FHSAA Hall of Fame: Pride fills Booker T. Washington's Jade Brown following school's recent honor

It doesn’t take long to figure out two things about Jade Brown.

First, she’s extremely passionate about Booker T. Washington High School. The second item presents itself in the winter, as she is one of the Pensacola-area’s best girls high school basketball coaches.

But there’s another fact about the Wildcats athletic director: she’s a bit of a history buff.

While enjoying a collegiate basketball career, Brown graduated from LIU Brooklyn with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. And during her 14 years at Booker T. Washington, she’s absorbed a great deal of the school’s history, like a sponge.

Still, there is one thing she wasn’t aware of until just a few months ago. That is that Booker T. was once a part of the FIAA.

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From 1932-1968, the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Association was the regulating organization for athletics in black high schools. Established in 1912 and opened in 1916, Booker T. Washington was a segregated black school before integrating in 1969. Just one year prior, the FIAA merged with the Florida High School Athletic Association.

“I was like, ‘Wow, I never knew that,’” Brown said upon learning of the FIAA. “I knew about Booker T. being the only black high school in Pensacola for years. I knew that history, but to know that we’re one of the founding members of the FIAA, I think that just speaks volumes of our school.”

As part of the 55th anniversary of the FIAA/FHSAA merger, Booker T. Washington was one of 10 former FIAA schools honored during the FHSAA Hall of Fame ceremony on Sept. 24 in Gainesville. Schools that were also recognized include Blanche Ely (Pompano Beach), Booker (Sarasota), Booker T. Washington (Miami), Dillard (Fort Lauderdale), Florida A&M University Developmental Research School (Tallahassee), Gibbs (St. Petersburg), Jones (Orlando), Miami Northwestern (Miami) and Raines (Jacksonville).

Brown traveled to Gainesville to accept the honor on Booker T.’s behalf.

“It was really good to be a young African American person and so see many of our pioneers in our state be honored, including the schools,” she said. “Booker T. in Pensacola and Miami, two schools that were leading the way for change. … It was cool to learn the history of our state and know that a school in our city played a role in that.”

The Wildcats athletic director added that she was appreciative of being a part of the same ceremony where all 13 members of 2023 FHSAA Hall of Fame Class were African American. The class featured Bob Hayes and Larry Little, who each went on to NFL fame and were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Attending Woodham during her high school days, Brown’s passion for Booker T. was initially established by talking to veteran teachers when she arrived on the scene. She said it took time to fully grasp the legacies of those who once walked the halls of the school, first at its previous Texar Drive location to its current location on College Parkway.

Fast forward to 2023, there isn’t another person that wears the blue and white colors with more pride.

“To me, it’s about paying homage to those who came before us,” Brown said. “From Roy Jones Jr. to Derrick Brooks, Horace Jones to Jerry Pate, we got a list of wonderful athletes and there’s a lot of tradition there. I feel like as an athletic director, it’s my duty to make sure that the community, students, teachers, faculty, staff and parents know the history of Booker T.

“That’s why I’m always adamant in calling it Booker T. because people need to know what it is. I would tell the kids what the T. stands for because a lot of people don’t know that it stands for Taliaferro. You can’t forget where you come from to get where you’re going, as my Mama would say.”

Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached at (772) 985-9692, on X at @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: FHSAA: Jade Brown beams over Booker T. Washington's recent HOF honor