Report: Florida renaming football field after Steve Spurrier

Steve Spurrier, who coached his alma mater for 12 seasons and won their first national title, will be honored by the Florida Gators on Thursday.

When you think of Florida Gators football, the name that comes up the most for the modern crowd would be that of former quarterback Tim Tebow. In actuality, the original greatest Gator was the man who was the first great quarterback for the school and later became maybe their best coach.

Steve Spurrier, who played three seasons for the school and won Florida’s first Heisman Trophy in 1966 before returning to become head coach in 1990, was the man who took the Gators out from years of probation and subpar seasons and made them a SEC powerhouse, winning six conference titles and the first national championship in school history before leaving after the 2001 season.

Now, Spurrier will be making his return to Gainesville…well, his name will. One Florida insider is reporting that the school will approve putting the name of the “Head Ball Coach” on the field the Gators play on permanently:

Spurrier famously named Ben Hill Griffen Stadium with that nickname during his first years as coach, in a way to get Florida back in the spotlight. He would spend two years coaching in the NFL before returning to the college game at South Carolina…where he would defeat his alma mater five times in ten meetings, including twice in Gainesville.

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Steve Spurrier had his name inducted into the school’s ring of honor during the 2006 season and also had a statue put up outside the stadium, joining ones erected for Tebow and the school’s other Heisman winner, quarterback Danny Wuerffel.

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