Frank George steers his Toyota Corolla a short 10-minute drive from his Tampa home to Rocky Point Golf Course. He trades his car keys for keys to the golf cart.<\/p>\n
His coral short-sleeve polo tucks into a pair of pink shorts held up by suspenders. As a ranger, George, 93, patrols the fairways he\u2019s spent six decades around – and counting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me every year, \u2018Are you coming back?\u2019\u201d George said. \u201cI say, \u2018Why not?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearing a century of life – he\u2019ll celebrate his next birthday July 28 – George still spends his summer Saturdays at Rocky Point. Across his six- to 10-hour shift, he keeps groups on pace, nudging slower ones forward or waving others through. He feeds popcorn to the ducks that have learned to recognize the ranger flag on his cart. On quieter days, he pulls out his iron to take a few swings.<\/p>\n
George has no intent on slowing down. In fact, he\u2019s still chasing.<\/p>\n
A small notecard lists the nine hole-in-ones George has recorded. It\u2019s been 48 years since he sunk his first ace on Diamond Hill Golf Club\u2019s course in 1978. It\u2019s been less than three months since he scored his ninth: a 126-yard shot on Rocky Point\u2019s sixth hole.<\/p>\n
The last row on the 3-by-5 index card shows the number 10, with nothing written beside it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t got 10 yet,\u201d he said. \u201cNot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The note card captures only a part of George\u2019s story. Decade after decade, he has navigated the courses of classrooms, sidelines and fairways. Teacher is a title he continues to hold to this day as a substitute at Plant High School.<\/p>\n
The Oklahoma native began his career in education in Peoria, Ill., in 1958, while coaching basketball, football and baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave me $150 for the year to coach, but back then gas was 20 cents a gallon,\u201d George said. \u201cYou could paddle back then with a big wooden board that the kids were bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
While wooden paddles have been phased out as a form of school discipline, George\u2019s commitment to education continues. In 1968, he moved to Tampa and began working at Chamberlain High School. Naturally, he became a coach.<\/p>\n
Over the next three decades, George built an accomplished resume: three straight girls golf state titles, seven consecutive district and Western Conference titles and three straight Florida Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors. He has those achievements, along with many others, typed onto a sheet of paper titled \u201cMajor Achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach George still boasts about his champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thrill I had two years in a row. One year, I had a boy from Japan play for me, Akio Sadakata, and he won the state,\u201d George said. \u201cThe next year I had a girl win the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was Whitney (Code) Waechter, now 43. The 1999 state champion fondly remembers her old coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just the nicest guy,\u201d Waechter said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter whether you were having a bad day on the course or a good day on the course. He just always just kept everyone\u2019s head up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even after retiring from full-time teaching in 2000 and stepping down as Chamberlain\u2019s golf coach in 2002, George could not stay away long.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife wants me out of the house a little while, so I got on as a substitute teacher, and I taught at Wilson and Coleman (middle schools), and then I got a job at Plant,\u201d George said. \u201cI\u2019ve been at Plant about 20 years.<\/p>\n
He tells his students stories of growing up in the Great Depression and serving in the Korean War, while sharing the secrets of the discipline needed to make it to 93: a good wife and good diet.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife is very good. She\u2019s very gentle,\u201d George said. \u201cDiet is important, eat the right foods. She keeps me on a good diet and we enjoy life.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 88, he was named Hillsborough County\u2019s Substitute Teacher of the Year. At 93, he eyes another year with the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI start in August; keeps me busy,\u201d George said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just influenced a lot of kids over a lot of years and has just spent his life pouring into students and mentoring and coaching and teaching,\u201d Waechter said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a life well lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll spend the rest of summer watching the fairways as a ranger and, when needed, a starter. George prefers the former because, as he put it, \u201cyou\u2019re moving around.\u201d When the shift ends, his tee time begins.<\/p>\n
His wife Susanna\u2019s nephew, Chong Kim, 71, joins him most weekends for a few holes. Over their 20 years of playing together, Kim said competitiveness is a staple of George\u2019s play, as is his humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a lot of jokes,\u201d Kim said. \u201cHe brings jokes from the newspaper. He writes down, then he reads them for me almost every weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
George shared one of his favorites:<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know why they wear two pairs of socks in Ireland when they play golf?\u201d he said. \u201cThey might get a hole in one.\u201d<\/p>\n
George would know a thing – or nine – about those.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frank George steers his Toyota Corolla a short 10-minute drive from his Tampa home to Rocky Point Golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[113,28,12561,14909,1177,141642,141641,135,137,136,7331],"class_list":["post-345756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-education","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-golf-cart","tag-golf-course","tag-index-card","tag-rocky-point-golf-course","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-teacher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}