By Walter Villa on November 22, 2024

Sandwiched between two displays of Coconut Grove sports legends –NFL player Frank Gore and Olympic Gold Medalist Gerald Tinker – Executive Director Anthony Witherspoon gives a tour of the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame.

From the NFL to the grass courts of Wimbledon, the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame celebrates the community’s rich athletic history.

Coconut Grove is the place that kept Van Waiters grounded, even as he earned the praise of college basketball coaching legend Bobby Knight and, later still, as he earned a living as a pro football player excelling in the NFL.

And Coconut Grove is the place that inspired Kim Sands to a future she once knew almost nothing about: the sun-kissed grass courts of Wimbledon.

Waiters, 59, and Sands, 68, are both products of what for decades has arguably been the most vibrant and empowering neighborhood for young athletes in all of Florida.

They also are members of one of the Grove’s most exclusive – and prestigious – clubs: the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame.

“I wouldn’t be Van Waiters without Coconut Grove,” said the man who played linebacker for five seasons with the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. “I had a strong father and mother. But I would not be Van Waiters without those eight or 10 blocks of the Grove.

“That community raised me just as much as my parents did. Everywhere I went as a youngster, if I were doing the wrong thing, older guys in the community would say, ‘Young man, you are different. You have talent. You have skill. Do not waste it.’ Coconut Grove gave me an edge.”

Over the years Coconut Grove has provided a foundation of support, and guidance, for thousands of young men and women drawn to sports. One hundred and thirty-seven of them – athletes, coaches, and mentors – are now enshrined in the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame, which inducted its first class in 2015 and moved to its current location, at 3634 Grand Avenue, in 2019.

The hall’s next induction ceremony is tentatively planned for February 2025. The list of honored athletes has not been announced.

Sands, inducted in 2023, is one of just 10 females in this Hall. More are sure to follow. A Grove native, who lived there her first 14 years, Sands credits the close-knit community of her childhood for instilling her with the work ethic and competitive fire that drives professional athletes.

“I lived across the street from Grand Avenue Park,” which later became Armbrister Park, Sands said. “I was a park rat. The park was a community back then. There must have been 20,000 Africandescendant families in The Grove then. Now, it is less than 1,000.”

Besides the numbers, there was a palpable feeling Sands experienced in the late 1950s and throughout the ‘60s in the Grove.

“We all stuck together,” Sands said. “We would go to games and see amazing athletes every day. [Olympic sprinter] Gerald Tinker lived around the corner. We would go to a baseball game and guys would hit home runs so far that you could not see where the ball landed. Those guys inspired me.”

Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame co-founder Anthony Witherspoon tells a similar story. Witherspoon, 70, never played basketball in high school, or later as a student at what was then known as Miami-Dade Community College, but after sprouting to an impressive 6 feet 5 inches during his sophomore year he transferred to Clark Atlanta University, an NCAA Division II school, and tried out for the basketball team.

He so impressed coaches that he earned a scholarship. Years later, he was enshrined into the Clark Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame – an honor that planted a seed for establishing (along with co-founder Craig Curry) a similar institution to honor those who helped elevate Coconut Grove within the nation’s sports landscape.

Charles Gibson, grandson of the late civil rights leader and Coconut Grove community activist Theodore Gibson, allowed use of a building for the Hall of Fame, Witherspoon explained.

Other key organizers of the hall have been Charlie Coney, as historian and chairman of the selection committee; Gene Tinnie as curator; and Cornelia Dozier, who has helped with fundraising.

While giving a tour of the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame, Board Member Charlie Coney points to an image of himself while playing basketball for Coral Gables High School. (Patrick Farrell for the Spotlight)

The hall inducted its inaugural class in 2015 with the sprinter Tinker, along with his cousin Larry Black – half of Team USA’s 4×100 relay team that won gold at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

National Football League stars Willis McGahee and Neil Colzie were also part of the 2015 class. McGahee, a running back, was a national champ at the University of Miami, a first-round pick, and a two-time NFL Pro Bowl player. Colzie, a cornerback, was a first-team All-American at Ohio State and a first-round draft pick and a Super Bowl champ in the NFL.

