Quiet Leader...Philip Rountree
By Jim Joanos
Florida State played intercollegiate football as early as 1902. However, as a result of the Florida Legislature's action in 1905, football ended that year at the institution as Florida State was converted into an all female college and would remain that way until the end of World War II. When the great war ended, thousands of former soldiers, sailors and marines, funded by government financial assistance, popularly referred to as the "GI Bill", were anxious to further their educations. The University of Florida could not accommodate all of the men seeking admission to that institution. In order to accommodate the overflow for the 1946-47 school year, the Tallahassee Branch of the University of Florida was created. "TBUF", as it was called, allowed approximately six hundred men, mostly military veterans, to attend classes at Florida State College for Women along with the 2500 female students that were there.
The males were housed in former military barracks at the site on the west side of Tallahassee where Dale Mabry Field, an Air Corps pilot training base, had previously existed. The men were technically registered as students of the University of Florida and had their own small administrative unit and an athletic program. TBUF had intercollegiate basketball and baseball and a wide range of intramural sports. As for other activities as well as classes, the TBUFers participated along with the women of FSCW.
For the single males, TBUF was "paradise". I recently heard one former TBUFer describing how wonderful it was to be in a "class room with forty beautiful women and only two or three guys". He admitted that it was often "difficult to concentrate on the lectures" but "he sure would not trade the experience".
But not all TBUFers came to Tallahassee for the "girls". They came for a variety of reasons. Some came because it was closer to home. Among those at TBUF, a number would become important in Florida State University sports history. One of those was Philip Rountree.
Phil Rountree, a married veteran, had decided that he wanted to become a high school football coach so he came to Tallahassee seeking a degree that would allow him to do that. He had been born on June 28, 1923, in Chipley and raised there during the depression years. His mother, a teacher, had gotten her college degree at Florida State College for Women. His father, a lawyer, practiced in the Chipley area. In high school, Phil played on some successful football and basketball teams and was president of the Chipley High School Student Council. He graduated from high school in the spring of 1941 and entered the University of Florida in the fall that followed.
He vividly remembers the Sunday afternoon in Gainesville in December when he learned that the United States had been attacked at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. He had just left a movie and ran into a friend who excitedly told him about it. That war would greatly affect the lives of both of those men. Both would serve in the military. The friend, a football player at the University of Florida, would become severely injured in combat.
Military duty
Rountree remained in school at the U of F for two more semesters after the war began. Then, first, he married Connie Coleman, his high school sweetheart from Chipley. Secondly, then he enlisted in the United States Army.
Sometime after Army basic training, Rountree was selected for the Officers Training Program at Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon successful completion of that program, Lieutenant Rountree became an instructor and helped train recruits at Camp Blanding in Florida. He was moved about the country and served in several different capacities. Eventually, Rountree in 1945 was assigned to a battle unit, trained and shipped overseas, and headed for combat. He was on a troop ship in the Pacific when word was received that the Atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan and shortly, thereafter, that the war had ended. Eventually, Rountree was stationed in the Philippines and then as part of the occupational forces in Japan. He got a close look at the devastation caused by war before he was released from the Army in July of 1946.
It did not take him long to decide to go back to college. He had read in a newspaper about the establishment of TBUF so he headed for Tallahassee. He worked at Dale Mabry in the summer helping get the place ready for the TBUF men that would be housed there and entered school in the fall of 1946 as a second semester sophomore. He was assigned to live in barracks number 701. He very much enjoyed his new school and has fond memories of that first year. He recalls that the dining room had wonderful meals that cost only fifty cents. After the first semester, his wife, Connie, came over and joined him for the second semester and they moved into a very small apartment, also in one of the former barracks. The married student housing had been given the name, "Whispering Pines". Rountree became active in student activities and eventually was elected President of the Men's Student Government Association for the 1947-48 school year.
