Gators ambassador Steve Spurrier took in Saturday's Orange & Blue Game at The Swamp. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Spurrier Set To Launch Orlando's Newest Pro Football Franchise
Monday, April 16, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter
Gators ambassador Steve Spurrier will be in Orlando on Tuesday for a press conference as the head coach of Orlando in the Alliance of American Football.
The Alliance of American Football, set to start play in February, will introduce Spurrier as head coach of its Orlando franchise at a press conference Tuesday from 5-7 p.m. at Ember (42 W. Central Blvd.) in downtown Orlando. The event is open to the public and includes AAF officials and Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer.
Spurrier stepped down as South Carolina's coach midway through the 2015 season and returned to UF in July 2016. He will remain as UF's ambassador while taking a leave of absence in the spring to coach.
Spurrier's return to the sideline brings back memories of his first stint as a professional coach with the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League from 1983-85. The Bandits were officially unveiled in Orlando 35 years ago at the old Tangerine Bowl in an exhibition game against the Boston Breakers.
"We'll be under the lights. It'll be on television in Tampa and there'll be, oh, at least a couple of hundred people in the stands,'' Spurrier quipped to The Tampa Tribune in its Feb. 12, 1983, edition. "We'll have a chance to see how our players react under some kind of pressure."
For the record, the announced attendance on that cold, windy, rainy night was 548 for what was essentially a scrimmage. Ex-Gators quarterback John Reaves started for the Bandits and former FSU quarterback Jimmy Jordan also played.
Trivia question: Name the coach of the Breakers that night? (Answer below)
Of course, the Bandits went on to become one of the premiere franchises in the USFL's three-year run with Spurrier and Reaves the stars of the show, a bigger attraction in Tampa in those years than the NFL's Bucs. Meanwhile, Spurrier parlayed the job into a head coaching job at Duke and in 1990 took over the Gators.
You know how that turned out. What do you know about the history of professional football in Orlando?
Perhaps Spurrier can launch Orlando into a lasting professional market. Goodness knows many have tried and failed.
What do Perry Moss (Orlando Panthers), Jack Pardee (Florida Blazers), Bob Williams (Orlando Americans), Lee Corso (Orlando Renegades), former Gators coach Galen Hall (Orlando Thunder, Orlando Rage) and current Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden (Florida Tuskers) have in common beside being football coaches? They were all head coaches of professional football franchises in Orlando that disappeared soon after they started.
The city's first professional team, the Orlando Broncos, included former Gators Larry Libertore and Bob "The Mover" Hoover. The team hung around for a while in the mid-1960s before folding and others came along.
The Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League is the city's most successful entry in professional football. The franchise existed from 1991-2016 before disbanding, with Moss and Gruden enjoying successful stints as head coach.
As we wait to see what the future holds for the latest Orlando professional football team, only one thing is certain: the city's football history has never known a coach as accomplished and colorful as Spurrier.
Answer: Dick Coury
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