Former Gators football player and longtime supporter Wayne McCall gives his son, Matt McCall, a former UF assistant coach, a hug at the 2016 Southern Conference Tournament.
Carter's Corner: Remembering Former Gators Captain Wayne McCall
Monday, July 7, 2025 | General, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Wayne McCall was so many things during his accomplished life that it seems trivial to start a story about his passing with football.
However, McCall's time with the Gators from 1964-67 had such a profound impact on his life's direction that it's easy to imagine his approval.
Consider what his widow, Beth McCall, told the Ocala Gazette.
"The memory that stands out most, and will forever live on in me, our children and now our grandchildren, is the 'Silver Sixties,' " Beth said. "More than 50 years ago, the young men who played football under Coach Ray Graves in the 1960s began a tradition: an annual reunion they called the 'Silver Sixties.'
"These Gators are more than old friends — they are family."
So, while the Ocala native went on to become a longtime attorney, a member of the UF Athletic Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996 as a Distinguished Letterwinner), a proud husband, father and grandfather, and a civic treasure in his hometown, McCall's claim to fame for most Gators fans is as a regular starter on the 1965 and '66 teams led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier and as the father of former Gators men's basketball assistant coach Matt McCall.
Wayne McCall during his playing career at Florida. (UAA file photo)
While Spurrier elevated the Gators onto the national stage with his offensive heroics, McCall was doing his part as a 6-foot-1, 194-pound linebacker on defense. He might not have been a household name, but McCall was a well-respected teammate and key contributor who made a difference on the field.
McCall joined the UF freshman team in 1964 after an accomplished prep career at Ocala High School, where he rushed for more than 1,400 yards in a single-wing offense. He moved to defense as a freshman and joined the varsity as a sophomore. As a junior in '66, the year Spurrier won the Heisman, McCall stood out as a versatile player whom Graves had ample confidence in. He had a sack in Florida's win over Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl in Spurrier's final game.
"Wayne is a very smart boy and able to play two or three positions on defense – safety, linebacker or defensive halfback,'' Graves said that season. "That's why we like to have him around."
McCall's signature performance came in a victory at Tulane during his senior season.
Named UF's defensive captain and a senior starting linebacker, McCall had an interception, recovered a fumble, had two sacks and tipped two passes by Tulane quarterback Bobby Duhon that the Gators intercepted at the old Sugar Bowl stadium.
The Gators won 35-0. McCall earned All-Southeastern Conference honorable mention at the end of the season.
"Wayne turned in one of the best jobs of linebacking we've had in a long time,'' Graves told reporters after the Tulane game.
Following his graduation from UF in 1968, McCall served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and earned a Joint Service Commendation Medal. His time as a military courier in Belgium for the Army included a harrowing experience in September 1970. McCall was aboard Pan American Flight 93 en route from Amsterdam to New York when Palestinian terrorists hijacked the plane. They diverted the flight to Beirut to refuel, and then landed in Cairo after circling for two hours.
Shortly after landing, McCall and more than 150 passengers frantically evacuated down chutes moments before the plane exploded on the runway. When McCall left the Army, he enrolled in law school at UF to set off on the course of his professional career.
Wayne Charles McCall died on June 23. He was 78.
Family, friends and various members of the "Silver Sixties" will honor him on Friday at 10:30 a.m. at a celebration of life service. The event will take place at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Ocala. A reception will follow at the Country Club of Ocala.
"Hard man to beat, an easy man to love,'' someone wrote on his memory board.
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