FSU football in 1947
In the Spring of 1947 the Florida Legislature changed Florida State's destiny so that the institution again became coeducational and assumed the name of "Florida State University". One of the first decisions made at the new university was that it would resume intercollegiate football. Sometime that summer Rountree learned that FSU would organize a football team in the fall. He had already decided that he wanted to become a high school coach and was enrolled in physical education, so decided that he should go out for the football team.
He contacted Ed Williamson, the physical education instructor who had been designated to coach the team and was checked out a pair of the football shoes. He was lucky to get there early as the supply of shoes soon ran out. He began to work out along with some of the others who lived in the barracks.
Eventually in the fall, a meeting was held at the old Dale Mabry Gymnasium for all of those interested in going out for the team. Williamson, along with Jack Haskin, another physical education instructor who would be an assistant coach were there. Most of the players were military veterans but among them were a sprinkling of younger guys just out of high school. One of the things that Rountree remembers about the meeting was that one of the men showed up with a pair of the precious football shoes tied across his shoulder and a cigar in his mouth. Coach Williamson looked at the cigar and then quietly reached over, grabbed the shoes off the man's shoulder, and handed them to another potential player who did not have any. The point had been quietly made that there would be discipline on the team.
Soon they were holding practices at the old Dale Mabry drill field. There were no locker rooms so most of the players kept their equipment and dressed for practice in their own barracks rooms which were nearby.
There was a great deal of excitement for the first game against Stetson at Centennial Field in Tallahassee on October 18, 1947. It was rather ironic that Stetson would be the opponent as Stetson was the opponent in the last game of the 1904 season, when Florida State won the Florida Times Union trophy to become the state champion. Old Centennial was packed with over seven thousand fans. Tallahassee has apparently always loved football. Early in the game, Rountree made a place for himself in FSU football history by completing the first forward pass of that first game. From his halfback position and moving toward the end, he took a pitchout from the quarterback and threw the ball about eight yards downfield to fullback Ken MacLean.
The game was supposed to have been a "breather" for Stetson, but at halftime Florida State led 6-0. Rountree says that he later heard a story that the Stetson coach started his halftime talk to the team by saying, "Breathe, damn you, breathe." Stetson won the second half and the game 14-6. Florida State played four more games that year and lost them all although they were very competitive throughout the season. One of the games that sticks out in Rountree's memory is the game at Cumberland because the weather was so bad. It had rained all day and continued to rain during the game. He does not believe that "there were more than twenty spectators there."
Although the team went 0 and 5, a good foundation had been laid for the future of FSU football. Rountree describes Williamson as having been "a fine man", who "cared about people". "He gave a lot of himself to get football started".
Team Captain
During the season, the team had used game captains for each game. Shortly after the season ended, a meeting was called to elect the permanent captains of that first team. Rountree could not attend that meeting because of conflict with his job as a lifeguard at The Reservation, then named, "Camp Flastacowo". Nevertheless, although he was not there, Wyatt "Red" Parish nominated Rountree and he was elected along with Jack McMillan of Quincy as the permanent captains of that legendary team. In describing his own role during that first season, Rountree says, in his quiet way, that he was "not a star in any sense of the word - I just wanted to get the experience". Apparently the team disagreed with Rountree's evaluation of his role during that season.
Rountree's involvement in the FSU athletics program did not end with his election as one of the team captains. He planned to get his bachelor's degree in August and stay at FSU to work toward a master's degree, consequently he applied for a graduate assistantship. In January of 1948, Don Veller, an assistant coach at the University of Indiana was hired to become the football coach at FSU. Since Veller was working on a doctorate at Indiana, he hired two brothers, Charlie and Bill Armstrong, who had both played at Indiana, as assistants and sent them to Tallahassee to conduct spring practice at FSU in his absence. In line with his desire to obtain a graduate assistantship, Rountree assisted the coaches with spring training in what he describes as a "gopher" role. Rountree became very impressed with the Armstrongs and became very close friends with them, especially Charlie. He believes that what he learned from Charlie Armstrong's techniques was especially helpful to him later in his career. He says that Charlie was thorough in every way as he "enforced the importance of detail".
