Florida football stadium renamed after Steve Spurrier

Florida is renaming their football stadium after legendary coach and player Steve Spurrier.

The University of Florida is honoring it’s most influential member of the football history of the Gators by changing the name of the stadium to Steve Spurrier – Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Spurrier won a Heisman Trophy for the Gators before returning to coach his alma mater years later where he became the first coach in the history of college football to win a Heisman and coach a Heisman winner after Danny Wuerffel took home the Trophy.

Spurrier is the best coach in Florida football history with a 122-27-1 record in 12 seasons in Gainesville. During his time in Florida, Spurrier won one national championship in 1997 and played for another the year prior. He was a six-time SEC champion from 1991-2000 and a five-time SEC Coach of the Year from 1990-1996 among his long list of accomplishments and accolades.

Having his name represented on the stadium is a nice honor but I don’t anticipate anyone at Florida or elsewhere to stop referring to the place as the Swamp. But of course, it’s an incredible honor for a man who has a statue outside the stadium that now bears his name and is a member of the Ring of Honor.

This will be the first full year of retirement for Spurrier who quit midseason last year at South Carolina as the Gamecocks were in the midst of a 3-9 campaign.

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It was a sour way for one of the greatest college football coaches to go out, but my hope is now that he’s retired, we’ll see the Head Ball Coach working with the media much more and staying a part of the game that he’s been a part of for so long and helped make it what it is.