PHS Basketball Team …
This is the Pensacola High School Basketball Team from 1956, I believe. I thought that since I had posted some Tate High School images from the 1950’s, it was time to post another from PHS in that era. I left the crop at 10×8 when I posted the image, however I do not know if the photo will show up on the blog as 10×8. If you click on the image, it will pop up in another window by itself ( or rather it should ) and that image should be 10×8. It is funny to me that there can be several negatives in an envelope and one can be all scratched up and filthy, then the other can be clean and look like it was just processed last week. The negative above did not take much Photoshop to get ready to post … the other negative in the same envelope looked like it was driven over by a truck and left out side for more than fifty years. I am not positive that this image was taken in 1956, so if anyone knows the correct year, please let us know. Thanks again for looking and please check back … I still have a lot of high school photos to post from the fifties. I am not sure of what exactly, I know some more basketball photos and some other miscellaneous sports images … You are just going to see what I dig up. As always your comments are welcomed and appreciated … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
The Tigers won the state basketball championship in about ’52 under Shorty Sneed. He said a writer called them “the jumping fanatics from the Florida attic.” My senior year we went to the state semifinals. We beat Ft. Myers and then lost to Miami Senior High. Shorty was very successful as a coach, except for my junior year. We had only one senior, Mason Morris, and did not go to state. Marvin Beck succeeded Shorty in about ’61 and had a very good team that was undersized. Escambia’s first year was 58-59. We did not play them that year. Bill
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Bill Kreitlein
January 29, 2015 at 5:46 pm
Thanks for the history lesson … I had never heard that phrase before. I always thought that the “Mighty Midgets” was sort of clever. Probably a sport’s writer for the local paper gave it to them. I believe that I have some negatives from one of the PHS – Escambia basketball games lying around here. It always is a pleasure to hear from you … Frank
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Frank Hardy
January 29, 2015 at 8:21 pm
My guess is the year of this photo may be 57 or 58. I recognize myself, second row, second from left. See other familiar faces too. I graduated in 59. 1956 was early for assistant coach Marvin Beck on back row. Big man next to him is head coach, Raphael “Shorty” Sneed, 7 ft. tall. Bill Kreitlein
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Bill Kreitlein
January 26, 2015 at 9:07 pm
Thanks for commenting Bill … I will change the date in the post. How was the team’s record back then? I believe that sometime in the 1960’s the team was called ” The Mighty Midgets ” and I think that the team was state champions one year. I have found some negatives of PHS playing Escambia, but I am not sure of the year. When I run across them I’ll scan the negatives and put them up. Thanks for commenting and please check back … Frank
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Frank Hardy
January 27, 2015 at 8:10 am
Do you have any photos of the PHS basketball team from the 40’s? My uncle was a star player then. Thanks, Pam
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Mary Waite
January 26, 2015 at 3:49 pm
Mary, my father photographed the senior class at PHS from 1950 to 1970 and the images that I post are just a few that were not burnt up in the fire that destroyed the whole block in 1975. You might be able to go by the school ( if you live in the area ) and see if they have any yearbooks from the 1940’s. The school should have a copy of yearbook in the library, but that is just me talking. Thanks for commenting and please check back … Frank
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Frank Hardy
January 27, 2015 at 8:16 am