Rountree was awarded the first bachelor's degree awarded in the new men's physical education department in August of 1948, was accepted to graduate school and given a graduate assistantship. Consequently, he assisted the FSU football coaches in the first season under Coach Veller and also assisted the FSU basketball coach, Bud Kennedy, during basketball season. His job with Coach Kennedy was to keep the shot charts. He fondly recalls having to miss a basketball trip in December of 1948 when his and Connie's son, Redus, was born.
Rountree credits Williamson, Kennedy, Veller and the Armstrongs for valuable contributions to his career. He regarded them as his mentors. One of his favorite memories during that year of graduate school was the graduate course in football coaching that he took. It was taught by Coach Veller and other members of the class were the Armstrongs, Williamson, and Bob Harbison, who had come on board as a Veller assistant coach just prior to the 1948 season. He credits that course for much of the success that he later had in coaching.
High school coach
Rountree's quest toward a graduate degree was temporarily interrupted in 1949 when he was offered and accepted a teaching job at Chipley High School which also included duties as the school's athletic director and head football, basketball and baseball coach. He became highly successful in teaching as well as coaching all three sports.
For the five years that he coached football, 1949-53, his overall record was 37-10-3. His teams tied for the conference championship in 1951, and won it outright in 1952 and 53. He was recognized as the Northwest Florida Conference "Coach of the Year" for 1952 and 53. The most amazing stat was that he won all of the last 24 football games that he coached. He was extremely innovative and employed a number of techniques that were way ahead of the times. These included the no huddle-hurry up offense, an unbalanced line, slant and stunt blocking, on offense, and the use of four down linemen and covering the gaps with linebackers on defense. These techniques are commonplace today but were new even on the college level when Rountree used them at Chipley High. He was also very successful coaching basketball and baseball. In basketball he compiled a record of 74-35 over the five year period. His basketball teams won three Northwest Florida Conference championships and one district championship. They were state runners up one year. In 1967, in recognition of his outstanding coaching record, he was awarded a lifetime honorary membership in the Florida Athletic Coaches Association.
At Chipley High, in addition to all of his other duties, he organized the first intramural program for grades 1-12 which included the sports of tag football, basketball, softball, and volleyball.
School principal
In 1953, while coaching and teaching, he also completed his Master's Degree in Physical Education at FSU. Shortly thereafter, he was offered and accepted the position of principal at the brand new Kate M. Smith Elementary School in Chipley. He would serve as principal for thirteen years until 1967. While an elementary school principal, he spent his summers directing Washington County's recreation and enrichment programs. He was also a charter member of the Chipley National Guard Unit and retired from that activity as a Captain in 1963.
Leader in education
In 1967, he was hired to run a federally funded physical education program for a six county area centered around Lake City. He did that for two years and was then hired by State of Florida Department of Education to head up a number of statewide programs including some in physical education and health. Later, at his request, he was transferred to the Department of Education's Chipley office to head up some of that area's programs. He ultimately retired from the D.O.E. at the end of 1995. Even in retirement, he has continued his active civic service. In 1992, he was elected to the Washington County School Board and has served on that body ever since. He is currently serving his third year as School Board Chairman. On June 15, 2000, in recognition of his outstanding former coaching and teaching and for his many other contributions to education in the State of Florida, he was inducted in the Florida High School Activities Association Hall of Fame.
In June, Phil Rountree will be eighty years old. Recently, he had some tough times. He has had some illnesses, and after fifty-eight years of marriage, his beloved Connie died last year. However, he has rebounded. As Chairman of the School Board, he continues to give of himself to his community. He always has time for his family. "Coach", as he continues to be called, is still very much a valuable part of what is going on in Chipley. Phil Rountree continues to be what he has always been...a significant leader, a dedicated family man, and most of all, just a great guy...the same as he was when that legendary 1947 FSU football team selected him as a captain.