Regular visitors of notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB. Once that is done, we will examine how each team honors its past players, coaches, and executives. Eventually, we will do the same with major college programs.  As such, it is important to us that the University of Florida has announced the eight names who will be part of their Athletic Hall of Fame.

The event will take place on October 9, prior to their home game against South Carolina.

The Class of 2026 members are:

Dedric Dukes, Men’s Track & Field, 2012-15.  Dukes won five NCAA Championships as a Gator (2014 200m, and two 4x100 relay and two 4x400 teams).  He was a 17-time All-American.

Vernon Hargreaves, Football, 2013-15.  In 2015, Hargreaves was an All-American cornerback and a three-time All-SEC Selection.  Over his career, he had 10 Interceptions and 121 Combined Tackles, and in his All-American Junior season, he was a Finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award and went on to the NFL, where he played six seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans, and Cincinnati Bengals.

Vernon Maxwell, Men’s Basketball, 1984-88.  Maxwell is still the all-time scoring leader in Gators history, having scored 2,450 points in 120 Games.  He was a three-time All-SEC Selection who took Florida to its first two NCAA Tournaments in program history.  Maxwell would play 13 seasons in the NBA, most notably winning two NBA Championships with the Houston Rockets.

Mike Meagher, Women’s Lacrosse, 2010-13.  Meagher joined Florida for their inaugural program, where she was named the 2012 and 2013 Ensign C. Markland Award as the nation’s top Goalkeeper. 

Andrew Moten, Men’s Basketball, 1983-87.  Moten scored 1,930 Points with the Gators and, along with Maxwell (his fellow M&M boys partner), helped the school reach its first NCAA Tournament.  He averaged 15.4 Points per Game for Florida and was a three-time SEC Selection.  He was drafted by the New Jersey Nets, but did not make the team, though he did play professionally in leagues in Venezuela and Brazil.

Logan Shore, Baseball, 2014-16.  Shore played three seasons with the Gators, peaking in his junior year, when he was the SEC Pitcher of the Year and Golden Spikes Finalist.  He had 30 wins, 248 strikeouts and a 2.41 ERA for the school.  He was a second-round pick by the Minnesota Twins and made it as high as Triple-A Toledo of the Detroit Tigers in 2021.

Bridget Sloan, Women’s Gymnastics, 2013-16.  Before she competed for Florida, Sloan already had an Olympic Silver Medal for the United States in Team Competition and won all-around gold at the 2009 World Championship.  With Florida, she won a staggering nine NCAA World Championships, striking Gold in the 2013 and 2016 All-Around, the 2013, 2014 & 2015 Team Competition, 2013 & 2015 Balance Beam, and in the 2014 and 2016 Uneven Bars.  Sloan also won the coveted Honda Sports Award in 2013 and 2016.

Kelsey Stewart, Softball, 2013-16.  Stewart led the Gators to a Women’s College World Series Championship in 2014 and 2015, and would overall collect 557 Hits with a .391 Batting Average.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the impending members of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame.

Joakim Noah, the son of International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee, Yannick Noah, was a two-time NCAA Champion with the Florida Gators and a Final Four MVP.  Naturally, this is a pedigree of a Lottery Pick, which he would be in 2007, when the Chicago Bulls drafted him Ninth Overall.

The 6’ 11” Center would not become a potent scorer, only having five years in the NBA where he had at least 10 Points per Game, but he developed into one of the most complete defensive players in Basketball.  Noah had four seasons of 10-plus Rebounds per Game, and six straight with at least 1.4 Blocks per Game.  An All-Star for Chicago in 2013 and 2014, and was a First Team All-Defensive Selection in both of those years.  Noah earned the prestigious Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2014, and he did have the league’s highest Defensive Rating.

Noah would also play for New York, Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers.