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Tampa Basketball Legend Sam ‘Red Hot’ Hearns Dead At 94
Former Tampan Sam “Red Hot” Hearns died on Monday, February 21, 2022, in Broward County, Florida. He was 94 years old.
His only child, Charles Frederick “Fred” Hearns, currently is Black History Curator at the Tampa Bay History Center.
In 1947 and again in 1948 Hearns was a stand- out guard on Tampa’s Don Thompson High School Florida State Champi- onship Boys Basketball Teams. He was born in Tal- lahassee and grew up on Highland Avenue in Tampa Heights on the same block where now sits Waterworks Park.
His high school team
won back-to-back state championships and “we didn’t even have a basket- ball court at Don Thomp- son–andalotoftimeswe only had one ball to prac- tice with,” Hearns re- called.
His teammates at Don Thompson (now Howard W. Blake High School) in- cluded stars Charlie “Trick Shot” White, Norman “Shot” Jack- son, Leroy “Radio Red” Porter, Archie “Tree” Williams, William Brown, Homer Hem- mingway and Rudolph Allen. White is believed to be the only living mem- ber of those championship teams, which dominated Black high school competi-
SAM ‘RED HOT’ HEARNS
tion at the state tourna- ments in Tallahassee.
Hearns earned a schol- arship to Florida A&M Col- lege (now University) and became an all-Southeastern Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference (SIAC) guard. The team lost only one game Hearns’ senior sea- son and he and White are members of the Rattler Sports Hall of Fame.
After serving in the U. S. Army, Hearns worked for the Broward County, Florida School District for 30 years. He served as the principal of the state’s first magnet high school -- Pom- pano Beach’s Blanche Ely. Hearns also was principal of Coconut Creek and Hol- lywood Hills High Schools.
The family will hold a private service for Mr. Hearns on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. He will be laid to rest in the South Florida National VA Ceme- tery in Lake Worth, Florida.
He is survived by son,
Charles F. (Fred) Hearns, grandchildren Charles F. (Ricky) Hearns, Jr., Cassandra Franklin, Marcel Hearns, Charaneka Johnson, Sean Hearns, Ashley Hearns, Mia Hearns, Alexander Hearns, Markell West- brooks and Mariana Westbrooks; cousins, Mamie Howard, Atty. Carolyn Howard and Cornelius Howard; and many others. Friends and well-wishers may send their expressions of love to: James C. Boyd Funeral Home, Inc., 2324 Sistrunk Boulevard Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33311, (813) 584- 3940.
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