, after her Dad, Matt, spotted a lump on her neck, Hayden Stone, a softball-crazy 11-year old, would see her world go spiraling downward. Extensive tests revealed a rare form of children’s cancer (rhabdomyosarcoma).

Fortunately, the condition was discovered early and is curable although Hayden would have to undergo 20 chemotherapy treatments. But good news was on its way.

A nurse at Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville set them up with the Friends of Jaclyn organization, which matches children fighting cancer with sports teams for support. Hayden was matched up with the national champion Florida State softball team, her favorite team.

Photos by Perrone Ford and Phil Kelly

Above: Meghan King and Hayden Stone.

ahead of herself and doesn’t realize it because she is so competitive,” said Shelnutt. “Over the last two or three years, I’ve noticed when Meghan gets going too fast, and I’ll just go out there and get her to slow down a little bit.”

One such occurrence happened in the game against the Gators in Gainesville on April 3, a place where the Seminoles had not won since 2014. King had a stellar night going with a 2-0 lead entering the final inning.

When the first Gator got a single, Meghan, in hurry up mode, quickly fell behind the next batter 3-0. Shelnutt called time and went to the circle. “I told her, it’s the last inning and you have been dominating this whole game.

We’re up 2-0. Just go out and do what you know how to do. Take a deep breath. Just relax a little bit and take it all in. We are about to beat Florida on their home field for the first time since we have been here.”

Meghan fired three straight strikes to get a strikeout, then got two easy outs and the Seminoles had beaten the Gators.

As a lefty, Meghan’s pitches have a natural lefty movement going in to right-handed batters and away from lefties. Having worked

early-on developing the curve and drop, Meghan’s latest development has been the rise ball.

Shelnutt says: “A lot of times she will get ahead by jamming the batters then go to the rise that she gets a lot of speed on for the strikeout.”

Next to softball, one of the great passions in Meghan King’s life is her future career as a nurse. As a Child and Family Science major, she is passionate about nursing. “I want to learn as a pediatric nurse about the developmental process from a baby to a grownup. Developmental. Physically.

Everything that goes into that is interesting to me to break down.”

As Meghan King’s Seminole softball career winds down and she reflects on her achievements, she credits Alameda with playing a significant role in her success: “Coach Alameda has meant everything to me. I spent many days crying on that couch (in coach’s office). Just about life, the stress of trying to balance everything, whether it was social life or my dreams after softball. She’s been a mom away from home. Always holding me accountable but also the most non-judgmental person I have ever met in my life.”

Sounds like a good relationship for winning national championships.

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The Seminoles made her an honorary team member. Hayden Stone, a pitcher, developed an instant relationship with Meghan King. She came to the team headquarters and was presented with a jersey and told to visit anytime she felt well enough.

King told her of an athlete who covered his scar with a smiley face. With Hayden’s approval she drew a smiley face over her neck scar and the FSU players began to wear smileys on their necks in games.

King said: “She’s a light to everyone’s life and just to have her and her family here is an amazing experience.”

The bond goes even deeper for King, who is studying to be pediatric oncology nurse.

Hayden threw the first pitch for a game, and she was in the dugout for her friend Meghan’s no-hitter against Notre Dame.

Hayden’s mom, Cori, said, “I don’t think there’s any way they can know exactly what they have done for us.”

Matt Stone added, “They are way more than a softball team. They’re definitely our heroes.”

The best news for Hayden came in late May when she found out she was cancer-free.

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Lonni Alameda (softball) and Mark Krikorian (soccer) helped guide FSU to national titles in 2018.

BUILDING A CHAMPIONSHIP TRADITION Five FSU coaches share memories of the journey to a national title

By KERRY DUNNING Multiple team efforts producing many individual national crowns, all-Americans and Olympians led to 18 Florida State athletic national championships through 2018. Eight of those have been women’s teams, and each title is being celebrated during this 50th year of women’s intercollegiate sports.

The eight championships represent four sports offerings at FSU: golf, soccer, softball and track and field.

Softball has a combined two slow-pitch titles as well as the 2018 NCAA championship. Soccer put together two national championships in the last four seasons. Track and field had back-to-back NCAA titles in outdoor and then indoor competition. Golf secured the first FSU women’s championship.

Women’s teams have 10 national championship runner-up finishes combined in beach volleyball (three), cross country (two), outdoor track and field (two), soccer (two) and golf (one).

Team sports (including those with more individual components such as track and field) provide camaraderie for athletes, an increased fan base, and a defining history for a university. Take a look at nine remarkable stories of Florida State’s past:

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SOCCER One women’s team has accounted for two of the most recent FSU national titles: Soccer.

Mark Krikorian became the head coach in 2005, coaching the ’Noles into four national title matches and winning the championship in 2014 and 2018. Maybe equally impressive is FSU’s top 10 finish in the coaches’ poll for 10 consecutive years.

In 2014, the entire season became the tone for a championship. FSU had 19 shutouts in 26 games and allowed only a total of nine goals for the entire season. Even better was becoming only the second team in championship history to win the title without allowing a goal in all six games of the tournament.

FSU would secure its first national championship with a 1-0 victory over Virginia. It was a senior, Jamia Fields, who scored the winning goal, with an assist from Cheyna Williams. The title came in FSU’s third trip to the finals.

“The run in 2014 was probably more predictable,” said Krikorian. “We had a team that had talent. A team that had experience. We didn’t have the injuries. And finally, we had a good draw in the NCAA. “Culture starts with the division, and all the elements,” Krikorian said in describing developing a championship-

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caliber team. “You are talking about the quality of players and the quality of staff, and the commitment or buy-in.

Excellence is not easy to achieve.”

The 2018 season was a challenge long before the championship trail. Krikorian put together 14 starting lineups because of injuries and international player commitments.

They would need the experience and the flexibility by the end of the season.

He stressed the vision of a “goal,” but added in particular for 2018, “what happens at the end of the year means your willingness to chance making mistakes at the beginning of the year.”

In what Krikorian deemed “murderer’s row,” Florida State took down the last three national champions — Penn State (2015), Southern Cal (2016) and Stanford (2017) — to claim the title.

“There are many points that go toward making different challenges, and a lot of that is the sacrifice required to play to win,” Krikorian said. “We started with USC that we expected to be a No. 1 or 2 seed, but they were a No. 4 and placed in our area. Penn State and Stanford, and then North Carolina, so we had quite a run we had to get through.”

Stanford brought a 45-match unbeaten record into the NCAA semifinals but was toppled by the Seminoles 2-0.

That set up the final against North Carolina, which FSU won 1-0. It was the second time the Seminoles would beat the Tar Heels that season.

In the last championship run, at least 16 players scored a goal. Deyna Castellanos led FSU with 28 points, 10 goals and eight assists. Freshman Yujie Zhao pocketed the ACC freshman of the year award.

Krikorian has built championship-caliber teams on the backs of talent and international experience. FSU had players from seven countries on the 2018 championship team. Not only did Castellanos play for FSU, but she was also part of the United Women’s Soccer and the Venezuelan National teams. In 2014, FSU had players from six countries.

Looking back at his career at FSU, Krikorian said the highlight might be the Stanford match.

“We had to play as best as we could be expected to because we had a quality opponent that hadn’t lost in several years,” Krikorian said. “In terms of any team I’ve coached, from high school to colleges, enthusiasts would understand, if they are purists, what a beautiful game it was.”

