Steve Spurrier
Stephen Orr Spurrier is a retired football player and coach often referred to by his nicknames, the Head Ball Coach or the ol' Ball Coach. Spurrier was a college football quarterback with the Florida Gators, where he won the 1966 Heisman Trophy. The San Francisco 49ers selected him in the first round of the 1967 NFL draft, and he spent a decade playing in the National Football League mainly as a backup quarterback and punter. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986.
Spurrier went into coaching in 1978 and spent five years as a college assistant for the Florida Gators, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, and the Duke Blue Devils where he began to develop his innovative offensive system while serving as the Blue Devils offensive coordinator in the early 1980s. He was hired to his first head coaching job by the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League in 1983 and led the team to two playoff appearances in three seasons before the league folded. Spurrier returned to the college ranks in 1987, serving as the head football coach at Duke, Florida, and South Carolina, amassing 228 total wins and a 72% career winning percentage. Between his stints at Florida and South Carolina, he led the Washington Redskins of the NFL for two seasons with less success. Spurrier retired from coaching in 2015 and became an ambassador and consultant for the University of Florida's athletic department, though he briefly returned to the sidelines to coach the Orlando Apollos of the short-lived Alliance of American Football in 2019.
Spurrier's teams were known for winning with aggressive and high-scoring offenses, and he became known for teasing and "needling" rivals both before and after beating them on the field. Spurrier's 1989 Duke squad won the program's only Atlantic Coast Conference championship between 1963 and 2025. He is the winningest coach in both Florida and South Carolina program history, making him the only coach to hold the record for most wins at two different Southeastern Conference schools, and Florida's streak of four consecutive SEC championships in the mid-1990s is the second-longest in conference history. When Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman Trophy during the Gators' 1996 national championship season, Spurrier became the only Heisman Trophy winner to coach another Heisman Trophy winner. In 2017, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach, making him one of four members to be honored for both his playing and coaching careers.
In recognition to his contributions to the university and its football program, the University of Florida officially renamed the Gators home field "Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium" in 2016.
Early life
Spurrier was born on April 20, 1945, in Miami Beach, Florida. He is the second son of a Presbyterian minister, J. Graham Spurrier, and his wife Marjorie. Graham Spurrier changed congregations repeatedly during Steve's early childhood, resulting in several moves for the family. The Spurriers left Miami Beach before Steve's first birthday, moving to Charlotte, North Carolina to live near his paternal grandparents. His father accepted pastorships in Athens, Tennessee and then Newport, Tennessee before settling in Johnson City, Tennessee in 1957, when Steve Spurrier was 12 years old. The youngest Spurrier began to earn his reputation as a good athlete and a fierce competitor in Johnson City, impressing his peers and his older brother's friends with his tenacity in sandlot sports.Spurrier's skills as a young baseball player caused a local businessman to talk the Reverend Spurrier into coaching the Little League team sponsored by his business so that Spurrier's son would be on the squad. The younger Spurrier has often repeated an anecdote about playing baseball on a team coached by his father. "How many of you believe that it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game, that counts?" the elder Spurrier once asked his players. When some raised their hands, he told them, "Well, I don't believe in that saying. If they're keeping score, we're going to play to win."
Playing career
Science Hill High School
Spurrier attended Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee, where he played football, basketball and baseball for the Science Hill Hilltoppers and was an all-state selection in all three sports. Spurrier had an undefeated record in three years as a high school starting pitcher and led his team to two consecutive state baseball championships. On the basketball court, Spurrier played point guard and was known for his ability to run his team's offense with flashy passes and dribbling and his knack for scoring in many different ways, attributes which helped his team win two conference championships. He averaged 22 points per game during his senior season and was named the conference player of the year.Many observers in Johnson City thought that Spurrier's best sport in high school was basketball, while his father thought that he was best at baseball. Spurrier agreed that basketball and baseball came more naturally, but he preferred football, and he became the Hilltopper's starting quarterback during his junior year. Coach Kermit Tipton installed a passing offense to take advantage of Spurrier's talents and, unusual for a high school team, occasionally allowed the young quarterback to call plays on the field. Boosted by a post-season game at the end of his senior year in which he brought his team back from a 21–0 second-half deficit to win 28–21, Spurrier was a high school All-American and drew the attention of many college programs.
