The Plant City Raiders will retire the jerseys of Ginger Bennett Forté, Russell Evans and Horace Broadnax during the Friday, Dec. 16, basketball games against Tampa Bay Tech.
Tonight’s basketball games at Plant City High School will be important for more than just the district standings.
The school plans to honor three of its best basketball players by retiring their jerseys and numbers with a ceremony. The jerseys of Ginger Bennett Forté, Russell Evans and Horace Broadnax have been framed and will be hung inside the school, never to be worn again.
“I’m glad,” Forté says. “Really, I’m honored that they’re doing it again. Not only for me, but also for Horace and Russell.”
Forté, the only girls basketball player to have her jersey retired, is having her No. 23 retired for the second time.
“Somehow, my jersey number got back out and (kids) were wearing it again,” she says. “For them to do it again, I’m really honored.”
While at Plant City, Forté helped the Lady Raiders find success as the team’s scoring leader. In her senior year, 1984, she averaged over 20 points per game and led the Lady Raiders into the regional playoffs. Forté and her team went undefeated until then, when the Hillsborough Lady Terriers double-teamed her and ended Plant City’s playoff run.
After the postseason, Forté was told that the school planned to retire her No. 23 before she went to the University of South Florida.
“I think Michael Jordan might have copied me,” she says.
Forté played for the Lady Bulls and eventually went back to Plant City. She is currently a teacher in the school’s cosmetology department.
Evans was known as a three-sport athlete, playing basketball, football and baseball for the Raiders in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The 1991 graduate is best known for his time as the school’s varsity quarterback, and football became the sport he stuck with after leaving PCHS. Evans, named a Parade All-American in his senior year, went on to Northwest Mississippi Community College. While there, he led the school to a national championship, broke the school records for passing yards, attempts and completions and was inducted into the Junior College Football Hall of Fame.
His football jerseys for high school and junior college are both retired.
Evans also was an excellent basketball player. He started at small forward, but could play any position if needed — much like the Raiders’ version of current NBA star Draymond Green.
“He loved to score, and he could score, and he was a very good teammate to play with,” teammate Calvin Callins says.
Evans loved to score so much that he finished his career with 2,540 points, a Hillsborough County record that still stands.
Callins, then the team’s point guard, knows exactly how talented Evans was, as he was also a wide receiver for the football team.
“If Russell would have had the opportunities that athletes have now, there’s no doubt in my mind that he would have played in the NBA or NFL … or Major League Baseball,” Callins says.
Now, no basketball player will wear his No. 24 again.
Broadnax, who graduated in 1982, is known for leading the Raiders to their highest point ever: a state championship.
His high school coach, Jimmy Smith, says that Broadnax embodied everything a coach could possibly ask for in a player. The talent, character and academics were all there, and Smith says that was a big asset to the team throughout Broadnax’s career.
“Horace was the kind of kid that just knew what to do and when to do it,” Smith says. “Once you turned him loose with the basketball … he was a coach on the floor.”
After winning the state title in his senior season, Broadnax went on to play at Georgetown University, where he helped the Hoyas win the 1984 NCAA national championship and nearly repeat one year later. After a 10-year career as a lawyer, Broadnax felt the itch to get back in the game and started coaching.
Broadnax is the head coach at Savannah State University, a position he has held since 2005. He and Forté are expected to attend the ceremony, where he will see his No. 3 retired.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