Photos by Ryals Lee

FSU WOMEN’S SPORTS NATIONAL TITLES DATE SPORT

TITLE

COACH

1981

Golf

AIAW Championship

Verlyn Giles

1981

Softball

AIA Slow-Pitch Championship

JoAnne Graf JoAnne Graf

1982

Softball

AIAW Slow-Pitch Championship

1984

Track and Field

NCAA Outdoor Championship Gary Winckler

1985

Track and Field

NCAA Indoor Championship

Gary Winckler

2014

Soccer

NCAA Championship

Mark Krikorian

2018

Softball

NCAA Championship

Lonni Alameda

2018

Soccer

NCAA Championship

Mark Krikorian

Florida State Senior Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator Vanessa Fuchs

A CELEBRATION OF 50 REMARKABLE YEARS

By KERRY DUNNING It was a grand Garnet and Golden Finale to a year’s celebration of the 50 years of women’s intercollegiate sports at Florida State. Just the gathering of university dignitaries, boosters, players and coaches who witnessed the beginnings to women athletes of today said it all.

“It’s been wonderful to reflect on our tradition of women’s sports dating back to the days when the Florida State College for Women was here,” FSU President John Thrasher said. “Those early days really laid the groundwork for Florida State to become one of the first schools to fully support women’s intercollegiate athletics in the modern era.”

Reflecting on the year of events put together under the leadership of Florida State Senior Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator Vanessa Fuchs and a committee of who’s who, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect scenario. Two national championships in 2018 with multiple spring teams and individual women athletes challenging for ACC titles and NCAA berths, all anchored by women in attendance who bore the mantle of pioneers.

“I personally have learned so much from these women this past year,” said Fuchs, herself a former basketball player at FSU. “You were there from the very beginning and I loved hearing the stories you’ve been able to share throughout the year.”

The evening, co-hosted by conference coach of the year Brooke Niles (beach volleyball) and aspiring broadcaster Madison Fitzgerald (sophomore volleyball player), featured three special award presentations

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SOFTBALL Florida State’s softball program has produced champions from two eras — slow-pitch and fast-pitch — led by two extraordinary coaches. One, Dr. JoAnne Graf, has the softball field named after her.

Coach Graf’s slow-pitch teams won back-to-back AIAW (now NCAA) National Championships in 1981 and 1982.

“Those women were exceptional athletes, and all had played on championship teams before,” said Graf. “They knew how to win in pressure situations. They were supportive of each other and were also friends. They had high goals and they achieved them.”

The 1981 squad entered the top-seeded team and defeated Western Carolina, N.C. State and East Carolina, and then knocked off North Carolina 4-1 in the final. The Seminoles placed five players on the all-tournament team. Darby Cottle was named the MVP. The story line for the 1982 squad read similarly to the year before as the top-seeded Seminoles won all four games.

They would take down Georgia Southern, South Florida and North Carolina Charlotte, and then topple Florida 9-4.

“I think the players had the desire to hold onto the title. They seemed very confident in their ability to beat everyone they had to play,” said Graf. “Their focus was on playing their best and if they did that, they would be rewarded with a championship.

And they were a fantastic group of young women.”

Graf became the first collegiate softball coach in the country to earn 1,400 victories before retiring in 2008. Florida State advanced to the College World Series seven times under Coach Graf and made 21 NCAA Regional appearances. She was named ACC Coach of the Year six times.

Fast forward 36 years and the Seminole dominance in softball is back. With an 8-3 victory over Washington, FSU became the first ACC school to win the Women’s College World Series.

“The year before our championship, we were the ACC champions and we were expected to win,” said Lonni Alameda, now in her 11th season as head coach. Alameda guided FSU to three WCWS appearances in the last five years. “We expected to win every game. Even when it was 1-0 in the fifth, we didn’t feel like we had done enough.”

Alameda said with that mindset, the team went into the latter part of the season with skill sets and experience, and that wins a lot of games. “But once you reach the end, then everyone has those skill sets and experience,” she said. “You have to stop and enjoy that you are actually there.”

While Alameda’s teams have played in the postseason every year since her arrival in Tallahassee, and the talent level tells that story, it is her coaching style that is unique.

She talks routinely about her team having fun.

“It means enjoying the small things — that sacrifice fly or sacrifice bunt,” said Alameda.

It goes beyond that, with “Team 36” or the 2019 version because Alameda says it is an interesting challenge because

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they can’t play on last year. No more than last year could play on what happened in 2017.

Keeping the teams motivated, Alameda says a lot in the 50th year comes from alumni events.

“And we do have Dr. Billie Jones and Dr. JoAnne Graf who come by and share stories and they make it fun ... not just in the ‘good ole days’.”

Alameda also says her team has been aided by soccer’s national championship.

“Soccer is different in the fact they have so many international players. So when the teams get together the softball team loves sharing stories and listening to them.”

But she adds of the two teams sharing the same complex, “We actually have a very cool house.”

She appreciates the changes being made to the complex, but Alameda isn’t one to keep up with others. “In the end we have a championship and 10 years from now, we didn’t take a scoreboard with us. We remind ourselves that we did something very unique, and that we are lucky, and that it is so awesome we got to do this.”

GOLF The 1981 Seminole golf team took a three-stroke victory over the University of Georgia for the national title. FSU entered the final round of the championship with a onestroke lead but fell behind by two strokes. In an amazing turn of events, it was the 17th hole where four of the five Seminole golfers birdied, putting the Seminoles in first place. They’d come back from an even bigger deficit, trailing by eight strokes to Georgia and defending champion Tulsa, after the first two days.

“We had a super team,” said Coach Verlyn Giles. “I got a call from a writer at Golf Digest asking me to pick the winner. I told him we had the best team and we’ll win. He said, ‘No, no. You can’t say that.’ We surely did win, and his headline was ‘He Told Me So.’” Giles coached both the men’s and women’s squads for 14 years at FSU (1978-1990). He earned his bachelor’s and master’s from FSU. Giles was named the AIAW Coach of the Year for the championship year.

The team featured some of the top golfers in FSU history, led by four all-Americans: Lisa Young, Barbara Bunkowsky, Jane Geddes and Michele Guilbault. Young finished third in the individual competition and would go on to win three LPGA titles. Bunkowsky, who birdied the final five holes, would win one LPGA Tour title. Geddes won 11 LPGA events, including the U.S. Women’s Open in 1986 and the Women’s PGA in 1987. Guilbault, a Canadian, rehabilitated from a back injury to play on the Futures Tour. All four would eventually be named to Golf’s Hall of Fame. The fifth member of the squad, Marla Anderson, a golfer from Jacksonville Fletcher High School, later became the president of the North Florida Junior Golf Foundation.

“1978 was my first team and I recruited Marla. She was

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Photos by Ryals Lee

a very consistent player,” said Giles. “I said if we could get about three girls who could beat Marla, we would win a national championship.”

This was the last golf championship held by the AIAW as the organization was merged into the NCAA. “I would like to have defended and won the last title in the AIAW and the first in the NCAA, but it wasn’t to be,” said Giles. “But we sure had some girls who could play golf.”

