McDowell produced an 86-61 mark (.585) with the Knights from 1985 through 1997.

When he took over at UCF the Knights were playing as an NCAA Division II program. Five years later in 1990 UCF began competing as a Division I-AA independent and in 1996 moved into Division I.

McDowell led UCF to the NCAA Division II playoffs in 1987 and the Division I-AA playoffs in both 1990 (the first program to make the playoffs in its first season of eligibility) and 1993. Under his direction, the Knights finished 10-4 in 1990, 9-4 in 1987 and 9-3 in 1993.

He also served as athletic director at UCF from 1985 through 1992. Under his watch UCF won a Division II playoff game in 1987 with a 12-10 victory over Indiana (Pennsylvania) and led the Knights to an FCS playoff win in 1990 in a 52-38 win against William & Mary.

McDowell won the Eddie Robinson Award in 1990 as the top head coach in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA).

A linebacker and offensive guard for the Seminoles from 1960-62, McDowell earned third-team All-America honors from the Associated Press as a senior. That same year he served as the Seminoles’ captain and was named MVP.

He was an assistant coach at Kansas State from 1970-73 and then coached Florida State defensive ends in 1974-75 and Seminole linebackers from 1976-84 under head coach Bobby Bowden.

A native of Waycross, Georgia, he recruited former all-star quarterback Daunte Culpepper to UCF. Culpepper set 15 school records as a junior in 1997 in McDowell’s final season as UCF head coach.

Under McDowell’s watch the Knights had their first player selected in the NFL Draft—wide receiver Ted Wilson in 1987.

McDowell led UCF to a No. 2 national ranking in the Division II poll thanks to five straight wins to start the 1988 campaign.

In 2015 McDowell was honored with an endowed scholarship in his name—with the UCF McDowell Endowment Fund given annually to an incoming football player.

Arrangements are pending.

As a professor emeritus of , I announced the games for the first five years of UCF football starting in 1979.

Announcing over the Tangerine Bowl (now Camping World Stadium) public-address system at that time was rather challenging. I often enlisted my children to help as spotters to identify players, and it took getting used to hearing your voice on a five-second delay. It was so distracting you had to concentrate on what you were saying and not on what you were hearing. On one occasion, I announced that the football was “placed on the 51-yard line.” I got a few stares from fans wondering just where the 51-yard line might be.

Launching New Traditions, Mascots and Half-time Performances

I was also asked to arrange for the pregame and halftime shows for home games. The assignment was exciting, rewarding and very comical at times because we were taking baby steps.

That first year I pleaded with every high school band director in the area to participate. When options were sparse, I even enlisted a security-dog demonstration from Patrick Air Force Base.

When we staged our first home football game against Fort Benning, there was no marching band, no salary for our coach, and just a few brave cheerleaders.

That first year I pleaded with every high school band director in the area to participate. When options were sparse, I even enlisted a security-dog demonstration from Patrick Air Force Base.

My directions for this task came from the athletic director Jack O’Leary under the watchful eye of then President Trevor Colbourn, the driving force behind the UCF football program.

Of course, Colbourn had to take the cautious, administrative view that probably included avoiding risks of liability, which meant turning down the halftime plan for a Cypress Gardens ski-show performer to sail around the stadium.

Probably the most awkward situation occurred when we were playing Morehouse College, whose marching band was going to be at the game but not scheduled to perform at halftime. We planned for our own jam-packed halftime, which was to conclude with words by Colbourn. Before the halftime began, I was surprised to see the Morehouse band forming on the sidelines and then begin to move onto the field. Our staff was doing everything it could to stop them, to no avail.

It turned into a chaotic mess. After the band performed and left the field, we had little time left for UCF to do much of anything. Our part of the halftime program was a disaster. There was just a little time for Colbourn’s remarks, and a delay of game penalty was imposed on UCF at the start of the second half.

The folks at Disney were more than willing to help with the UCF football program in a number of ways. They even offered to construct a new UCF mascot suit for our 1980 football season. Our ideas were very knightly, so I recommended “Sir-Wins-A-Lot” for the mascot, and the name stuck — at least for a time. Colbourn even knighted our new mascot as Sir-Wins-A-Lot before a home game.

The title worked well for a few games, up until we ran into a few losses. Later on, having a mascot named Knightro served us better.

An FSU Connection

In 1982, former FSU Coach Bill Peterson arrived to be the new athletic director. Working with Peterson was quite a kick for me. As an FSU alumnus, I knew all about his igniting the Seminoles into a major football powerhouse and the part he played in nurturing FSU’s traditions.

There were a number of aspects of UCF’s early football launch that included assistance from those Seminoles from Florida State. Despite the fact that they beat the Knights 46-14 in our one 1995 meeting on the gridiron, their influence on our football program was noteworthy. Two of our early athletic directors had been FSU coaches, with Gene McDowell being the first All-American player at FSU.

The late actor Burt Reynolds, a former running back for the Seminoles, also gave an assist to the rising UCF Knights football program. I was honored to serve as master of ceremonies for one of the annual “Night of Knights” fund-raising auctions in downtown Orlando in 1989. It was a lavish, black-tie, televised affair attended by a host of community notables. It also became a key event in the history of the football program as we collected more than $300,000 for UCF sports that evening.

