- May 17, 2025
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The city of Ocoee won three first-place ribbons at the 1966 Central Florida Fair. The classifications considered best were Living Plants, Citrus Fruit, and Irish and Sweet Potatoes. The city also was awarded five second-place ribbons, three third place and one fourth place. It also took second place in the Best Community Story awards group.
This photo appeared in The Winter Garden Times in June 1967 with the following caption: “If all goes according to plan, this lot will be the location of the new Ramada Inn. The seven-story inn should be opened in 225 days after the groundbreaking ceremony. The Ramada Inn belongs to a chain of well-established inns offering the finest for the traveling public. It is expected that the initial cost will exceed $1.5 million. The building will front on State Highway 50. A service station now occupying the corner will remain.”
In June 1968, a tree was added to the corner of the Ramada Inn building, signifying the “topping out” ceremony.
In June 1968, a tree was added to the corner of the Ramada Inn building, signifying the “topping out” ceremony.
The seven-story Ramada Inn was completed in less than one year, and, already, plans were calling for the addition of two more wings.
The Ramada Inn was built in Ocoee in 1968 and, at some point, became the Colony Plaza. Locals called it the pink hotel because of its exterior color.
The Ocoee High Class of 1967 included, l-r: front, Shirley Armstrong, Gail Grider, Sue Main, Mike Johnson, Helen Cole, Linda McPherson, Amelia Scott, Phyllis Hall; second row, Jerry Gaby, H.A. Nobles, Randy Chisolm, Charlotte Byram, Nancy Maguire, Dorothy Hunter, Ellen Bremer, Mary Ann Eddy; third row, Wayne Catrett, Joe Stinnett, John Drake, Roger Wright, Billy Walberg, Sam Aldrich; back, Jerry Owens, James Hopper and Gordon Taylor.
Among the Ocoee High Class of 1967 graduates were, l-r: front, Linda Rodgers, Brenda Windham, Linda Wise, Judy Breland, Susan Stinnett, Susan McGuire, Linda Weaver; second row, Anna Goodson, Sandra Hammock, Lynn Badger, Patricia Black, Donna Grayson, Gale Lacher, Vivian Wood; third row, Victor Connell, Barry Barker, Allen Stiles, Skip Foote, Bruce Tucker, Rick Nolle; back, Jimmy Pyle, Roger Freeman, Lee Kirkland, Ronnie Aycock, Holland Griffin and Waylon Powell.
Graduates of Ocoee High Class of 1967 included, l-r: front, Yvonne Watson, Diane Meadows, Judy Black, Donna Bruce, Connie Stewart, Patti Shaw; second row, Kaye Howell, Jan Wright, Ann Adkinson, Garland Marsh, Judy Sawyer, Karen Christensen, Debbie Johnson; third row, Don Mask, Jim Breland, Mike Brown, Harland Creel, Jim McDowell, Barry Poteat; back, Ray Wood, Bob Whitman, Bobby Knight, Elton Edmundson, Bill Boon and Tommy Kerr.
This is all that remained of the Elberta Crate & Box Company plant in Ocoee after the big fire in 1970. Five fire departments battled the blaze.
The Cardinals defeated the Pirates 3-2 to win the 1970 West Orange Little League Championship. Players were, l-r: back, Richard Flood, Ric Freeman, Ricky Maloy, Richard Dobson, Ted Triplett, Derek Blakeslee; middle, Neil Saville, Lynn Dickerson, Tony Hood, Brian Hartpence, Tommy Hall; front, Ken Parr, Scott Craig, Robert Caperilla, Craig Maloy and manager Stan Roper. Not pictured: coaches John Terrell and Don Jackson.
The 1974 Ocoee Little League All-Stars were, l-r: front, Robert Span, Tim Daughtry, Robin Rohn, Rick Cothern, Mark Oliver, Jerry Phillips, Bobby Cook, Steve Posey; back, Eddie Lee, David Rodriguez, Dennis Crowe, Tim Crowe, Bruce Aho, Neal Martin, Drew Butler and James Cook.
The 1975 Ocoee Little League All-Stars were, l-r: front, Tony Vinson, Bruce Faison, Larry White, Kenny Minnick, Rick Moore, Jeff Whitehead, Joe Wise, Steve Gates; back, Buck Bowden, Craig Aho, Drew Butler, Jimmy Wise, Mike Rybski, Dennis Forbes, Duane Grimes, Dwayne Brock and Marty Moore.
Walt Disney World was coming to Central Florida, and residents didn’t know the extent of the massive growth boom that was around the corner.
Among those who were prepared were hoteliers, including the men behind the Ramada Inn chain of hotels. An article on the front page of the June 8, 1967, issue of The Winter Garden Times announced the business principals entered a long-term lease on a seven-acre tract of land full of citrus trees owned by Clifford Freeman, an Ocoee businessman and Orange County commissioner, and W.E. Deacon.
The new 150-unit Ramada Inn was to be built at the southwest intersection of Highway 50 (now West Colonial Drive) and Maguire Road. Plans called for a seven-story building with penthouse apartments, swimming pools and an elevated sundeck. The owners had future plans for additions, which would give it a capacity of 550 units upon completion.
