FSU's 1969 freshman football team set for 'Greenie Reunion' this weekend in Tallahassee

Jim Henry
Tallahassee Democrat

Officially, this weekend is billed as a “Greenie Reunion” for Florida State’s famed freshman football team of 1969.

Fifty years have passed since those players first stepped on the Seminoles’ practice fields, arriving a week before the varsity.

At that time, freshmen were ineligible to play varsity football until the NCAA changed the rule in 1972.

Others changes – far more important – were happening, too, as black football players across the south were breaking the color barrier at FSU under coach Bill Peterson and at established Division I programs.

“The world was changing at that point,” said Vince Bronson, a defensive tackle from Osceola High in Kissimmee.

“But you shared the joys together, you shared the misery together, you shared whatever together.”

Size, speed, skin color – none of that mattered at FSU in 1969, when freshman players walked into their locker room to dress for their first combined practice with the varsity.

Gone were their garnet (defense) and white (offense) practice jerseys.

They were replaced by lime-green jerseys.

“They were God-awful looking,” said Barry Smith, a receiver signed out of Miami. “We wondered what the heck was going on.” 

It didn’t take long for the freshmen to learn what those jerseys represented.

From that point on, they were called “Green Turds” by coaches and upperclassmen – and treated accordingly.

Gary Huff

While freshmen were primarily scout-team fodder for the varsity, they filled out other needs, too. When the varsity held tackling drills, for instance, freshmen carried the football straight ahead between two heavy-duty bags into charging defenders.

“It wasn’t pretty – it was like leading lambs to slaughter,” Smith said and laughed. “I told Charlie (Wright, the freshman coach) if I had to do that, I was transferring to Tennessee.” (Smith signed with FSU over UT). 

More than 40 players from the Seminoles’ 1969 freshman team are expected to return to Tallahassee for this weekend’s “Greenie Reunion.”

Organized by Bronson, the group will hold a meet-and-greet Friday night at a local hotel, tour the athletics facility Saturday afternoon and gather in the Varsity Club at Doak Campbell Stadiumto watch FSU’s showdown at No. 2 Clemson. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m.

The weekend will give players the opportunity to reconnect, reminisce about the past and share stories. Like the times when freshman players - they were prohibited from having a car - would hand over their monthly $15 laundry money to senior Phil Abraira to borrow his white Chrysler Valiant on dates.

“I haven’t seen some of these guys in 50 years,” said Bronson, 68, who has competed professionally in barbecue contests and is missing his high school reunion this weekend  in order to gather with teammates.  "It was a special time. We bonded through blood, sweat and tears." 

Peterson signed nearly 60 freshmen in 1969 –  at that time, there weren’t NCAA guidelines on the size of signing classes. Many did not last the entire freshman season, which featured a trip to Mexico City against National Autonomous University and a showdown versus Miami in a driving rainstorm in Tampa Stadium.

J.T. Thomas

The class also featured  James “J.T.” Thomas, one of five black players on scholarship who a year later made history as the first African American to play varsity football at FSU.

Six players from the class played in the NFL – Thomas, Smith, Charlie Hunt, Eddie McMillan, Gary Huff and Gary Parris. Many others went on to become successful businessmen. Ron Clinton Smith  is a successful actor in Atlanta who has appeared in dozens of films and television shows, including "We Are Marshall." And one - Billy Joe McCall of Tampa - is singing opera in Thailand, according to Bronson.

The decades have passed but the memories – tinted in lime green – remain.

"We were a band of brothers," Smith said. "Black, white, we were all 'Green Turds.' We were all just trying to survive." 

Reach Jim Henry at jjhenry@tallahassee.com.