DEAD LETTERS: The Florida A&M Dynasty
Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast
Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner
4.9 • 916 Ratings
🗓️ 30 May 2023
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jake Gaither built a college football powerhouse at FAMU in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. The Rattlers towered over their HBCU competition and struck fear in everyone they played. Then the world changed.
Welcome to Season 2, Episode 1 of Dead Letters, a Split Zone Duo series about what happens when great programs hit the rocks.
Writing: Alex Kirshner
Production: Anthony Vito
Interviewee: Dr. Derrick White, author of "Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football"
Audio courtesy: HBCUGameday.com
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's January 1962 at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago, and Jake Gather is here taking |
| 0:10.4 | everything in in a room full of people who are there to either honor him in the case of his fellow coaches or talk to him in the case of the many reporters who have filled the room. |
| 0:19.0 | This, he says, is the happiest moment of my life. He's here to get the Kodak Award |
| 0:24.6 | that's for the small college coach of the year in college football and this means a lot to |
| 0:28.8 | gather because he doesn't feel that he gets a ton of media respect necessarily but the coaching industry his peers |
| 0:34.4 | sees him differently he describes coaches this night as quote the cream of American |
| 0:39.5 | manhood he is a true believer in the profession. |
| 0:43.0 | But the reporters have questions for him too. |
| 0:45.0 | They ask him if he's had chances to go elsewhere to leave Florida A&M University where he is the head coach. |
| 0:50.0 | And he says, you mean for a white school? |
| 0:52.0 | Sure, I've had offers, but everything I have is Florida. |
| 0:55.2 | My wife teaches English at A&M. |
| 0:57.2 | My graduates are coaching at 98% of the Negro high schools in Florida. |
| 1:01.0 | They send me all my players. Why if my boys didn't send |
| 1:03.8 | their best to Jake it would be like spitting in mama's face. And Jake |
| 1:07.6 | Gather has a pretty good thing going on. This is a guy who appreciates life and |
| 1:11.6 | why wouldn't he because in a way he's lucky to be here at all. |
| 1:14.7 | He could have died nearly 20 years ago. |
| 1:16.8 | Some said there was a 99 to one chance he would when a couple of malignant brain tumors |
| 1:21.4 | threatened his life. |
| 1:22.4 | A doctor's got both out and he went on to become |
| 1:25.0 | Florida A&M's head coach. In that way, really, he's enjoyed good fortune. But what Gather has built at |
... |
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