Gerald Tinker: South Florida’s Fastest Football Player

South Florida has produced some of the fastest football players in the country. Perhaps no player in Miami-Dade County history had more speed than Gerald Tinker of Coral Gables School. On the football field, Tinker was a dangerous running back who could score from anywhere on the field. He was an All State and All American prep player who helped Gables win back-to-back state and national championships in 1967 and 1968. Many of his best games came in the Orange Bowl.

Raised in Miami’s Coconut Grove, Tinker was even more dominant in track. He was the fastest teenager in America, winning the state 100 and 220 yard dashes. He eventually became a world class sprinter and won a gold medal in 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany as a member of the United States 4 x 100 relay team. Tinker originally attended Memphis State University (Now known as the University of Memphis) and was the school’s first African American football player. He later transferred to Kent State in Ohio, where he played for Coach Don James, a former University of Miami quarterback who later coached the University of Washington to the 1991 national title. Tinker played briefly in the NFL with the Falcons and Packers. To read more stories about the Orange Bowl, visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ghostsoftheorangebowl