CSC member Norm Carlson was inducted into the CSC Hall of Fame in 1978.
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Courtesy of floridagators.com
Remembering Norm Carlson, a Great Gator and Friend to All
Longtime University of Florida sports information director and historian Norm Carlson, who returned to his alma mater more than 60 years ago to lead the athletic program's public relations department, died Friday afternoon at age 90. Carlson officially retired in June 2002 but spent another decade maintaining an office at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as the football team's official historian and a fountain of knowledge for anyone who stopped by his office with a question about the Gators.
Those who worked alongside him at the University Athletic Association referred to him as "Mr. C." The sportswriters and broadcasters he befriended over the years affectionately referred to him as "Normie." When Carlson was honored with a retirement party, he had worked 462 consecutive UF football games, earning his place next to Steve Spurrier, "Mr. Two Bits" and "We Are the Boys" in Gators football lore.
Plans for a memorial service remain incomplete at this time.
Carlson started his career as a sportswriter at the Atlanta Journal before he moved to the "other side of the fence" when legendary Auburn coach Shug Jordan hired him in the spring of 1959 as Auburn's sports information director. Carlson received a phone call from Gators coach Ray Graves four years later to see if Carlson had an interest in returning to UF, where he graduated after transferring from St. Louis University.
As a journalist, Carlson covered Georgia Tech for the Journal and got to know Graves, who was the defensive coordinator on Bobby Dodd's Yellow Jackets staff.
Shortly after Florida defeated Penn State in the 1962 Gator Bowl, Graves needed a new "publicity director," as they were called then. Carlson had only one student assistant (George Solomon, future sports editor of The Washington Post) and a part-time secretary his first year on the job.
He never left.
In more than five decades with the Gators, Carlson witnessed the media landscape change drastically and oversaw an office that grew considerably. He developed a reputation as someone the media could trust, whom coaches could depend on, and someone administrators such as former UF athletic director Jeremy Foley often used as a sounding board.
"When people talk about legacy, I think people equate that to professional life and achievement,'' Foley said Saturday. "Norm's legacy, to me, was the most incredibly kind, respected and wise people I ever came across. When I became AD, I was a young buck trying to figure it all out. Norm was always there for advice and presented it in such a professional and caring manner.
"No one represented the Gator brand better than Norm. I loved him — that's not a trite statement — but I also admired the hell out of him."
Carlson is a member of the UF Athletic Hall of Fame and the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, inducted in 1995 and the first publicist honored. He was born Sept. 7, 1933, in Omaha, Neb. He grew up in St. Louis and moved to Florida in the early 1950s when his father, who worked in the trucking business, was transferred to Jacksonville.
Norm Carlson has passed, but his stories live on.
Gallery: (5-13-2024) Norm Carlson, 1933-2024