Steve Spurrier reveals why his best sport as a player was not football

Steve Spurrier wasn’t much of a football player during his younger days in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although he loved the sport, he didn’t necessarily have the build required for the tough, hard-nosed nature of the game and its emphasis on running the ball.

Once he entered high school at Science Hill, Spurrier joined both the baseball and basketball teams. Although he still wasn’t sure then about his football future, he also landed a spot on the team as a punter and kicker. His friends at the time didn’t believe that would last long.

“Some of my buddies were telling me, ‘You’ll quit football as soon as you get to high school because there’s nothing you can do well there,'” Spurrier said in a recent appearance on the Gators Online podcast. “Nobody threw the ball then. It was fullback, off-tackle and this, that and the other. In junior high I played linebacker and fullback, but I was a kicker. Since I kicked extra points and punted, I stayed out for the team. I was a kicker and punter my sophomore year.”

It wasn’t until Spurrier’s junior year of high school that his team started to pass the ball more, and he became a quarterback. He later went on to attend Florida, where he won the Heisman Trophy during the 1966 season. In 1967, the San Francisco 49ers selected him in the first round of the NFL Draft, and he went on to enjoy a decade as a pro player.

Following his NFL career, Spurrier got into coaching and eventually returned to his alma mater as head coach in 1990. There he would go on to claim six SEC Championships as well as a national championship in 1996. But had he not decided to stick with football in high school, he could have very well ended up dominating another sport.

“I still played all three sports,” Spurrier said. “I encourage young guys and girls to play as many sports as you can and then you’ll know. Because if I started specializing, then I would have quit football.”

Spurrier was a pitcher for the baseball team, leading his team to back-to-back state championships and finishing his career with an undefeated record. On the podcast, he recalled winning the second championship during his senior season as his most cherished memory from high school.

“My senior year we went to Memphis against the Memphis Christian Brothers,” Spurrier said. “Private school there and they go to the state tournament almost every year. They are a baseball school. I don’t know if they played football at the Christian Brothers High School. Paul Finebaum, by the way, went to Christian Brothers. It was double elimination and we beat them 7-6 in the first game. I pitched eight innings — we had to go an extra inning.

“We actually got a day off because we won our first two and then they beat another team so we had to play them a day later. Our other guy was the pitcher in that one and they beat us 12-3 which set up the game for all the marbles. So I pitched eight innings then had a day off and then another seven. So 15 innings in three days. We held on to beat them 7-5 in the last game. Something good would always happen to us in baseball for some reason.”

That would be the end of Steve Spurrier’s baseball career, as he then went on to play college football for the Gators. In another life, perhaps we could have seen the coach become just as successful on the diamond as he is the football field. But Florida and college football fans alike are certainly glad he chose the route he did.