Recollections: Legends of Yesterday - Coach Price

­­This is a reprint of original articles by Hugh Woolley, a longtime resident and community leader of Graceville. Woolley published these articles in The Graceville News more than 20 years ago.

Originally published in the September 21, 2000 edition of The Graceville News.

Deep in the Delta of Mississippi in Lincoln County (this is near Jerry Clowers home) on December 20, 1897 a baby boy was born. His name was Robert Lee Price Sr. He would come to Jackson County Florida and become a legend and leave his tracks. He finished College at Mississippi State University in Vo-Ag. I have records showing where he was appointed second lieutenant in the US Army Reserve June 5, 1922. The appointment would have had to of been made at the time that he received his diploma from MSU. Soon afterwards he caught a train to Gainesville in search of a teaching job in Florida.

Bob, his son told me that his daddy, while riding the train through Okaloosa Co. noticing the blackjack oaks and sand he thought this must be the poorest soil in the world. I can personally identify with Mr. Price’s feelings having finished boot camp in New Orleans a group of us were sent to Jacksonville. We traveled the same route. Having a farmer's background my observation was the same as Mr. Price.

I am sure Mr. Price was disappointed when the officials in Gainesville said we are sending you back to Northwest Florida to Graceville 13 miles north of Chipley. I am sure he was delighted to see that there was better land north of Chipley. Although it was not the Mississippi Delta the land was easily tilled and responded readily to commercial fertilizer and had clay subsoil.

The young college grad then hitched a ride to Graceville with a farmer who put him out at the drugstore. After explaining his mission to local residents, they guided him to Mrs. John Kirkland's (John Clifford's Mother) for board. Mr. R.L. Price would become Graceville High School's first Vo-Ag teacher, and also took on the duties as football and basketball coach. Some of the early teen pictures will appear in this paper as we can get them identified by a few grads that are still living. This young Ag teacher and coach would have had to be 25 or 26 years old and would produce a basketball team in 1923 his first year. Burger Keen was the tallest boy on the team. His father was owner of Graceville's only Coca-Cola Bottling Co. The old cement foundation for some of the equipment still stands just off the east side of Cotton Street just south of the big ditch across Highway 77, just south of Graceville Oil Company's office. Joe Bill Hodges tells that as a boy delivering groceries he would stop and watch them bottle Coca-Cola one bottle at a time and drink all the free Coca-Cola he wanted to.

From what I gather the first football team was around 1928 or 1929 picture later. Those were rough days back then in the middle of the Great Depression. John Clifford Kirkland said Pensacola offered them $150.00 to come over and play them. He said we didn't have any uniforms so Coach Price made a deal with Pensacola to pay us in advance and ordered the uniforms and had them shipped to Pensacola so they would have them in time for the game. It was rough times, the state had little control over athletics, thus bad officiating, referees were usually from home so it was hard to win on the road.

One ex-player for the Graceville Tigers said a particular school about a hundred miles from here where the home fans would get in the end zone and with their knives and dare the visiting team to cross the goal line. He tells me about the time Graceville played Samson, Al. He said the sign into town was spelled Sampson and the sign leaving town was spelled Samson. The Graceville team took up the saying "We beat the "P" out of Samson." I won't tell you who quoted this, but his picture will appear in the next column with his 1925 Model T Ford Roadster. By the way my old boss, Jerry Clower used to call Samson the snuff capital of the world. They once or twice shipped a railroad car of snuff to Samson and had a big sale.

To be continued…

COACH PRICE’S FIRST BASKETBALL TEAM - 1923 (from left) Mike Toole, D.C. Lammons, Dewey Brunk, Coach Price, Burger Keen, J.C. Williams, unknown, squatting unknown.