It is no secret that UF has a tradition of excellence on the football field, but we were shocked when we heard the University Athletic Association voted to spend $550,000 on statues of our three Heisman Trophy winners, Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow.
Currently there is only one bronze statue on UF campus – Albert A. Murphree, the second president of the university. Since the new statues of our Heisman winners will be paid for with private donations, we will not say we are opposed to the venture, but we cannot help but feel like there are more qualified candidates to receive the honor of a larger-than-life likeness.
Many remarkable people have graduated from UF: six astronauts, nine United States senators, countless CEOs and two Nobel Prize winners – Marshall Warren Nirenberg, who won in 1968 for physiology/medicine, and Robert Howard Grubbs, who won in 2005 for chemistry. We just do not understand why our football players need to be honored in such a lavish manner while some of UF’s most distinguished graduates are relegated to small plaques and portraits hanging on walls somewhere off the beaten path.
We would be lying if we said that Spurrier, Wuerffel and Tebow were not inspirational figures. Wuerffel and Tebow have proven to be especially good examples for young Gators fans by advocating higher education and avoiding drugs, but their careers are not plausible for 99 percent of the Student Body. Achieving greatness in your chosen career, however, is something everyone can aspire to.
Athletics is a means for increasing the public awareness of a university’s academics. As an institution of higher education, UF needs to realize that even though the Heisman Trophy is a prestigious award, it does not reflect on the university’s academic quality. Our dominance on the field is the perfect opportunity to show the world our accomplishments in the classroom.
