Choctaw to honor Townsel, '69 football team, '79 baseball team

Steve German can still remember the first time he met Wyman Townsel.

It was during the fall of 1965 that German, then a fresh-faced ninth grader at Choctawhatchee, also became introduced to something else — intimidation.

“Back then, if you ever met him, you knew you were talking to someone who meant business,” German said. “That close-crop hair, square jaw, he probably had two-percent body fat … You’re a ninth grader and you’re interacting with a guy like that, it can be pretty intimidating.”

Townsel, who now resides in Gadsden, Ala., returned to the area on Thursday to take part in Homecoming festivities today at Choctawhatchee. Townsel’s return to the Choctaw campus is one of several highlights of today’s Homecoming as members of the 1969 football team will also be on hand as will several players and coaches from the school’s ’79 baseball team, the school’s last squad to reach the Final Four.

Current girls’ golf coach Andy Snaith, who starred on that Indians’ baseball team before signing with Ole Miss and then inking a professional contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, called the opportunity to reunite with those that helped build the respective programs a unique opportunity.

“It’s going to be really neat to not only see the guys (we played with) but having two of our coaches there as well,” Snaith said. “This group hasn’t been together in a long time. I’m sure we’ll have a good time.”

Townsel, who served as Choctaw’s football coach and athletic director from 1965-1972, was recently inducted into the All Sports Association Hall of Fame and is largely credited for building the Indians’ football program and taking it to previously untouched heights. In eight seasons, Townsel’s teams compiled a 60-18-4 record and he won the District 1-2A title in ’68 and the Region 1-4A crown in ’71. In ’69, Choctaw posted a 10-1 record.

Returning to the site of what he called “the happiest and most fulfilling years of my life,” Townsel laughs at hearing of how players first viewed him.

“I was a task-master, there’s no doubt about that,” Townsel joked. “It will thrill me to no end (to return to Choctaw). Although I helped a lot of those kids, they helped a lot of me. They made a good coach out of me, I’ll say that.”

Even today, some 30 years after they last donned the green jersey, those who played under Townsel affectionately recall their time spent with the coach.

Jaime O’Rourke, who lettered at Choctaw from 1967-69, can still point to the exact moment he realized his life was about to change.

“He chose three of us to come over during sixth period to practice with the varsity,” O’Rourke recalled. “He actually had us walk behind a pickup truck in the field picking up rocks so he could put the field down. It was then I realized there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t make us do or anything that we wouldn’t do if he told us.

“He’s the kind of guy that commands respect.”

O’Rourke went on to play college football at Vanderbilt, an accomplishment he largely credits to Townsel’s guidance.

“I don’t think I would have played college football if I had been under a lesser coach,” O’Rourke said.