Lake Worth High School football in the ’40s

The Lake Worth Trojans dominated area football in the 1940s. Coach E.R. ‘Buddy’ Goodell, posthumously inducted into the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, led the Trojans to the state championship in 1942. The 1944 team (pictured below) defeated every other team in Palm Beach County but then lost the south Florida regional championship to Fort Lauderdale.

In 2007 Palm Beach Post reporter Andrew Abramson interviewed Lake Worth class of 1949 halfbacks Ed Elliott, Clifford Franks and Eugene Bie. Read the interview and view an audio slide show of the three reminiscing about the way high school football was played in the 1940s.

We invite you to share your own stories and memories of high school sports in the Your History section of historicpalmbeach.com

1944 Lake Worth High School Football Team

Front row — John Beane, William Harvey, Wiliam Menges, Bobby Forder, Roger Collar, Lynn Hotchkiss, Cecil Harper, Bob Fulton, Frank Bradswhaw, Gerald Crocker, Jack Adair and Jack White.

Middle row — Coach E.R. Goodell, Bobby Adams, William Humphrey, Herbert Russell, Ralph Warriner, Karl Easton, Alvah Dermott, Tommy Johnson, Jimmy Martin, David Giles, Eric Tuttle, Coach Tom Burns.

Top row — Manager Lloyd Cook, John Remsen, Richard Watson, Donald Sargent, Ted Venos, Wally Johnson, manager Allen Kirkpatrick.

Tags: football, schools, sports