Doyle Orange, star at Waycross in ’60s, on how integration gave him opportunity

Today’s Four Questions interviewee is Doyle Orange, who will be inducted into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame on Saturday at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Playing for Waycross in 1969, Orange became the state’s second 2,000-yard rusher (after Waynesboro’s Jimmy Barfield in 1955) and the first after the GHSA integrated its membership in 1966. In only 10 games, Orange rushed for 2,289 yards. He was named a Parade All-American, the first Black player from Georgia to receive the honor. Orange played the previous season for Center High, Waycross’ school for Blacks. After Waycross, Orange played at Southern Miss, where he became the school’s all-time leading rusher. The Atlanta Falcons drafted him in the sixth round in 1974, but he signed with Toronto of the CFL and rushed for more than 1,000 yards for the Argonauts in 1975. Orange, now 75, a father of four, worked for nearly 40 years with the City of Toronto Parks and Recreation Department.

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1. What was your reaction to getting the news that you made the Hall of Fame?

“They got in touch with my son, and he was telling me a guy had been calling him and asked if he could give him my number. So I’m driving with my wife, and he called (it was Chase Rosenberg from the Hall of Fame) and told me I was chosen for the Hall of Fame, and I said, ‘Is this for real?’ Well, OK, this is something serious. He congratulated me. I told my family about it. It was well received in a great way. I was talking with some guys I used to play with, and they said, ‘Man, you should’ve been in there the first year’ (this year’s induction ceremony of the Hall of Fame’s fifth), but I don’t look at it that way. I’m just grateful to be remembered. To have that year I had, it was really special. It’s always stayed with me. And I didn’t just hang my hat on football. I was pretty good at track and field. I really enjoyed that, too. But Paul Leroy, our (football) coach, was incredible and got us where we needed to go. I’m very honored.”

Note: Orange’s football exploits were just the start of his unforgettable senior year. In the spring of 1970, Orange led Waycross to the Class 2A track and field championship by winning the 100- and 220-yard dashes (10.0 seconds in the 100 and 22.5 seconds in the 220) and running anchor on the winning 440-yard relay team. His personal best in the 100 was 9.7 seconds. The state championship was Waycross’ first as a fully integrated school. The football team finished 8-2 and lost only one region game, to Thomasville, but in those days, only region champions advanced to the state playoffs. Waycross was ranked No. 6 in the final Atlanta Journal poll.

2. What was it like to be part of Waycross’ first integrated class and to have the senior year you had? Do you have any idea you would have a season like that?

“I always knew that I could be a really good player. When I was at Center, I was just the blocking guy, the fullback. Other guys had the opportunity to run the ball. As a little kid, I used to play pee-wee football and was a heck of a runner, but I had people playing ahead of me in high school and didn’t get the chance to play until grade 11, and that was at fullback and a little linebacker. I was a consistent starter but didn’t get the ball as much, but I’m a team player, and it didn’t matter. Then all of a sudden they had a spring training (at Waycross, in anticipation of closing Center and integrating the schools) and Paul Leroy, the coach, ran that triple option, and I must’ve showed I could do it. When the season started, it just exploded. I was the fullback, and we ran a lot of counter traps off that (in a triple-option offense), and when they handed off to me, whew. It was very successful. I was doing things where I had to kick myself, like, geez, am I really doing that? But I always thought I could do it.”

3. Would you have played college football if Center had remained open?

“No, I don’t think I would’ve had the opportunity. The education was better. I learned about the SAT. I don’t think I even knew about that before. The way I see it now, it’s about the money in the school. The school has to be supported. It was a whole different system (at Waycross High). I’m not going to criticize the Black schools or the teachers and coaches, but maybe they didn’t have the resources. When we did merge, it brought more opportunities for athletes like myself. I consider myself blessed that I came along at that time in life where we did merge. It gave me an opportunity to change a lot of things in my life.”

Note: Neither Georgia nor Georgia Tech recruited Orange. Florida State was the biggest school that did but wanted Orange to go to junior college first. Southern Miss allowed him to enroll right away, and he played his first varsity game against FSU and later against Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Orange was a Southern Miss classmate and friend of future Pro Football Hall of Fame punter Ray Guy, whom Paul Leroy had coached at Thomson, winning a state title together in 1967. Guy, Orange and longtime NFL defensive end Fred Cook were Southern Miss players drafted in 1973.

4. Do you get back to Georgia or Waycross very much?

“I come to Waycross every once in a while. My mother just turned 99 on the 12th of October. I was down there this summer and hadn’t been in a while and met a lot of friends. Sometimes I’ll see one, and we’ll have to talk for 30 or 45 minutes. I don’t mind. I think about those days all the time. It gave me the confidence, not just as an athlete, but as a person, as a little guy growing up. I came from a family of 10 kids. You worked for everything you got. I hope whatever I did opened doors for kids that came behind me.

“And I still think if we’d been together for a couple of years (if Waycross had integrated sooner), no telling what we would’ve done. The competition was so stiff, and everybody worked hard, and at the end of the season, we were so close. It was a bunch of people that didn’t know each other, and we played and started winning, and we just gelled, setting records like that. I think it really helped bring Waycross together.”