Awesome Reward: Gators Harrison, Dixon Treasure Their Place Among Six New Scholarship Players
Friday, August 28, 2015 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – One grew up here, played at Gainesville High and sold soft drinks at Florida football games in high school.
“I was just trying to make some extra cash on the side,'' Case Harrison said.
The other one was raised in Sanford, left home for Stillman College in Tuscaloosa and is hearing impaired.
“When I first started playing I would probably get one unsportsmanlike conduct penalty a game for blocking past the whistle,'' Roger Dixon Jr. said. “Over time I learned how to judge the pace of the game.”
Both fulfilled lifelong dreams on Saturday when Gators head coach Jim McElwain announced after practice that six walk-ons were being placed on scholarship.
Harrison and Dixon were mobbed by their teammates after the announcement, as were Bair Diamond, Garrett Stephens, Steven Stipe and Dakota Wilson.
The awarding of scholarships to walk-ons has become one of college football's most memorable moments of the season in the digital age, often captured on camera and shared repeatedly on social media. ESPN has shown numerous clips in recent days of walk-ons being surprised by their coaches during team meetings.
“That's truly a special moment. You wish all of them had it,'' McElwain said. “They put a lot of time in to help the Gators. These six guys in particular, they have been in the program multiple years. They do what's right. They truly care about the program, care about helping the Gators get better, do a great job in the classroom.”
A former receiver who walked on at Florida in 2013, Harrison moved to running back in the spring when McElwain took over the program and needed to add depth in the thin backfield. Harrison has watched on TV as players from other schools were awarded scholarships, and even some of his UF teammates, but he was uncertain if that ever would be him until McElwain made it official.
“I don't think I could ever feel that feeling again,'' he said. “It's probably one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Harrison called his parents, Pam and Mike, soon after he received the news. After years and years of supporting their only son and his athletic endeavors – Harrison also played basketball, baseball and soccer growing up – he was elated to call his parents with the news.
Harrison couldn't wait to tell his grandfather, too. Fred Pearson, an offensive lineman for the Gators under Ray Graves from 1960-63, choked up at the news.
As a young player at Ocala High in the late 1950s, Pearson's dream was to play for the Gators. He earned a scholarship, which he said was the only way his family could afford him to attend college.
One of Pearson's most unforgettable moments as a Gator happened his senior season in 1963 when the Gators won at Alabama, handing Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant his first career loss in Tuscaloosa. In the famous picture of Graves riding on the shoulders of his players, there is Pearson, No. 71, to Graves' left with a huge smile on his face.
More than 50 years later, there's another Florida scholarship football player in the family. McElwain said Thursday that Harrison, who has yet to play in a game for the Gators, will likely play in the season opener.
“Pops, I got my scholarship,'' Pearson recalled Thursday. “That was just a very emotional time for me. For him to now be on scholarship is just a dream come true for Case and our whole family. We knew that Case had worked his tail off.”
Meanwhile, Dixon wasted little time after practice to call his high-school sweetheart, Chrissy, with the news.
When Dixon attended Stillman for two years on an academic scholarship, Chrissy was a student at the University of Alabama a few miles away.
After Dixon was injured as a sophomore, he decided to fulfill that lingering dream of playing at Florida, where both his parents attended. He and Chrissy packed up and he spent the spring semester of 2013 at Santa Fe College. Dixon needed to make five A's to be accepted as an economics major at UF.
“That spring all I did was study,'' he said. “Being a Gator was a dream my whole life. I decided, I've only got one life to live, so I might as well do what I've been wanting to do since I was 7 years old.”
A receiver and special-teams player, Dixon walked on at UF in the summer of 2013 and played in six games last season, earning his first chance on the field in Florida's upset of Georgia.
Dixon's inability to hear high-pitched sounds and certain speech patterns made for some interesting moments when he first arrived at Florida.
“Sometimes he'll block and block and the play will be way over and he'll keep blocking,'' teammate Nick Washington said. “We finally found out what it was so now we understand it. He is a very, very hard worker. He gives it his all every play.”
To add to his chances of playing this season, Dixon taught himself to long snap over the summer. He may now be a scholarship player, but he had the same mindset as a walk-on.
“Not seeing the field is never part of the plan,'' Dixon said. “Somehow I'm going to get on the field. I didn't come here to not play. I feel like I can play. I had to fight to get [on the field last year]. It was definitely a good feeling.”
As the Gators prepare to break camp on Friday and turn their focus to game week for New Mexico State, the six new scholarship players all can at least stop worrying about finances and focus on school and football.
“Really, this fall I didn't know how I was going to eat,'' Dixon said. “I was just praying that something happened."
Harrison considered Ivy League schools coming out of high school. He took a trip to Yale and contemplated playing baseball there. But it was too expensive.
Instead, he opted to stay home and chase a dream.
On a Saturday afternoon during preseason camp, everything fell into place.
“I'm happy I chose football,'' he said.
