Miami-Dade Schools legend G. Holmes Braddock, 98, honored for his love of UM football
Only 11 people have ever received the President’s Distinguished Service Award from the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
It’s an uncommon honor.
But then again, G. Holmes Braddock, who joined the elite group Thursday, isn’t your common Hurricanes fan.
He’s also not your run-of-of-the-mill citizen. He served for 38 years on the Miami-Dade County School Board and led the school district through desegregation and a historic three-week statewide teachers strike, among other important challenges.
When he received the UM award during a banquet on the Coral Gables campus Thursday, he screamed into the microphone at the top of his lungs, “Go Canes!”, and threw a first pump in the air.
“It’s an honor I will cherish all my life,” the 98-year-old said.
“Whatever is left of it,” he added with a chuckle.
The about 300 people in the Watsco Center audience roared in laughter and then gave him a standing ovation. They attended the induction banquet to welcome the new athletes entered into UM’s Hall of Fame, including Brandon Meriweather (football) and Shane Larkin (basketball).
READ MORE: Here are the 2024 UM Sports Hall of Fame inductees to be honored at banquet Thursday
From UM to the Miami-Dade school board
Braddock got the service award for one of his longest standing relationships, one that started in September 1946. He had just served for more than two years as a medic in World War II, and he enrolled at UM to major in journalism.
“I became a student and formed a lifetime romance with the University of Miami and the Hurricane Football Team,” he said.
“I have been a consecutive season ticket holder since 1946. And I have my season ticket for this coming year. That shows I’m an optimist. But maybe not very smart,” Braddock added and smiled.
Braddock, a native of Sebastian, Florida — a town about 15 miles north of Vero Beach — has held season tickets for UM’s football games for a total of 78 years.
FROM 2015: Devoted UM football fan G. Holmes Braddock a man for all seasons
He has hardly missed a game in that time, even during his time as an education administrator and private insurance business owner.
And it wasn’t like he had a lot of leisure time.
During his nearly four decades in the School Board, he supported integration despite death threats and pushed for bilingual education, also an unpopular concept at the time. He ran opposed in each of his 10 elections and won them all. In 1989, the School Board named a high school in West Dade after him, G. Holmes Braddock Senior High.
When he retired in 1999, he’d had the longest career of any school board member in the state of Florida, the Herald reported then.
“I don’t like to miss a play”
A lot has changed since he became a season ticket holder in 1946.
He used to enter the Hard Rock Stadium with a paper ticket. Now he uses his phone — yes, his own — to pull up the electronic version.
He used to walk or drive himself. He can’t do either now, so he asks his friends or his wife to take him, pushing his wheelchair or helping him with his walker.
He also used to sit around the 50-yard line, and now he moved to the handicapped area.
A lot has changed, but some things never do. Like Braddock’s love for the sport.
And the way he watches it: He’s still quiet the entire time. Although he loves to talk before and after the games, he said his friends and relatives know not to sit by him if they want to chat.
“Don’t sit by Holmes, he’s not going to talk to you,” they say.
“I go to a game as business,” Holmes said, shrugging. “I don’t go to a game to socialize. I don’t like to miss a play.”
Even at 98, his memory is still sharp. He can still recite the birth dates for dozens of players just as well as the birth dates of his four children, seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He often corrects his younger peers on tiny details like when a coach started at UM.
He still remembers his best football game: The underdog Hurricanes upset top-ranked Nebraska 31–30 in 1983, winning their first-ever national championship.
And his worst: The 2003 national championship game loss against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Braddock loves baseball just as much as football. He’s been attending baseball games since 1947, and he’s been a season ticket holder for the baseball team since 1969, when the university started offering them.
He loves all sports truly. He’s served for more than a quarter century on the general committee and board of directors for the UM Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. He often says he’ll keep going to the quarterly meetings for as long as they’ll have him.
And next year, he and the University of Miami — both born in 1925 — will turn 100 together.
