"Neighbors, friends, people we knew, they were the torchbearers."
A quarter-century on ... they remember.
They remember the days when the Olympic flame burned in the heart of Jacksonville, a course set to conclude at the first-ever Games held in the South on the road to Atlanta.
During a three-day span from July 8-10 in 1996 — 25 years ago — dozens of Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia residents carried the flame high during the Olympic Torch Relay through Jacksonville.
Runners carried the torch over the Bridge of Lions into St. Augustine on July 8, traversed the streets of Jacksonville the next day and then lifted the flame high on July 10 as it crossed into Southeast Georgia toward its finishing stretch in the Peach State.
In all, Northeast Florida's relay included more than 70 torchbearers — including several who have since died, a list that includes 1964 World's Fastest Man Bob Hayes — and innumerable thousands of residents who lined the streets to watch the flame pass by.
Read more at the Florida Times-Union