Cycling was absent during high school as my focus was on football and a desire to earn a football scholarship. Several schools were interested, one of which was Furman, which needed a replacement center for field goals and punts. They stayed in contact with me more than other schools, so Furman was the only school I applied to. Being accepted, I was to report weighing 215 pounds, bench pressing at least 300 pounds, cleaning 225 pounds, running a quarter mile within 70 seconds, and a mile within seven minutes. I exceeded the weightlifting requirements and was the fastest lineman in the quarter mile and the mile.

Unfortunately, within a few weeks, I was hauled off the field and taken to the doctor due to back pain. X-rays revealed my L4 and L5 discs were degenerative, which ended my football career. I was offered to stay on as an athletic trainer, and that would allow me to keep some scholarship money. I began running and playing basketball against the other trainers, and I started losing weight. The perks were nice, but I was missing out on athletic competition.

The 16th tee of the Furman golf course was a 400-yard walk from my dormitory. Even though I hadn't played since I was in my early teens, I pulled out the clubs and began hitting the links. I stopped being an athletic trainer at the end of my freshman year and turned my focus to earning a spot on Furman's golf team. My sophomore year, I was nowhere close to making it, and my junior year, I missed it by three strokes. That was the end of my trying out for the golf team.

I had been running approximately three miles every other day, but I also began swimming during my junior year and improved to the point where I would swim a mile every day during lunch. Mountain biking caught my interest, and I asked for an MTB for my birthday. On days I didn't run, I'd ride my MTB to the top of Paris Mountain and end up with at least a ten-mile ride. When time permitted, I began riding a bit longer, and I soon found out about triathlons.

As the interest in triathlons grew, the Spring of my junior year was the time to get a road bike. Sunshine Cycles set me up with a Bianchi, toe clip pedals, shoes, and a helmet. The group set was Shimano 600EX with 42-52 chainrings. Ride distances increased, and I continued to run and swim. My senior year, I participated in an organized ride from downtown Greenville to the top of Paris Mountain and back. Every registered rider was entered into a drawing for a Raleigh road bike equipped with double brake lever handles. My name was drawn, and I now had three bikes. Staying in a single dormitory room, I laid one of the bikes on my bed each morning and stood another in the closet so I had room to move about. When one of my professors, Dr. Powell, found out about the Raleigh, he asked if his wife could try it out. She liked it and now had a bike to begin doing triathlons.

My path to cycling began on a tricycle in Citra, Florida, when I was around 4 or 5 years old. The only memory I have is riding circles around a copperhead snake coiled up in the center of the carport.

When I believe we lived in Live Oak, I advanced to two wheels. Reluctantly, I rode without shoes and routinely scraped my big toe on the curb.

A few months later, we moved to a house in Ocala on the west end of what is now Florence Moore Turnipseed Park. I met Jimmy Chambliss, who lived a few blocks away, a few houses from what is now Walker Park. Living only a few blocks from each other during a time when parent monitoring relied on trust and open communication, our bikes provided endless freedom and adventure.

The two standouts of this time were the technology of Jimmy's bike and a crash, resulting in the fear of future crashes. The crash occurred during the fall when oak tree leaves would collect on the road. Going down a hill on 13th Avenue and immediately turning left on 7th Street, the leaves caused me to fall, and the left side of my body slid across the road. Jimmy's bike was a Schwinn Sting-Ray. Standard features of this bike are a banana seat and ape hanger handlebars. The unique features were a spring loaded sissy bar for a "floating seat" and 2-speed automatic kick back rear hub.

During high school, feeling the freedom behind the wheel of a truck was paramount. However, for some reason, I got a Schwinn Varsity. The only two purposes that come to mind are having a bike for when I left for college and aiding my training for college football. The one standout was going on a ride with Randy McDaniel to Belleview and returning home.