TRACK AND FIELD The women’s team took the 1984 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field championship, in only the third year it was held. Competing at Hayward Field (University of Oregon), the women, with 145 total points, were 21 points ahead of runner-up Tennessee and 74 points better than third-place Stanford. It was the second-most points, at the time, in NCAA women’s track and field competition.

“They were a very special group of young ladies,” said coach Gary Winckler. “Not only in talent but they were very serious about their goals. It was probably the easiest coaching I had.”

The year before FSU dominated the sprints and relays with a record-setting mark in the 4x100. On June 2 of the championship year, Michelle Finn, Marita Payne, Brenda Cliette and Randy Givens defended the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay titles. Givens would win the 100 meters, while Cliette finished second and Finn was fourth. In the 200 meters, FSU put together a team effort with Givens winning again. Cliette (second), Payne (third), Finn (sixth) and Janet Davis (ninth) added to the point total.

Winning ways continued in March 1985 when the Seminole women took the NCAA Indoor Championship title. Winn, after the graduation of Givens and Payne, won the 55 meters, and triple jumper Esmeralda Garcia’s victory led the women to a second national title.

“Things just fell into place for us. (Michelle) Finn was just a freshman and took the 60 dash,” added Winckler. “At that time, we didn’t have an indoor track, and no more than two or three meets that allowed indoor training, or running on that kind of track. Indoor was the biggest challenge.”

Winckler’s program produced more than 100 allAmericans. Winckler was named NCAA Coach of the Year in 1984-85. In addition to those team titles, the women placed second in the 1983 and 1985 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

“They were easy to coach and easy to work with.

They were very self-motivated and knew their goals,” Winckler concluded.

Women athletes are in a lane or on a field or a court plying their skills toward a common goal of a team championship, even as you read this. Hopefully, this Florida State history is just a small part of the story still to be written.

Assistance with this material came from Dick Roberts, Bob Perrone and FSU Sports Information

Coach Brooke Niles and Madison Fitzgerald hosted the 50th anniversary year-end event. and the announcement of $7.2 million toward women’s athletics programs.

The Champion Beyond the Game recognizes former women athletes who have excelled in life because of the lessons learned in sports. This year’s honoree, Darby Cottle Veazey, was a two-time all-American who played on two slow-pitch softball national championship teams.

“Coming back to FSU and Tallahassee is always an honor and always brings back great memories,” Veazey said. “The 50th has made me reflect on the fact that I was one of the first. When I got here, I was just playing softball and having a good time. So it is an honor to be back during this time.”

Philanthropist of the Year award winners Russ and Genie Morcom were honored for their leadership as well as their financial support for women’s athletics. They were the lead donors of the Morcom Athletic Center in 2008, and during the last year they made additional commitments to the Unconquered campaign.

“You just can’t have a better group of people to be around, and we have been blessed,” Russ Morcom said.

Finally, 11 Femina Perfecta Awards were handed out to current women athletes who exemplify the motto: Vires, Artes and Mores. Femina Perfecta represents the athlete elected by her own teammates because she was invaluable to the team effort. This year’s honorees are Nausia Woolfolk (basketball), Brooke Kuhlman (beach volleyball), Megan Mooney (cross country), Eden Hessinger (diving), Ashley Mangan (golf), Natalia Kuikka (soccer), Cali Harrod (softball), Paige Schendelaar-Kemp (swimming), Ariana Rahmanparast (tennis), Courtney Jones (track and field) and Brianne Burkert (volleyball).

And while the official celebration has come to an end, there is still hope for another women’s championship lurking.

“I know each person in this room would love for one of our spring sports to step up and win another national championship,” said Fuchs, who garnered some laughter when she added, “No pressure, but we are looking for some additional trophies.”

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LEGENDARY COACH MIKE MARTIN ENJOYS ONE LAST, MAGICAL POSTSEASON RUN

By JIM HENRY Mike Martin is sailing into retirement with the perfect parting gift.

Martin — Florida State’s legendary baseball head coach — spent 40 years in the Seminoles’ dugout. He won more games than any coach in any sport in NCAA history. He led the Seminoles to 40 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, 40 consecutive winning seasons and, in 2019, capped his final season with his 17th appearance in the College World Series.

Nobody loves Omaha, Nebraska, more than Martin. And, as fate would have it, Martin had the opportunity to win his last season in the dugout in his baseball field of dreams.

That scenario was considered a pipe dream midseason, when the Seminoles dropped 13 games out of 20. They were one of the last four at-large teams placed in the NCAA Tournament by the selection committee.

Martin’s #OneLastRun actually just started.

FSU — a No. 3 regional seed — won the Athens Regional over host Georgia. It swept LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the Super Regional. Four months after their season-opening victory over Maine, the Seminoles were one of the last eight teams standing on The Road to Omaha. Martin’s magic, his longevity and sustained excellence turned FSU baseball into a national brand. Even more importantly, he also inspired and influenced the lives of many of his players over the decades.

Now, after a season of celebration, tributes and a final berth in the CWS, Martin and wife Carol can kick back and relax. They will join Seminole Boosters on a Mediterranean cruise in July.

“We’ve never been on a cruise,” Martin said and smiled.

There’s never been a coach like the 75-year-old Martin either.

He has enjoyed one of the most successful runs in college baseball history. He became the winningest coach in college baseball in 2018, surpassing the late Augie Garrido of Texas. Martin, achieved

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his 2,000th career win this season, and he has averaged over 50 wins since his first season in 1980. That’s when Dick Howser left for the New York Yankees after just one season, and Martin, a five-year Seminole assistant (1975-79) and former player (1965-66), was promoted.

He went on to rewrite Seminole history over the decades.

Where have the years gone?

Mary Beth, the oldest of Mike and Carol’s three children, remembers as a young child, maybe 7-8 years old, when Seminole players routinely visited their home for dinner. The Doobie Brothers and Christopher Cross blared on the stereo. The seasons and generations passed, the victories piled up. Mary Beth and husband Tom Buchanan are the parents of two of Martin’s four grandchildren.

“They were like men to me when I was a child, and now, I look at the players from the stands and they are kids,” Mary Beth said and laughed. “It’s amazing when you think about it. Dad has impacted so many lives, so many guys over the years. He’s an amazing man with amazing character.”

North Carolina coach Mike Fox, 63, who entered the 2019 season ranked 15th on the all-time wins list, remembers the first time he met Martin in the early 1980s. It was at an NCAA rules committee meeting in Kansas City that Fox, at the time, was the young, new guy in the room as head coach at Division II North Carolina Wesleyan.

Martin made a point to introduce himself to Fox. The two went to dinner and a movie.

“That simple act of kindness of reaching out to me when he didn’t have to,” Fox said. “That gesture is something I will remember forever.”

Virginia coach Brian O’Connor understands storybook finishes.

He led the Cavaliers to their first national championship in 2015 as a No. 3 regional seed, just like FSU. There was talk that season Virginia might not even earn an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, just like FSU. They were considered the underdog in each of their

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Photos by Ken Lanese / FSU sports information

postseason games that season, just like FSU. O’Connor, 48, who clinched his 700th career win as a head coach this season, pointed out that Martin has made an everlasting impact on college baseball regardless how seasons end.

“I am always going to remember how thoughtful and how welcoming he (Martin) was to me when I got into coaching,” O’Connor said. “I always feel like when you play a Mike Martincoached team — and he’s in the other dugout — it’s going to be a clean, competitive game. He’s trying like crazy to win, but he does it the right way. And his players carry themselves the right way.”

