Tuesday, September 29, 2020 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The air was thick. The sun hot. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he adjusted the mask covering his nose and mouth.
Meanwhile, Stuart Hall relished every breath in the muggy conditions Sunday afternoon as the Gators soccer team opened its COVID-delayed season with a 1-1 tie against Georgia at Dizney Stadium.
"With what we've been through as a family … I think it's like a bit of a reprieve from all of the stress and trauma,'' Hall said.
Stuart Hall and his wife, Kellee, watch the UF soccer team play Sunday at Dizney Stadium. Stuart and Kellee are the parents of Gators sophomore midfielder Cameron Hall. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
The 52-year-old father of Gators sophomore midfielder Cameron Hall, Stuart and wife Kellee made the trip from their Buford, Ga., home last weekend to watch Cameron make her first collegiate start in Florida's season opener. For Stuart, the trip featured a memorable performance.
He is serving as Florida's first Virtual Honorary Mr. Two Bits for the No. 3-ranked football team's home opener on Saturday against South Carolina. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Hall's routine – which includes special Orange & Blue guests – was recorded while he was in town and will be unveiled online Saturday and on the video boards at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as part of the pregame festivities.
We shared the Hall family's story on FloridaGators.com over the summer. You can read about Stuart's fight with COVID-19, how it nearly took his life, and his remarkable turnaround by clicking this link.
Six months after he started to feel sick and was diagnosed with COVID-19 early in the pandemic's spread across America, Stuart has put back on about half of the 30 pounds he lost during his nearly month-long hospital stay. He has returned to work and continues to go to physical therapy.
As he and Kellee watched Cameron play for the first time since the family's ordeal, Stuart's message to anyone who asked how he was doing was straight from the heart: "I feel great. I'm just glad to be alive."
Throughout Stuart's fight for his life, UF head coach Becky Burleigh, her staff and Cameron's teammates stayed in close contact with the Hall family. He is forever thankful to the Gators for standing by the family's side.
"The thing that I hope the Gator Nation knows is just how much Becky and her coaching staff, and the team and their parents rallied behind Kellee and our children in probably our darkest days as a family,'' Stuart Hall said. "I am so unbelievably honored that they asked me to do it. And I really don't know why because it's usually a celebrity.
