Buster Bishop

Background

Bishop was born in Gainesville, Florida.

Education

He attended Gainesville High School, graduating in 1939.

Career

Bishop was best known for leading the Florida Gators men"s golf team of the University of Florida to National Collegiate Athletic Association (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I championships in 1968 and 1973. He then enrolled in the University of Florida, where he earned his bachelor"s degree in education in 1944, and his master"s degree in physical education in 1955. After graduating from the University of Florida, Bishop became the head of the physical education program at Buchholz Junior High School in Gainesville.

He later became the head football coach and athletic director at Gainesville High School, before accepting an appointment as a professor of physical education at the University of Florida.

Bishop became the head coach of the Florida Gators golf team of the University of Florida in 1964. The Gators were also the runners-up at the National Collegiate Athletic Association national championship tournament in 1967 and 1974.

Starting in 1970, eight of his Gators received sixteen first-team All-Securities and Exchange Commission honors. Fifteen of Bishop"s golfers earned a total of twenty-five All-American honors between 1964 and 1978.

Strangely, Bishop had never played golf before becoming the head coach of the Gators golf team

When he started to play following his appointment as coach, he went from novice to breaking 80 on the University of Florida Golf Course within a month. His players remembered him as a "master motivator."

The Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) inducted him into its Coaches Hall of Fame in 1982. Bishop died in Gainesville in 2004.

He was 84 years old.

Following his death, former Gators golfers and fans established an endowed University of Florida athletic scholarship fund in his name.

Achievements

• Under his tutelage, the Gators won the 1968 National Collegiate Athletic Association national championship. lieutenant was the first national championship in any sport for the university"s intercollegiate athletics program Five years later, the Gators won a second National Collegiate Athletic Association national championship in 1973. During Bishop"s tenure as head coach, the Gators won four Securities and Exchange Commission team championships (1968, 1973, 1974, 1975), and only finished worse than third in the ten-team Securities and Exchange Commission once in his fifteen seasons leading the team His fellow Securities and Exchange Commission coaches recognized him three consecutive seasons as the conference"s Coach of the Year (1973, 1974, 1975). Individually, his Gators golfers won three United States. Amateurs: Bob Murphy (1965), Steve Melnyk (1969), and Fred Ridley (1975). Murphy also won the National Collegiate Athletic Association individual title (1966). Six of his student-athletes won eight individual Southeastern Conference (Securities and Exchange Commission) titles: Steve Melnyk (1968), Jimmy McQuillan (1971), Gary Koch (1973, 1974), Philosophy Hancock (1975, 1976), Sam Trahan (1977) and Larry Rinker (1978). He was also inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "honorary letter winner" in 1996.