Florida Gators | |
---|---|
Position | Halfback |
Career history | |
College | Florida (1969–72) |
High school | Jesuit High School (Tampa) |
Leonard George was the first African-American player to receive a football scholarship at the University of Florida. [1] [2] He was signed in 1968, ten years after the school was integrated in 1958. [2]
George went to Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida. He signed an athletic scholarship on December 17, 1968. He was a halfback. The following day Willie Jackson of Sarasota, Florida also signed a football scholarship with the University of Florida. Both players became varsity players in their second year at the school and started most games over the rest of their careers at UF. [2]
George was the first black player to score a touchdown on Alabama in Tuscaloosa. [2] He became a defensive back his junior and senior years.
The student athletes remained at the university after a 1971 protest by the Black Student Union leading to the arrest of 66 students charges being filed against them. One third of black students and several black faculty members left the University of Florida following the events. [2] Don Gaffney became UF's first black quarterback in 1973. [2]
The University of Florida is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. The university traces its origins to 1853 and has operated continuously on its Gainesville campus since September 1906.
The Independent Florida Alligator is the student newspaper of the University of Florida. The Alligator is one of the largest student-run newspapers in the United States, with a circulation of 14,000 and readership of more than 21,000. It is an affiliate of UWIRE, which distributes and promotes its content to their network.
James Bernard Machen is an American university professor and administrator. Machen is a native of Mississippi, and earned several academic degrees before becoming a university administrator and president. Machen had been the president of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah and the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. He also sits on the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute's Board of Trustees. On June 8, 2012, Machen announced he would be stepping down as president in 2013. However, Machen was asked by state and university leaders to stay on, as the school had not yet found a suitable replacement. He was finally succeeded by W. Kent Fuchs on January 1, 2015.
Michael Shane Matthews is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for all or part of fourteen seasons during the 1990s and 2000s. He played college football for the Florida Gators, where he was both a second-team All-American and SEC player of the year in 1991 and 1992. Thereafter, he played professionally for the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, and four other NFL teams. Since retiring as a player, Matthews has lived near his college alma mater in North Central Florida, where he has hosted a sports talk radio program and coached high school football. In 2017, Matthews was incarcerated for three months in a federal prison upon pleading guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of causing a drug to be misbranded, after playing a small part in a large health care fraud conspiracy organized by former Florida teammate Monty Grow.
Buckman Hall is a historic building located in Murphree Area on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It was designed by architect William A. Edwards in the Collegiate Gothic style and opened in 1906 as one of the two original buildings on the University of Florida's Gainesville campus along with nearby Thomas Hall. It once was a multi-purpose facility but has been used exclusively as a student dormitory since the 1940s.
Kathryn Chicone Ustler Hall is a historic building on the campus of the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, Florida. It was designed by William Augustus Edwards in the Collegiate Gothic style and opened in 1919 as the University Gymnasium. In that capacity, the building was the first home of the Florida Gators men's basketball team, and it continued to serve as the home court for most of the university's indoor sports programs until the Florida Gymnasium opened in the late 1940s. The university became co-educational at about the same time, and the building was rechristened the Women's Gymnasium and was repurposed as a recreation center for the school's many new female students. On June 27, 1979, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Florida Gymnasium is a historic building located on the campus of the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville. It opened in 1949 as a 7,000-seat multi-purpose arena and served as the home court of the Florida Gators men's basketball team and other UF indoor sports programs for over thirty years, acquiring the nickname of "Alligator Alley" during that time.
Kerwin Douglas Bell is an American football coach and former player who has been the head coach of the Western Carolina Catamounts football team since 2021. He played professionally as a quarterback for 14 seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL), World League of American Football (WLAF), and the National Football League (NFL) from the late 1980s until 2002. He then went into coaching, first at the high school level before moving to the collegiate ranks in 2007.
Huey L. Richardson, Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for two seasons during the 1990s. Richardson played college football for the Florida Gators and earned All-American honors. He was a first-round pick in the 1991 NFL draft and played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins and the New York Jets.