Building a solid football program takes time, commitment and some very careful, right steps.

The program was all about convincing the UCF community of the importance of football to the development of our school at large, a concept championed by Colbourn. In my opening remarks I played a portion of the Notre Dame fight song. The audience recognized it immediately — and that was my point. It was familiar to them because a school then of only 9,000 had achieved worldwide recognition through its extraordinary profile in the sport of football.

Adding glitter to that big night was an appearance by Reynolds and wife Loni Anderson (whose son-in-law was a UCF assistant football coach at the time). The couple added a donation: a black stallion to carry our Knight mascot.

Building a solid football program takes time, commitment and some very careful, right steps. Above all, it takes a lot of dedicated, unselfish, optimistic people who can give the fans something of value to watch. As a witness during those early formative years, I think we saw just that.

We owe so much to those many supporters who have encouraged the program with their ideas, their participation and their pocketbooks.

Messeguer, you see, was around when dirt roads led to the campus at UCF, which at the time featured just six buildings on campus. A football program that was in its infancy had players dressing in an irrigation shed, borrowed uniforms and even spray-painted shoes so that they would match.

These days, Messeguer is a part of a UCF football program that is still riding the emotional wave of a 2010 season in which it won 11 games, captured a Conference USA title and gained a historic defeat of Georgia in the Liberty Bowl. Forgive Messeguer, a Special Assistant to UCF head coach George O’Leary, for sometimes being in awe of the transformation that has gone on at UCF over the last 30 years.

“When I first came out of the service and went to work for Heintzelman (car dealership) and I had to bring a car out to (former UCF president) Dr. (Charles) Millican. Once I got past Bumby Avenue, there was nothing but TG Lee Dairy and orange groves and I was on dirt roads,” Messeguer remembered. “When I pulled in here there were only a few buildings and I’m like, `This is the university?’

“When I look at it today, it’s unbelievable to me,” Messeguer continued. “It’s hard to imagine what I have seen through the years out here at UCF. From dirt roads to your own stadium and the latest facilities in the country and now even a medical school, it’s just incredible.”

Messeguer’s 30 years of service to UCF will be honored Friday night when he is inducted into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame as an honorary letter winner. Messeguer will be joined by Bernard Ford (football), Jenny Frank (volleyball), Greg Jefferson (football), Cliff Kresge (men’s golf), Jorge Magluta (football) and former administrator Art Zeleznik as the latest inductees into UCF’s Hall of Fame.

The ceremony begins at 6:30 p.m. at the J. Rolfe Davis Recruiting Lounge at Bright House Networks Stadium. Te reserve tickets for the event, contact the Golden Knights Club at 407-882-1286.

Messeguer will undoubtedly receive one of the largest ovations at Friday night’s event because of the length of his commitment to UCF and his passion for the program. In some way or another, he’s worked with each of UCF’s coaches – Don Jonas, Sam Weir, Lou Saban, Gene McDowell, Mike Kruczek and O’Leary.

Messeguer figures he will have at least 36 members of his family and friends in the crowd and he’s not sure how the moment will hit him. But he fully understands the significance of being honored by the schools he’s loved for three decades.

“This is probably the biggest honor that’s ever been paid to me in my life. It really is and I’ve been through a lot. I couldn’t believe it when they told me,” Messeguer said. “I’m not a very emotional guy, but I don’t know how I’ll react. When I thought about it, I got a little emotional at home. So who knows what I’ll do in front of my family and friends.”

A former pilot in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era, Messeguer served as the personal pilot for McDowell when he was UCF’s head coach from 1985 through 1997. Messeguer, who was a Vice President and General Manager at Tropical Ford in Orlando for 18 years, also served in roles as a donor leader and a sideline radio reporter.

But it’s his current role, as a special assistant to O’Leary, that Messeguer has cherished the most. Under O’Leary, UCF has experienced its greatest success and could be poised to enter a Bowl Championship Series-affiliated conference. Messeguer, who can usually be found near O’Leary’s side during media sessions and office meetings, tries to take some of the workload and headaches off the coach during a game week.

“I do a lot for Coach O’Leary to relieve him of all of the duties he’s got besides just football. There are constantly issues in and out of his office with parents, kids, academics, football, administration and equipment,” Messeguer said. “Coach O’Leary has this nature that he wants to win so badly and he’s on top of every detail. I just try to relieve a lot of that from him. … It’s been a great experience the whole time that I have been at UCF, but it’s been special with George O’Leary because we’ve won bowls and championships. I’m fortunate that I made it all of this time to enjoy these moments.”

As much as he reflects on the progress that UCF has made, Messeguer is eager to see how much more growth is still to come at UCF. After all, his love for UCF is everlasting.

“From where we were to where we are today, we have to be on the right path here at UCF,” Messeguer said. “At first, we were independent and played teams like the Moscow Bears – and I didn’t even know they played football in Russia. Now, we’re beating schools like Georgia and it’s just unbelievable. And with it sounding like we could be headed to a BCS conference in the future, it’s just showing how UCF keeps growing and growing.”