Remembering Lindy Infante, A True Florida Gators Great

Gelindo Infante better known as “Lindy” passed away on October 8, 2015. Lindy was born in 1940 in Miami, Florida.

Lindy Infante played for the Florida Gators from 1960-62 and was a three-year letterman. He was a player on Coach Ray Graves first three Florida Gators teams.

Lindy was third team All-SEC team member in 1962 as well as a team captain in his senior season.

Lindy Infante came back to his alma mater in 1966 and coached with Coaches Graves and Doug Dickey.
Lindy was responsible for coaching legendary receiver Carlos Alavarez.

Despite being in my sixties I did not remember Lindy Infante as a Gator player or even as a coach in the later sixties. In fact, I really did not know of him until 1984 when he came to Jacksonville, Florida to coach the Jacksonville Bulls in the upstart USFL.

Like a lot of fans I became very involved with the Bulls that first season. The Bulls had a booster club that met weekly and Coach Infante and Larry Csonka would be at most of those meetings interacting with the fans. Coach Infante has become the toast of the town.

The team was not all that good, but they did play some exciting games behind some big crowds. On Tuesdays after the games I would sometimes pick up a few youngsters along with my oldest son and we would go to the Bulls Sideline Show with Sam Kouvaris and Lindy Infante.

Those shows would be in studio with some make shift bleachers and about twenty of so fans. Just for going we would get a tee shirt and some other promo stuff.

Point of all that is that I became a fan of Lindy Infante. While I did not know much more about football coaches than I do now, I did know people and Lindy Infante seemed to be a class guy and as I said the town really liked him. I am sure his Gator roots helped.

Of course the story of the USFL did not have a happy ending, just an ending, but I followed Coach Infante the rest of his career. For the most part one would have to refer to him as a journeyman coach, but hey, he was a NFL coach a couple of times around. Even back in the 90’s he got a million dollars one season not to coach.

That is a pretty good gig if you can get it.

One of the good results of coaching in Jacksonville is that he landed in Crescent Beach, where he lived out his retirement years with his wife Stephanie who celebrated fifty years of marriage with him in June.

Gene Frenette of the Florida Times Union talked to Coach Spurrier about Lindy’s death and the Ball Coach remarked initially that Infante had every beach toy imaginable including a para-glider.
Said Spurrier, “Lindy was a good person, and he loved life.”

Lindy Infante was a Florida Gator great. He brought honor and distinction to the University of Florida and did things that many others can only dream of.

Rest in Peace, Coach.

gatorgrowl
David Shepherd has been a member of Gator Country since 1996. He retired from CSX Railroad in 2001 after nearly 30 years of service. Since that time he has worked for Gator Country, Waycross Journal Herald and First Baptist Church in Paris. He loves listening to his grandchildren plqying music. He has been married to Donna for 42 years.