I forgot to put this in a few weeks ago. Kelly Prior a great UF pitcher in mid 1960s passed away in May. He holds the UF record for scoreless innings with 30. Yep 30 straight innings without a run. He was drafted by the KC A's and was in the minors for a while before he exited baseball and went into real estate in FL (Clearwater/Dunedin area).
Yep, and the Drill Field and ROTC building, I believe. Dave Fuller was coach back then. Percy Beard Track was between the south end zone bleachers and the College of Engineering. I used to know that entire area like the back of my hand, though memories are hazy now
The aero program had a bunch of wind tunnels where the O'Dome was built and were promised that they would be replaced. Never happened. Wasn't Percy Beard track west of Perry Field?
We're both dating ourselves. The track was just beyond the south end zone temporary bleachers in the 50's.
In the late 30s Percy Beard did the engineering structure for what is now our house, on behalf of then football assistant coach and boxing coach Carlos Proctor. It’s now on the National Historic Record as a prime example of “Depression era rustic.”
Actually, the northern length of the track ran under the bleachers with the track as the passage. When I first saw them in 1960, they were smaller in size than later. Probably a few hundred fans. The football home locker room was at the ground level of the east stands and the visitors used Florida Gym. That southeast corner was wide open, since the ramp from Stadium Drive was added later, was the southwest corner. Until 1966, the east stands- above row 33- also were steel frame bleachers with wooden benches. Attendance grew in the '50s when Bob Woodruff insisted on more home games in Gainesville and fewer in Tampa and Jacksonville, the grew more when Ray Graves made the Gators regular winners. The real attendance boom started in 1964 when Graves brought in a hotshot QB from Johnson City, TN. By the time Orr entered his senior year, he had taken the Gators to New Orleans for their first bowl game away from Jacksonville (they don't count the trip to the Bacardi Bowl in Havana). FL was growing, too, and the Gators needed more dorms and, coincidently, more seats, so the legislature funded a new dorm that happened to have seats overlooking the football fied. A big section of the old bleachers were moved to the south endzone. When the new south stands were built, a portion of those bleachers were moved to the left field foul line of Perry Field. Whew! Lotsa useless trivia.
I remember the bleachers very well in the mid 60s on the east (student) side. Going into stadium, the guys would look up and see the girls' undies thru the bleachers. I recall my fr year having PE, and we were told to run the track on the south end, then the stadium steps up and down on the west side, then across the north end zone past the bell, to the bleachers and across to the end. It was a long arduous run and one day for whatever crazy reason I won it vs 20 or so guys which got me off the next run. Also took swimming in the winter, not a good idea. The ROTC field was across from the stadium where the parking lot and O'C basketball center is now. The ROTC building was at the far end where they held classes. One afternoon one of my buddies in class said I am totally not ready for that ROTC exam tomorrow at 7AM. He said he had to figure out a way to postpone it....so he rummaged around , got a few lead fishing weights, a spoon, and a cig lighter and went and sealed all of the ROTC door locks by melting lead, then pushing it into the lock. Nobody could get in that next morning. Exam postponed.
I have been educated about the old track. Before my time as I started teaching here in 1982. Back then the Engineering Library was on the third floor of Weil Hall and you could see the games from there. The freshman PE story took me back to taking the swimming portion of freshman PE at IIT taught by a professional open water distance swimmer. He was 300 pounds and shaped like a carrot. MASSIVE upper body. At the end of class he would line us up to swim back and forth on the width of the pool and the winner got to leave and the rest of us had to do it again. Being smart I sandbagged the first few attempts and then went all in. Lots of puking in the locker room after class. I changed into gym clothes and shot baskets for an hour as I didn't have a class after gym. Added in edit: The swim instructor was Dennis Matuch.
