Dale Van Sickel Named to Southern Conference 100th Anniversary Football Team
Thursday, December 30, 2021 | Football
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By: Rick Hurtado
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Southern Conference released its 100th anniversary teams on Thursday as it capped the celebration of its first 100 years, and one Gator made the list.
Florida end Dale Van Sickel was listed in the league's 100th Anniversary Football Team as the league named teams in each of the sports it currently sponsors that it has sponsored for at least 25 years.
A 1975 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Van Sickel was part of the Florida football team from 1927-29. He was a two-way offensive and defensive standout, who was also known as one of college football's premier pass catcher of his time. Dale Van Sickel crashing through the line during his playing career from 1927-29. (Photo: UF Archives)
Van Sickel was Florida's first All-America honoree, having been named to first teams by the Associated Press, Grantland Rice and the Newspaper Enterprise of America in 1928.
He went on to become one of Hollywood's top stunt men for nearly five decades and was twice president of the Motion Picture Stunt Men's Association.
Among the criteria that merited selection to the teams were the common benchmarks of:
Member of the collegiate hall of fame for that sport
Member of the SoCon Hall of Fame
National player of the year
All-America honors in two different academic years
SoCon Male or Female Athlete of the Year
Two-time SoCon Player of the Year
For a full list of 100th Anniversary Teams, click here.
The nation's fifth-oldest NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association, the SoCon celebrated its 100th anniversary in a variety of ways throughout the 2021 calendar year.
The Southern Conference was founded on Feb. 25, 1921, when delegates from 15 of the 30 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association institutions met at the Piedmont Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, to finalize plans for a new conference. Alabama, Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn), Clemson, Georgia, Georgia School of Technology (Georgia Tech), Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi A&M (Mississippi State), North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) and Washington & Lee all signed on to form the Southern Intercollegiate Conference, while Tulane attended the meetings but would not join until the following year.
The league has had 44 full-time members over its illustrious history, spawning the Southeastern Conference (1932) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (1953) and currently serving as home to 10 institutions throughout six states in the Southeast. Among current members, VMI joined in 1923 and celebrated 88 years in the league in 2021 (the Keydets were not members from 2003-14). The Citadel and Furman own the longest continuous tenure in the league, as both programs joined in 1936.
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