Steve Spurrier

This article is about the former American football coach and player. For other people with similar names, see Steven Spurrier.

Steve Spurrier
Spurrier in 2010
Biographical details
Born (1945-04-20) April 20, 1945 (age 79)
Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Florida
Playing career
1964–1966Florida
1967–1975San Francisco 49ers
1976Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Position(s)Quarterback
Punter
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1978Florida (QB/WR)
1979Georgia Tech (QB)
1980–1982Duke (OC/QB)
1983–1985Tampa Bay Bandits[a]
1987–1989Duke[a]
1990–2001Florida[a]
2002–2003Washington Redskins
2005–2015South Carolina
2019Orlando Apollos
Head coaching record
Overall228–89–2 (college)
12–20 (NFL)
35–21 (USFL)
7–1 (AAF)
Bowls11–10
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
As a coach
Awards
As a coach
As a player
College Football Hall of Fame
Inducted in 2017[b] (profile)

Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former football player and coach. He played ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL) before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often referred to by his nickname, "the Head Ball Coach".[2] He played college football as a quarterback for the Florida Gators, where he won the 1966 Heisman Trophy. The San Francisco 49ers selected him in the first round of the 1967 NFL draft, and he spent a decade playing in the National Football League (NFL) mainly as a backup quarterback and punter. Spurrier was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986.

After retiring as a player, Spurrier went into coaching and spent five years as a college assistant for the Florida Gators, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, and the Duke Blue Devils where he began to develop his innovative offensive system while serving as the Blue Devils offensive coordinator in the early 1980s. He was hired to his first head coaching job by the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League (USFL) in 1983 and led the team to two playoff appearances in three seasons before the league folded. Spurrier returned to the college ranks in 1987, serving as the head football coach at Duke (three seasons), Florida (12 seasons), and South Carolina (10.5 seasons), amassing 228 total wins and a 72% career winning percentage. Between his stints at Florida and South Carolina, he led the Washington Redskins for two seasons with less success. Spurrier retired from coaching in 2015 and became an ambassador and consultant for the University of Florida's athletic department, though he briefly returned to the sidelines to coach the Orlando Apollos of the short-lived Alliance of American Football in 2019. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2017, making him one of four members to be inducted as both a player and a coach.[3]

Spurrier's teams were known for winning with aggressive and high-scoring offenses, and he became known for teasing and "needling" rivals both before and after beating them on the field.[4] Spurrier's 1989 Duke squad won the program's only Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship since 1962. He is the winningest coach in both Florida and South Carolina program history, making him the only coach to hold the record for most wins at two different Southeastern Conference (SEC) schools. Florida's streak of four consecutive SEC championships in the mid-1990s is the second-longest in conference history behind Bear Bryant's 1970s Alabama teams. And when Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman Trophy during the Gators 1996 national championship season, Spurrier became the only Heisman Trophy winner to coach another Heisman Trophy winner.

In recognition to his contributions to the university and its football program, the University of Florida officially renamed the Gators home field "Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium" in 2016.[5]


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  1. ^ "Steve Spurrier (1986)". footballfoundation.com. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  2. ^ Maloy, Brendan (August 31, 2016). "Fox News called Steve Spurrier "Head Game Coach"". SI.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  3. ^ Pantages, Will (January 9, 2017). "Steve Spurrier Re-enters College Football HOF". floridagators.com. University of Florida.
  4. ^ D'Angelo, Tom (October 13, 2015). "Bobby Bowden calls Spurrier 'national champion at needling people'". The Palm Beach Post. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  5. ^ Low, Chris (September 4, 2016). "Swamp Sweet Swamp: Steve Spurrier is back home at Florida". ESPN. Retrieved September 4, 2016.