Buford Eugene Long (December 14, 1931 – September 1, 2006) was an American college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, halfback and

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for three seasons during the 1950s. Long played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and thereafter, he played professionally for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

of the NFL.

Early years

Long was born in

Lake Wales, Florida Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida. The population was 14,225 at the 2010 census. , the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 16,759. It is part of the Lakeland– Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lake Wales is ...

in 1931.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Buford Long
Retrieved March 23, 2011. He attended

Lake Wales High School Lake Wales High School is a high school located in Lake Wales, Florida, serving the city of Lake Wales and nearby communities such as Frostproof, Dundee, and Winter Haven, Florida . History Lake Wales served white students only until 1968, wh ...

,databaseFootball.com, Players
Buford Long
. Retrieved March 23, 2011. where he played high school football for the Lake Wales Highlanders.

College career

Long attended the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

Bob Woodruff Robert Warren Woodruff (born August 18, 1961) is an American television journalist. Since 1996, he has served as a reporter for ABC News. Woodruff co-anchored ABC World News Tonight in 2006 alongside ABC News journalist Elizabeth Vargas. He was ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...

team from

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 96, 138, 152, 183 (2011). Retrieved August 30, 2011. In an era when the college football rules permitted only limited player substitutions, Long played on both offense and defense, and was a standout halfback and

. Memorably, as a senior in 1952, Long ran seventy-seven yards for a touchdown in the Gators' 30–0 upset of their rivals, the

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

. Long was a key member of the Gators' 1952 backfield that included

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

Rick Casares Richard Jose Casares (July 4, 1931 – September 13, 2013) was an American professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) for twelve seasons during the 1950s and 1960s. ...

and

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Doug Dickey Douglas Adair Dickey (born June 24, 1932) is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator. Dickey is a South Dakota native who was raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida, where ...

and led the Gators to an 8–3 season and a 14–13 victory over the

Tulsa Golden Hurricane The Golden Hurricane are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tulsa. These teams are referred to as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (or variously as TU or Tulsa). Before adopting the name Golden Hurricane in 1922, the University of Tu ...

—their first-ever NCAA-sanctioned post-season bowl game.Tom McEwen, ''The Gators: A Story of Florida Football'', The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama, pp. 180–181, 210–211 (1974). Memorably, as a senior, he had 77-yard touchdown run to help defeat the rival

30–0. Bob Woodruff ranked Long as one of the three best backs to play for the Gators during the 1950s. During his senior season, Long rushed for fourteen touchdowns, and was a third-team All-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) selection. He finished his college career with twenty-five rushing touchdowns, which still ranks eighth on the Gators' all-time career records list. Long also earned varsity letters as a member of the

Florida Gators baseball The Florida Gators baseball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of baseball. Florida competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (S ...

and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

teams. He graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1955, and was later inducted into the

University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame The University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame includes over 300 former Florida Gators athletes who represented the University of Florida in one or more intercollegiate sports and were recognized as "Gator Greats" for their athletic excellence ...

as a "Gator Great."

Professional career

The New York Giants selected Long in the fifth round (fifty-eighth pick overall) of the

1953 NFL Draft The 1953 National Football League Draft was held on January 22, 1953, at Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Selections made by the folded Dallas Texans were assigned to the new Baltimore Colts. This was the seventh year that the first ove ...

, and he played for the Giants for three seasons from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Buford Long
Retrieved March 23, 2011. In his three-year NFL career, Long played in twenty-six games, rushed fifty-two times for 164 yards and a touchdown, had thirty-three receptions for 462 yards and four touchdowns, made three interceptions, and returned twenty-three kickoffs for 607 yards. Long died September 1, 2006 at his home in Wauchula; he was 74 years old.Robbie Andreu,
Buford Long, a Gator great, dead at 74
''The Gainesville Sun'' (September 1, 2006). Retrieved March 29, 2013.

References

Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . * McEwen, Tom, ''The Gators: A Story of Florida Football'', The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama (1974). . * Nash, Noel, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Buford 1931 births 2006 deaths People from Lake Wales, Florida People from Wauchula, Florida Players of American football from Florida American football defensive backs American football ends American football halfbacks Florida Gators football players New York Giants players Baseball players from Florida Florida Gators baseball players Track and field athletes from Florida Track and field athletes in the National Football League Florida Gators men's track and field athletes

Early years

College career

Professional career

See also

References

Bibliography