In addition to Van Waiters, Coconut Grove’s 2018 class included football stars Frank Gore, Roscoe Parrish, and Marvin Jones. Gore won a national title at the University of Miami and set an NFL record for most career games at running back. He was a five-time Pro Bowl selection, and he trails only Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton for most career rushing yards.

Current NFL stars from Coconut Grove, recognized in the hall, include Pro Bowl linebacker Denzel Perryman, and Amari Cooper, a former All-American and national champion at Alabama who is now a five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver.

Then there’s Van Waiters.

At Coral Gables Senior High, Waiters was more known for his basketball achievements than for his talents playing football. He credits the Grove for helping to hone his skills – and his toughness – playing pick-up games with a regular cast of grown men on the courts at Elizabeth Virrick Park.

“I was getting fouled hard,” Waiters said with a laugh. “But we were competing.”

While basketball was Waiters’ passion, football was his ticket, by way of an athletic scholarship, to Indiana University, where he emerged as a 6-foot-4-inch, 240-pound linebacker for the Hoosiers, making third-team All-American in 1986 and second-team All-American the next year.

While he was at Indiana, inspired by the school’s national championship in basketball during his junior year, Waiters flirted with the idea of returning to the courts as a rare two-sport athlete – playing both football and basketball for the Hoosiers. But despite a glowing recommendation from his former high school coach, Bill Sullivan, in Coral Gables, IU’s legendary coach Bobby Knight nixed the plan, explaining to Waiters that success, at the highest levels, requires specialization.

But the rejection came with a silver lining. “One day [Knight] approached me on campus,” Waiters recalled. “He said, ‘You are a great football player. I expect you to do big things.’ That was a phenomenal day for me. It shot my confidence through the roof.”

While the athletes honored by the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame are predominately from the world of football (78 inductees) and basketball (22), a host of other sports are recognized.

Among them is tennis, of which Sands knew very little growing up in Coconut Grove. While Grand Avenue Park included tennis courts, they often lacked nets and the playing surfaces were full of debris. But like other kids around her in the Grove, she competed and excelled at a range of other sports.

When Sands’ family moved to the Larchmont Gardens area of Miami, Sands and her brother would often catch a bus to play basketball at Moore Park. One day, a park manager and a few other regulars, clearly impressed with her athletic ability, asked Sands if she would like to give tennis a try.

Before long, and with her mother’s permission, Kim Sands was receiving free coaching lessons, tennis rackets and tennis gear. But despite the enthusiasm of her backers, she recalled, Sands had her doubts.

“It was hot on that court. There were no other Black children. I felt very isolated.”

Among those who spotted Sands at the park and encouraged her development as a tennis player was Theodosios Balafas, an Olympic pole vaulter for Greece in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. And despite his offer of support, her doubts remained.

“I told him, ‘The first time you do not show up for my free lesson, I am never coming back’,” Sands said.

In time, Sands grew to love tennis, and her passion for the sport truly blossomed in 1973 when 29- year-old Billie Jean King defeated 55-year-old Bobby Riggs in what was billed as “Battle of the Sexes II”. King won the tennis exhibition, earning the winner-take-all prize.

“When I saw a woman get $100,000 for playing a man,” Sands said, “I thought, ‘I may be able to hang in the sun, too.’ [Balafas] was so sure I could become a world-class player.”

Pretty soon, the legendary Arthur Ashe was also visiting Moore Park to offer her lessons. And soon, Sands became the first Black woman to earn a tennis scholarship to the University of Miami.

As a professional, she earned nearly $200,000 in her career – not too shabby for that era – while being ranked as high as No. 29 in the world in doubles and No. 39 in singles. One of her biggest thrills was beating Hana Mandlikova, ranked No. 1 in the world at that time. Two weeks later, Mandlikova won Wimbledon.

Sands, who spent ten years on the pro circuit never advanced past the second round of Wimbledon, but just being there was magical, she said.

“I remember sitting in the players’ box one time. Princess Diana was just two boxes away. I remember her smiling at me. It was amazing.

“Growing up, the Grove was an exciting place to be,” Sands added. “There were so many great athletes for such a small section of Miami. I loved the Grove – the people, the community, the pride … it was the mecca.”

Tours of the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame, at 3634 Grand Avenue, are available through reservation only by calling 678-596-4542.