Thursday, October 16, 2025 | General, Football, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The late and longtime Jacksonville sports columnist-turned-radio personality David Lamm, for years, greeted the most famous long-snapper in Florida football history the same way.
"There goes Phil Pharr, the man who never made a bad snap," Lamm would say.
Pharr was consistent with his deadpan response, also.
"You and my parents are the only ones who'd ever say that." Phil Pharr
It was a few years after 1980, Pharr's final season with the Gators, that long-snappers began gaining a tad more notoriety as special teams became more of a focal point of the game. By that time, Pharr was long gone off the gridiron but still very much in the game, albeit on the business side, making pivotal on-point exchanges in the offices of Gator Boosters. And there he remains to this day as executive director of the UAA's top fundraising organization.
The criteria for being recognized as a "Distinguished Letterwinner," according to the UF Hall of Fame guidelines, is having made major contributions to the UF athletic program "through personal time, effort, interest and through many years of continued service" while also distinguishing themselves as "exceptional in their chosen field or endeavor."
Ask Brian Clark, the Gators' standout kicker during the late-'70s and early '80s, how exceptional Pharr's crisp long snaps were back in the day. Pharr certainly distinguished himself in that niche skill and did so for a team that produced one of the greatest turnarounds in college football history; going from 0-10-1 in 1979 to 8-4 and Citrus Bowl champs in 1980.
But it was what Pharr did after his career as a specialist and backup offensive lineman that made him a Gator Great, with his head coach at the time, Charley Pell, identifying Pharr as someone who could help ferry Florida athletics to the next level.
That was 45 years ago.
"Charlie was really the impetus in forming the Gator clubs," Pharr said. "The alumni was growing around the state, but he saw a disjointed structure and instead of divide and conquer and wanted a more unified approach."
With that, the roots of Gator Nation took hold in an altogether different way. Pharr, a public relations major, joined Gator Boosters in 1981 as field secretary and over the next five years cultivated the concepts for the Letterman's Association — now known as the "F Club" — and helped coordinate and galvanize the UAA's partnership with Gator clubs throughout the southeast, becoming a key leader in Pell's vision to organize and rally the Florida family into something bigger. Pharr was also instrumental in developing the UF Hall of Fame nomination process and banquet, which makes his induction a true full-circle moment and all the more fitting.
And distinguished.
Phil Pharr was named executive director of Gator Boosters in 2012.
"It's kind of hard to wrap my head around it," Pharr said of his Hall of Fame induction. "It's incredibly humbling because the only reason I'm being given this honor is because a whole lot of people were very generous with their resources to help this program. I did not have the ability to write those checks, so a lot of people stepped up over the years. The friendships I got out of it have made it all worthwhile."
In 1986, Pharr was elevated to Assistant Director of Major Gifts in which he coordinated endowment fundraising efforts and cultivated major gift donor prospects. In 1993, he was promoted to Associate Executive Director of Major Gifts where he has directed all aspects of identifying prospective donors, major gifts programs for athletics, and cultivation and stewardship of existing and potential future donors for Gator Boosters. Pharr, now 67, has served as the Executive Director of Gator Boosters since 2012, where he oversees the major gift and annual giving programs for the athletic department, including capital gifts, scholarship endowment and ticket-related giving.
It's a long way from having to hit the holder's hands while looking at them upside down. Let the record show, however, that Pharr was summoned on occasion to step in and line up with the UF offense.
"I used to say the only reason I got to play was they couldn't find a uniform to fit Ward Pell," Pharr said, invoking the name of the then-UF coach's dainty wife.
On that front, Pharr takes credit for making All Americans out of George Atiyeh (LSU), Ron Simmons (Florida State) and Jim Burt (Miami). All three are in their school's respective halls of fame.
