A friend who grew up in the Panhandle swears there was a high school whose cheerleaders led this cheer:
R-A-T, R-A-T,
We want a touchdown
RAT now!
If you've heard the native drawl from that part of the state, you can believe they not only led the cheer -- it was probably a huge hit with fans.
That's just a way of backing into this week's big water-cooler sports story. The Florida High School Activities Association just announced the state's all-time top 100 prep football players.
Included on the list are two very deserving athletes who hailed from Manatee County: Henry Lawrence and Tommie Frazier. But missing are Peter Warrick and Adrian McPherson, two terrific players who played under Paul Maechtle at Southeast High.
As Roger Mooney points out in his Wednesday column, it's a daunting task to compile a list such as this, culling players from one of the nation's richest football proving grounds -- over 100 years.
I guess you could say that, for one reason or another, some players just didn't have the RAT stuff.
If you haven't seen the list, here’s a link:
And let the arguments continue.
Jim
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
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6 comments:
Reminds me of another great Panhandle cheer, used to ridicule teams from the southern part of the state:
Rutabaga, rutebaga,
Rutabega, rah!
Manatee Hurricanes,
Ha ha ha!
And speaking of the Panhandle, it's not very well represented on that list.
I mean, really ... How can you take a list seriously when it doesn't include Houston McTear, the fastest man alive at one time, and a one-man team for tiny Baker High School back in the mid-70s?
The Panhandle also gave us the greatest high school fight song ever, from Choctawhatchee:
(imagine the beating tom-toms, chanting fans, band uniforms with indian headdresses, cheerleaders in war paint, etc.)
Tall as a mountain
With his head up in the sky
Broad as a bayou
With a football for his eye
See him comin'
Spreading terror through the land
See him comin'
With a football in his hand
(SCREAM!)
Holey Moley it's a big green indian!
Tell me bother, have you seen him run?
Holey Moley it's a big green indian!
You can't stop him with a rope, knife or gun
No, you can't stop him with a rope, knife or gun
BIG GREEN INDIAN!!
Where, pray tell, is Graceville's Neal Anderson???
Leon's Mike Shumann?
Godby's Sammy Knight?
Most of your readers are probably too young to remember this cheer, from one defunct Florida school to another: (Kudos to anyone who can identify the locales of the two schools)
Wassau, Wassau
Wash your feet
The Bonnett Pond Boys
Can;t be beat!
I remember Houston McTear!
Once ran a 8.5 second 100-yard dash to win a $50 bet -- in bare feet on a dusty Panhandle street -- according to legend.
Lived in a sharecropper's shack in the backwoods of Baker. Ran on a high school track filled with potholes.
Fastest player I ever saw, and man, did he have some moves. Couldn't get in to an SEC school though -- even Florida -- because he couldn't read or write.
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