Ed Williamson and Jack Haskin
How FSU football got its beginning
By Jim Joanos
Soon the Florida State football team will begin a new season. It will be the 63rd consecutive one. It seems like a good time to reminisce about when this all began.
From 1941 until 1945, America was at war. After achieving victory, our young soldiers and sailors returned home. Boosted by the financial support provided by the G.I. Bill, many sought to attend college. The colleges as they existed could not hold all of the students. Expansion was necessary.
In Tallahassee, there existed the Florida State College for Women, a women's college boasting an outstanding reputation and an enrollment of 2,500 bright and beautiful young ladies. To accommodate the young men, FSCW was changed into a coeducational institution and became The Florida State University. Needless to say, the men poured in.
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Ed Williamson and Jack Haskin |
Earlier in 1902-04, when the college had also been coeducational, it had a successful football team so it was natural to resume that activity in 1947. From scratch and very hastily, FSU established a football team. Ed Williamson, a physical education teacher, was selected as the head coach. He was appointed one assistant coach, Jack Haskin, who would later become the founder of the FSU Flying High student circus.
The word was sent out to the student body that there would be a team. There was a good response. About 65 students showed up for the first meeting which took place at the gymnasium that had served the former Dale Mabry Air Base. Soon thereafter, the guys began practicing as a team.
It was ironic that Stetson University in Deland was the opponent for the first game as that same college was the opponent in the last game played in 1904. Tallahassee's Centennial Field, a minor league baseball park, was the site for the October 18, 1947 game. There was portable bleacher seating for no more than 6,000 spectators. For the first game in 1947 there were nearly 8,000 fans packed into the facility. Stetson kicked off to FSU to start the game. In the second quarter, FSU quarterback Don Grant of Perry threw to Charles McMillan of Quincy in the southeast corner of the end zone to score the school's first touchdown in the modern era. Although FSU scored first, it lost the game 14-6.
Between the first and second game, the Florida State team adopted the name "Seminoles" in honor of the native Americans who had fought so hard to retain their presence in Florida.
For the second game, FSU traveled to Lebanon, Tenn. to play Cumberland College. The bus ride took two days to get there. The team had to sleep on surplus army cots, and their locker room for the game was really a boiler room. It rained hard during the game. The ball was quite slippery and both teams kept fumbling. Cumberland won 6-0.
The third game in Tallahassee was won by Tennessee Polytechnical Institute 27-6. FSU played its fourth game on Thanksgiving afternoon — also at Centennial Field — against Troy State. Troy overpowered FSU 36-6.
The fifth and final game for FSU that season was against Jacksonville State, the same school FSU will play in its second game this season. When the two teams played in Tallahassee in 1947, the visiting Gamecocks had an 8-0 record coming into the game, and were probably the best team scheduled by FSU that first year. FSU fumbled early on its own 31-yard line, and shortly thereafter Jacksonville State scored a touchdown to go ahead 7-0. There was no more scoring by either team.
Thus, ended the first season. From that humble beginning has emerged an outstanding college football program. One that has won numerous conference championships and two national titles. It has been a glorious trip that began with a team made up mostly of World War II veterans looking for a place to go to school.
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