Dave Fuller, the winningest baseball coach in University of Florida history and assistant football coach under three coaches from 1948-76, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 15, at North Florida Regional Hospital in Gainesville. He was 94.
As head baseball coach from 1948-75, Fuller compiled a record of 557-354-6. His teams in 1952, 1956 and 1962 captured Southeastern Conference championships, when he was named the SEC Coach of the Year. His teams won four Eastern Division titles and played in four NCAA regional tournaments. As a football assistant for 29 seasons from 1948 through 1976, the longest of any assistant coach in Florida football history, Fuller served in a variety of positions—as head freshman coach, varsity assistant, head scout and a key recruiter for head coaches Bob Woodruff, Ray Graves and Doug Dickey.
“Coach Fuller’s loyalty and dedication to the coaching profession, and his love of the University of Florida, will always be remembered,” Florida Director of Athletics Jeremy Foley said. “He had a significant positive influence on countless athletes, coaches and administrators.”
Fuller was responsible for recruiting Doug Dickey from P.K. Yonge High School in Gainesville. Dickey went on to be a football quarterback and baseball standout for the Gators before following Woodruff to Tennessee, where he served as head football coach and athletics director for the Volunteers around a stint (1970-78) as head football coach at his alma mater.
But perhaps his most famous recruit was future NFL Hall of Fame defensive end Jack Youngblood of Monticello. Youngblood was just a 180-pound player at Jefferson County High School with no college scholarship offers until Fuller took an interest and convinced Graves to give him a scholarship in 1967. Youngblood became one of the top defensive ends in school history and went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Los Angeles Rams. At his induction speech at the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 2001, Youngblood thanked Graves and Fuller for allowing him to be a Florida Gator.
“There was a baseball coach at the University of Florida many years ago, and he saw something in a young man playing the game that nobody else noticed,” Youngblood said. “Coach Dave Fuller, he’s smiling right now. … I want to thank coach Ray Graves, who was my football coach at the University of Florida for believing in a wise man—coach Dave Fuller. He saw a potential in a football player and they made me a Gator, not just for four years, but they made me a Gator for life.”
Fuller’s baseball teams produced 47 first-team All-SEC players, and All-Americans Bernie Parrish (1958), Perry McGriff (1959-1960) and Tom Moore (1962-1963). Eight of his players went on to play in the Major Leagues, including Parrish, Denis Aust, Ross Baumgarten, Doug Corbett, Roger Holt, Haywood Sullivan, Dale Willis and Kendall Wise.
“There was no better ambassador for Florida baseball than Dave Fuller,” Florida baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “What he accomplished during his legendary career with the Gators will never be forgotten and Coach Fuller embodied all that is best about Florida—loyalty, dedication and the pursuit of excellence. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and all those who loved him. His life touched players, families, staff and alumni and his impact on our baseball program is immeasurable. Coach Fuller is a true representative of the Gator tradition and he will be missed.”
A star athlete at Wake Forest, Fuller started for three seasons in football, basketball and baseball for the Deacons. His greatest fame was in football where he was a fullback-tailback. Following graduation he played professional baseball with Portsmouth, Va., of the Dixie League and Wilson and Goldsboro, N.C., of the Coastal Plain League. As he often told friends, it was an inability to hit the curve ball that ended his professional career. He turned to coaching, first as the head football, basketball and baseball coach at Perquimans County High School in Hertford, N.C. (1940-41-42), and backfield coach at Maryville (Mo) Teachers College (1943 in the Navy V2 program). He joined the Florida coaching staff at the end of World War II.
Fuller and his late wife Patricia had four children: daughter Pat, and sons David, Len and John, all University of Florida graduates. Len Fuller played football for the Gators and John was an all-SEC baseball player.