Legacy and Accomplishments of Coach James P. “Bubbling” Small
The legacy of Coach James P. Small—a teacher, a mentor, a coach, a husband, a father, a father figure, but most of all a man of character, respect, an innovator, and a helper. He was born on November 17, 1910, in Jacksonville, Florida. As a student athlete, Small played football, basketball, and baseball and ran track at Stanton from 1926 to 1929. After graduating, he attended FAMC (now known as Florida A&M University). After graduating from Florida A&M University, he attended and received his master’s degree from Ohio State University.
In 1933, Coach Small was hired at Franklin Elementary School. This school would later become a junior/senior high school and would change its name to Matthew W. Gilbert Junior/Senior High School. Currently, the school is a middle school.
The Athletic Department at Stanton was established in 1909, and in 1934, Coach James P. Small was hired at Stanton as the athletic director and head football coach where he would serve in many capacities, including the head basketball boys and girls coach, head track (boys and girls) coach, head baseball coach, the band director, head cheerleaders’ coach, and head drill team coach for girls. He also worked with the cheerleader squad. He voluntarily organized the first band at Stanton and served as bandmaster for nine years without remuneration. Coach Small’s excellent teacher and community relationship was a key asset to securing uniforms and instruments for the band, which was the first Negro band to participate in the Governor’s Inaugural Parade until 1943.
During his over thirty years of coaching at Stanton, Coach Small was a leader, a legend, a pioneer, a visionary, an innovator, a motivator, an organizer, a disciplinarian, and an advocate for coloreds/negros/African Americans. He was also an accomplished musician (clarinet). His service to the school and community included being chairman and coach of the Benefit Bowl Game, a charity event that raised funds for the needy members of the community of Duval County; representing negro schools in physical education; and being an organizer of the Florida Interscholastic Coaches Association, serving as president for five years.
He was the organizer of the first all-star games in football and basketball in the state of Florida, in which he coached the North Squad in both games.
His outstanding coaching career in football included 312 wins, 76 losses, and 16 ties. He won 8 FIAA state championships, 8 district championships, and 16 conference championships. These wins were in the following categories:
Boys Basketball: 3 state championships, 1 state runners-up title
Girls Basketball: 1 state championship, and 4 district championships
Track: 1 state championship, 30 conference championships, 1 district championship
His track teams had won ten titles without a defeat. In baseball, he won twenty undefeated seasons with a 12.0 record. His team is credited with two state championships and several runner-ups.
In 1954, he received the Bragg Meritorious Service Award. Coach James P. Small was named Coach of the Year of the Big 9 North Florida Conference in 1957. He was honored with his twentieth year and thirtieth year Service Awards by the FIAA. He received a Certificate of Appreciation from the State of Florida Department of Education and thirteen Emancipation Celebration Awards for Service of Athletics in 1968.
He held membership in the NEA Florida State Teachers Association, National Health and Physical Education Association, the Duval County Teacher Association, Duval County Classroom Association, and a life membership in the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
In 1970, he received both the Life Membership Certificate from the FIAA and the Outstanding Education Award of Physical Education Association.
He was inducted into the Jacksonville Sports Hall of Fame in 1977 and the Florida A&M University Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.
After his death, he was inducted into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame at its twelfth Annual Dinner and Induction Banquet on March 20, 1988.
Coach Small’s coaching and mentoring led to numerous athletes competing at the professional level, which include the following: Al Frazier (Denver Broncos); Al Denson (Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, and Oakland Raiders); James Ford (New Orleans Saints, Washington Redskins); Harold Hart (Oakland Raiders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers); Ernest Pough (Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders); and Riley Morris (Oakland Raiders). In baseball of the Negro Major League Players were Chico Renfroe and Reverend/Coach Harold H. Hair Jr.
Coach Small believed that education and athletics are major factors in a child’s life, and that child would have a well-rounded and productive life. Further, he believed that if an athlete did well in the classroom, their chances of getting into college would be very good. Coach Small also believed when a student athlete does well, it is because of their self-discipline, mental stability, and that they are spiritually grounded, socially effective, and respectful to authority.
Teachings, Leadership, Mentoring, Disciplines, Adjustments, and Wisdom
A sportswriter from the Florida Times Union, Mr. John Oenser, wrote an article about Coach Small entitled “No Small Feat.”
In eras of history, there is often a leader, a person, a man, or a woman who symbolizes that period. In the era of black high school coaches in Jacksonville, Florida, before 1970, there is such a man. He was a community leader, and educator, he helped, shaped, and molded young men and women. Coach Small was a teacher, a coach and a father-figure. He coached at Stanton, the oldest, most tradition-rich black high school in the Duval County of Jacksonville, Florida and the state of Florida. He won more football games than any coach in this county’s history from 1934-1975. He was the first coach who coached both boy and girl sports. “When Coach Small touched your life,” said ex-Coach, retired Principal, City councilman and school volunteer Jimmie Johnson, who played for Coach Small, “whatever he instilled in you, you wanted to pass on what you had been taught, and share the knowledge with everybody you touched as a person, teacher, coach, dean or a principal the qualities in all areas like Coach Small had done for me.”
Coach James P. “Bubbling” Small, as he has been called, he has been define or describe as a legend over the years, because of what he accomplished in his life and sports, his community, but most of all, the people, students and student athletes he taught and influenced including me.
His impact was evident in that twelve years after his death, the baseball park that was once called Durkee Field Baseball Park was renamed in his honor. This was the park where all of the black schools played their home football, and baseball games for several years and during the summer months, kids would play Little League Baseball games in the park. The high schools at that time were: Matthew W. Gilbert, Douglas Anderson, Northwestern and New Stanton.
Each school would rotate each week a night they would play in the park. The schools’ football team was scheduled to play either on a Thursday night, Friday night or Saturday night.
The park name changed from Durkee Field, to “The Myrtle Avenue Ball Park, but in 1987, it changed to “The James P. Small Memorial Ball Park.”
Early Impression and Impact of Coach Small and New Stanton Senior High School
Our parents, neighborhood athletes, teachers, and coaches at James Weldon Johnson Junior High School would tell us about New Stanton before we got there either to play in the band under the direction of Mr. K. D. McFarlin, or singing in the glee club under