The hotel also boasted a restaurant, lounge, tennis courts and meeting rooms, and it was the first hotel in Orange County to receive a license to serve liquor with meals on Sunday.
Walt Disney World leased the hotel, and “everybody who was anybody” in the state was present to hear the story of what Disney was planning.
Through the years, the hotel hosted hundreds of thousands of overnight guests, its restaurants offered buffet meals to the community and its lounge invited locals to enjoy the most popular live music and drinks of the day.
The West Orange YMCA (now the Roper YMCA Family Center) took up space at the hotel as well. Prior to the Y pool’s construction in 1979, its swim instructors provided parent-and-child lessons at several area hotels, including the Ramada Inn. The YMCA offices were housed in rooms donated by the Ramada before the Y had a home of its own.
At some point, the name was changed to Colony Plaza and the hotel was painted pink.
In May 2009, it was the end of an era for the 41-year-old hotel-turned-timeshare. Hundreds of people gathered across Maguire Road to watch crews implode the building. More than a dozen workers had been on site for two months gutting the two towers and removing asbestos. The city had condemned the derelict hotel and used money from its Community Redevelopment Agency to pay for the demolition.
CARDINALS AND KNIGHTS
The Ocoee High School Class of 1967 broke records and made headlines for both its size and its antics.
Graduation saw the largest class in history with 75 seniors. Lynn Badger was the class valedictorian, and Rick Nolle was salutatorian. Graduation services were held in the school library with Russel Bellow, assistant superintendent of the Orange County School System, as the main speaker.
The Ocoee History Messenger, in 2002, shared the story of a “donation” made by the Class of 1967. The story originally appeared in the OHS newspaper “Campus Tribune” and was written by senior Barry Poteat.
His article began: “Thursday morning was a day of recognition as the Ocoee student body witnessed the erection of a beautiful wood-grain-finish addition to the Ocoee campus. …”
The rest of the story was told in the 2002 Messenger:
Seniors Ray Wood and Skip Foote were in the cafeteria trying to come up with a way for their class to be remembered without getting into too much trouble. Their brainstorming resulted in the idea to “donate” an abandoned outhouse they had discovered in the Gotha area. They recruited Jim Breland to help, and Jim Pyle was brought in because he was the only senior with a flatbed pickup truck.
After school, while they waited for Mr. Lily to clean and secure the campus, the boys visited Mr. Rochelle’s White’s Auto Store to buy 99-cent cans of white spray paint. At 10 p.m., they went to Gotha to pick up the outhouse and arrived on the Ocoee campus with their “gift” to the school. They decided the most appropriate location was, of course, next to the administration building. Breland acted as lookout while Foote, Wood and Pyle added a coat of white paint.
The next morning, all four went to school early to see everyone’s reaction. The outhouse was a hit with everyone, and even the administration thought it was a great prank. For several years, the outhouse occupied a spot on the school patio behind the admin building with a sign that read, “Donated by the Class of ’67.”
The original Ocoee High School was closed in 1975 with the opening of West Orange High School in Winter Garden. It served as a junior high school until it was demolished in 2000 to make way for Ocoee Middle School, which was built as a demonstration school focusing on technology under Florida's SMART Schools Act of 1997.
In 2005, a new high school rose from the ground in north Ocoee.
Out of four choices presented to the Orange County School Board for naming of the new West Orange/Apopka Relief High School, members chose the name Ocoee High by a unanimous vote.
The other three names submitted to the board were Crown Point High, Platinum High and Unity High.
“We will carry forward, with pride, the name Ocoee, but for a new generation,” said Mike Armbruster, principal of the new school. “Instead of the Cardinals, we will be the Knights, and instead of red and white, we will be black, gold and white. We will be connected to a proud and distinguished past through our name, but we will also make our journey into the future, tying the two together into a new and exciting history for the generations yet to come.”
The new Ocoee High’s mascot, the Knight, wears a gold tunic that bears the image of a rising cardinal, a nod to the original Ocoee High.
TOP PRIZE AT THE FAIR
For decades, the city of Ocoee participated in the Central Florida Fair’s exhibition contest. For the third straight year, the city of Ocoee won the President’s Trophy for its community exhibit at the 1966 Central Florida Fair. Ocoee received the greatest number of points to win the trophy, earning seven first-place ribbons, six second place, two third, one fourth and one fifth.
The first-place ribbons were earned in categories for Best Decorated Booth, Citrus Plants, Ferns, Pasture Grass, Living Palms, Landscape Plants and Flowering Plants. A second-place ribbon was earned for the bicentennial display, as the booth was decorated in red, white and blue paneling.
Jack Spivey, Paul Smallwood and Ed Watkins served as co-chairmen for the Ocoee Lions Club-sponsored project. More than 2,000 man-hours of work were spent preparing the booth.
(Some photos and information are courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation and Nancy Maguire's book, "A History of Ocoee & its Pioneers.")