Stephen Cornelius O'Connell was an American attorney, appellate judge and university president. O'Connell was a native of Florida, and earned bachelor's and law degrees before becoming a practicing attorney. He later was chosen to be a justice of the Florida Supreme Court from 1955 to 1967, and served as the sixth president of the University of Florida from 1967 to 1973.
James Walter Kynes Jr. was an American college and professional football player, lawyer, political appointee, and corporate executive. Kynes served as Florida Attorney General.
William Curtis Carr III was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. Carr was born in Gainesville, Florida, raised in Pensacola, Florida, and attended the University of Florida, where he was an All-American center for the Florida Gators football team in the mid-1960s. He was selected in the 4th round of the 1967 NFL/AFL Draft but first had to serve two years in the United States Army, after which he did not make a regular season NFL roster. Carr returned to UF as graduate assistant and assistant coach under head coach Doug Dickey in 1972 and, after earning his master's degree, joined the school's athletic administration in 1975. He became Florida's athletic director in 1979 at the age of 33, making him the youngest athletic director at a major university at the time. As head of UF's Athletic Association, Carr oversaw the construction of the Stephen C. O'Connell Center and a major addition to Florida Field while also presiding over major NCAA rules violations in the football program.
Godfrey Clarence Myles was an American professional football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at the University of Florida.
The University Athletic Association, Inc. (UAA) is a non-profit corporation that is responsible for maintaining the Florida Gators intercollegiate sports program of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. The UAA is run by a board of directors led by the University of Florida's athletic director. The athletic director also acts as the UAA's chief financial officer and reports directly to the president of the university.
George E. Edmondson Jr. was an insurance salesman from Tampa, Florida who was known to the University of Florida community as "Mr. Two Bits". Edmondson was a fan of the Florida Gators football team, for which he led a traditional "Two Bits' cheer" at football games beginning in 1949. Though he began the practice in an unofficial capacity, it eventually became so popular among fans at Florida Field that he was invited to lead the cheer from midfield before games, which he did from the mid-1970s until 2008. Citing health concerns, he retired from the role after the 2008 season and died in 2019.
The history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida originated as several distinct institutions that were consolidated to create a single state-supported university by the Buckman Act of 1905. The oldest of these was the East Florida Seminary, one of two seminaries of higher learning established by the Florida Legislature. The East Florida Seminary opened in Ocala 1853, becoming the first state-supported institution of higher learning in the state of Florida. As it is the oldest of the modern University of Florida's predecessor institutions, the school traces its founding date to that year. The East Florida Seminary closed its Ocala campus at the outbreak of the American Civil War and reopened in Gainesville in 1866.
George Joseph O'Leary is a former American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from 1994 to 2001 and the UCF Knights from 2004 to 2015. He was famously hired in 2001 to be the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish but resigned after five days for lying on his resume. O'Leary was an assistant coach for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL) from 2002 to 2004, and an assistant coach for the Syracuse Orange and San Diego Chargers.
Eugene Ellenson was an American college and professional football player, college football coach, and athletic administrator. Ellenson was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Miami, and attended the University of Georgia, where he was a starting Tackle on the Bulldog's 1942 national championship football team. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was highly decorated for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge.
Christopher Rainey is an American former professional football running back and kick returner who played in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the University of Florida, and was a member of Florida's BCS National Championship team in 2009. The Pittsburgh Steelers selected him in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL draft. He also played for the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL and the Montreal Alouettes, BC Lions and Toronto Argonauts of the CFL.
The history of Florida Gators football began in 1906, when the newly established "University of the State of Florida" fielded a football team during its first full academic year of existence. The school's name was shortened to the University of Florida in 1908, and the football team gained the nickname "Gators" in 1911. The program started small, usually playing six to eight games per season against small colleges and local athletic club teams in north Florida and south Georgia. The Orange and Blue developed early rivalries with the Stetson Hatters from nearby Deland and Mercer Bears from Macon. During the 1910s, Florida began playing a wider range of opponents from more established football programs across the southeastern United States and faced off against several future rivals - such as Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and Auburn - for the first time.