Martin has earned one last opportunity to clutch college baseball’s Holy Grail, success can be defined many ways.

Pedro Grifol, an All-American catcher who helped FSU reach the College World Series in 1989 and 1991, believes Martin’s legacy extends beyond the dugout, wins and conference titles. Grifol, a Miami native, signed with the Seminoles over his hometown Hurricanes. He described Martin as a “pillar of stability” for him, always knowing the right thing to say in any situation. Not just baseball.

“He always understood what coaching is all about — developing young men and making sure they are good sons, good fathers and good husbands,” said Grifol, a coach with the Kansas City Royals organization. “That’s what he’s great at. On top of that, he wins. He was born to be a coach. He was born to be the best ever. Now, he’s the best ever.”

Martin entered his 39th season as the Seminoles’ head coach in 2018 needing 32 victories to set the new wins standard, surpassing Garrido, a colleague and friend.

Unfortunately, Garrido wasn’t around when Martin set the record (1,976 wins) on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at Clemson in FSU’s 3-2 victory. Garrido died in March 2018 following a stroke. The pair last saw and talked to each other at the 2017 College World Series.

Garrido’s descriptions of Martin’s mannerisms, drawl and folksiness that FSU fans grew accustomed to were accompanied by hearty laughs.

“I have known him for a long time and love him a lot,” Garrido told the Tallahassee Democrat in 2017.

“He’s a great balance between the spiritual faith he has as a person and just being an every day mentor. He’s one of the best school teachers I have seen. To me he represents the values that we cherish in educational systems because not only is he passing on how to

bunt, how to play baseball, but he’s passing along life lessons that all of us know that work in universities or pay attention to what universities are supposed to do, he has accomplished that at the highest level.”

David Pierce, born and bred in Texas, replaced Garrido at Texas.

He doesn’t know Martin personally and watched ‘Eleven’s’ career from afar. Pierce understands expectations, culture and pressure.

He knows what it’s like to work for a legend — and follow one, too.

Everything might be bigger in Texas, but ...

“Coach Martin’s story is incredible,” Pierce said. “He’s done it the right way, and in one spot. I know so many people who have the utmost admiration for him. From afar, I have admired Mike’s work, how he goes about his business. He’s an inspiration to all of us because of that.”

More than 600 people, featuring at least 100 former players from across different decades — that list included son and assistant coach Mike Martin Jr. — attended a retirement celebration for Martin at the Tucker Civic Center in May. The theme wasn’t about wins and losses — though there were some playful jabs. It instead focused on Martin’s impact and why he got into coaching in the first place.

“To all of my peers, to all of the people that came after me, it’s all because of this gentleman right here,” former FSU second baseman Luis Alicea, recruited from Puerto Rico, said of Martin.

“It’s been an amazing career. Don’t judge a person by a trophy because we are human trophies and that’s what he’s done. Yeah, it’s great to say, ‘I’ve done this, I’ve done that.’ Those are dust collectors. But the human trophies are the ones we take with us for life ... Coach, I love you. And this is something that for me, for my family and for all of my friends that came after me, it was all because of you. You opened up the doors for that.”

The door to Martin’s coaching career won’t end until he has one last stand in Omaha, but retirement expects to provide new, exciting views.

“You may be surprised how little we talk about retirement and what our plans are,” Carol Martin said a few weeks prior to the end of the season. “Nothing is going to deter him. I just can’t get my head around this being it. When we do something as long as we have, it’s hard to imagine life not being this. We know we are going to miss everything about it, and know it’s going to be a hard adjustment. When you love what you are doing, you don’t feel as much of a need to make plans.”

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THE TROYERS: Making a Difference

By JIM CROSBY

Baseball Head Coach Mike Martin Sr. and Philip Troyer.

Assistant Coach Mike Martin Jr. with Troyer.

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There was a time when Philip Troyer thought he might like to be a baseball groundskeeper. How he entertained that job idea in junior high is hard to imagine now, when you look back on his 25-year career as a cardiologist.

Raised on a dairy farm in Michigan, Troyer had always loved baseball and spent many hours listening to the friendly voice of Ernie Harwell broadcasting Detroit Tigers baseball on the radio back in the days before his family had a television.

Troyer remembers how he and his four brothers couldn’t play a lot of sports in school because they had work to do on the farm. He recalls the kids getting together on Sundays to create their own field and play baseball. “I loved filling those gunny sacks with sand to use for bases and drawing foul lines in the grass with chalk,” Troyer said.

Meanwhile, on a farm in Sylvester, Georgia, Philip’s future wife, Deirdre, became a die-hard football fan by watching the games with her father. She fondly remembers those days: “My Dad actually taught me everything about football.

I was the youngest and we spent all my Saturdays watching football games together. He was a Georgia Bulldog fan, but we watched other teams, too.”

Based on where they started out and went through in their formative years it didn’t seem likely that these two would ever even meet, much less become devoted Seminoles and major boosters. It’s an interesting story. One that shows how some things in life are just fate.

Philip’s plans for the future started to take shape when his family moved from Michigan to Blountstown, Florida, in 1976. He remembers that year as the one that Bobby Bowden also moved to Florida, although he doesn’t take credit for the legendary coach following him down to northwest Florida.

“I got a job as a carpenter’s helper,” Troyer said. “That is what convinced me at $2.95 an hour working in intense heat that I needed to do something else.”

After a year at Chipola College, Troyer enrolled at Florida State and frankly remembers that he “had no idea what I would do when I went to college. I wasn’t much of a school boy. I made good grades, but I thought I would probably end up being a farmer.”

His interest in anatomy and physiology and “how things work” pushed him into pursuit of a medical career. When he was admitted to the FSU Program in Medical Science (PIMS) his career was beginning to take shape.

The PIMS program was started at FSU to address the need for more physicians in rural areas of North Florida. Through this program students would complete their first year of medical school at Florida State then transfer to the University of Florida to complete their medical education. Troyer says with a chuckle, “The PIMS program got me into medical school at Gainesville, which further honed my love for Florida State.”

In 2000, the Florida State University College of Medicine was created, and it was no longer necessary to transfer to get a degree in medicine.

After getting his degree, Philip furthered his budding career in Cardiology at a hospital in Bradenton.

Having failed to convince her parents to let her attend Florida State and declining to go to the University of Georgia, Deirdre attended several smaller schools and received her degree in nursing. She got a job as a nurse in a hospital in Bradenton.

Funny how those things happen. Nowadays the Troyers reminisce about how they would have met much sooner if her parents had agreed for her to attend

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Florida State where she originally wanted to go.

In 1998 Philip and Deirdre got married. They lived in Bradenton until 2012, then moved his practice to Thomasville, Georgia, where he finished his career as a cardiologist in 2016. It was time to go back to their roots and they purchased a farm in Grady County, Georgia.

They were longtime Seminole fans, supporters and boosters. Now in retirement, or “encore” as Philip calls it, they became even more committed to Seminoles sports.

Deirdre, the die-hard football fan, makes sure they attend all the home games as well as several road games each season. She says: “I have a goal of going to every away and home game in a season.”

