With its signature event only 90 or so days away, the Gator Bowl Association’s board met this week to hear that ticket sales are steady, that its annual Hall of Fame will see three new faces inducted at the Dec. 31 luncheon and that the identity of the two teams for the New Year’s Day game is as uncertain as it was two months ago.
“It could be any of a number of teams,” said BellSouth’s Jim McCollum, who heads the selection committee. “There are key games yet to be played. Right now, there are 3-4 teams from each conference [Big East, Atlantic Coast] which could make it, plus Notre Dame.”
McCollum said he’ll stick by his prediction: Notre Dame vs. North Carolina State. The Irish can be chosen to take the place of a Big East team, and McCollum’s pairing would probably be a sellout.
The annual Hall of Fame luncheon will see Jackie Sherrill, Hugh Green and W.W. Gay on the dais to be inducted. Sherrill was coach at Pittsburgh when the team came here in 1985 to play South Carolina, and Green was his star player. Gay owns W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractors here and has been a longtime supporter of the game.
Bob White of Compass Bank, who heads the association’s marketing committee, said that sales are moving toward the local goal. There are six sales teams made up of directors.