Prep football | 1983 Hurricanes crowned best of 100 years of Manatee football
Editor's note: This is the first in a periodic series of pieces commemorating 100 years of Manatee football.
BRADENTON -- It began with a man named Julian C. Howard.
He graduated from the University of Georgia and made his way to Manatee County. He was a science teacher who became fascinated with football while watching the Bulldogs practice.
So in 1914, the Manatee Maroons were born. They played their first games on a field at 12th Avenue and Ninth Street West in uniforms and with equipment donated by local businesses.
In a harbinger of things to come, the Maroons majored in winning, going 13-0 in Howard's two seasons as a head coach and not allowing a point in nine games in 1915.
This year marks the 100th year of football
at Manatee. The Hurricanes have won five state titles and rank seventh in the state in postseason games (79) and postseason wins (57) while making 27 trips to the playoffs. Two of their alums, Tommie Frazier and Henry Lawrence, were named to the FHSAA's All-Century Team in 2007, and former coach Joe Kinnan was one of 12 selected to the FHSAA's All-Century Coaching Staff.
As Manatee celebrates a century of prep football, the Herald will look back at the some of the teams, coaches and players that helped mold the Hurricanes into one of the premier programs in the state and the nation.
We begin with the top five teams, which works out well considering Manatee has won five official FHSAA state championships.
This isn't easy. Manatee's title teams are spread over three different decades and eras, so we will never really know who the greatest Manatee team really was.
But it's fun to guess.
Agree? Disagree? Suggestions? Feel free to email John Lembo at jlembo@bradenton.com. And a big thank you to former Herald staffer Tad Reeve, whose 1989 book, "Manatee Magic," provided a lot of source material for a list such as this.
1. 1983
The first is still the best.
The '83 Canes were the first Manatee team to win an official state title and second county team overall after Palmetto brought home the first trophy in 1975. But what makes this team so special is what it didn't do -- lose a football game, making it the only one of the Canes' five FHSAA state champions to go undefeated.
Fueled by 11 players who went on to play Division I, Manatee recorded its first perfect season in 27 years while posting four shutouts before beating Gainesville Buchholz 28-12 to reach the Class 4A championship game.
Manatee beat Miami Southridge 27-21 in Tamiami Stadium to win the title and did so with a little dash of controversy. Down 21-19 in the fourth quarter, the Canes had the ball on Southridge's 5-yard line when quarterback Tracy Sanders (who later became a Manatee assistant) fumbled the snap. A Southridge lineman recovered -- or so it appeared.
The head referee ruled that Sanders still had possession when his knee touched the ground, ruling the play dead per high school rules.
No fumble. No recovery. And Manatee made the most of it with Sanders scoring two plays later.
The Hurricanes had their championship. And the '83 team remains the bar all other Manatee teams are measured against.
Quote: "All I know is the whistle was blown by the referee, we kept the ball and scored," Kinnan.
2. 1989
A team near and dear to the heart of Kinnan considering the roster featured his son, JoJo, and nephew, Chris, as well as 19 seniors in the starting lineup during a 21-8 win over previously undefeated Carol City at Daytona Beach's Municipal Stadium. Manatee finished 13-1. These Hurricanes knocked off two teams ranked in the top 10 nationally by USA Today (Carol City and Pensacola Washington) en route to winning Manatee's third championship of the decade. And this one was delivered thanks in part to fullback Chris Bilkie, who scored all three Manatee touchdowns in the state final. Kevin Freeman rushed for 98 yards to help anchor a Hurricanes offense that totaled 304 yards on the ground.
Bilkie and Freeman played at Florida, while Patrick McNeil went to Florida State.
Quote: "Now we're one of the top 10 teams in the United States -- no doubt about it." Kinnan.
3. 1992
The last Manatee team to win a state title until the 2011 team did so, the '92 Hurricanes were nearly perfect, losing one game before routing Miami Dillard 44-14 to win the Class 5A state championship at the University of Florida's Florida Field.
Manatee went 13-1 and capped it with a dominating championship game led by quarterback and current USF head coach Willie Taggart, who completed all four passes for 97 yards while rushing for a touchdown and throwing for two more. Shevin Wiggins, named Mr. Football the following year and the county's all-time leading rusher (4,451), scored three touchdowns in the title game and threw for another to Jay Cross. And the defense limited Southridge quarterback Lamont Cain, who entered the game having thrown for 2,120 yards, to 172 passing yards and seven completions on 23 attempts.
Quote: "I told the kids, 'Don't make me look bad.' They didn't." -- Kinnan, named state coach of the year prior to the game.
4. 2011
Playing what Kinnan called the hardest schedule in program history, the Hurricanes won their last 10 games, went undefeated against Florida schools and left little doubt in the Class 7A championship game by triggering a running clock with a 40-0 win over Jacksonville First Coast. It was the Hurricanes' largest margin of victory in a state final and the only time they've recorded a shutout in the title game.
Manatee's two losses came to Maryland's Our Lady of Good Counsel and New Jersey's Don Bosco Prep by a combined 13 points. Bosco was named a prep national champion that year while Good Counsel was ranked in the top 10 in many national polls. The '11 Canes also started the program's 29-game regular-season winning streak, which was snapped last week by Ware County (Ga.).
Eleven of those Canes signed Division I scholarships, and Manatee finished the year ranked 11th nationally by MaxPreps and Rivals and 12th by ESPN.
Quote: "We think we're the best football team in the state of Florida. Period." -- Kinnan.
5. 1985
If this were a list of teams that make the best out of second chances, the '85 squad would top them all. Before Manatee rolled past Pensacola Woodham 50-22 to win the Class 5A title at Hawkins Stadium, the Canes had to beat Riverview and Sarasota in a Kansas Tiebreaker to win the District 10 title because only the champion of each district made the playoffs. Heck, the only reason Manatee even reached a district tiebreaker was because Sarasota was upset by Riverview 50-29 during the final game of the regular season. Manatee won the tiebreaker, of course, and then proceeded to win their four playoff games by an average margin of 23.5 points.
Reserve quarterback Carl May started 10 of Manatee's 14 games, throwing for 977 yards and nine touchdowns, and kicker Andy Elton left Manatee as the nation's record-holder in extra points (173) and points (240) in his career.
Manatee's 28-point pasting of Woodham, the defending state champion, was at the time the second-most decisive state final in history.
Quote: "Sarasota should have never let us back in this thing in the first place." -- Manatee assistant Gary Theiler.
This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Prep football | 1983 Hurricanes crowned best of 100 years of Manatee football ."