Dwayne Schintzius remembered during funeral in Brandon hometown
Monday, April 30, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The life of former University of Florida center Dwayne Schintzius was remembered during funeral services Saturday morning in Brandon, the hometown of the Gators basketball star who died April 15 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
His father, Ken Schintzius, spoke of the difficulty his family – wife Linda and younger son Travis – has had since Dwayne, who underwent two bone marrow transplants since 2009 before succumbing to his fight with Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia, passed at the age of 43.
Ken Schintzius wore a blue tie dotted with the UF logo Saturday.
"You don't normally wear blue with a gray suit,” he said. "But I wanted to wear the tie because it was his."
Among the former Gators in attendance were a handful of Schintzius' teammates, including Livingston Chatman and Clifford Lett, who started alongside the 7-foot-2 center during UF's 1989 run to the first Southeastern Conference in school history.
Schintzius, who ranks sixth on Florida's all-time scoring list with 1,624 points, is the only player in SEC history to total at least 1,500 points, 800 rebounds, 250 assists and 200 blocked shots. He was a first-round draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs in 1990 – the second Gator ever taken in Round 1 – and played in the NBA nine seasons.
“It was a life cut too short,” said former Gators point guard Renaldo Garcia. “But it was quite a life.”
Both Tampa Bay area newspapers covered the funeral. Here are links to read Joey Johnston's story in The Tampa Tribune and Antonya English's in The Tampa Bay Times.
