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Wednesday, June 6, 2001
Pell laid foundation for Florida's success
Associated Press
GADSDEN, Ala.– Former Florida football coach Charley Pell,
who helped lay the program's foundation for success before his
career was derailed by NCAA sanctions, died May 29 after a battle
with cancer. He was 60.
Pell, who had been suffering from cancer in his pancreas and
other organs since last fall, died at a Gadsden hospital, said John
Marshall, a spokesman at the company where Pell worked.
|  | | Charley Pell coached the Gators to four bowl games and a 33-26-3 record. |
A former Alabama player, Pell coached the Gators from 1979
through 1984, comprising a 33-26-3 record, including 2-2 in bowl
appearances. He left after three games of the 1984 season after the
NCAA levied 59 sanctions against the program. He confessed to the
violations and resigned, accepting all responsibility.
But Pell, also a former head coach at Clemson and Jacksonville
State, expressed bitterness recently at the irreversible damage
toll the NCAA case took on his career.
"I took the blame for everything to exonerate every other coach
on the staff," he told The Orlando Sentinel in an interview
in May. "I always believed I did too good a job of that. All it
did was cause a lot of grief."
Pell moved to Southside, 20 miles from his hometown of
Albertville in north Alabama, last year to be close to his children
and grandchildren, taking a job as a vice president at National
Auction Group.
Pell's inability to resurrect his career contributed to a
suicide attempt in 1993. He briefly returned to coaching at Lake
Region (Fla.) High School near Lakeland, going 1-9 in his only
season.
Florida football media relations director Norm Carlson said
people who know the Gators program remember Pell for his work to
upgrade facilities and lift it out of the red.
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Thurs, May 31
Like most former coaches, Pell seems to have spent much of his last years pondering how things might have gone better for him.
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"He made very, very significant and lasting contributions to
the football program at the University of Florida," Carlson said.
"I've worked at Florida 40 years, and we've never had anybody who
worked harder than Charley Pell at anything. He was a workaholic
who was devoted to his players and coaching."
Those players are now returning the favor, organizing a June 23
fund-raiser and golf tournament to endow a scholarship in Pell's
name to help the children of former Florida players.
Mark McGriff, who was part of Pell's final recruiting class,
said Pell asked them to start the fund at a reunion last summer.
McGriff spoke several times a week to Pell's wife, Ward, in recent
months, including last Thursday.
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Pell's Florida record
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Year
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W
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L
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T
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1979
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0
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10
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1
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1980
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8
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4
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0
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1981
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7
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5
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0
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1982
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8
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4
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0
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1983
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9
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2
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1
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1984*
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1
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1
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1
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Total
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33
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26
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3
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"She was telling me he was going downhill every day," said
McGriff, whose family lived in the same neighborhood as Pell. "She
really thought he was going to make it to June 23, because he
really wanted to be part of that. We all thought he'd be here in a
few weeks."
"Those of us who love Coach Pell and respect Coach Pell don't
have grudges," he said. "He started building the program to where
it is now."
Pell was a two-way lineman on coach Bear Bryant's first national
championship team at Alabama in 1961, and was a graduate assistant
on his second in 1964.
He is survived by his wife of 32 years; three children and two
grandchildren.
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