John Reaves - Early Life

Early Life

Reaves was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1950, but moved to Tampa, Florida with his mother and grandmother after his father died when he was 9 years old. He attended T.R. Robinson High School in Tampa, where he was a star high school football quarterback for the Robinson Knights. As a senior in 1967, he led the Knights to the Florida Class 2A football semifinal game before losing to the Coral Gables Cavaliers, who won the state championship and were ranked as the national champions afterward. Reaves was lauded as the State Player of the Year. He also played basketball and baseball and ran track for the Knights, and once scored fifty-two points in a high school basketball game.

In 2007, thirty-nine years after he graduated from high school, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) recognized Reaves as one of the "100 Greatest Players of the First 100 Years" of Florida high school football.

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