She had an opportunity to meet Coach Willie Taggart when they went to a football practice and came away impressed: “I loved meeting Coach Taggart. I thought this guy is pure class. He is a gentleman and he is authentic. I picked up those three things right away.”

She was not discouraged by the underperforming team last season.

“When the season didn’t turn out I felt sad for him and the boys who suffered through it,” she said. Always positive Deirdre feels like the football team will get back to a bowl game this year and she thinks the addition of three new offensive assistant coaches will be huge for the team.

While Philip likes football too, baseball is his favorite. He explains the appeal the diamond game holds for him: “It is America’s game and it has such a long season that to physically withstand it, it takes mental endurance, too. It’s a study of life. You have to endure.

“It is such an individual sport — pitcher against batter — yet you have got to have teamwork at the same time.”

Deirdre the football fan says, “What I love about baseball is that Phil loves it so much. Our daughter Julia likes baseball, too. She was an FSU bat girl and a majorette (2005-09).

Julia told me, ‘Mom, baseball just has a different atmosphere.’” While

Deirdre still likes the intensity of football she was on board with her husband when they decided to support the baseball program.

Seminole Booster staff member Hugh Tomlinson set up a meeting for Philip to tour the baseball facilities and have lunch with Coach Mike Martin. One of the things that struck him was that while the facilities were nice, there were things that could be improved to stay competitive. “Other teams are getting better. How often do you get a Buster

and our student-athletes are benefitting greatly.”

Asked to throw out the first pitch when the Seminoles played Wake Forest, in typical fashion Philip practiced at home. He says: “I marched off the 60 feet and thought, ‘Holy mackerel that’s a long way.’” About three-quarters of his practice throws missed the big oak tree he aimed at. But he came through at Mike Martin Field with a sidearm throw that would have handcuffed a right-handed batter.

Philip and Deirdre Troyer with Florida State President John Thrasher.

Posey coming through?” he remarked.

Philip and Deirdre decided they could help out and made a $500,000 donation to the baseball program for facility upgrades that also provided a state-of-the-art weight room for the team.

“For them to be that generous for a project that meant so much to Florida State Baseball is very dear to my heart,” Martin said. “They contributed greatly to our weight program. Without their contribution we wouldn’t have that program in the top condition it is in now. We were able to expand and put new weights in our facility

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The Troyers are living the “encore life” to the fullest. Volunteer work occupies a lot of their time and interests. Philip is a volunteer with the Grady County fire department and Deirdre has decided to get in touch with her creative side. She loves cooking and spending time with her grandchildren, and took up running.

Recently she ran in a 10K, which she enjoyed, but cautions not to look for her in the Boston Marathon.

Wherever they are, Philip and Deirdre Troyer make a difference.

Their partnership with Florida State University is a prime example.

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Q & A

studying music most my life. My father was a visual artist and my mother was a teacher. I thought about becoming a teacher and I was always fascinated with studying English. At first, I just wanted to get through basic studies like everybody else and then settle into a major. I finally settled on a major in Art with a minor in Art History and English.

GP: What’s your memory of the music scene at that time and what was your participation?

RC: During my freshman and sophomore years I started playing music with several musicians in town. Tallahassee has always had a driving music community both in and outside of the university and was a great way to connect with people. On weekends, our band named, “Rita, Rail and Raker John”, played mostly at the downtown Hotel Duval in the LeRoc Lounge. Later I performed with my Art Professor, Dick Kraft in the “Fourth Day Windfall”.

Another of my bands was called RC and Moon Pies who played fraternity parties at FSU, Florida and Alabama.

Q&A Florida State Alumna

Rita Coolidge During five decades of performances and millions of record sales, Rita Coolidge captivated audiences with her signature hits “We’re All Alone,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “All Time High” and “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher.” This included a notable eight-year romantic and artistic marriage where she and former husband Kris Kristofferson earned multiple Grammy Awards. Rita has now returned to call Tallahassee home with husband Joe Hutto.

GREGG PATTERSON: After 50 years of traveling the world producing numerous hit songs and collaborating with many music icons starting in the 1970’s through today, you moved back to Tallahassee. Can you walk us through your journey and connection with FSU and North Florida?

RITA COOLIDGE: When I was a sophomore in high school we moved from Tennessee to Jacksonville. As a result, I was eligible to go to a state university. Back in that time, even a preacher could afford to send his daughter to college. This was when people could actually go to college and not lose their homes. I chose Florida State University (FSU) because most of my friends were going to FSU. It was our college of choice.

GP: What did you study while at FSU and did you stick with it the whole time?

RC: As a freshman, I had my eye on music because I had been

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GP: Shifting into your music a little bit, I saw something where at first you were going to teach when you went to Memphis and then you were doing jingles and then you went into the music scene?

RC: Well, yes, that’s how my career unfolded. I thought when I moved to Memphis that I would be able to teach. I also knew Memphis was one of the most happening music scenes in the country; along with Detroit, Los Angeles and New York. Memphis was huge in the music business because a lot of people were going there to record. This gave me an opportunity to connect with a lot of those people. I finally ended up going to California with Delaney and Bonnie. From that point on, I don’t think I ever thought I would be a teacher the rest of my life, I just had that profession to fall back on in case the other stuff didn’t work.

GP: After you left FSU, describe how you stayed connected. Did you have much connection with FSU before you came back?

RC: I was part of the Florida State University alumni in Los Angeles.

It was there, that I was honored by the FSU alumni along with Robert Urich. I kept up through FSU publications and I came back to play music periodically in Tallahassee. I also had many friends who were in my class at school who have stayed and lived their lives in Tallahassee. Kris and I came back and played Homecoming 10 years after I graduated. At that time, we were a successful touring band and we played in Doak Campbell Stadium for 10,000 people. It was a big jump from the LeRoc Lounge to 10,000 people 10 years later!

GP: Tell us about your love story and seeing Joe Hutto at the Word of South festival.

RC: Joe Hutto and I played in bands during our college years.

We also dated and were best friends. Because he was a wildlife biology major, he spent a lot of time in the woods. He would from time to time leave a friend on my porch; one of which was a wild pig! He knew I liked pigs and one day he found a baby pig in the woods and left it on my front porch, which I absolutely loved! The pig lived in the house with me. I remember one day the pig got

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CHOOSE TALLAHASSEE

out because he would root out the back door. During my search, they announced my missing pig on the radio in Tallahassee.

They said that if anyone finds a wild pig, call Rita Coolidge. I gave them my address and my phone number (which wasn’t really scary at that time). It was very funny. In the end, somebody found my pig and brought it back to me.

I graduated a year before Joe, so he ended up keeping the pig. It lived in the house with him and he took care of “Piney”. After a couple of years, the pig grew very large. I believe he finally took it back out in the woods and let it go.

After I graduated Florida State, I moved to Memphis. While in Memphis, Joe and I would periodically visit one another. I tried to get him to move to Memphis and then go to California with me.

At that time, he said that he knew my trajectory was music. His plan was to continue to pursue his studies in graduate school. He is also a great guitar player and he stayed and played in a lot of Tallahassee and Wakulla bands.

Most people recognize that that Joe ended up becoming a renowned wildlife writer and filmmaker. His books cover Wild Turkey, Mule Deer and the Big Horn Sheep. He’s done amazing work.

