Catching Up with Lindy Infante...
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Lindy Infante never lost to Georgia during his playing career. In his three seasons as a two-way standout for the Gators from 1960-62, Florida beat the Bulldogs each season.
Infante later returned to Florida as an assistant coach and climbed the coaching ladder all the way to NFL head coach.
GatorZone.com caught up with Infante for his induction into the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame on Friday afternoon:
Age: 73
Home: Crescent Beach, Fla.
Family: Married to wife Stephanie for 48 years; they have two sons and six grandchildren
Occupation: Retired. "I'm fully retired and enjoying life. We knew many years ago this is where we were going to retire, so we ended up building this house back in '91."
Position as player: RB/CB
First coaching job: Miami Senior High assistant (1965)
Head coaching jobs: Jacksonville Bulls (USFL, 1984-85); Green Bay Packers (1988-91); Indianapolis Colts (1996-97).
Photo: Infante, right, with Jevon Kearse and Bonnie Bernstein, master of ceremonies at Friday's Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame luncheon.
What do you think you would have done if not a coach? "I know when I enrolled back in school after trying to play a little longer I went into architecture. I was not naive enough to think I could get a degree in it, because it is quite a challenging profession. That's what I thought I kind of wanted to be when I came out of high school. But I did one year of it after I finished playing and did well, but then I got offered a coaching job and I said, 'Well, here is the fork in the road, what are you going to do?' I chose coaching."
What does the Florida-Georgia game mean to you? "We won three in a row. I'm trying to bring them a little good luck come Saturday. After I got done playing, I was lucky enough to get hired by [Gators head coach] Ray Graves on the coaching staff, and then when Doug Dickey came in, I survived the cut. I stayed with Doug for a few years and I ended up doing seven years as an assistant coach. All those seven years we had a Florida-Georgia game. So I kind of feel like I'm part of it, and once you're in them, you realize how hard it is for the coaching staffs because of two good teams in there. Even when I was being recruited, Georgia and the University of Florida were two teams that offered me a chance to come on scholarship. Luckily for me I chose the University of Florida, because for me it has been nothing but good things they have done for me all these years."
What has kept the Florida-Georgia game a tradition? "It's such a happening. The way the thing is set up is unlike any other game that I know of. It's like a Super Bowl. It's a totally different setting than when one team is the visiting team and one team is the home team. It's one of those things that if you go to it, you will remember it for the rest of your life."
When did you start playing football? "I was born in Miami and raised down there and played at Miami Senior High School. Back then there were only four teams in Dade County, so there was a lot of recruiting going on down there. You had a lot of people with not many teams spread out."
What does this honor mean to you? "This was totally unexpected. I got a phone call one morning and they told me I was elected for induction into the Hall of Fame for the Florida-Georgia game. I was quite emotional about it. It meant a lot and it will from now on."
What is your most memorable game at Florida? "When Ray Graves took over in 1960, we played Georgia Tech in Gainesville. We ended up getting the game to where we were down by one and we could kick the extra point and tie the game up. Instead, we decided to go for two and win the game. We ran a little option play. Larry Libertore was the quarterback. Larry usually kept the ball and ran with it. This time he decided to pitch it to me and I made a little 4-yard run that got it just inside the pylon with seconds left. We ended up getting two points on the next play and winning the game by one. That was a big game because Ray had come from Georgia Tech and we were playing a team that was a rivalry for us."
What was it like to coach against Steve Spurrier in the USFL? "He was down in Tampa and we were up here in Jacksonville. We weren't like going-out buddies. He was younger than me and had his own group, and I did too. But we've known each other for years. He is an outstanding coach. We didn't have a whole lot of luck against him when I was in Jacksonville. We know each other. He's got a house here in Crescent Beach also and every now and then we'll run across each other on the beach somewhere."
What's a typical day for you as a retiree? "I played a lot of golf at first when I retired. I was one of those five-day-a-week guys. I found out later that the old age starts to set in; I couldn't hit it far enough and I couldn't score well enough. I'm really down to playing some recreational stuff with my son. He lives here in St. Augustine. He and I will go out and play a round of golf and have fun. That's about the extent of my golf these days. I don't miss it terribly. I wish I could play better and I would go back and play."
What was your biggest moment as an NFL coach? "In '89 we had a good team in Green Bay and I was voted NFL Coach of the Year. That's probably the biggest honor I got if I had to pick one."
Have you been to UF recently for a game? "I really haven't. I've got some friends here in St. Augustine and we are diehard Gator fans but we just watch it on TV. That gives us the right to complain a little bit if something goes wrong. He was an ex-coach and we usually go down to his condo on game day and we'll sit around and watch the game. That doesn't mean we are not fans. We are pulling for them tremendously, we're just doing it on TV."
