‘Piece of history’ once again stands tall at Atlantic High
Statue moves from old Seacrest site, gets a fresh paint job.
DELRAY BEACH — Jeff Kozan recalls climbing a 20-foot statue of a professional football Hall of Famer near the former Seacrest High School campus, his father’s alma mater.
That’s why Kozan, a local artist, donated his time to repainting the statue, the last step in restoring it to its former glory and moving it to the current Atlantic High School campus.
“I never thought about it at the time (when I was a child), how important the statue was,” Kozan said. “My dad was excited to hear about it.”
Inspired by football quarterback Y.A. Tittle, who was nicknamed the “bald eagle,” the large statue was donated to former Seacrest High School in 1968 by artist Don Seiler, who died in 2000.
Tittle had no connection with the school, but Seiler’s friend suggested donating the statue to “a lovely little high school with a great football team,” according to archived Palm Beach Post stories.
For decades, it was adjacent to the Seacrest High football field and remained in place after the school was converted to Hilltopper Stadium and a soccer field complex.
The school was renamed Atlantic High School in 1971, after it merged with former Carver High School. Seacrest was an all-white school; Carver was an all-black s c h o o l . T h e s c h o o l a d o p t e d Seacrest’s green-and-white school colors and Carver’s bald eagle mascot.
The integrated campus was moved in 2005 to the current site northwest of Atlantic and Congress avenues.