Appropriately enough, a guy I once compared to Shelley's "Ozymandias" is getting a statue.
A statue of former head coach George O'Leary is expected to be
installed in 2017, probably on or near Bright House Networks Stadium. As
the Orlando Sentinel
reports, the effort to install the statue was organized by a group of
private donors and approved by the UCF Athletic Association.
No word yet on whether the statue will feature ecstatic ‘post-ECU in 2014 O'Leary' or ‘wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command O'Leary.'
O'Leary is a complicated
figure, but undeniably worthy of a statute from a football perspective
(despite the winless seasons that bookended his UCF tenure). The
Knights' eighth head coach, O'Leary oversaw virtually every major
achievement in program history. He coached UCF to the program's first
bowl appearance and later to its first bowl win, a Liberty Bowl victory over Georgia in 2010.
The Knights won four conference
titles with O'Leary at the helm: two in Conference USA and two in the
American Athletic Conference. The inaugural AAC season in 2013 was the
high point of both O'Leary's tenure and UCF's football history to date:
the Knights went 11-1 in the regular season, won the AAC outright, and smashed Big 12 Champion Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl to end the season ranked #10.
O'Leary's emphasis on player
discipline and academics was praiseworthy. There were few player arrests
in his tenure and football players succeeded academically. UCF had a 90
percent graduation success rate in 2014: third among public
universities, first in the state of Florida, and first in the AAC. And
of course, O'Leary was instrumental in UCF getting the on-campus stadium
where his statue will likely rest.
Other aspects of O'Leary's time
at UCF were less than salubrious. A player's death in 2008 (arising
from sickle cell trait complications) following conditioning drills led
to extensive civil litigation. Though O'Leary was not a defendant in the
case, he featured prominently in the litigation.
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