The final season for Florida's baseball team calling McKethan Stadium home opens Friday night against Marshall. (Photo: Dakota Williams/UAA Communications)
In Final Opener, a Special Honor for McKethan's Family
Friday, February 14, 2020 | Baseball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – They know if their grandfather was in attendance Friday night, he would be perched somewhere in his familiar spot high above Perry Field, sitting comfortably and watching closely. He would have his Gators baseball cap pulled tightly over his head.
They can picture the scene.
"He loved coming up to ballgames,'' Jimmy Kimbrough said.
"Some great memories,'' added Robert A. Buckner.
Kimbrough and Buckner are grandsons of the late Alfred A. McKethan, whose name has been attached prominently to the University of Florida baseball program for more than 30 years. The Gators' home stadium is named after McKethan, a 1931 UF graduate and longtime contributor to the university and athletic department. Kimbrough, his sister Kathy Kimbrough Parker, Buckner and his two brothers, James C. Buckner and William M. Buckner, will be on hand for the ceremonial first pitch at Florida's season opener against Marshall.
It's more than that, though. Much more. Source: Tampa Tribune archives/Newspaper.com
It's the final opening day in the history of McKethan Stadium, which will be razed after the 2020 season. As one era ends, construction continues on Florida Ballpark, which is scheduled to open in 2021 and will serve as the UF baseball team's new state-of-the-art home across campus.
For McKethan's family, Friday night is an opportunity to relive memories and share new ones in honor of their grandfather, who died in April 2002 at the age of 93.
"A lot of this is very sentimental,'' said Kimbrough, a UF graduate like his grandfather. "Sentimental for the family to think about not only our grandfather and what he meant to us, but sentimental to know how much the University of Florida meant to him."
Kimbrough and Robert A. Buckner live about 90 minutes from UF in Brooksville, Fla., where their grandfather earned the title of "Mr. Hernando County" for his vision for the community and acute sense of business and politics. Kimbrough's sister lives in Jacksonville and Buckner's brothers live in Houston and Knoxville.
Besides McKethan's five grandchildren, several great grandchildren are expected to participate in a family gathering that has deep UF connections. McKethan was inducted into the UF Athletic Hall of Fame as an honorary member in 1988 after serving as the driving force behind revamping Florida's baseball home from essentially Perry Field with bleachers into what was dedicated as Alfred A. McKethan Stadium on Feb. 21, 1988. Reports at the time described the venue as a modernized $2.4 million, 4,000-seat stadium.
Robert Buckner is appreciative of the University Athletic Association extending an invitation to McKethan's grandchildren to take part in Friday's ceremonies to help celebrate McKethan's role in the transformation of the baseball program during a critical period. The Gators advanced to the College World Series for the first time in program history in their first season at McKethan Stadium.
While McKethan made an impact on the Gators, his influence extended way beyond having a stadium named after him. To get a better sense of the life McKethan lived, here are some of his accomplishments to consider that were listed in his obituary by the Tampa Bay Times:
Chairman of the State Road Board from 1949-54 and pushed through development of original Sunshine Skyway.
Headed Hernando State Bank, which was later sold to SunTrust Banks Inc. Credited with modernizing the state's banking industry as head of the Florida Bankers Association.
Led committee that chose site for what is now Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.
First chairman of the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
A founder of Florida Citrus Mutual, the grower cooperative.
The list could go on and on. When McKethan passed away almost 18 years ago, then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush described him as "larger than life."
Still, McKethan carved out time for his family. Buckner recalled a favorite memory this week when McKethan gathered his two late daughters – Martha Ann Kimbrough and Mary Celia Buckner – and their families for a trip to England, Scotland and Wales. They returned home via a voyage on the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner.
To Buckner's memory, it was the only trip all five grandkids made together with their grandfather and his daughters.
"It was not the cost. It was the time that he would take,'' said Robert Buckner, McKethan's eldest grandson. "Many times, those were two- and sometimes three-week trips. He was a very busy person, but to take the time and to put up with a bunch of teenagers and young adults at the time, those were great experiences. He was a lover of history and would share all the history of the various places we traveled to. Very great memories for the family."
Those flashbacks are certain to be stirred when the family arrives at McKethan Stadium tonight. Kimbrough is an avid baseball fan who made regular pilgrimages with his grandfather to UF sporting events over the years.
"To the fans, you made me like no other. My legacy will live on forever. Let's play ball."
One of his favorite trips happened in 1987 when the Gators hosted the New York Yankees in a spring exhibition game. Yankees leadoff hitter Rickey Henderson slammed a towering home run and then trotted around the bases in memorable fashion.
"It was a tape-measure shot. You can imagine the show he wanted to put on in front of the college boys in Gainesville,'' Kimbrough said. "It must have taken him five minutes to run around the bases."
The year after the stadium was named after McKethan, he discussed his financial generosity toward his alma mater with the Tampa Tribune. McKethan gave millions of dollars to various organizations in his lifetime, including Virginia Military Institute, where he attended for two years prior to UF.
He shared the impact UF had on him.
"Everything I've done has been in appreciation for what the university did to get me a good education and help me along with my life,'' McKethan told the Tribune in December 1989. "Without that education, I could not have been the business success I have been."
To see McKethan Stadium's run come to an end is bittersweet for Kimbrough. He has so many fond memories, first at Perry Field and then McKethan Stadium. He attended Gators baseball camps there as a kid. Went to games with his grandfather. Attended a coaching class with former Gators head coach Joe Arnold. Played in the venue when fraternities on campus used it for their intramural league.
But when he reflects on how his grandfather might react to the changes taking place, he has to only review the life McKethan lived. He was a visionary, a man who understood progress and valued teamwork.
"I think it's reasonable that people would wonder about how he would feel about this final season and this final season means the stadium is going to go away,'' Kimbrough said. "I've thought about this myself. Whatever amount of personal disappointment or sadness he would have that Alfred A. McKethan Stadium is going away, in the big picture for what this means for the University of Florida as a whole and the athletic department as a whole … that would outweigh some of the disappointment. He had a positive outlook on every part of life."
