Charlie LaPradd Charles W . LaPradd ( August 24 , 1927 – February 1 , 2006 ) was an American football player during the early 1950s . He played college football for the University of Florida and was recognized as an All - American as a defensive lineman . He later served as the president of St . Johns River Community College in northeast Florida . Early years . LaPradd was born and raised in St . Augustine , Florida , in a family of nine children and modest means . He attended Ketterlinus High School in St . Augustine , where he lettered in football , baseball and basketball , but left school to join the U . S . Army before graduation . After serving in the U . S . Army paratroops , he returned to Ketterlinus to finish his remaining high school diploma requirements . College career . LaPradd attended the University of Florida in Gainesville , Florida , where he played for coach Bob Woodruff ' s Florida Gators football team from 1950 to 1952 . He had hitch - hiked to Gainesville for a chance to try out for the Florida Gators football team . He initially played for the Gators as a freshman walk - on in 1949 , after convincing the coaches to permit him to try out for the squad , and later earned an athletic scholarship . As was typical of college football in the 1950s , when the rules required athletes to play both offense and defense and permitted only limited substitutions , he played tackle on both the offensive and defensive lines . He was a third - team All - Southeastern Conference ( SEC ) selection as a sophomore in 1950 , and a second - team All - SEC pick following his junior season in 1951 . He was married and had an infant son during his senior year , and was a member of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity ( Alpha Epsilon chapter ) . At six feet , three inches tall and 215 pounds , he was the lightest tackle on the team as a senior in 1952 . Nevertheless , he was described by his teammates as a " man among boys , " stronger and more physically mature at 25 years old than most opposing players . He was one of two senior team captains and the defensive leader of the Gators . The Gators ' 1952 season was a season of firsts for the team . Led by LaPradd , the Gators dominated the rival Georgia Bulldogs 33 – 0 in the annual Florida – Georgia football rivalry game in Jacksonville , which would remain the Gators ' largest victory over the Bulldogs for almost forty years . Afterward , the team received its first - ever NCAA - sanctioned invitation to a bowl game , the 1953 Gator Bowl , in which the Gators defeated the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 14 – 13 in the Gator Bowl on January 1 , 1953 . The Gators finished their season 8 – 3 , their first eight - win season since 1928 , and ranked No . 15 in the country by the Associated Press , their first - ever national ranking in the final AP Poll . Following the season , LaPradd was a first - team All - SEC selection and received first - team All - American honors from the Associated Press and the " New York Daily News " . He was the Gators ' only All - America first team member since Dale Van Sickel in 1928 . Coach Woodruff would later recall LaPradd , the former walk - on who had to plead for a chance to try out for the team , as the Gators ' greatest lineman of the 1950s . The Green Bay Packers selected LaPradd in the 1952 NFL Draft , but he injured his legs in a car accident on the day he graduated from college and never had the opportunity to play in the National Football League . He graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor ' s degree in physical education in 1953 . Life after football . While earning his master ' s degree in secondary school administration and his doctoral degree in higher education administration from Florida State University in Tallahassee , Florida , he worked as a graduate assistant coach for the Florida State Seminoles football team . Afterward , he served as an assistant coach for the Seminoles for four seasons from 1957 to 1961 , and the FSU dean of men for two years . He later served as the president of the three - campus St . Johns River Community College in Orange Park , Palatka and St . Augustine from 1966 to 1972 . After resigning from SJRCC in 1972 , he went into private business and established a regional beer distributorship based in Gainesville . Legacy . LaPradd was a " Gator Great " member of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame , and was inducted into the Florida - Georgia Hall of Fame in 1998 . In 2006 , " The Gainesville Sun " ranked LaPradd twenty - first on its all - time list of the 100 greatest Florida Gators football players from the team ' s first 100 years of play . LaPradd died February 1 , 2006 ; he was 78 years old . He was survived by his son and daughter . After his death , friends , teammates and admirers endowed the Dr . Charles W . LaPradd Ph . D . Fellowship Fund at the University of Florida for the benefit of doctoral candidates in the university ' s College of Health and Human Performance .