“We absolutely love Tallahassee. It’s close to the coast, so we periodically drive down for the seafood; which is marvelous. Tallahassee is such a great place to live and the beauty of Tallahassee is unlike any other place; and I’ve been all over the world. I don’t think there’s any place prettier than Tallahassee.”

Rita Coolidge

A few years ago, I was invited to the Word of South festival to read from my book Delta Lady. Some friends of ours literally kidnapped Joe and brought him down to the park [Word of South] because he wasn’t going to go. He was planning to go back to Wyoming to spend the winter. We hadn’t seen each other in many years and when we saw each other it was just like nothing had changed and the rest is history! We got married in October [2018].

GP: How long after you reconnected did you get married?

RC: It was about two and a half years.

GP: You lived in California and Joe lived in Wyoming. What made the two of you pick Tallahassee/North Florida?

RC: Joe didn’t want to spend any more winters in Wyoming, and I had

just become so disillusioned with California. California was such a wonderful place to live before the droughts. I was living north of San Diego, paying these high bills to water my 1,000 avocado trees.

I always had to look over the mountains for fires because they had become such a regular event. In 2004, a fire burned all of my trees and part of my house. After that I started to wonder if it was time to leave. But, I did not know where I wanted to go.

After Joe and I were reunited, we knew we were going to be together for the rest of our lives. We started talking about where we wanted to live. Tallahassee was attractive to both of us. We both have friends here. Joe has friends here that he has known since he was a little kid. We wanted to go to a town, not a big city, that was familiar to us. For Joe not having freeways coming through the middle of town was a big deal.

We absolutely love Tallahassee. It’s close to the coast, so we periodically drive down for the seafood; which is marvelous.

Tallahassee is such a great place to live and the beauty of Tallahassee is unlike any other place; and I’ve been all over the world. I don’t think there’s any place prettier than Tallahassee.

GP: Now that you’re here and surrounded by nature, how has that impacted your life, thinking, spirituality and music?

RC: Most of the time, I just want to be home. I am still on the road performing, but I’m starting to cut back because it’s so hard to leave Tallahassee. Here everything is slower, people are so wonderful. I love the rolling hills and canopy roads. We live on a cypress pond and we have so many birds. We have wood ducks nesting in two boxes. We have a wood stork rookery. Blue birds nesting, hawks nesting. It’s like living in Disneyland for grown-ups!

GP: Is there anything else you’d like to add about Tallahassee or FSU? RC: Tallahassee has grown so much since I was here. Florida State has grown in such a wonderful way. Its more than just football.

People are coming here because it’s a great university. I would be proud to have a child go to FSU. Being an FSU alum I’m excited about football and hoping Willie (Taggart) can pull it off!

After a year of living here, the novelty of me is starting to wear off. On Saturday morning, I’ll go to the farmers market at Market Square. Now when I am at the market and instead of, “Oh my gosh I need your autograph,” people will come up to me and say, “we’re so glad you’re back,” and then they walk away. I now feel like I’m part of the community and not just a novelty returning to town.

We just love it. We sit outside on the screen porch every night and we just look at the beauty of this place. We are so grateful that we found each other and that we found our way back home.

Interview conducted by Gregg Patterson, Executive Director, Choose Tallahassee For more information about living in Tallahassee go to www.

Choosetallahassee.com

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Events On Madison are presented to you by:

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COLLEGETOWN

51 ON MADISON IN COLLEGETOWN 51 on Madison Mission Statement: To build on the foundation of the Seminole Boosters established in 1951, collectively celebrate our members’ successes, and together strengthen the future of our organization and alma mater.

Photos by Elizabeth Davis

51 on Madison: A private club for Seminole Booster Members and a unique culinary experience that will push but always remain true to its deep Tallahassee roots. 51 on Madison is a dynamic, multi-faceted experience. It is a vibrant collision of unparalleled game weekend activation, year-round community fellowship and networking, best-in-class meeting spot and compelling food and beverage offerings. Nestled in the heart of College Town, 51 on Madison is a downtown oasis for its membership, and a celebration of their success.

It can be dressed up, or dressed down, used for impromptu business meetings or a great place to just unwind from the day.

The Members-Only Club will feature a rotating menu every six weeks, which will heavily feature local ingredients, vendors, and everything else made from scratch. 51’s beautiful 125-square foot, horseshoe bar is perfect for a night out or a casual meet up with friends. A rotating craft cocktail, spirit

and wine selection will be continually curated by our in-house sommelier, with our two Wine Cuvee Systems allowing us to offer very high-end wines by the glass.

A robust member event calendar will offer unique experiences for our members, separate from our normal hours of operation. From a monthly wine dinner, cooking & mixology classes, club amenities, Booster only programming and University engagement, will all create a buzzing hub. With special access to incredible events and block parties within the College Town District, 51 on Madison will expand beyond its brick and mortar.

The Club will also be available for Private Events on any night not designated for member dining or event. A perfect gathering spot for businesses big and small, it is tailored to perform a wide variety of unique events that our experienced F&B team can custom design for your brand or style.

Member Dining Hours: Thursday 4-10 p.m., Friday 4-11p.m., Saturday 4-11 p.m.

Happy Hour: Thursday-Saturday 4 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

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FSU student-athletes honored for giving back to the community

By CHRISTA SALERNO

Florida State student-athletes gathered in April for the 25th Annual Golden Nole Awards banquet, which is hosted by the Student Athlete Advisory Council (S.A.A.C.). The event honors contributions made in the community and also recognizes those student-athletes that go above and beyond to display leadership on and off the field while striving to live unconquered.

“This is one of a few times a year where we can get together as a department and embody that FSU family culture,” Director of Student-Athlete Develop and Events Sarah Petronio said. “It was exciting to see all of our teams celebrate their service and I am very proud of all of our winners.”

For the second time in three years, the women’s swimming program was awarded the Director’s Cup for Service, accounting for 1,278 community service hours this season. The team is led by junior Manuella Andrade, who is FSU’s Atlantic Coast Conference S.A.A.C. representative.

Florida State student-athletes registered 6,224 hours of community service during the 2018-19 academic year. Softball (1,162), Beach Volleyball (994), Football (706.5) and Men’s Swimming (486) were also recognized as top contributors this season.

“I’m so excited for the team and this honor,” FSU Head Swimming and Diving Coach Neal Studd said. “They really

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understand the importance of helping others less fortunate and giving back. It makes me so incredibly proud of them.

They get it done in the classroom and the pool and community.”

Hunter Napier (men’s track & field), Devan Hultquist (beach volleyball), DeCalon Brooks (football), Will Pisani (men’s swimming & diving), Meghan King (softball) and Tiana Jackson (volleyball) were all selected as the ACC Top 6 for Service winners, which is awarded to those with the highest total of community service hours among all FSU student-athletes.

In addition to the 22 Golden Nole Award winners representing FSU’s 20 teams, eight other special awards were presented to exemplary student-athletes, including King, who was chosen for two of these honors.

King captured the Impact Award, which is given to those who have made a difference in the community, in addition to the Senior Sensation that is awarded

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to the Seminole most likely to succeed after sports.

“There are a lot of things that are involved with being a student-athlete at Florida State, and character is one that we are most proud of,” FSU Softball Coach Lonni Alameda said. “Meghan has done a great job of embracing that more than just with her performance in the circle, but also with her passions in the community and her pursuit of a career in nursing. She really leads by example with how much time she spends making sure that she represents Florida State at the highest level.”

