In Spurrier’s own words: My Gator days

(Spurrier wrote this story for the 1967 Florida game program, the year after he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior quarterback for the Gators.)

The first and foremost thought I have about days and a career spent at the University of Florida is “Where did it go so fast?”

Here I am now, about as far from the campus in Gainesville, Fla., as you can get and still be in the United States (he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers) and yet it really seems like yesterday when I climbed on the bus bound for Auburn, Ala., for the first football game of my freshman year in 1963.

Looking back and knowing the impact Auburn-Florida games have had on my career, it is ironic that at the time of that first bus trip I barely knew what state Auburn was in, much less which portion of that state.

There have been a lot of happy moments in between and luckily very few sad ones.

Although I have many fond memories of campus life, my days at Florida centered around football.

Jack Harper was a terrific runner and pass receiver, as good in the clutch as anybody we had during my varsity career. He made many big and spectacular plays during his time at Florida, most notably clutch touchdown catches to beat Georgia in 1965 and to help best FSU the same year.

My memory of Jack goes back to the first game in 1964 when I entered a varsity game for the first time against SMU on television. My first pass attempt, perhaps as nervous an attempt as I made in college, was a screen which Jack proceeded to run 56 yards on his own.

This was the beginning and, thanks to Jack Harper, a fine way to start.

The joker of our squad was John Preston, the offensive tackle from Columbus, Ga. John’s best buddy was (his teammate) “Bread Truck” Benson from Albany, Ga. One day, John Preston got the sports publicity office to run off about 100 pictures of Benson on a machine they had and then signed them: “To my wonderful fans, good luck from Jim Benson.”

John put these things up all over the place and Benson first saw one in the window of the College Inn Restaurant one evening. He liked to have killed Preston for that.

So we all started working up a stunt to get even with Preston. Some way we managed to get a piece of Honor Court stationary and sent Preston a summons to appear for some imaginary offense. Preston was so worried for the week or so before the “trial” I believe it was the only time during his collegiate career that he remained meek, quiet and inconspicuous. We let him believe it all week long.

Some other thoughts at random:

I have been fortunate to have played for a coach like Ray Graves and for his fine assistants. I, and the rest of the team, always took the field with confidence because we believed we were a shade better prepared than our opponent.

The Florida coaches have the right philosophy. They made football a challenge and they made it fun to play. The wide-open, gambling style of play they encourage gives players the feeling they are never out of a game until it’s over.

I know the two-point conversion attempts against Missouri became a bone of contention but in a way they are symbolic of Graves’ football.

The coaches went for two because at the time we were so far behind, so totally whipped that they wanted points on the board to make it appear closer and encourage our squad. This turned out wrong for one game but the players know this attitude is a winner far more times than a loser.

If I’m in San Francisco this fall and hear the Gators are behind with a couple of minutes left, I won’t believe they are going to lose. Don’t you, either.

One of my biggest thrills last fall was our fan support. This means so much to our squad’s morale and it is even more important when you are behind.

People should know that no athlete in college purposefully goes out in front of some 65,000 people and looks bad. Some days you are outplayed and some days, just as you have them in your work, things just don’t go right. That’s when your support makes the difference.

My collegiate career was climaxed with the Heisman Trophy, which will always be a cherished memory. I am thankful for the help I got in winning this and know it wasn’t just suddenly dumped in my lap. There were many paths to choose during four years at Florida, not all of them leading toward the Heisman Trophy.

Happily, I had luck and guidance in going down the right road or waking up and getting off the wrong track.

I played in the College All-America game in Atlanta and was booed early in the contest. After the game, a reporter asked me about this and I said: “They can boo me in Atlanta as long as they don’t boo me in Gainesville.”

I tried in the Atlanta game, but things didn’t go right. The boos were OK with me because I don’t belong to the people of Atlanta, Ga. I belong to the people of the University of Florida.

This story was originally published September 17, 2012 at 12:02 PM with the headline "In Spurrier’s own words: My Gator days."