South FLA HS coaches weigh in on recruiting

It seems like the majority of IMG kids are from out of State. The recruiting services are always listing the IMG players on recruiting lists as from Florida, but in reality they moved down to Florida specifically for the IMG training program. It really skews the recruiting numbers when looking at how many "Florida" players go to out of State schools.

 

I was fortunate enough to get to know him on a first name basis, even took lunch to him at his home in his later years and all I had to do was mention a name in sports and off he'd go......one funny story teller. Anyway, I asked him how do you find out all those blue chip players for your Christmas Day column. He replied, "Easy, I call a coach at Florida."

Tom's name plate on his desk was not his name but "Mr. Asshole" in reference to what John McKay called him.

I got to meet him back in early 70s. I had season tix to The Floridians ABA basketball team that played 1/2 home games in Miami and 1/2 in Tampa. So at a break I'm at the concession and he walks up behind me and says, "I see you at all these games. Who are you?" I replied my name and "who are you?". He said who he was and I said, "I don't think so....the Tom McEwen in the paper is much younger". He laughed and called me a smartass. We liked each other immediately.

 

He was a great Gator fan and many would say helped Spurrier in many ways throughout his life, including winning the Heisman and getting the head coaching job for the Bandits, among others. Spurrier always sought Tom's counsel during his deliberations on 'life's decisions'; Tom probably knew Spurrier was leaving UF before Spurrier did. Needless to say he had a HUGE impact on Gator football.

His book on Gator football history should be read by every Gator's fan. In addition to having a breadth of knowledge of our history, he was a really talented writer. Some of the stories in there are really remarkable and it was the first time I found out about Gene Ellison's 'The Letter' from the 1962 season. It is still a head scratcher why this was never memorialized by the AA like Tebow's 'Promise' was but I have hope that it will happen someday.

Some info here: Ellenson's Letter inspired Gators before game vs. Aggies - GatorSports.com.

I never met Tom, but was fortunate to meet his wife after his passing during her estate sale. He obviously had A LOT of memorabilia due to his sports reporting over the years. I picked up a few things, one of which was a game used Gators helmet that Spurrier gave to him shortly after coming to Florida as the head ball coach. Its a really special piece in my game used collection: :

 

FYI, the Apopka "dip" was the opening of Wekiva HS which was built to alleviate crowding at Apk and Brantley. It's gotten back up again and a new high school is imminent.