DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With BCUathletics.com having launched the social media campaign “#24kCountdown to Kickoff”, every Monday we will feature a little known history fact about our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, and how she helped to mold the Maroon and Gold into the program that it is today.
Bethune-Cookman football has always been a family thing, and that started with founder Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.
When the first Wildcats team took the field in 1923, Dr. Bethune's foster son, Edward Rodriguez, was a standout contributor on the squad. He helped the team win the Florida Interscholastic Association (FIA) championship the very next year.
Rodriguez, a stylish young man who went by “Rod” and “Pretty Rod” – but never “Ed” or “Eddie,” would eventually receive his associate degree from his foster mother. He would later come to back to Bethune-Cookman and serve in various capacities across campus until his retirement in 1980.
Bethune-Cookman College presidents would continue a family connection with the football team.
The fiery Charles Wesley Moore, who won 27 games in three seasons as head coach from 1973-75, was the son of Dr. Richard V. Moore, the third president of Bethune-Cookman College. Warnell Vickers, the grandson of “our friend” and the fourth B-CC President, Dr. Oswald P. Bronson, Sr. was a member of the great 2002 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championship team.
MONDAY: #MaryMemories
Each Monday BCUathletics.com will reveal an archived photo of our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, along with a little-known fact relating Dr. Bethune to the Wildcats football program. Fans are also encouraged to tweet their own facts about Dr. Bethune as they relate to B-CU football.
Please use the hashtag #MaryMemories when tweeting photos, and/or sharing your facts to Twitter. We'll add the photo and facts to Facebook as well.
Be sure to interact with us on all social media channels. Fans are encouraged to follow @BCUathletics on Twitter, @BCUathletics on Instagram, and “Like” BCUathletics on Facebook to enter their daily submissions for participation. Fans should also follow BCUathletics on Pinterest for that special tailgating recipe yet to be discovered by the rest of the world.
In addition, Bethune-Cookman recently announced the official social media directory for the department of athletics. CLICK HERE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTORY. All 17 sports teams at Bethune-Cookman have a unique twitter handle, and fans are encouraged to follow the student-athletes and coaches of those teams as each will have special tweets, photos and information unique to that program.
Bethune-Cookman is #NeverSatisfied.
-www.BCUathletics.com-
