by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Not many real estate attorneys can claim to have a college football national championship ring. Jacksonville’s Collins Cooper has. And, he has more:three Southeastern Conference championship rings.
Cooper was a placekicker on the University of Florida’s national championship team in 1996 when the Gators beat Florida State 52-20 in the Sugar Bowl. The win avenged an earlier loss to the Seminoles and gave the school it’s first and only football national title.
Cooper, who graduated from Florida in 1998 and law school from Florida State in 2002, is a real estate attorney with Crabtree & Fallar on San Jose Boulevard.
Cooper was a “walk-on” at Florida, going out with a hope that he could play football. It’s rare that a walk-on gets much playing time, much less a scholarship. They did; they made the team, started at their positions and then-head coach Steve Spurrier gave them scholarships..
The national championship was a longshot, too.
DID YOU KNOW?
• During the Florida Land Boom in 1919, investors paid up to $25,000 for lots that had not yet been dredged up from the ocean. Carl Fisher founded Miami Beach that year and brought hundreds of investors to the state.
Entering their final regular season game at Florida State, both teams were undefeated and the Gators were ranked second in the nation. They lost 24-21 in Tallahassee and seemingly fell out of the national title hunt.
A week later, the Gators were in Atlanta to play Alabama for the SEC Championship. To get back in contention, they needed a win and they desperately needed Texas to upset Nebraska earlier that day in the Big 12 title game. The entire hotel knew when Texas took care of business.
“We weren’t thinking about it at the time,” said Cooper, who was named to the SEC all-academic team in 1997. “Our focus was on winning the SEC title. That championship was always the goal of Coach Spurrier. The national title was not in our hands.”
Getting a rematch with FSU boiled down to one play: an unlikely fourth-and-long conversion by Texas very late in the fourth quarter.
“We watched the Texas-Nebraska game in the hotel and, when that play happened, the whole hall erupted,” said Cooper. “We went wild for a few minutes and it really lit a fire in us.”
Younkin said Spurrier didn’t know what happened.
“(Quarterback) Doug Johnson and Coach Spurrier were coming off the elevator and (wide receiver) Jacquez Green went running up to them yelling,” said Younkin. “Coach Spurrier had no idea.”
The Texas win and the Gators’ 45-30 win over Alabama set up the rematch with FSU, but it didn’t assure the Sugar Bowl would be for the championship, which then went to the team ranked No. 1 in the final polls. Both teams needed Arizona State to knock off Ohio State in the Rose Bowl earlier on New Year’s Day to make sure there wouldn’t be a split title. A late touchdown run by ASU quarterback Jake Plummer gave the Gators exactly what they needed.
These days, it’s back to the real world for Cooper. As a real estate attorney, he handles a lot of closings and some commercial litigation, both of which he enjoys.
“The part I like is when the new couples come in to close on their first homes,” said Cooper, whose mother is Circuit Court Judge Mallory Cooper. “They bring their kids, it’s a pleasant environment and it’s non-confrontational.”