by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
This year’s Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame inductees include two Gators that many will know and two Bulldogs that most likely only avid Bulldogs fans will recognize or remember.
Current Athletic Director Jeremy Foley and former quarterback Don Gaffney are going into the Hall on Oct. 28, and they’ll be joined by Bulldogs running backs Cy Grant and Kevin McLee.
All four join a host of big-name players from both schools that includes Heisman Trophy winners Herschel Walker and Frank Sinkwich from Georgia and Danny Wuerffel and Steve Spurrier from Florida. The rest of the list includes other notables, some that only hard-core fans of the game would know and a handful of non-athletes including legendary Georgia radio broadcaster Larry Munson and Florida historian Norm Carlson.
What may surprise fans of the game is who’s missing from the Hall and why they may never get in.
“There are a lot of great names and players from both schools, but they don’t have the stats from the game,” said Mike Sullivan, the chair of the Jacksonville Sports and Entertainment Board. “Fran Tarkenton (Georgia) isn’t in and neither is Emmitt Smith (Florida). They did not play that well in the Florida-Georgia game and that’s all we base it on. You might have a four-time All-American, but if he didn’t play well in the game, he’s not getting in.”
Sullivan’s explanation is backed by the numbers. In three games, Smith (who went on to become UF’s and the National Football League’s all-time leading rusher) ran for 220 yards and didn’t score a touchdown. Tarkenton went
1-2 against the Gators, threw for 307 yards, one touchdown and tossed six interceptions. Fred Taylor isn’t in the Hall either thanks to four average years (226 total yards and two touchdowns).
Both Sullivan and board member Ron Salem said it may be time to start looking outside of athletics altogether for nominees (a list of 10 from each school is sent to voters and the top two vote-getters are inducted). Sullivan said the board may start looking at a variety of people over the next few years.
“Anybody that has had a positive effect on the Florida-Georgia game may be considered,” said Sullivan.
Salem agreed.
“It’s important that the person inducted has to have contributed to the game,” said Salem. “It’s a unique situation because it’s just one game. The first few years, it was real easy because some people stood out. As we advance, we may have to expand the list to include those who contributed to the game in a non-athletic way.”
Salem said he is open to expanding the basis for consideration and may start actively lobbying the board to consider people connected to the game outside of athletics. Salem said former Mayor Ed Austin is an example of someone outside of football that deserves consideration at some point thanks to his efforts in the early 1990s to renovate what was the Gator Bowl in preparation for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The stadium renovations are one of the main reasons Jacksonville got the Super Bowl and the Florida-Georgia game remains a late October tradition.
“That would be a name,” said Salem. “I don’t disagree with that at all.”