In the craziest days of Florida football, one man helped restore sanity. May he Rest in Peace.
The fingerprints of success fade with time. I was reminded of that Sunday with the news that Bill Carr had passed away at 78.
He became Florida’s athletic director 45 years ago. As a Gainesville native, Florida football player, Steve Spurrier’s roommate, grad assistant and assistant A.D., the 33-year-old Carr probably thought he knew all there was to know about UF athletics.
Nobody could have foreseen the storm he was walking into.
Charley Pell, hired three months earlier, answered only to UF president Robert Marston, who took a very hands-off approach. Carr was nothing if not a stickler for rules.
If he’d have gotten a real whiff of cheating, heads would have rolled early. As it was, he had to clean up the mess.
It was a thankless job. A lot of people blamed him at least in part for the scandal. Pell’s many defenders thought Carr didn’t stand up for their martyred coach. Through it all, Carr remained true to himself.
“My family, my church, my job. Those are the only things I need in life,” he told Sun Sports Columnist Jack Hairston when he was named athletic director.
Carr cleaned up the football mess as best he could. He instilled fiscal discipline to a department that was running in the red. He upgraded facilities, mentored a young Jeremy Foley and basically put UF on the path to the multi-sports success it’s enjoyed the past 30 years.
Carr could have stuck around forever but resigned after six years. He wanted to devote more time to those other things in life he needed.
Draft dope: Senior Bowl 2024 winners and losers - Spencer Rattler dazzles, Sam Hartman disappoints
Last chance: Kadarius Toney needs a Super miracle to salvage a career gone awry
He eventually became AD at Houston, then returned to Gainesville in 1997 to start a consulting firm that specialized in executive searches and professional development.
Among many other successful assignments, Carr steered Kirby Smart to Georgia in 2016. Don’t hold that against him, Gator fans.
He should be remembered as a man of integrity who quietly left his fingerprints on what UF athletics would blossom into. …
Stud of the Week: Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce
For having decency not to show up in a skybox at the Grammys and take the spotlight off his alleged* girlfriend competing for awards. …
Dud of the Week: Peyton Manning
Who is now 0-2 as a coach in the Pro Bowl flag football game after the AFC lost to brother Eli’s NFC team 64-59 on Sunday.
Dud II: NBA common sense. Due to convoluted rules, Milwaukee’s Doc Rivers will coach the Eastern Conference All-Star team despite being 1-3 in his one week on the job. If Rivers backs out, the NBA says it will replace him with Peyton Manning.
Home Cooking Award: The SEC officiating crew at the Texas A&M-Florida game for whipping up a 20-2 free throw advantage for the Aggies in the second half. …
Honorable Mention: The Texas A&M administration, for allowing guard Tyrece Radford to play just hours after he was bailed out of jail for allegedly evading police after running stop signs.
“He has been through a lot,” coach Buzz Williams said.
Yeah, like at least two stop signs. …
Famed racing team owner Chip Ganassi accidentally ran over a golden retriever puppy owned by driver Delvin DeFrancesco in the Daytona Speedway motor home lot last week.
The puppy’s name was, ahem, “Lucky.” …
Non-sports headline of Week: L.A. Times - “Opinion: How throwing soup at the Mona Lisa can help fight climate change.” …
Asterisk redux: I say, “alleged girlfriend,” since I read that Kelce’s girlfriend is really a Pentagon asset taking part in a psyop to rig the Super Bowl and swing the presidential election to Joe Biden.
Speaking of psyop, The Rock will reportedly be tapped for the main event when the WrestleMania 40 card is announced Thursday. The Rock is 51 and hasn’t wrestled since 2016.
Call me a conspiracy kook, but sometimes I think pro wrestling is just one big put-on. …
Kelce’s girlfriend* won her record-breaking fourth Album of the Year Grammy. That’s three more than the Beatles. Who’s judging these things, SEC basketball officials? …
ESPN put Billy Napier on its Hot Seat list last week. Other coaches making the list were Sam Pittman and Peyton Manning. …
The Jaguars have asked FanDuel to reimburse them some of the $20 million a team finance manager stole and lost on the gambling site. FanDuel agreed to if the Jaguars reimbursed season ticket holders $50 million for the pain and suffering caused by hiring Urban Meyer. …
I’d swim to Paris just to see the Mona Lisa throw soup at climate change protesters. …
That’s about all the space we have for this week’s Whitley’s Believe It or Not. Until next time, if you park your motorhome at Daytona Speedway and spot Tyrece Radford driving around, please grab your dog before it’s too late.
David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Bill Carr is Florida Gator athletics' unsung hero
