Longtime Tallahassee resident and FSU graduate Jim Joanos shares his latest story about one of the leaders of the 1960s FSU football defenses, John Crowe.

He came to FSU with a dream to follow in the footsteps of Fred Biletnikoff and become a great wide receiver. John Crowe graduated from FSU as one of the best safeties ever to have played for the Seminoles, before or since. After college, he has attained a very high rung of success as a scholar, an Air Force pilot, a corporate executive, a community leader and, more recently, an author.

More importantly, in his after-college life he has set a standard of giving back to his university very, very few can equal. With all that he has accomplished, you would expect him to wear a cape and fly faster than a bullet. Instead, you have a humble, competent, family man, retired from some very important positions, active in his church, who daily finds ways to assist his fellow human beings.

Crowe grew up in St. Cloud, Fla., a small town that he refers to as “The Cloud.” In high school, he starred in football, basketball, baseball and track, but most importantly in the classroom, where he was a straight A student. He was good enough to play at the college level in football and basketball. At one time, he thought he would play basketball at Duke but an injury closed that door. He then chose football at FSU.

When he got to FSU in 1965, freshmen could not play on the varsity. Consequently, he played on the freshman team that first season. In 1966, he moved up to the varsity as a wideout. However, FSU had a large stable of outstanding wideouts, including Ron Sellers, Lane Fenner and T.K. Wetherell. Crowe had too much talent to play on a limited basis. He was moved to the defense and safety. It turned out to be an excellent move as he became one of the hardest-hitting safeties of all time. In his senior season (1968), as leader of the defensive backs, he made an unbelievable 104 tackles and five interceptions. For that he was awarded first-team All-South honors. In 1991, his accomplishments on the football field were honored when he was inducted into the FSU Athletics Hall of Fame.

In the classroom and as a student leader, Crowe accomplished even more. A mathematics-chemistry major, in recognition of his classroom achievements, he attained membership in Phi Beta Kappa. In recognition of his student leadership, he was awarded Omicron Delta Kappa and Gold Key memberships. After attaining his bachelor’s degree, Johnny continued at FSU another year and obtained a master’s degree.

His most valuable achievement at FSU was to meet and marry Betty, a home economics major. They met at a fraternity-sorority party. Together they have been a most outstanding team. Both have had successful careers as well as raising a close-knit family. They have two sons, a daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters, who they cherish and see often.

An ROTC cadet at FSU, Johnny was commissioned an Air Force lieutenant and began a military career after FSU. He excelled in flight school, got his wings, and flew C-141s during the Vietnam War. He retired from the Air Force in 1997 as a Lieutenant colonel and senior pilot.

One of his assignments while in the Air Force was to teach mathematics at the Air Force Academy Prep School in Colorado. A student at that institution was a guy named Rohn Stark, an outstanding overall athlete and punter on the football team. Stark had his heart set on being an Air Force pilot but his dream fell through when he was discovered to be color blind. He began a search for an alternate career path. Crowe, impressed with Stark’s athletic ability and character, suggested that Stark might consider an athletic career. Crowe put Stark in contact with FSU and, in time, Stark entered FSU as a student-athlete. Stark became the best punter in history at FSU and went beyond that to have a career in the NFL from 1982-97.

After the Air Force, Crowe had a second outstanding career. This one in the Forest Products industry, where he served in several positions as he climbed ladders at Proctor and Gamble, Weyerhaeuser, Alabama River and Buckeye Technologies. In time, he became CEO and Chairman of the Board of Buckeye. Following Buckeye’s merger with Georgia Pacific in 2013, he retired and concluded most of his activities in the corporate world except occasionally serving as a consultant.

Since 2013, much of Crowe’s attention has been on “giving back” to FSU. He and Betty maintain two residences, one high above beautiful Lake Toxaway in North Carolina, where they spend the summer months, and the other in Tallahassee so that they can attend FSU activities. They are regulars at home football, baseball, softball, soccer, men’s, and women’s basketball and often attend volleyball, track and field and other sports. Johnny has been a member of the board of directors of Seminole Boosters and currently serves on the board of the FSU Emeritus Society, an organization of FSU alums who graduated more than 50 years ago.

The Crowes are among the highest echelon of financial donors to many things FSU, athletically as well as academically. They have established several scholarships. They are Seminole Booster Platinum Chiefs and contribute additionally to most of the individual sports. He has been a mainstay with the FSU Varsity Club in both service and financial support.

In recent times, Crowe has added author to his large list of accomplishments. He and a former teammate, Dale McCullers, have co-authored and published a book entitled FSU’s Sons of the Sixties: A Case For the Defense. As a tribute to FSU’s 1960s players, the book has become very popular among FSU fans. The proceeds from the sales of the book have been donated by Johnny and Dale to a scholarship named for Johnny Stephens, a teammate who was killed during the Vietnam War. More recently, Crowe has authored another book, Living in the Cloud. He wrote it for a reunion of his high school class. It is about growing up in St. Cloud, in what was then a small town in central Florida.

There are a lot more good things that could be written about John and Betty Crowe, especially about their giving and helping others. However, those are private matters. Just suffice it to say that FSU won a very big prize when John Crowe chose football at FSU instead of basketball somewhere else. He won a big prize also when he went to that fraternity-sorority party.

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