Off the field, the Parkland, Fla., native, serves as a volunteer at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. King also holds a special connection with 11-year-old Hayden Stone, who was the special guest of the evening.

Stone, who was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in December 2018, was formally adopted by the softball team

on Feb. 5 and has been around the team as often as she can throughout the season.

“Hayden Stone and the Stone family have been tremendous for us,” Alameda added. “What started out as an inspiration has turned into them becoming a true part of the family. She has been battling some very difficult circumstances and we have joined them in the fight, and yet she’s brought us more with her smile every day and her ability to be a warrior through everything. Proud of both of them and how they represent Florida State softball.”

The individual Golden Nole winners are presented to the student-athletes on each team who have portrayed the ideals of intercollegiate athletics. Head coaches selected these Seminoles by evaluating athletic and academic success as well as their contribution to service to the university and community.

Phil Cofer (men’s basketball) and Macayla Edwards (soccer) were chosen as this year’s Doc Fauls Award winners, which is given to the seniors who have overcome adversity in order to compete for the Garnet and Gold.

GOLDEN NOLE AWARD WINNERS Women’s Basketball .......................Nicki Ekhomu

Honorary Golden Nole .................. Hayden Stone

Men’s Basketball ..............................Trent Forrest

Impact Award...Patrick Butkovich (men’s Swimming)

Football ............................. Jaiden Lars-Woodbey

Meghan King (softball)

Volleyball .................................... Brianne Burkert

Mr. Unconquered Seminole...Chase Haney (baseball)

Soccer ........................................ Caroline Jeffers

Miss Unconquered Seminole ...Abby Evans (softball)

Men’s Swimming ..................... Kanoa Kaleoaloha

InspiratioNOLE.... Jaiden Lars-Woodbey (football)

Women’s Swimming .................... Natalie Purnell

Brianne Burkert (volleyball)

Men’s Diving ................................. Cam Thatcher

Senior Sensation ............. Meghan King (softball),

Women’s Diving .............................Molly Carlson

Michael Hall (men’s track)

Baseball .......................................Drew Mendoza

Comprehensive Excellence ............... men’s track

Men’s Golf ............................................... Jon Pak

women’s swimming

Women’s Golf ..................................Frida Kinhult

Doc Fauls Award ......Phil Cofer (men’s basketball)

Men’s Tennis .................................Lucas Poullain

Macayla Edwards (soccer)

Women’s Tennis .................Ariana Rahmanparast

Directors Cup for Service...... women’s swimming

Beach Volleyball ......................... Devan Hultquist

ACC Top 6 for Service ...Hunter Napier (men’s track)

Men’s Cross Country ................... Caleb Pottoroff

Devan Hultquist (beach volleyball)

Women’s Cross Country ............. Militsa Mircheva

DeCalon Brooks (football)

Men’s Track ................................... Kasaun James

Meghan King (softball)

Women’s Track ............................Ka’Tia Seymour

Will Pisani (men’s swimming)

Men’s Field .................................. Armani Wallace

Tiana Jackson (volleyball)

Women’s Field ................................Shanice Love Softball ...........................................Meghan King

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Judy Ayers Chattahoochee, Fla.

REMEMBERING OUR

FELLOW SEMINOLES

Alumni and friends have contributed so much in so many ways to demonstrate their love for Florida State Athletics. Their contributions and dedication have helped create an elite athletic program that shines among the brightest in the nation. We are thankful for their generosity, dedication and Seminole spirit.

Born and raised in Chattahoochee, Fla., Judy was a resident of Tallahassee for more than 40 years. Devoted Seminole fans and longtime Booster members, she and her husband, Jim, could be found in their favorite spot under the tree at the motorhome lot every home game weekend. She made life-long friends throughout the years and enjoyed celebrating the Seminoles from the times the gates opened on Friday until they closed on Sunday. Judy passed away on peacefully on May 6, 2019, surrounded by family.

Dan Whitehurst

Paul R. Armor

Joseph M. Hamm

Velma R. McDonald

Tallahassee, Fla.

Quincy, Fla.

Tallahassee, Fla.

Class of 1971

Class of 1949

Tallahassee, Fla.

Emmanouel G.

John R. Overchuck

Harageones

Lake Mary, Fla.

Sandra S. Ballas

Pensacola, Fla.

Class of 1965

William F. Harkins

Delphene E. Strickland

Palm Coast, Fla.

Tallahassee, Fla.

Erwin R. Hock

Susanne E. Taranto

Tallahassee, Fla.

Tallahassee, Fla.

Billy Cross

Class of 1976

Red Level, Ala.

Judy M. Ayers

Tallahassee, Fla. Stephen C. Botts The Villages, Fla. Class of 1964 John L. Chapin Tallahassee, Fla.

Robert E. Hodges Tallahassee, Fla.

Tallahassee, Fla. Barbara A. Frederich

Henry S. Holley

Class of 1960

Corpus Christi, Texas

F-Club (FSCW)

Class of 1955

Tallahassee, Fla. Marlene T. Greenfield

William D. Whitehurst Juanita M. Hurst

Tallahassee, Fla.

Tallahassee, Fla.

Class of 1973

Tallahassee, Fla. Class of 1976 Ellwood W. Growden

Emily C. Walker Monticello, Fla.

Billy Cross

Football Dallas A. Lambert Tallahassee, Fla.

Billy C. Williams

Class of 1969

Tallahassee, Fla.

Laura B. Lang

George W. Williams

Waynesville, N.C.

Tallahassee, Fla.

Tallahassee, Fla. Class of 1974

Class of 1993

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Adel, Ga. Dan was born in Adel, Ga., on November 13, 1950, the son of Burris and Mildred Whitehurst. He was a Florida State University graduate, where he was known for his notorious football career with the Seminoles from 1969-72. He registered a career-high 109 tackles in 1971. Whitehurst also was instrumental in founding the Florida State Varsity Club and at one time was a member of the club’s Board of Directors. After his football days he dedicated his time to his work as a Land and Timber Broker. Dan lived life to the fullest through simple pleasures such as quail hunting, chatting and cutting up with friends and family, and looking for his next pair of cowboy boots. Dan, who died on April 7 at the age of 68, is a true Seminole and will be greatly missed.

Billy was a United States Army veteran and a longtime resident of Tallahassee, where he owned a cabinet shop for many years. He belonged to Fellowship Baptist Church, where he was active in the men’s Sunday School and was known to most as the “Dumpling Man.” He enjoyed making people happy through his cooking and everyone who tasted his food would attest to his talent. Billy enjoyed hunting and many things outdoors and was very active until his passing. He was also an avid supporter of Florida State softball, and the team lost a key and beloved supporter at the passing of Billy Cross. Billy was a fixture at every home game, he knew all the players and players’ families and would stay after each game to speak to everyone. The team attended Billy’s funeral and a game was dedicated in his honor. Billy embodied what it meant to be a Seminole.

James Dahl James was a passionate, well-read and humorous gentleman who always saw the world through a creative and unique lens. His spirit was infectious and he was incredibly loyal to many throughout his life. He was at his happiest with his fiancé and soulmate, Colleen, and their golden retriever, Fallon. His favorite hobbies included exploring the outdoors and traveling to Park City, Utah, playing tennis, biking, watching FSU basketball games, attending concerts with his closest friends, and conducting pranks with his siblings over the holidays. Born into a Seminole family, James will forever be remembered as a true ’Nole.

