Steve Spurrier may be the most successful player and coach in Sugar Bowl history. Given his accomplishments, Spurrier was recently named to the second class of Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame.

Spurrier was one of several former SEC players and coaches named in this year’s class, the bowl announced, including Georgia’s Vince Dooley, LSU’s Abe Mickal and Georgia’s Scott Woerner.

The living members of the second class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame have all been invited to New Orleans for this year’s Allstate Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Texas. Those who attend the game will be recognized on the field during the pregame ceremony.

Spurrier is the only player from a losing team to earn Most Outstanding Player recognition after leading Florida’s miraculous fourth-quarter comeback that came up just short in a 20-18 loss to Missouri in 1966.

As a coach, Spurrier led five Gator teams to the Sugar Bowl, with wins in 1994 and 1997. The 1997 victory over No. 1 Florida State launched the Gators to the national championship. Spurrier was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986 and as a coach in 2017.

Dooley was the coach of five Georgia teams to the Sugar Bowl, including a stretch of three straight games in 1981, 1982 and 1983.

His 1981 team, featuring freshman Herschel Walker, defeated Notre Dame in a 17-10 win to cap an undefeated national championship season for the Bulldogs.

Dooley, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984, was the Georgia head coach from 1964 to 1988 and served as the school’s athletic director from 1979 to 2004.

Mickal led LSU into the second annual Sugar Bowl Classic on Jan. 1, 1936.

He was nicknamed “Miracle Mickal,” he was a three-time All-SEC selection and an All-American, but three days of rain made the Sugar Bowl Stadium field a quagmire and neither offense could move the ball as TCU managed to hold on for a 3-2 win. Because of the conditions, both teams were recognized as national champions by the Williamson Poll.

He is a 1967 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Allstate Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame Class, 2019 (and Sugar Bowl appearances)

Jerome Bettis, Notre Dame, 1992
Todd Blackledge, Penn State, 1983
Vince Dooley, Georgia, 1969, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1983
Bobby Grier, Pittsburgh 1956
Bobby Layne, Texas, 1948
Abe Mickal, LSU, 1936
Darrell Royal, Oklahoma/Texas, 1949, 1950, 1958
Deion Sanders, Florida State, 1989
Steve Spurrier, Florida 1966, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001
Scott Woerner, Georgia, 1981

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.