Did you know that High School Football America was born with a different name?
Yep, in 2004, I began the journey to becoming a national high school football media company with a blog on Blogger called The High School Football Huddle. From there, I grew that one blog into a network of blogs…one for each state, plus the District of Columbia, in addition to the original blog that I started in 2014.
Parts of each of those 52 blogs are still alive-and-well on the worldwide web, even though the haven’t been updated in years. If you’d like to check-out our early years, just click here.
For those of you not familiar, we changed our name to High School Football America in 2009 when my co-founder Trish Hoffman came-up with the name during a brainstorming session.
As we wind down our 15th anniversary and get ready for No. 16, I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the stories I wrote in those early years. We’ll do this on Tuesdays and call call it Turnback Tuesday.
Our first Turnback Tuesday takes you back to February 5, 2006 when there was debate on whether then Florida Governor Jeb Bush was involved in recruiting Myron Rolle, one of the top college recruits in the country, to Florida State.
Below is the story as it appeared in ’06:
The High School Football Huddle
Well, if it wasn’t enough that his brother is constantly being question on the war in Iraq, Florida Governor Jeb Bush is being questioned about his involvement in the recruiting war for New Jersey high school player Myron Rolle, who many considered one of the top five recruits in the nation.
Bush admitted last week to sending a message Rolle, who played his high school ball at the Hun School, encouraging him to come to play at Florida State.
Now Seminole officials are going to have to answer recruiting violation questions.
“The NCAA is aware of the situation and has been in contact with Florida State University,” the NCAA said in a statement. “We are waiting for the university to submit information, and we will analyze it to determine if any violations occurred.”
To read more on the story on Rolle, who’s already on campus in Tallahassee from the Sun Sentinel, please click on The High School Football Huddle’s headline “Bush Involved In Recruiting War?”
The High School Football Huddle, 2006
Fast Forward
Nothing ever came of the recruiting investigation and Rolle went-on to have a solid career at Florida State, which eventually led him to be taken by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. However, it is Rolle’s life off the field that catches most people’s attention.
Rolle earned a Rhodes Scholarship at FSU. That led him to study at the University of Oxford in London for the 2009-10 academic, delaying his entry into the NFL Draft. After a brief two-year NFL career, he decided to retire to begin his journey to becoming a doctor.
Currently, Dr. Rolle is doing his neurosurgery residency at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2015, Dr. Rolle tweeted this about Jeb Bush.
Frosh yr at FSU, Jeb Bush told me I’ll be a Rhodes Scholar & a great MD one day. Good start to college to have the Gov say that! #MemoryLane
— Myron Rolle, MD (@MyronRolle) June 15, 2015
