Leon football Hall of Fame celebrates 50 years of history, tradition
· Yahoo Sports
For Kurt Unglaub, the significance of Leon High’s Football Hall of Fame isn’t simply the hundreds of former Lions who have been honored the past 50 years.
It’s that the tradition started by legendary Leon football coach Gene Cox has endured.
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While many similar programs have disappeared or evolved into broader athletic halls of fame, Leon’s remains devoted solely to football and the people who built its tradition.
“Us being able to keep it going for 50 years, it’s just been a work and just a blessing,” Unglaub said. “I want you to know that, a huge blessing. … Fifty years of anything’s pretty good.”
That longevity will be celebrated Thursday at The Moon, where more than 300 people are expected to gather, including more than 80 Hall of Famers and dozens of former cheerleaders.
High school football changes. Coaches leave. Players grow older. But for five decades, the Leon Football Hall of Fame has kept its history, and the people who made it, connected.
"I don't know of any Hall of Fames in the state of Florida that have lasted that long,” said Leon football coach Ricky Bell, one of three generations of his family in the Hall along with his father and son, Lions athletic director Riley Bell. “This has survived because it was set up the way it was set up in the beginning. And I think that really was some foresight on Gene Cox’s thinking, so it would last and last.”
Leon football Hall of Fame stirs fond memories
One reason Leon's football Hall of Fame is still going strong after 50 years can be traced to the way Cox helped structure it from the beginning.
Instead of tying the Hall’s future to whoever happened to be Leon’s head football coach, Cox helped establish an organization with its own officers, rotating leadership and regular meetings. That allowed new generations of former players and supporters to take ownership and keep the tradition alive through coaching and administrative changes.
Unglaub, a longtime member and former three-year president of the Leon Football Hall of Fame, was asked by the board to return as chairman of the 50th anniversary celebration.
He stressed that Thursday’s event isn’t a formal Hall of Fame ceremony but a reunion, bringing generations of Leon football players, coaches, cheerleaders and supporters back together.
Adding to the significance, Gene Cox’s son, Alan, is serving as the board’s president during the 50th anniversary year of a Hall of Fame that features more than 280 inductees.
“There’s an 80-year-old cheerleader who is coming,” Unglaub said. “We’re not having a banquet. This is just a fun party. A celebration is what it is.”
The 2026 season marks 110 years of the program, highlighted by a historic 37–31 double-overtime win against rival Lincoln High School that snapped a 27-year losing streak to the Trojans.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon football Hall of Fame celebrates 50 years of history, tradition