Gainesville Quarterback Club Provides Gators Support System
From the good times under Ray Graves, Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer through some of the struggles since, the Gainesville Quarterback Club members have been there cheering for the Florida Gators.
When football season begins, Tuesday nights at the Best Western Gateway Grand, located at 4200 NW 97th Blvd., is the place to be for members of the Quarterback Club. It’s not a bar gathering or an online chatter that sports fandom has developed to today. It’s a gathering of 150 business owners, Alachua County residents and lifelong fans sharing a good meal, breaking down recent plays and looking ahead to the next game.
Every Tuesday meeting the club hosts a guest speaker. Prior to the season the UF football coach comes to speak about his team and expectations. This year coach Jon Sumrall attended the April 7 meeting and since then Laura Rutledge, Kevin Winter and Scott Stricklin have all spoken.
Long before sports became a multi-million-dollar industry and there weren’t national television contracts, the club was established in a simple back-porch gathering in 1950. The founders of the Quarterback Club were M.M. Parrish, Lindley Cellon, Latham David, Earl Powers and Col. Evert Yon. They would get together over a few glasses of whiskey just to chat about Florida football and they were looking for a way to support the team.
From a casual neighborhood gathering the club has grown into the oldest Gator booster club in the country with a DNA of love for the Gators.
“We are the oldest Gator booster club in the country dedicated 100 percent promoting Gator football,” Club Captain David Gracy said.
The Gainesville Quarterback Club isn’t simply a get-together-chatter club, it’s a dedication to athletics of the city and the county. Over the years, the club has expanded its support footprint in athletics across the city, creating multiple scholarship opportunities for athletes, including a dedicated trophy awards to the best high school team and players in town.
On the Gators side they equipped the football team with their first portable X-ray machine and funded the university’s first computer lab built for the student-athletes.
Some members of the group have participated in the club for more than two decades. Former club captain Joe White, a Gainesville native and UF alum from 1991, praises the local community that keeps the organization thrive all these years despite a changing sports landscape.
“About 90 percent of the club are community leaders and business developers from around the area,” White said. “It’s a great place to connect with people, and sometimes you even get to do a little bit of business, but mostly it’s about Gator football.”
The Quarterback Club goes beyond a weekly meeting at the Best Western Gateway Grand, every home game offers tailgates near the stadium for members and even organizes travel with each other to away games.
For last Saturday, members rented a bus to drive to Auburn to support the team on the road. Road travel is always exciting and even to get in some time with your longtime friends on the way to Auburn drinking and even playing some poker is a great time to disconnect from the stress of life during the week, members say.
The captain of the club himself has a personal connection with the group. Long before he took charge he was introduced to the club through his late father who spent 30 years as a member. Growing up and attending meetings with his dad, Gracy saw firsthand the special bond the club has and how a shared love for the Gators can give a lifetime direction of local fellowship.
With all the coaches changing over the years, and the modern chaos of NIL that changed college athletics, there’s certain things that remain, these members’ love for the Gators.
David, Joe and the rest of the 150 members have been filling the Best Western conference room each week not just to analyze football, but to keep a 76-year-old tradition alive, making sure no matter what happens in The Swamp the local heart of Gator football keeps pumping.
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Football
