Miami High national championship-winning football coach Bobby Carlton dies at 89

Bear Bryant’s hound’s tooth hat lives on ...

Bobby Carlton did a lot of things in his remarkable life – he led Miami High to a national championship, coached in the World Football League, and he became a pilot at age 60, just to name three highlights.

But one of his favorite memories was meeting the late Bear Bryant, the legendary coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide and the owner of those famous hats. The meeting took place in 1965, after Carlton had led Miami High to a state title and the mythical national championship.

Alabama, in town to play Nebraska in that season’s Orange Bowl, honored Miami High’s team by inviting them to tag along on different events in the city, and that’s where Carlton met Bryant.

“My dad made a comment to ‘The Bear’ about his hat,” said Carlton’s daughter, Karey Yarborough. “The Bear gave Daddy his hat, and it meant a lot.”

So did Carlton – to a lot of people.

Carlton died Sunday night at age 89. He had suffered through various health issues, including heart and kidney ailments and two broken hips, but he got COVID in the last week of his life, and his body gave out, Yarborough said.

He died in his home in Cedar Bluff, Alabama, and Yarborough and her sister, Karmel Horvath, were among those by his side.

“He was very frail,” Yarbrough said. “He wasn’t the same muscular guy of his youth. I fed him his favorite, a chocolate shake (on Saturday), and we were able to talk a little bit.”

Carlton died the next day, leaving behind an impressive list of accomplishments but also a legacy of love and compassion.

Yarborough and Horvath were adopted from different birth mothers because Carlton’s wife, Jean, could not conceive.

“A lot of people search for their birth parents, but I never had that desire because of how lucky we were to land in their home,” Horvath said. “He was a phenomenal husband and father.

“My dad was a man of integrity. When he had workers at the house, my dad didn’t need a contract. A handshake was good.

“He was a humble guy with friends that stretched back 70 years. He was respected, too.”

A native of Moultrie, Georgia, Carlton played for Miami High as an All-City lineman. He blocked for All-American halfback Wally Piper and graduated in 1952.

At the University of Miami, Carlton was one of the last two-way players before specialization became the norm. Carlton played middle linebacker and left tackle.

After his playing days, Carlton returned to Miami High as an assistant coach under Ottis Mooney.

In 1965, Carlton became the head coach, and he led the Stingarees to a 12-0 record in his first season. The Stings pounded Melbourne, 44-12, in the large-school Class 2A title game, and Miami High allowed an average of just 4.3 points per game that year. That dominance made the Stings No. 1 in the national polls that year.

Carlton went 29-3-1 in his three years at Miami High, and that ’65 season still stands as the Stings last state title in football.

After Miami High, Carlton took a job with Belcher Oil Company before becoming offensive line coach at the University of Tampa (1969-1970), Miami (1971-1972) and Memphis State (1973-1974).

In 1975, Carlton was hired as offensive line coach of the World Football League’s Jacksonville Express. The head coach was Charlie Tate and the quarterback was George Mira Sr., both of Miami Hurricanes fame.

The team went 6-5 before the league folded.

“It was exciting flying around to see your dad coach,” Yarborough said. “We would sit in the best seats.

“But when that league folded, that was it for Daddy. He said, ‘I’m done moving my family around.’”

In 1976, Carlton took a job as the first athletic director at what was then a new school, Miami Southridge. He stayed at that job until 1989, helping to build a dynasty in several sports. He hired some amazing coaches, including Don Soldinger in football, Fred Burnside (football/baseball), Herman Jackson and Sam Burley (track and field).

“He was an old country boy -- old school for sure,” Burnside said of Carlton. “He’d come in and give us pointers during our football meetings. He’d get on the blackboard, and we’d pick his brain. He knew the game for sure.”

After retiring from Southridge, Carlton took a job in 1990 as an American Airlines customs agent. Soon after that, he fulfilled a dream to become a pilot, flying small Cessna planes at Tamiami Airport.

“Daddy could never sit still,” Yarbrough said.

In 1997, Carlton and Jean moved to Cedar Bluff to be closer to her family in Birmingham.

Carlton eventually bought a Cessna, but – on his first flight in Cedar Bluff – he caught a tailwind on landing and crashed the plane. Carlton and his cousin were uninjured, but the plane was totaled.

Instead, Carlton bought an RV, and he and Jean traveled the country by land.

Jean passed away in 2006, and Carlton is survived by his two daughters, Yarborough and Horvath as well as many other family members, including two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Miami High inducted Carlton into its Football Hall of Fame in 1994, and those Stingarees years can still be considered his glory days.

During that Stings championship season, Miami High beat Coral Gables, 14-7, in front of 48,631 fans in the Orange Bowl. It was the largest crowd ever to watch a game in the state of Florida at the time.

That contest snapped Coral Gables’ 28-game win streak, and it helped Carlton ultimately meet Bear Bryant and get that hound’s tooth hat, which is now proudly displayed in Horvath’s den.

“To him – and also to my mom who was from Alabama – Bear Bryant was the epitome of coaching,” Horvath said. “To meet him and to receive that hat was one of the best moments in their lives.”