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Morris: Spurrier a fading star in Florida sky

The Gators’ sustained success has pushed Spurrier into the background

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USC head football coach Steve Spurrier watches warm ups as a coach of an opposing school for the first time on Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla., Nov. 11, 2006.

Rich Glickstein/rglickstein@thestate.com /The State

Posted on 11.14.08
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GAINESVILLE, Fla.

THE STEVE SPURRIER tributes are everywhere. He is among Florida’s eight College Football Hall of Fame members immortalized on the wall outside the spiffy new Heavener Football Complex at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. His 16-by-16-inch granite block sits front and left on the walkway to the center.

Once the visitor enters the lobby area, Spurrier’s Heisman Trophy is enclosed in glass directly to the right. Further down the lobby, with the touch of a video screen, one can watch highlights of Spurrier’s playing and coaching career at Florida, including his game-winning field goal against Auburn in 1966.

A stroll around the stadium and Spurrier’s photograph pops up among Florida’s three Heisman winners, with the 1996 national championship team and among each of the Gators’ SEC title teams he coached.

There is no mistaking that Spurrier remains a favorite son to the Florida football program. But there is every reason to believe on the eve of his second visit to Gainesville as South Carolina’s coach that the longer he is away from Gainesville, the more his name gets pushed further into the history books.

Simply put, Spurrier’s star still shines over Gainesville, just not as bright these days.

“He’ll always have star power here,” says Norm Carlson, Florida’s athletics historian who was the school’s sports information director when Spurrier won his Heisman. “But our program, or anybody’s program, has to move on.

“We’ve got a good coach who is doing a great job here. Obviously, that’s where our fans are now. ... Most true Gators are still for Steve, except when he is playing us.”

The fact is that four classes of students have passed through the Florida campus without having Steve Spurrier as their football coach. The freshmen on this season’s Florida football team were in the sixth grade when Spurrier last coached at Florida. Some of those players’ parents were not born when Spurrier played for the Gators.

One of the “negative” aspects of today’s students, according to current Florida coach Urban Meyer, is a lack of appreciation of history, particularly among young athletes. Meyer remembers speaking to a group about one of his favorite coaches, Bo Schembechler of Michigan.

“They looked at me and they had no idea who Bo Schembechler was,” Meyer said.

There is no doubting most Florida players know of the legacy Spurrier left in Gainesville. But to most of them, and perhaps the student body as well, Spurrier is so “yesterday.”

“Today” for the youthful Florida faithful is Meyer and quarterback Tim Tebow. Meyer matched Spurrier’s national championship by guiding the Gators to the title in 2006, and Tebow won the Heisman Trophy a season ago. Both could one-up Spurrier this season if the third-ranked Gators capture the BCS championship and Tebow becomes the second player to repeat as Heisman winner.

All of which pushes Spurrier further out of the limelight, Carlson says, “particularly when the program is in such good shape. If we were losing and we were struggling, he would be more in the forefront.”

That is evident just about everywhere in Gainesville. The Official Gator Sportshop, located just outside the gates of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, can’t stock enough No. 15 Tebow jerseys. Seven of Spurriers’ No. 11 throwback jerseys remained in the store at the beginning of the season, leftovers from Florida’s 100th anniversary celebration two years ago. Only one remains now, and it could be found earlier in the week on the “sale” rack.

A few pictures of Spurrier still adorn one wall at Napolatano’s restaurant, a favorite hang out of Spurrier’s when he lived in Gainesville. The “Coaches Room” is still reserved for him when he visits Gainesville on the USC recruiting trail. But the room now is more frequently visited by Meyer.

Interesting, though, that the restaurant’s owners, Dean and Ginger Nappy, refer to Meyer by his first name, and still call Spurrier “coach.” It is a reverence shared by most Florida fans for their favorite former player and coach.

“Certainly Steve’s impact on Florida football is extraordinary,” says Bill Carr, a Gainesville resident, former teammate of Spurrier’s and later the athletics director at Florida. “He is the coach who brought Florida into the modern era, elevated the sights of the university.”

Carr also recognizes that with each passing season, Spurrier becomes less and less of an icon for newcomers to Gainesville and the university.

Once inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Spurrier’s impact on the program is well documented. An insignia places him among the five members of Florida’s “Ring of Honor.” His national championship team is recognized on one wall of the stadium.

There also are signs to salute each of Spurrier’s six SEC championships. Only the trained observer would notice one slight change made since Spurrier departed, and it speaks to his standing with the program today.

When he coached at Florida, his 1990 team was recognized with a sign on one wall as “SEC’s best.” Spurrier’s first Florida team actually won the SEC that season but was denied the championship because of NCAA probation he inherited from the previous coach.

Spurrier insisted upon that sign hanging at the stadium. Now that he is gone, the story of that team’s accomplishments are only recounted if Spurrier tells them himself. It is a sign that he no longer is the one putting banners and signs up at the stadium.

Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM.

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