LAUREL HILL — The year before Bill Price graduated from Laurel Hill School, the Hoboes became the Hoboes. And an innocuous comment Bill made may have had something to do with it.
Price played the guard position for LHS’s basketball team in 1947, ‘48 and ’49.
“It’s kind of a funny story,” he said. “The kids in my class was always talking about what we was going to do when we got out of high school. There was 13 boys and 5 girls in that class….I knew I wasn’t going to college unless I got a scholarship.
“We was just talking, I said, ‘Well, I don’t what I’m going to do. Maybe I’ll just be a hobo and ride the freight trains.’”
Price’s best friend, Crestview resident Danny Campbell, said the name became official when boys’ basketball coach Rex Wright chastised players for not showing more effort.
“'You’re shuffling around out there like a bunch of hobos,’” Campbell recalled their coach telling them. “We were kind of looking for a mascot and that one fit.”
For Laurel Hill School Principal Lee Martello, Price’s reminiscences typify alumni’s affection for their school.
“Here we are 70 years later and he’s still talking about his school,” Martello said. “He’s still talking about the most unique mascot name for the state of Florida and definitely one of the top five in the country.”
In a way, Price’s off-the-cuff remark was prescient. After serving in the U.S. Navy and then working at Eglin Field, he went to work for the L&N Railroad and stayed.
“It was kind of comical because I rode freight trains for 33 years,” he said.
But first he tried to get a basketball and baseball scholarship to Auburn. When he didn’t, he stuck with the L&N. But he did get to play semi-pro baseball.
“I played class B baseball… with the team in Crestview. I played at Richbourg Field,” Bill said. “I played a lot of games. They wanted me to sign a contract to play.
“They would pay me $25 a game, but you had to practice two days a week…. I told them I just couldn’t do it, not for $25. I stayed with the railroad company all the rest of my life.”
Now and then someone from Laurel Hill School will contact Bill and ask him about naming their mascot. Once a Hobo, always a Hobo.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The man who helped name the Laurel Hill Hobos