YATES COMMUNITY STUNNED BY FLOYD’S DEATH
Current, former football coach share fond memories of ’93 grad
Michael Hickey didn’t believe the George Floyd he knew as a skinny, 6-foot-6 multisport athlete without a violent bone in his body was the same Floyd whose death has cut a country deep.
Floyd, a 1993 graduate of Yates High School, died Monday after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer’s knee. A viral video of Floyd pleading that he can’t breathe has sparked renewed protests of the treatment of African Americans by white police officers.
The officers involved in the incident were fired, but Minneapolis police said Floyd was resisting arrest and matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case.
Hickey, the current Yates football head coach and a 1991 graduate of the school, reached out to classmates about the Floyd they knew and loved.
“He was beloved by everybody,” Hickey said of Floyd. “He was not a violent person. I had never seen him be violent in high school or ever heard about him being violent after that. I don’t know a lot about his adult background, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. He was always smiling every time I saw him. I just feel bad for those that were really, really close to him.”
In the predominantly black
Yates community, Floyd’s death makes the subject of excessive force by police against minorities “personal.”
“It’s like it’s finally reaching us,” said Maurice McGowan, who was the Lions’ football head coach from 1989 to 2001. “We’ve seen it — whites killing blacks and the police and all that other kind of stuff. But it really happened to us where we could feel it. And I felt it this time, and I’m pretty sure a lot my teams have felt it. This is crazy. It really has gotten
personal.”
McGowan remembers Floyd as a basketball player who was convinced to play football. Floyd ended up being part of the one of the school’s most memorable teams — the 1992 outfit that went 13-2-1 and fell to Temple in the Class 5A Division II state championship game. Floyd had three catches for 18 yards in the title game.
Yates’ 1990s teams were known for their physicality, and McGowan said coaches worked to draw that out of the easygoing Floyd. It worked, with Floyd becoming a major contributor.
Hickey said he hadn’t had many interactions over the years with Floyd, who had moved to Minneapolis looking for work, but that “when we did see each other, it was always love.” In fact, one of the many congratulatory messages Hickey got after being hired as Yates’ head football coach in 2019 came from Floyd.
Hickey said all the tough practices against what eventually would be members of the 1992 team made him a believer Floyd’s class would be a special one.
“That year, they had a number of special athletes, and he was one of them,” said Hickey, mentioning former Texas Tech linebacker Oscar Smallwood and former Oklahoma and NFL running back Jerald Moore as other standouts on Yates’ 1992 team. “(Floyd) was a two-sport athlete. He took pride in being a Jack Yates Lion. He had confidence. He was very coachable, never arrogant, never cocky. He was a special person.”
Smallwood often ran into Floyd as both walked to school — Floyd coming from Cuney Homes and Smallwood having to go through Cuney Homes from Delano Street to get to campus. Smallwood’s father owned a cafe in a neighborhood Floyd would frequent.
In line with Floyd’s mild-mannered reputation, Smallwood remembers an intrasquad scrimmage when Floyd caught a long pass. Smallwood zeroed in for a hit, but Floyd handed the ball to Smallwood to avoid the collision.
“He didn’t like to get hit,” Smallwood said. But he performed when the lights were on.
Smallwood remembers a twopoint conversion play drawn up specifically for “Big Floyd” where a pass would be floated toward him in the back of the end zone. A 6-6 target is difficult to defend, and Smallwood guesses that the play worked 70 percent of the time.
Smallwood said he’s “crushed over” Floyd’s death, remembering him as the ultimate people person and very articulate, but he added that attending Tuesday night’s prayer vigil at Emancipation Park just a mile from the Yates campus lifted his spirits a little.
“As far as off the field, he’s a humble guy,” Smallwood said of Floyd. “When he put the helmet on, you could see his face on some of the pictures and how mean he looked, like we all do. But off the field, we’re harmless.”