As reported by Mike Cobb of the Lakeland Ledger:

And Then There Was Football
Over one hundred years ago, a group of Lakeland High students boarded a train for Bartow. They were taking up a challenge from Bartow Summerlin Institute in a relatively new sport that's now an integral part of American culture. That was the beginning in Polk County of what is now a Friday night tradition across America - high school football.On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1907, Summerlin routed Lakeland 53-0, though Lakeland disputed the score for years, saying it was only 47-0.

The Florida High School Activities Association this year is celebrating 100 years of high school football in the state, noting that five schools organized teams in 1907 - Bartow Summerlin, Tampa Hillsborough, Ocala High, Orlando High and Jacksonville Duval. Lakeland's 1907 team was put together by future state Rep. Thomas W. Bryant, who was then a student, to take up Bartow's challenge. Lakeland would officially organize its team for the 1908 season.

In 1923, Lakeland High School Principal I.G. McKay lauded the school's football team in a student address and coined a little history. McKay (pronounced Mc-EYE) compared the team to a mighty Dreadnaught "rolling over the opponents just as a massive ship steams through stormy seas."The team became known as "the Dreadnaught" for the next few years. The letter "s" was added by the end of the decade. It was a sign of the times.

In the roaring '20s, high school football became an integral part of American culture, and Lakeland replaced Summerlin Institute in Bartow as the powerhouse in Polk County.

Led by quarterback Ernest "Goof" Bowyer, who would later play quarterback at the University of Florida, the team posted a 6-1 record in 1923 and was declared champion of South Florida. Its lone loss was a 7-0 setback against Gainesville.

Among their victories was a 27-0 win over traditional powerhouse Bartow. It was Lakeland's second traight win over Bartow. A year earlier, the school's 20-6 win was big enough to earn a full-page photo spread in the school's yearbook, The Highlander.

Lakeland High began playing its games on Friday nights in the right field portion of Henley Field. Ralph Carter, who played for the Dreadnaughts in 1943-44, remembers watching Lakeland games as a kid at Henley Field. "We used to sneak into the games. We'd climb the fence," said Carter, who is now retired and living in Georgia. "The field went east to west. They had four light poles and put up temporary bleachers." Carter, who attended John Cox Elementary at Memorial Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, remembers the elementary schools having teams as well. That's where Carter remembers getting to know the Dreadnaught players.

"We'd play with no pads and barefooted," he recalled. "The Dreadnaught players would come out and coach us." One of those teams that he watched was the 1935 Lakeland squad that finished 12-0-1 and was named state champions. The only non-victory was a 0-0 tie against Orlando in the season finale. The Dreadnaughts then added two charity postseason games to their schedule. In the first, played in Lakeland, the Dreadnaughts defeated Athens (Ga.), 19-7, in a game that drew a crowd of 1,500 and raised $200 for the Salvation Army. Among the 1,500 spectators was Florida Gov. Dave Sholtz.

A week later, the Dreadnaughts boarded the train in Auburndale for a three-day trip to Miami to play an all-star team of Miami high school stars in a fundraiser for the Miami Kiwanis Club. Among the all-stars was halfback Knute Rockne Jr., son of the famous Notre Dame head coach. Fullback John Sargent scored three touchdowns, leading Lakeland to a 26-0 win.

Enter Bryant Stadium
On a September night early in the 1940s, some of the same men who started Polk's football tradition as kids in 1907 gathered in Lakeland to open a new era. They were there to dedicate Thomas W. Bryant Stadium, home of the Dreadnaughts. Bryant, who started Lakeland High's program in 1907 and was a 1909 graduate, went on to become a lawyer, serve three terms in the state Legislature and spend another 14 years on the Board of Control, which would later become the Board of Regents overseeing the state university system.

In the 1930s, as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, Bryant sought funding to build a new football stadium for the city of Lakeland. The funding was first approved in 1936 but later canceled. After several years of disappointing trips to Washington, Bryant finally secured $65,000 in federal funds, the stadium was built next to Henley Field, and on Sept. 26, it was dedicated and named in his honor. Florida Gov. Spessard Holland, a graduate of Summerlin Institute in Bartow who went on to play football at Emory University and the University of Florida, made the dedication speech at halftime. Eight members of Lakeland's original 1907 team, including Bryant, were among the honored guests.

Lakeland defeated Florida Military Academy of St. Petersburg that night, 33-0. Lakeland halfback Raymond Bowden kicked the first extra point in Bryant Stadium history and threw two touchdown passes. His son, David Bowden, would later set a national record by throwing 91 career touchdown passes as Kathleen's quarterback from 1968 to 1970.

The opening of Bryant Stadium turned out to be good news for Mulberry fans as well. No longer needing bleachers for Dreadnaught games at Henley Field, the city of Lakeland sent four sets of bleachers to Mulberry to provide seating for about 500 people.

A New Era
One of the most significant events of the 1970s came in 1971 when Lakeland High enticed Paul Quinn to move to Lakeland to become the school's head coach. Quinn had won a state title in 1967 at Lake City, defeating Auburndale in the championship game. Quinn brought with him a young assistant coach named Bill Castle. After five seasons at Lakeland that produced a 30-19 record, Quinn decided to leave for Bartow. The Dreadnaughts didn't have to go very far to find his successor, elevating Castle to the head coaching job.

It was a job that Castle did not actively seek. In a 2006 interview with The Ledger, Castle said he had planned on going to Bartow with Quinn, but a group of Lakeland boosters changed those plans when they visited him at his apartment. "Bottom line, when they left, they asked me would I take (the Lakeland head coaching job) if it was offered to me," Castle said. " I said, 'Yes I would, but I wasn't going to apply for it.' "I came in the next day and found out that I had the job." He's kept the job for 31 years, winning six state titles. Castle didn't win his first state championship until 1986, but he had the Dreadnaughts among the state's top programs long before that. The 1979 team, quarterbacked by Wayne Peace, finished 11-2, losing in the Class 4A state semifinals to a physically bigger Pensacola Pine Forest, 26-14. The focal point of that game was the battle of the quarterbacks - Peace vs. Pine Forest's Mark Massey. Among the crowd that night were University of Florida coach Charley Pell and Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. They were recruiting both quarterbacks. Both players eventually signed with Florida, and Peace became the Gators' starter midway through the 1980 season and finished his career with 7,206 career passing yards. That was the first of five playoff appearances in a six-year period for the Dreadnaughts before they broke through and won a state title in 1986.

The National Stage
The past two decades have seen high school football move to the national level with national rankings and games televised across the country. And Polk County has had its moments in the national spotlight. Lakeland has been a regular member of national Top 25 rankings with the Dreadnaughts finishing the 2005 season ranked by USA Today as the No. 1 team in the nation. In 2006, after beating St. Thomas Aquinas in the state title game for a third straight year, the Dreadnaughts again ranked No. 1 in two national polls. Beginning in 2004, Lakeland put together a state-record string of 53 straight wins that was broken in 2006 by Kissimmee Osceola. The Kowboys also ended Lakeland's chance at a fourth-straight state title the same year in the regional semifinals. >>TOP<<