Coach Bass in Freeport: 18 Years in the Bahamas

Most people know Mike Bass for what he did in a Washington uniform. Fewer know that he spent eighteen years in Freeport, on Grand Bahama Island, coaching American football. From 1979 to 1997 he taught the game there, and the island became a second home. In his words, "The only thing about me that is not Bahamian is my accent."

Why Freeport

In 1979, after nearly a decade in the NFL, Mike moved to Freeport. It wasn't a random choice. He had trained there ahead of Washington training camps, and he came back for the welcoming people, the sea and the spirit of the island.

Mike arrived on Grand Bahama with a Washington career behind him. A local athlete named Sharky Martin asked whether Mike would coach the nearby 8-Mile Rock Crushers. Mike saw a way to give back, teach American football and keep competing, and he took the job.

The 8-Mile Rock Crushers

With the Crushers, Mike led the team to several Bahamas American Football League championships against clubs from Freeport and Nassau. His approach came from his first NFL coach, Vince Lombardi: know your assignment, respect your opponents and teammates, and be accountable.

The rule was simple: no practice, no play. The younger players embraced it, earned their opportunity and developed into exceptional players. Two Crushers, Sinclair Knowles and Joey Wildgoose, earned scholarships to colleges in the United States.

If you've read about Mike's Washington years, the rule will sound familiar. It's the same idea that kept him on the field for 104 consecutive games: show up prepared, do the job in front of you, and answer for it. In Freeport he was the one setting the standard, and the players met it.

The Guinness Titans

After leaving the Crushers, Mike formed the Guinness Titans in Freeport. Players joined a program centered on fundamentals, conditioning, discipline and assignments, and on eliminating mental mistakes. None of that is glamorous, and all of it wins games. It is also the same list a defensive back lives by in the NFL, where one missed assignment can turn into a touchdown for the other side.

In just their second year, the Titans won the BAFL championship in Nassau. They beat a team that had beaten them earlier in the season. A rematch win like that is the kind of result a coach can point to when he talks about learning from a loss and fixing what went wrong.

The players he remembers

The BAFL is the Bahamas American Football League, and it gave both teams real opponents in Freeport and Nassau. Mike names the players he coached, and the lists are long. Among the Titans he remembers James Kemp, Craig Simms, Stanford Duhaney, Keith Knowles, Franklyn "Pilli" Thomas, Sammy Davis, Peter Curry, Angelo Capron and "Grumps" Basden. Among the Crushers, along with Sharky Martin, Joey Wildgoose and Sinclair Knowles, he lists Pat and Phil Grant, Phil Hepburn, Rex Russell, Kevin Grant, Kenny Martin, McArthur Rigby, Jessup Johnson, Tom Martin, John Hanna, Ben Beneby and Cess Grant.

His Bahamas page calls them teammates for life. For Mike, the deeper reward of those years was seeing young athletes grow into men and carry the lessons forward.

Coming home, and being welcomed back

In 1997 Mike returned to the United States and settled in Gainesville, Florida, where he has lived ever since. That wasn't the end of the Freeport chapter, and Gainesville is where fans can still reach him for signed pieces and appearances. In 2023, former players welcomed him back to the island to honor his contribution to American football on Grand Bahama.

Mike considers that reunion one of the highlights of his life, alongside his Washington Ring of Fame induction in 2022. Two very different honors, from two very different places, and he counts them together.

More on the story

If you came to Mike through a signed photo or the Super Bowl VII touchdown, the Bahamas years show a different side of the same person: a coach, not just a player. The team photograph at the top of this page comes from that era, a warm, faded vintage team photograph from his Bahamian years. The full account, with every name, is on the Bahamas page.