Bubba Huerta was talking to Lee Kynes, Richard Gonzmart and myself at Columbia restaurant Thursday about his late dad’s (Marelino) days as a head football coach at the University of Tampa (1952-1962) and other stops along his gridiron experience. Bubba mentioned a moose of a player from Plant City named Fred Cason. I asked for a Cason story he most remembered.

“Well, it wasn’t about what he did, but what he did not do,” said Bubba said, a solid Tampa citizen. Kynes is a bright young lawyer with the Ben Hill firm, grandson of Jim, son of Jimbo. Gonzmart owns the Columbia and 25 Sheppard show dogs, one with a gold crown over a once-abscessed tooth. Gonzmart’s special interests have always been what you might expect.

The bullish Cason, a heckuva player, had the flu and was a very sick dog. Coach Huerta, his son said, forgot to report it. But, the resourceful Chelo got the tuba player out of the band before the game, put him in Cason’s uniform, and sat him on the bench the whole game. It worked. The opponent worried so much about when “Cason” was going in, Tampa got ahead and stayed there, winning the game.

Cason did, however, contribute in more practical ways to wins, said Chelo’s son.

And yes, that I remember, too, said Chelo when I recalled when Charlie McCullers dropped a Tennessee kickoff in the end zone, kicked it a bit forward trying to pick it up, then finally got it when the first wave of rushers was past him He broke to the sidelines, “and I think went for a touchdown of 100 yards,” and later, Coach Chelo Huerta said, “When he went by me, I could see the headline in LaGaceta (the Spanish newspaper based in Ybor City) screaming, “Chelo Huerta, Coach of the Year!”

Tennesseee won the game something like 60-6. But, for one brief shining moment…

In truth, Chelo Huerta was right for the University of Tampa job. He built a big fan base. He won. He was always a story.

For a while, his office was on a barge on the Hillsborough River in front of the University of Tampa. It was nice, pleasing for recruits. Not many football offices are/were on rivers, and it had a dart game for potential Spartans to play while waiting to meet Coach Chelo, a charmer.

The first time I saw the board, Chelo was throwing darts at it from his desk. He was pretty good. But, that day, Paul Straub came in the front door and was standing by the board. Two possible recruits were sitting with him. He hit the board a couple of times, then threw two darts particularly hard that hit Coach Straub in the leg and stuck. The kids winched. Straub reached down and pulled the darts out without winching.

“Got to be tough at Tampa,” he said.

He had one wooden leg, lost in World War II. The recruits were told later but signed, Chelo said.

Chelo would go on to head coach at Parsons College and Wichita, where he played a heavily-favored Frank Kush Arizona State team. Huerta head coached 104 wins and was extraordinarily popular at all of his stops, none more than here in Tampa where he returned to head the MacDonald Training Center. To the end Chelo, worked with young people, so many of special needs. But I know of nothing that gave him more pride than being in the uniform of the United States Air Force as a pilot for his country, with coaching a close second.

“You got it,” said his son.

“Two pretty lofty goals,” said young Kynes, he of that family in kinship with the Huertas.