Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jim Hadley attracted adjectives.

The state's sportswriters often referred to him in print as Massive Jim Hadley. Giant Jim Hadley. Big Jim Hadley. The one he could have done without was Hard-Luck Hadley. If not for a continuous string of physical setbacks during his college career, the 6-foot-6, 247-pound Hadley had the potential to do consistently what he did in Florida's 9-3 win over Florida State in 1968.

"Jim Hadley played his finest game for us,'' Gators coach Ray Graves told reporters afterward.

In a dominant effort by the Gators' defense on that afternoon in Tallahassee, Hadley batted down three passes by FSU quarterback Gary Pajcic to help Florida avenge its 1967 loss to the Seminoles, the Gators' first loss to their in-state rivals at Florida Field.

An all-state linebacker at Tampa's Robinson High, the same school that produced Gator Greats Larry Smith and John Reaves, Hadley played on the defensive line at Florida when healthy. Hadley's athleticism made him stand out at Robinson, where he also played basketball, baseball and ran track, prompting the school to retire his jersey after he graduated in 1966.

The injuries started for Hadley soon after arriving at Florida. He broke his hand as a freshman. He suffered a knee injury that required surgery in the spring of his sophomore season but returned to the field later in the year. He started to blossom as a junior with a team-high 55 solo tackles, highlighted by the performance against FSU.

However, after being named to the All-Southeastern Conference preseason team as a senior, Hadley missed the entire 1969 season due to hepatitis and an enlarged liver according to reports. When Graves became athletic director after the '69 season and Doug Dickey took over the program, one of the first calls he made was to Hadley to gauge his interest in coming back for another season.

Hadley told reporters he did not want to finish his UF career on the sideline and pushed off his graduation to make a comeback in 1970. It wasn't to be. Hadley suffered a lower-back injury prior to the season and was unable to play. His last shot as a player came as a free agent with the Dallas Cowboys. He failed the physical due to his back injury.

Soon afterward Hadley began a coaching career when Charley Casey, the first receiver in UF history to be named a first-team All-American, hired him as an assistant coach at Fort Myers Riverdale High in 1971. Hadley stayed at Riverdale for six seasons and took over as head coach in 1976. He returned to Robinson High in 1977 as defensive coordinator and took over as head coach the next season when Knights head coach Randy Smith left to join former UF offensive coordinator Fred Pancoast's staff at Vanderbilt.

Hadley was Robinson's head coach from 1978-80, his signature moment a 6-0 victory over rival Plant High in 1980 during a 3-7 season.

"That one will always stick out in my mind,'' he told the Tampa Times in January 1981 when he resigned.

In his mid-30s Hadley began to transition to a longtime career in athletic administration following the head-coaching job at his alma mater, eventually becoming athletic director at Hillsborough High among other professional stops.

James Frederick Hadley was born Jan. 28, 1948. He died on April 19 at age 72.

Prior to his shining moment with the Gators, Hadley was part of a group of players who performed what they termed the "Gator Death Walk" onto the field at Doak Campbell Stadium prior to that 1968 victory. The goal was to intimidate the Seminoles.

What impact the gesture had is open to debate. What is not is Hadley's impact on the players he coached and the people he met, many of whom shared online messages in the wake of his passing.

"I'll never forget meeting Jim Hadley for the first time at the Tampa Youth Ranch. Jim was a bigger-than-life person. He shared his testimony of faith in Christ. To a seventh-grader this really caught my interest and motivated me [to] listen and apply the truth of the gospel in my own life. That was a lifetime ago – 54 years ago. I have been in the ministry now for 50 years. Thanks Jim, for impacting my life," pastor Ron Satterwhite wrote on a tribute page in Hadley's memory.

RIP to Big Jim Hadley, No. 71 for the Gators.