Spurrier's achievements in multiple sports earned him induction into the National Federation of State High School Associations's National High School Hall of Fame.
University of Florida
Recruitment
After winning multiple all-state honors in high school, Spurrier was recruited in one or more sports by many colleges, including Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, Duke, South Carolina, and both Air Force and Army. However, he was not aggressively pursued as a football player by the coaching staff at the University of Tennessee in nearby Knoxville because at the time, Tennessee ran a wing-T offense that featured a running quarterback while Spurrier was an excellent passer. While Tennessee never officially offered him a football scholarship, Volunteers basketball coach Ray Mears offered Spurrier a scholarship, which he declined since he preferred to play football.University of Florida coach Ray Graves heard about Spurrier late in the recruiting process from his brother Edwin, who was the postmaster in Knoxville, and visited Johnson City in February 1963. Spurrier and his family got along well with Graves, and Steve visited the Florida campus in Gainesville the following week. He received a favorable first impression of Gainesville when he arrived to find warm sunshine after leaving freezing temperatures in Tennessee, and thought more highly of Graves when the coach stayed by his side in the school infirmary after Spurrier's cold worsened into the flu during his recruiting visit. Graves did not promise Spurrier that he would be his starting quarterback, but he told the star recruit that he fit into his coaching staff's plan to open up the Gator offense and would be given a fair opportunity to earn the job. Soon after returning home, Spurrier decided to attend the University of Florida because of "the passing, the SEC, the weather, and coach Ray Graves."
Image:Steve Spurrier QB11.jpg|right|thumb|275px|Spurrier in 1964
1963–64
rules in the 1960s forbade college freshmen from participating in varsity sports competition. Spurrier therefore spent his first year at Florida practicing with the varsity team and playing on the freshman team, which scheduled four scrimmages against other schools' freshman squads as a way for young players to gain experience. In 1963, Spurrier led the "Baby Gators" to a 45–12 victory over Georgia's freshman team at Florida Field, a game which he half-jokingly claims as a home win against the Gators' fiercest rivals.Spurrier was in competition for the starting quarterback position leading up to his sophomore year of 1964 until a serious knee injury suffered during spring drills allowed returning senior starter Tommy Shannon to keep the job. Coach Ray Graves still felt the need to get the future star on the field, so he decided to alternate Shannon and Spurrier as the flow of the game dictated. Spurrier entered the season-opening game against SMU in the second quarter. After two unsuccessful running plays called from the sidelines put the Gators in a third down and long situation, Coach Graves told Spurrier to call the next play himself. The young quarterback responded by completing a fifty-six yard screen pass on his first collegiate attempt and another pass for a touchdown on his second pass. Spurrier would add another touchdown pass during the second half of his varsity debut. The following week on the road at Mississippi State, Spurrier entered a tied game late in the fourth quarter and led the Gators down the field for a game-winning field goal.
Spurrier continued to alternate with starter Tommy Shannon as the season progressed, gaining more playing time every week. After being named SEC Back of the Week for a two touchdown performance in a 30–14 upset over Ole Miss in October, Spurrier was given the starting nod for the undefeated Gators' next game against undefeated and #3 ranked and eventual national champion Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Though Spurrier threw a touchdown pass and was the Gators' offensive star, his team fell short when another late fourth quarter comeback attempt ended in a missed field goal and a 17–14 Alabama win. Spurrier remained the Gators' starter for the remainder of the season and was sometimes brilliant but inconsistent. He led the Gators to a 14–0 home win over rival Auburn and a 20–6 upset of #7 LSU in Baton Rouge, but he did not play well in losses to rivals Georgia and Florida State. Nevertheless, he was named the SEC's Sophomore of the Year for 1964.