38 Days to Gator Football: Larry Smith

William Lawrence Smith was part of Florida's first high school football championship game in 1963. He was a Parade All American out of Tampa, Florida (and later named to the Florida High School Athletics Association All-Century Team) before he arrived in Gainesville to play running back for Ray Graves' Florida Gators from 1966 to 1968. His 187 yards rushing helped upset the heavily favored Georgia Tech in the 1967 Orange Bowl, which led to his being named most outstanding player. He was a first-team All SEC selection all three years of his career, and was first-team All American and Fergie Ferguson Award winner in his senior year of 1968. He finished his career with 2186 yards, which was the leading Gator career rushing total until John L. Williams broke that record a decade and a half later. Larry is now 9th in career yardage, and 7th in career rushing touchdowns. You can compare his career to the Gator great running backs in this thread. He was named to the University of Florida Athletic Association as a Gator Great in 1983.