SEMINOLE-BOOSTERS.COM

ETERNAL FLAME

Sandy D’ Alemberte D ’ Alemberte championed proj ects that built championship teams

By CHARLIE BARNES “High o’er the towering pines our voices swell, praising those gothic spires we love so well ...”

When you next hear the alma mater and you recall the grace of those gothic spires, take a quiet moment to thank Sandy D’Alemberte.

The classic buildings and shaded pathways that beautified our old campus were almost overcome in the 1960s by the frantic dust and roar of new construction. New buildings were hastily thrown up around the campus perimeter, seemingly without any consideration for architectural control or oversight.

Some of them – or at least one still standing – were constructed in the French Butalist style, which is every bit as ghastly as it sounds.

All of that changed the instant D’Alemberte became President.

He was aware of architecture’s power to in uence the emotions of men and women whose youth was spent among the verdant hills below Westcott. Sandy was vintage “Old Tallahassee.” His mother graduated from FSCW, his grandfather from the West Florida Seminary. Sandy went to Leon, then on to Sewanee in Tennessee. The unprecedented architectural enhancement and academic advancements during his later service as Dean of FSU’s Law School were all at his initiation.

Beginning with its architectural origins in 1987, Seminole Boosters President Andy Miller expended huge amounts of political capital to ensure that the $100 million renovation of Doak Campbell Stadium would re ect the gothic grandeur of the old campus. andy lemberte too office as University President on January 4, 1994.

Fortunately, he and Andy Miller shared aesthetic sensibilities and appreciation for classic architecture. While the Florida State University architectural style is technically called Jacobean, D’Alemberte’s own undergraduate alma mater at Sewanee is intensely, classically Gothic. t the time he too office in anuary, eminole s ies were unclouded. is first

official act was to as Bernie liger to ride in the seat of honor in the national championship parade. D’Alemberte even drove the car.

But the clear, cool day of the parade passed quickly. The storm of what was to become known as “Foot Locker” hit suddenly and with violence.

Like Napoleon, D’Alemberte is one of those leaders who was never unprepared for the surprise attack. Given his charisma and national stature as past President of the American Bar Association, plus his lawyerly inclination for fierce advocacy, andy was the perfect choice to be President even if Florida State did not know what was coming.

D’Alemberte’s handling of the Foot Locker affair, and our complicated relationship with the NCAA, was masterful. And his relationship with Seminole Boosters, Inc. was exceptionally positive. After Sandy chose Dave Hart to be Director of Athletics in 1995, the trio of D’Alemberte, Hart and Miller moved forward together to oversee unprecedented success on the playing fields as well as in capital fundraising. uring lemberte s nine years in office, the baseball team made six appearances in the College World Series. D’Alemberte and Hart also had the wisdom and vision to hire Sue Semrau and Leonard Hamilton.

In those years between 1994 and 2003, our Seminole football team won seven ACC championships and a National Championship in 1999. Our women’s soccer team made three NCAA tournament appearances, and the women’s softball team won six ACC championships. ACC track championships were also collected by the men’s indoor and outdoor teams and by the women’s outdoor team.

Working side-by-side with Hart and Miller, D’Alemberte’s brightened Florida State’s landscape with a breathtaking expansion of first class athletic facilities. is declaration that all new construction of academic and athletic buildings would re ect the traditional architecture was a policy continued

by D’Alemberte’s successor, President T.K . Wetherell. n andy s first year, the oore thletic Center was renovated at a cost of nearly $ 50 million. On completion the building matched the appearance of the rest of University Center.

SEMINOLE-BOOSTERS.COM

Between 1998-2001 the Tucker Center basketball arena was expanded to include 34 revenue-producing luxury suites and 468 Club Level seats. Upper level seating was also expanded and the Spotlight Grill added for fan enjoyment. In April 2002 the new $10 million Seminole Basketball Training facility was completed.

Both lemberte and art were fiercely committed to boosting the quality and competitive strength of women’s sports. he magnificent new lorida tate occer Softball Complex was opened in 1999.

Construction of the oftball occer Complex began in 1998 and 1999, respectively. hese fields and facilities share a grand, fan-friendly esplanade and team building that houses the coaches offices, reception area, a combined workroom, large team and coaches locker rooms, visiting team locker rooms and training and equipment rooms.

Other projects begun under Sandy’s watch include the re-design of the Don Veller Golf Course and the addition of the Middleton Golf Center completed in 2004. Brand new and completely re-designed surfaces and fan seating at the Mike Long Track were completed in 2003.

Another two-year project begun under Sandy and completed in 2004 was the $12 million renovation of Dick Howser Stadium, which increased seating capacity to 6,700.

As President, Sandy demonstrated a pragmatic understanding of the value to lorida tate of a winning, first class, nationally prominent athletic program, wellfunded and well led with a great deal of enthusiasm. Sandy was always acutely aware that a great many financial contributions to the niversity, first enter through the loc er room door.”

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COMPLIANCE

REAL OR REEL? Greeting Seminole Fans, As you prepare to enjoy summer movie blockbusters, test your “real” and “reel” NCAA compliance knowledge. The scenarios below all involve impermissible actions by an institutional staff member and/ or individuals that are considered boosters. Read the scenarios and decide whether each scenario actually happened in a real-life major infractions case (i.e., is “real”) or was simply depicted in a movie (i.e., is “reel”).

Good Luck!

1. During the recruitment process, recruit received impermissible free apparel as an incentive to enroll at an institution. Additionally, in an effort to influence the decision of the recruit, friends and family members of the recruit received impermissible cash and gifts, including money invested into the business venture of the grandfather of the recruit while the best friend was given a new car.

REAL or REEL? 2. Over the course of four years, a booster provided a dozen tennis student-athletes with extra benefits. The student-athletes lived with the booster for a reduced cost and were allowed to drive the booster’s vehicles free of charge. The booster also treated the student-athletes to meals and provided them with transportation to an amusement park.

REAL or REEL? 3. A booster gave several impermissible benefits to a trio of basketball recruits in an effort to influence their decision on where they would attend college. A new car was given to one recruit, a home and job were given to the mother of another recruit, and a tractor and a bag of cash was given to the father of the third recruit.

REAL or REEL? 4. Several members of a football staff and approximately a dozen boosters provided almost $40,000 worth of impermissible recruiting inducements to recruits through the use of vehicles, transportation, lodging, meals, clothing, and cold, hard cash. In addition, a couple of football staff members helped arrange fraudulent standardized test scores for some recruits.

REAL or REEL? 5. Four boosters provided thousands of dollars of extra benefits in the form of all-inclusive vacations, cash, meals, and other benefits to a men’s basketball student-athlete. One booster provided around $10,000 worth of all-expenses-paid trips, the use of a car and car insurance to the studentathlete, while the other boosters treated him to free golf outings and meals at a country club, where they were members, as well as cash and a free weekend stay at a resort.

REAL or REEL? SEMINOLE-BOOSTERS.COM

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ANSWERS 1. REEL (Johnny Be Good, 1988); 2. REAL (Major Infractions Case, 2018); 3. REEL (Blue Chips, 1994); 4.