“First” Lady of Ocala

Cherrietta Prince, the Director of Entrepreneurship Services at the Ocala/Marion County Chamber & Economic Partnership, poses for a photo at the CEP Power Plant on Southeast Osceola Avenue in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, March 1, 2021. Prince, who graduated from the University of Florida in 1974, was one of UF’s first black athletes on the track team. Now, she works on diversifying Ocala and helping the less fortunate. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2021.

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Posted October 22, 2021 | By Sadie Fitzpatrick

It was the noise that Cherrietta Prince will always remember.

As she stepped on to the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at the University of Florida on a recent humid September evening, the sound of the crowd swelled into a steady roar. The stands thundered with 90,000 pairs of feet stomping along to the marching band’s anthems.

This year to honor 50 years of women’s athletics at UF, Prince was asked to serve as an honorary “Ms. Two Bits,” an honor bestowed upon Gator graduates who have made an indelible impact on the university.

Prince, clad in the pale yellow t-shirt emblazoned with a blue and orange striped necktie that was the signature outfit of the original “Mr. Two Bits,” led the rowdy crowd of football fanatics in the iconic “Two bits! Four bits! Six bits! A dollar! All for the Gators, stand up and holler!” cheer.

“I have done a lot in my life, and it’s just so cool that I got to do that. I never even dreamed I would be on that field being recognized. My face hurt from smiling so big,” Prince said.

Prince has made history since an early age.

Her life has been comprised of firsts—one of the first Black students to integrate schools in Marion County, one of the first Black female athletes at the University of Florida, one of the youngest female athletes at UF.

Prince explained, “Growing up, I didn’t really realize I was the ‘first’ of anything. My family mostly kept me sheltered and unaware of everything going on in the world. I just knew I was expected to go to school and do well.”

As one of the first Black students to integrate Osceola Middle School in the late 1960s, Prince faced prejudice and racism. She chooses not to “focus on the uglies,” preferring to move forward and not dwell on the past.

At the tender age of 16, Prince arrived on UF’s campus in the fall of 1971 on an academic scholarship. She was just one of 343 Black students enrolled there.

“I knew there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me there. I had been given this opportunity, and I was going to work hard,” she said.

In the fall of 1973, Prince joined the inaugural women’s track and field team. She ran track in high school and thought it would be a good way to meet people and belong to a group.

At the time, there were no scholarships for women’s track and field, so Prince raced for only one season.

After graduating from UF at 19, Prince moved to Miami and worked as a news reporter. She later joined the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as a military photojournalist and broadcaster for ABCN in Puerto Rico. During this time, she also worked on obtaining her master’s degree in business administration.

Prince believes in using your individual talents to constantly reinvent yourself.

“I’ve had many jobs and I loved them all. They all allowed me to utilize my strengths and work on my weaknesses,” she said.

In addition to her time in the Marine Corps, Prince has been a college professor, the owner and operator of a daycare center, the founder of a marketing firm and the founder of a transportation business that transports veterans to and from local VA clinics.

Her favorite job is the one she currently holds as director of IMPACT, an entrepreneurship initiative of the Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership (CEP).

In this position, Prince channels her entrepreneurial spirit by helping burgeoning entrepreneurs in underserved areas such as Silver Springs Shores, West Ocala and Marion Oaks access resources that will lead them to business success. These resources include “a Certified Diverse Small Business Enterprise program, multi-language training events, and a supplier matching program,” according to the CEP website.

“I was not always aware of the resources that could be provided to me growing up. With my job, I help connect the dots for people,” Prince explained.

She noted that these areas are underserved because the resources are sometimes misallocated and the citizens of these communities do not know what resources can be provided to them.

Prince explained, “It’s my goal to diversify economic inclusion and raise up these entrepreneurs. They don’t know what they don’t know, so it’s my job to connect them to the resources they need to be successful.”

To date, the program has impacted more than 400 entrepreneurs from all four corners of Marion County.

While Prince has completed most of the items on her bucket list, she still hopes to learn to deep sea dive and one day climb a mountain.

And while those pursuits have already been achieved by others, there’s no doubt she’ll somehow find a path to become the “first” to do it a different way.