Updated Flags for Foley Hall of Champions

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Mike Holloway wasn’t there. The Florida men’s and women’s track and field coach – he of the 14 Southeastern Conference championships and 13 NCAA titles – was out of town for league meetings, so it was UF assistant coach Nic Petersen who said a few words during the fall rendition of this new UF tradition. 
 
“We don’t take them for granted,” Peterson said of championships. “As Coach Holloway says, our favorite national championships is the next one.” 
 

With that, junior hurdler Caleb Foster, positioned on the west wing of the Heavener Football Training Center’s expansive lobby, gave a tug on a rope that pulled the covering off the Men’s Track & Field flag hanging from the ceiling and unveiled an updated championship banner to include the year 2023 on the NCAA side. 
 
Applause, applause, applause. 
 
The men’s track moment was sandwiched between a similar one honoring baseball’s 2023 SEC crown (with junior slugger Jac Caglianone doing the unveil honors) and the SEC and NCAA titles claimed last spring by the men’s golf (senior John DuBois with the pull). 

The Heavener opened in August 2022. The Jeremy Foley Hall of Champions – the grand atrium that is home to the banners – was christened later in the fall and the first of these updated championship banner ceremonies took place in April, recognizing 2022 and ’23 SEC titles won last season by volleyball in the fall, gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming & diving in the winter. 
 
Tuesday marked the first such fall semester ceremony, thus honoring the SEC and NCAA champs of the spring. 
 
“It’s one of those special things about the University of Florida. We have so many sports that have so many championships,” Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin said. “Last year, we led the league with six SEC titles in addition to two national titles – and that was not an atypical year. It’s kind of the standard, and speaks to the caliber of coaches and the kind of athletes this school attracts and allows for these fun ways to celebrate championships.”
 

Men’s golf coach J.C. Deacon thoroughly enjoyed the moment; maybe not as much as he did during his Gators’ incredible run to be the only team earning an update to both sides of the flag. UF won its first conference title in his nine seasons and then the program’s first NCAA championship since…