http://www.underdogdynasty.com/2016/8/23/12613534/former-ucf-football-coach-george-oleary-statue
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.
