Congratulations, Dad!

Get the Point...

I am so very proud to note that my father, the late Charles Hobbs, will be enshrined in the Florida A&M University Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the 2024 induction Class!

Per the Tallahassee Democrat (written by FAMU Sports Hall of Fame member Vaughn Wilson): "Charles Hobbs, Sr. (Football – Posthumously) – Hobbs was known as a fierce blocker paving the way for great FAMU running backs for legendary coach Jake Gaither. Hobbs, was a four year letterman dual-threat at guard and linebacker. While it is difficult for linemen to stand out, Hobbs was considered a key player on the 1959 & 1961 Black National Championship Teams. He signed a rookie invitation from Pittsburgh Steelers, 1963."

One of my favorite stories that my father used to tell was how he first met FAMU football coach Jake Gaither during his eighth grade year at George Washington Carver Jr./Sr. High School in Miami. At the time, Dad was a trumpet player in the marching band while playing on the school’s junior varsity football team, and during the school’s varsity sports banquet, the head football coach, another legendary FAMU Rattler named Nathaniel “Traz” Powell, introduced Coach Gaither as the keynote speaker. Dad said that he was totally mesmerized by Gaither’s speech, and that because segregation was the order of the day, he made up his mind that night that he would “knock out as many Negroes as necessary on the football field to earn a scholarship to Florida A&M…”

Mission accomplished!

As those who knew him well will attest, my father rarely smiled in pictures, but I imagine that somewhere in Heaven, he is smiling alongside his old coaches like the late Traz Powell, Jake Gaither, Pete Griffin, and Costa Kittles; his Miami Rattler teammates like his brother in law Rudy Cambridge, John Hamilton, Emory Collier, James Tullis, and Willie Clarington, as well as his other Rattler friends like Robert “China Doll” Parramore, Robert “Bullet Bob” Hayes, David “Palatka Red” Daniels, and Hewritt Dixon.

Charles Hobbs (in white jersey to the left) preparing to block Jackson State’s #79 as his Miami homeboy Emory Collier fires a pass downfield during the 1961 HBCU National Championship game in Miami. The Rattlers prevailed in a defensive struggle 14-8

Those dearly departed Rattlers, along with a great many who are still living and proudly wearing their lettermen’s jackets like Dr. John Glover, Clarence Childs, Curtis Miranda, Tommy Chandler, Charlie Ward, Walter Highsmith, and Whitfield Jenkins, made FAMU football from 1957 to 1963 the most dominant dynasty in Black College football history according to SB Nation magazine as they earned seven straight SIAC championships, three Black College national championships, and one Associated Press “Small College” national championship!

Lest we forget!🧡 💚 🐍