Ray Bellamy prepares for Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame induction

In the beginning, Ray Bellamy was just looking for a way out.

When he first started playing football at Palmetto’s Lincoln High School, he figured he had found the ticket. He just didn’t know how many people would ride along with him.

“I just wanted to extend my successes beyond my failures and figure how to find a way out of the environment I grew up in,” Bellamy said. “I grew up trying to better myself. I had no idea all this would come as a result of trying to make myself better and make things better for my family.”

Bellamy signed with the University of Miami in 1966 to become the first African-American major college football player in the Southeast, breaking a color a barrier that had stood as solid as the one Jackie Robinson broke in Major League Baseball.

On Sunday, Bellamy will be inducted into the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in Gainesville. It’s the third hall of fame for the receiver, who has been enshrined by the University of Miami and Lincoln High School.

The induction is special to Bellamy, his mother, Mary, and sister, Mary Denise Jenkins. They made the trip to Gainesville, but, metaphorically and otherwise, many of the greatest African-American football players to come out of Manatee County were along for the journey.

Breaking the color barrier opened the doors for local heroes such as Tommie Frazier, Henry Lawrence, Peter Warrick and current University of South Florida head coach Willie Taggart, to name a few.

“He made it possible, and we will always be grateful to him for that,” Taggart said.

“He got colleges to come to Lincoln High and look at our players,” said Robert Hamilton, quarterback for Lincoln from 1962-64. “He opened the door for guys like Tommie Frazier and so many others. Coaches now knew this was where there was a lot of talent.”

Bellamy is grateful to many, but the ones who stood out for him are Mary, Mary Denise and his Lincoln classmates.

“My mom and sister always believed in me. And my classmates, I can’t leave them out,” Bellamy said. “They picked me most likely to succeed, chose me class president and captain of the football team. My classmates believed in me and believed in my family.”

Jenkins, the oldest of the nine Bellamy children, said her brother Ray was destined to lead the way for others and always did it with a loving heart despite the obstacles he faced.

“I wasn’t surprised at what Ray achieved,” Jenkins said. “He was always different. He always did things differently. I think the Lord built him to what he would want him to be which is a good, caring person, who had goals and determination. He was a loving person who would pick up stray animals.”

Things were tough for the Bellamy family back in the 1950s and ’60s. Mary, her late husband, Charlie, and the children were poor sharecroppers, and money was always tight. But she had a way of making sure her children were right, a trait that Ray learned to share with others.

“My mom did everything for me. She cleaned other people’s homes. They would pay her $15, and she would take the money and buy me a pair of shoes,” Ray said “She would not eat her lunch. People would give her for food for lunch, and she would bring it home for us. She sacrificed her whole life every day for us.”

Now 92 and battling health issues, Mary Bellamy wasn’t going to miss this day. She has never stopped continuing to inspire her son to do great things.

The Bellamys worked on a farm on Cortez Road near the Gulf of Mexico, where there was virtually nothing but woods. They often hunted for food and planted vegetables.

Times were tough economically for the family and blacks were often treated poorly, but the children never harbored hatred and made the most of their opportunities, said Mary Denise. When Ray signed his letter of intent at Miami, it was a great happening that brightened the hopes of every African-American living locally and around the country.

“When he was first at Miami people were mean to him, but we are family that when you push us we struggle, but we come back and accomplish whatever we sent our mind to and Ray has always done that,” Jenkins said. “He loves his family, and he is still doing as much good as he can to help people as much as he can to this day. People hurt you, but you forgive them and you move on. If you don’t you are a the loser.”

Bellamy doesn’t see himself as a pioneer as much as he wanted to do everything he could to be an example to others, especially those who were struggling and improve the financial condition of his family.

“My classmates gave me the fuel I needed to go on. I never thought about integration back in those days. I just thought about people and trying to help them,” Bellamy said. “We had double standards and things were happening where they treated black folks not very nice, but that hasn’t changed still today. We got better, but we still have a long way to go.

“I never thought about being Jackie Robinson, but I knew who Jackie Robinson was and wanted to patronize his journey. Getting inducted into this hall of fame makes me feel somewhere along the line I worked hard and gave great effort and became successful by doing the right thing in life.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2016 at 9:11 PM with the headline "Ray Bellamy prepares for Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame induction."