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.

Along with his twin brother Mike, Maurkice Pouncey was a star Offensive Lineman, who helped the Florida Gators win the National Championship in 2009.  Pouncey, who was an All-American, would be taken 18^th Overall in 2010 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he was their Center for 11 years.

Pouncey proved to be one of the top Centers of the 2010s, winning All-Decade honors with three First Team All-Pros.  Protecting Ben Roethlisberger and opening holes for Steelers runners, Pouncey was also chosen for nine Pro Bowls.

Pouncey retired after the 2020 season, alongside his brother, though it his Maurkice who clearly has the far better Hall of Fame chance of the two.

When you think of the state of Florida and the game of football, Fred Taylor is one of those named that should come up in the conversation.  He is from the state, he played his college ball at the University of Florida (where he helped them with the National Championship), and he would play professionally for the Jacksonville Jaguars for the first 11 years of his career.

Lomas Brown played his first eleven seasons with the Detroit Lions, where his first six of seven Pro Bowls would take place.  The Left Tackle would appear in seven straight Pro Bowls and would start in 251 of his 263 career games.

There was a time when a case could be made that Wilber Marshall was the best Linebacker in football.  In 1985, he was a member of the most dominating team of the decade, the Super Bowl XX Champion, Chicago Bears.  The year after, he was a First Team All-Pro, led the league in Approximate Value (23), and was a Pro Bowler for the first time.  Marshall was overshadowed by some of his teammates (William Perry & Richard Dent), but those in the know saw Marshall as one of the most versatile outside linebackers in the NFL.

Rick Casares was drafted in the 2^nd Round by George Halas' Chicago Bears in 1954, and after he served a year in the military, he would become one of the elite Fullbacks of the National Football League.  Casares was a straight-forward rusher who was finished in the top ten in Rushing Yards in his first six seasons (1955-60), the first five of which would garner him a Pro Bowl Selection.  Casares' best season by far was in 1956, where he led the league in Rushing Yards (1,126) and Rushing Touchdowns (12) and took the team to the NFL Championship Game, though they would be destroyed by the New York Giants in the game.