Photos: Touring the SEC's football-related statues and busts
Erecting statues for legendary players and coaches has become common in college football, though some schools are more liberal in building them than others.
The SEC Network recently put together a fun quiz on some of the statues within the conference. South Carolina also revealed a new statue in 2015, which gave us the idea to re-visit the football-related statues across the SEC:
Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama has five statues outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium, one for every legendary coach who led the Crimson Tide to a championship: Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings and Nick Saban. The statues stand on the west side of the north end zone plaza. The first four — minus Saban — were unveiled during the 2006 season. Saban’s was unveiled in the spring of 2011. Alabama has also installed plaques that honor players and staff members from each of the national title teams.
Arkansas Razorbacks
Arkansas has only one statue that’s football-related. The legendary coach and athletic director Frank Broyles has a statue near the sports complex. It was unveiled in November 2012 prior to the game against rival LSU. Broyles compiled a 144-58-5 mark in 19 seasons as the Razorbacks’ head coach.
Photo courtesy of SportingLifeArkansas.com
Auburn Tigers
Auburn has three statues saluting and celebrating its three Heisman Trophy winners: Pat Sullivan, Bo Jackson and Cameron Newton. All three were unveiled in April of 2012. The Tigers also honor coach John Heisman, the namesake of college football’s most prestigious award, with a bust outside the east side of Jordan-Hare Stadium. Heisman coached Auburn to a 12-4-2 record from 1895-1899.
Photos courtesy of AuburnTigers.com
Florida Gators
Outside of Alabama and Auburn, the most known statues in the SEC belong to the Florida Gators. Like Auburn, the Gators unveiled statues for each of their three Heisman Trophy winners in April 2011: Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow. The statues cost about $550,000, funded by private donations, and are about 15 percent larger than the life-sized versions of these men.
Photo courtesy of FoxSports.com
Georgia Bulldogs
The statue of Georgia’s legendary coach and athletic director Vince Dooley was unveiled in November 2008. It’s on campus adjacent to the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall. From 1964-88, Dooley won 201 games, six SEC Championships and the 1980 national title. From 1979-2004, he was the athletic director. Under his watch, the Bulldogs achieved 23 national championships and 78 SEC titles by the school’s various teams.
Georgia also has a statue of UGA in Sanford Stadium, but can you believe UGA doesn’t have statues of Heisman Trophy winners Herschel Walker and Frank Sinkwich?
Photo: Ed Jackson
Kentucky Wildcats
Kentucky doesn’t have any statues of past football players or coaches. You have to wonder when one will be erected of former wide receiver turned NFL star Randall Cobb. The Wildcats do, however, have a statue of a wildcat outside of Memorial Coliseum.
Photo courtesy of Kentucky Kernel
LSU Tigers
Unlike the rest of the traditional powers, LSU is staying strong and has not erecting any statues for former players or coaches outside the stadium. The most notable statue is of the Tiger outside of Tiger Stadium. Shaquille O’Neal is the only former player to have ‘met all the criteria,’ according to AD Joe Alleva. Perhaps one day the school will erect a statue of Billy Cannon, Les Miles or even Leonard Fournette, if the running back has a special 2016 season.
Interestingly, there is a statue of Cannon, the former Heisman Trophy winner, but you have to venture off campus to a gated apartment complex.
Photo courtesy of iconmonuments.com
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Mississippi State doesn’t have any statues of former players or coaches. However, there is a statue of a giant bulldog, Bully, in the Junction just outside of Davis-Wade Stadium.
Photo courtesy of enjoythesaunter.wordpress.com
Missouri Tigers
Missouri has a statue of former legendary coach and athletic director Don Faurot in front of Memorial Stadium. Faurot is a member of the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame, and after 19 years as the head coach, Faurot’s record was 101 wins, 79 losses and 10 ties. Gary Pinkel, however, surpassed his total wins in 2013. You have to think Pinkel may get his own statue sometime in the future.
There’s also a bronze statue of Truman the Tiger, the team’s mascot, in front of Tiger Plaza — one of the most photographed spots on campus.
Ole Miss Rebels
Ole Miss unveiled a statue of its former legendary coach, John Vaught, in November of 2008. It stands six feet near the Starnes Athletic Training Center. He coached at Ole Miss from 1947 to 1970 and again in 1973. He’s the only coach in Ole Miss history to win an SEC Championship. Three of his teams — 1959, 1960, and 1962 — won shares of the national championship.
Photo courtesy of Flickr.com
The Rebels also have a bust of Chucky Mullins inside the stadium. We completed a review of the SEC Network’s “It’s Time” documentary on Mullins and his inspiring story.
Photo courtesy of news.olemiss.edu
South Carolina Gamecocks
South Carolina also has a giant Gamecock entering the football facility, and it’s really well done.
The Gamecocks also revealed a statue of former Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers in 2015. Rogers rushed for more than 5,200 yards and 31 touchdowns during his career.
Photo courtesy of USA Today images.
Tennessee Volunteers
Tennessee unveiled a statue of its winningest coach and former athletic director General Robert Neyland. He amassed 173 wins in 216 games, and his statue sits outside of Neyland Stadium. Although not related to football, Tennessee also unveiled a statue for legendary women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt.
Photo courtesy of the houseofneyland.blogspot.com
Texas A&M Aggies
Texas A&M has two statues outside of Kyle Field. The first is the Twelfth Man statue. Here’s the description from Texas A&M University:
A gift of the Class of ’80, this sculpture portrays E. King Gill, an A&M student and football player from the 1920s. In 1922, during a post-season game, Gill was called from the stands to help the football team, which was rapidly losing players due to injuries. Although he never entered the game, by the time it was over he was the only player standing along the sidelines. Since that time, Aggies have stood at football games to symbolize their support for the team.
Photo courtesy of GoodBullHunting.com
Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow also has a sculpture outside Kyle Field. Crow later returned to TAMU as the athletic director in 1983. It was unveiled in 2010.
Photo courtesy of SkyScraperCity.com
Texas A&M also has a statue celebrating its war hymn.
Photo courtesy of Yelp.com
Vanderbilt Commodores
Vanderbilt has many sculptures around campus, but none of them are dedicated to athletics. A Jordan Matthews statue would be nice.
