Gator Nation News

Commentary:A Class of Their Own

Track star Christian Taylor is one of the world's all time best triple jumpers. He was the back-to-back NCAA indoor and outdoor champion, won the 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2019 World Championships, and earned gold in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

This year’s Athletic Hall of Fame class is one of the most talented all-around groups of inductees in the Hall’s half century celebrating Gator greatness.

When Gainesville surgeon Dr. Eric Castaldo was asked to be on UF’s Athletic Hall of Fame committee nine years ago, the former Gator catcher was just kind of there.

“I was an innocent bystander,” he said. “Then, one year the pool was lacking and I knew it could be stronger. I started really digging deep into the record books and awards.”

Fast forward to 2022 and Castaldo’s work on the committee was key in pulling together one of the best groups of Gator Greats in UF Hall of Fame history:

  • Jeff Demps (track and football, 2008-12);
  • Connor Dwyer (swimming, 2009-11);
  • Joe Haden (football, 2007-09);
  • Michelle Moultrie (softball, 2009-12);
  • Chandler Parsons (basketball, 2007-11);
  • Christian Taylor (track and field, 2009-11); and,
  • Mike Zunino (baseball, 2010-12).

This year’s class, which was inducted last weekend, also included Distinguished Letterwinner Steve Beeland and Honorary Letterwinner Jeremy Foley — Beeland for tennis as both a player (1967-69) and coach (1982-88); Foley for being Jeremy Foley.

I kid because I care. Foley went in because of his 24 years as athletic director. His efforts to make UF the “everything school” makes the task of picking Hall of Fame inductees tough.

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Jeremy Foley, UF's athletics director 1992-2016, helped turn Gators sports into one of the most successful programs in NCAA history.

Really, really tough.

“I don’t have a vote but I know it’s very difficult,” said the F Club’s Michelle Seibold, now in her second year organizing the Hall’s inductees selection. “What someone did in basketball being compared to what someone did in baseball is an interesting dynamic.”

UF has been inducting its greatest Gators into the Hall of Fame since 1968. The Hall is really a wall of framed pictures in the football stadium’s Touchdown Terrace.

Coaches and F Club members nominate candidates each January. The selection committee whittles the list down to seven “Gator Greats” — athletes who shined in their sports. All seven on this year’s list were All-Americans or All-SEC. Two other categories, “Distinguished Letterwinners” and “Honorary Letterwinners” are for coaches, managers and others who’ve made it so great to be a Florida Gator.

“It’s humbling when I start to research people I want to nominate,” Castaldo said. “To think I was in the same uniform as [Heisman Trophy winners] Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow and [Olympic gold swimmer] Caeleb Dressel.”

UF tries to make sure all sports are represented on the selection committee. This year’s president is former cheerleader Karen Skiratko. Some of the other 30 members are Gator icons such as baseball’s Matt LaPorta, basketball’s Dan Cross, tennis player Lauren Embree and gymnast Kristen Guise.

Not surprisingly, football dominates — as it does everything in Gainesville. There are 125 football players in the Hall. But other sports are catching up. And the coming years will be even more competitive when stars from newer sports reach their 10-years-after-UF anniversaries and they’ll be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame.

“It’s going to be interesting because of all of the sports that have great players who are close to being eligible, like softball and gymnastics,” Seibold said.

Of course, it’s supposed to be that way at a school like UF.

To quote Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan in A League of their Own: “If it wasn’t hard, everybody would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

And makes Gator Greats.

Sportswriter Pat Dooley (BSJ ’76) covered the Gators for The Gainesville Sun for 33 years until his retirement in 2020. He still shares his love for Gator sports through his podcast, “Another Dooley Noted,” and WRUF radio program, “Dooley’s Back 9.” His Gator Nation News column does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Florida.