HISTORY
You had to be careful that
you didn’t run over
anybody’s net,” he said.
“There weren’t any FWC
offi cers out on the water in
those days, and everyone
kept a shotgun on their boat.
I never was shot at
-- but I was threatened
several times.”
The 390 pound shark that Dick caught in
Sarasota Bay. He attached it to the boat
because that was the only way to haul it in to
be weighed.
The overall winner was the one who caught the most tarpon by
weight. There were weigh stations placed in Sarasota, Bradenton, Englewood
and one in Placida. He caught one large tarpon in Captiva
Pass and a smaller one in Little Gasparilla Pass.
“The weather was just terrible that day,” he said. “I had scouted
Little Gasparilla Pass when I wasn’t teaching or coaching and I saw
them ‘rolling’ so I knew right where to fi sh. I would use half of a
mullet on the end of my line and let it sink to the bottom.”
He took his 10-year-old son, Steve, along during the last week of
the tournament to help man the three poles he had in the water,
and they hooked the second fi sh. A bad storm was brewing out of
the east. They kept fi shing until the storm was practically upon them,
when he felt a strike on one of the lines. He knew it wasn’t very big,
but no one else was catching anything that week. The second tarpon
was just big enough that he won the tournament.
The prize was a fi shing boat, motor and trailer.
A mysterious proposition brought him to Florida
Originally from Indiana, the high school teacher never dreamed
he’d teach in Florida for 27 years, and then own a business before
retiring in Rotonda West. He had just fi nished up the school year in
Indiana in 1952, when he received an unexpected telegram from
Sarasota County Schools offering a teaching/coaching position. The
letter stated he would need to make the decision to accept or decline
within the next fi ve days. It listed no other details about the job.
The former Navy pilot accepted the challenge and moved his family
to Sarasota.
He was instructed to report to the administration building, where
he was told he would be working at
Venice/Nokomis High School. Offi cials
gave him instructions to fi nd the school,
located at the end of a dirt road off
Tamiami Trail. When he arrived, he saw
one building. No playground or gymnasium,
just the school building. He was told
to get a chauffeur’s license so he could
legally transport the athletes via bus to
the games.
“We didn’t get assigned drivers back
then – we were the drivers.”
Dick taught in Sarasota County for 27
years. He created the athletic department
at Venice/Nokomis High School
and took the baseball team to the state