Sept. 18, 2009
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
The way Gerry Gergley sees it, he can't lose Saturday when his beloved UCF Knights host the University at Buffalo, his alma mater.
``If UCF wins, I'm very happy. And If Buffalo wins, I'm happy for them too,'' Gergley said. ``People have asked me who I'm rooting for, but I'm a UCF guy. Hey, I've been here 38 years.''
Gergley, a 2003 UCF Hall of Fame inductee, will be a part of Saturday's ceremony to honor the 1958 Buffalo team that refused to play in Orlando's Tangerine Bowl because city leaders at that time disallowed the participation of African-American players.
Buffalo's players ultimately declined the invite to face Florida State, refusing to play without the inclusion of Willie Evans and Mike Wilson. Gergley, a halfback on that Buffalo team, said he and his teammates didn't realize the magnitude of their decision at the time, but he couldn't be prouder now of the united front his team displayed.
``We had gotten new blazers and shirts, we took a team picture and we were all ready to go to the game until the bigots told us we could bring our black players,'' Gergley remembered. ``We just decided if they couldn't go, none of us would go. We were just 19-year-old kids trying to do what was right.''
That enormity of that team simply ``trying to do what was right,'' sank in last December when Buffalo earned its first bowl bid since the 1958 snafu. Many of the players from the 1958 squad convened in Toronto for the Bulls appearance in the International Bowl, and the group was addressed by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
``He told us that we should be proud of the fact that we made a stand before any of the other sports leagues did,'' Gergley said. ``And he also told us if it wasn't for people like us, Barack Obama couldn't be president today.''
Gergley, a 1961 Buffalo graduate, moved to Orlando in 1970 to start the wrestling program at UCF, then known as Florida Technical University. The school had just 1,000 students at the time and amenities were rather sparse for Gergley's wrestling program.
He built a trailer to house the team and talked the school into purchasing a mat for the team. Meanwhile, Gergley went to work on the grass roots building of the program and conducted dozens of wrestling camps at area high schools. He ultimately talked Orange County leaders into purchasing 25 wrestling mats for the schools, and a tremendous feeder system was up and running.
With those athletes, Gergley compiled a 108-42 record from 1970-80 and was deemed by many to be ``The Godfather of Wrestling in Central Florida.'' The UCF wrestling program was ultimately disbanded in 1985, but Gergley went on to start the men's and women's golf teams, served as a strength coach and was one of the leaders in the formation of UCF's first football team.
Today, he's retired, but stays close to the football program by being friends and golfing buddies with UCF head coach George O'Leary. Saturday's game between UCF and Buffalo is expected to attract 34 of the 41 living players from the 1958 team, but there should be no questions about which team Gergley hopes wins the game.
``George (O'Leary) got me some sideline passes for the game, but he told me if I show up wearing anything blue he's going to have to police throw me out of there,'' Gergley said with a laugh. ``George told me he knows that if Buffalo wins that I'll be killing him (with trash talk). I just told George, I know that if UCF doesn't win, he'll be killing hurt over the loss.''
John Denton's Knights Insider runs each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on UCFAthletics.com. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.