Hall of Fame

2012 Hall of Fame Inductees

Moore-Stone Award
DeVoe Moore
   DeVoe Moore is a man who truly believes that ours is a land of opportunity based on the principle of free enterprise and the value of hard work in success.  He came to Tallahassee to attend Florida State and major in criminology, but found his entrepreneurial skills instead.
   Through his success in business DeVoe and Shirley Moore have become gracious contributions to the University and the Athletic Department.  Their gift, the largest in school history has not only been a huge financial contribution, but an inspiration to other alumni and friends of Florida State.  Most importantly, it has secured student-athletes the opportunity to attend this great University and given a chance to achieve their dreams.
   DeVoe and his wife Shirley have two daughters and six grandchildren all living in the Tallahassee and surrounding area.

Bev Burnett
   Tallahassee native Bev Burnett played in all 28 games as a freshman averaging over 19 points a game.  The Rickards graduate followed up the stellar rookie year by averaging 17 points per game the next season.  The 5’9” forward earned Metro Conference player of the week honors after back-to-back 30-point games during her sophomore year.  She later earned All-Metro Conference First team honors in 1988 and ‘89 and led the Seminoles in scoring both seasons. Her 21.3 points per game average as a senior still ranks as the second highest single-season mark in Florida State women’s basketball history.
   Burnett is a teacher for Exceptional Students and works with incarcerated Youths in Hillsboro County. 

John-Ford Griffin
   John-Ford Griffin starred for the Seminoles for three seasons culminating in the rare achievement of consensus All-America status as a junior in 2001.  He led the Seminoles that season with a .450 batting average that included 19 home runs, 30 doubles and 75 RBI.  He was named the ACC’s Player of the Year and was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award.
   A Sarasota native, John-Ford was a remarkable hitter throughout his FSU career.  His .427 career batting average not only set the Florida State record, but is the best career average for any player in the history of the ACC and was 16th best in college baseball history.  The left-handed power-hitter was drafted by the New York Yankees with the 23rd overall pick in 2001.  He totaled over 150 home runs and 700 RBI over a nine-year professional career before retiring in 2010.
   John-Ford and his wife Taryn live in Tallahassee with their young son. He is the owner Hollachaboy Clothing and a partner in the PowerMill training facility.

Sue Hall
   Sue Hall spent 21 years of her life at the right hand of College Football’s greatest coach.  Much of her time was spent handling Coach’s dizzying travel and speaking schedules along with answering countless phone calls, emails and nearly 250 letters a day at times.  But she also served as a surrogate mother to the players and even a foster parent to several.
   Not only is Sue a founding member of the Extra Point Club, but she also established the Garnet and Gold Girls and served as the director of the recruiting group for 10 years.  She was also instrumental is starting traditions at senior day and parents’ weekend that continue to be a part of the Seminole football program today.
   Sue and her husband Charles still live in Tallahassee and have been married for over 50 years.

Danny Kanell
   Danny Kanell led the Seminoles to a 10-1-1 season including that mind-boggling 28 point 4th quarter comeback over Florida his junior season.  Just over a month later, Kanell led Florida State to a 23-17 win over the same Florida team, now ranked fifth nationally, in the Sugar Bowl elevating the Seminoles to No. 4 in the country in the final polls.
   The Ft. Lauderdale native was one of the nation’s top players as a senior in 1995 and led the Seminoles to a 10-2 finish and a repeat of the number four final ranking in the Associated Press poll.  He led FSU to a dramatic 31-26 win over Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl to finish his career with another win.  He was named a second team All-American and remains among the Top 10 in both season and career records in eight different categories.
   In 1996, the New York Giants drafted Danny in the 4th round.  He spent seven years playing in New York, then for the Falcons and the Broncos.  He also spent one season playing professional baseball before changing his career to broadcast journalism.  He is now a family face on ESPN as a commentator for college football and baseball.
   Danny and his wife Courtenay have three beautiful daughters.

Christian Raynor
   Christian Raynor led the Seminoles golf team to nine team victories and seven runner-up places during his career at Florida State.  He was twice named All-ACC, was a two-time Academic All-American and a second team All-American in 1995.  He set a new FSU scoring average at 71.31 strokes per round, which ranked third best in the country.
   Raynor’s Hall of Fame career at FSU included leading the Seminoles to two NCAA Tournament appearances, winning three individual tournament titles and finishing second in two others.
   Raynor spent the next four years after graduation as a professional golfer, which included one season on the Nike Tour.  He won three mini-tour events on the Tommy Armour Tour in Orlando before reinstating his amateur status in 2001.  The Gulf Breeze native now works as a Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor in Atlanta and he and his wife Suzanna have three children Alexander, Avery and Asher. 

Bobby Bowden
In 1976, Florida State University President Stanley Marshall and athletic director John Bridgers set out to find a new coach for the Seminole Football program. 

While FSU’s program had carved a great reputation in a relatively short period of time, the program was nearly at a tipping point having won just four games over the previous three seasons.

The two turned to a one-time FSU assistant coach who was having success at the top level of college football as the head coach at West Virginia.

Bobby and Ann Bowden packed their bags, headed to Tallahassee, and changed the university and college football forever.

Facing football schedules booked to provide revenue for expanded classrooms and top faculty – and not designed to help the coach’s win-loss record - Bowden and Florida State earned national acclaim for knocking off traditional powers in their own stadiums.

Not only did the Seminoles win, but they did it with style earning Bowden the reputation of “Riverboat Gambler” .  In the process, the program became attractive to the top players in the country and the university itself began to enjoy unprecedented popularity.

While he had fielded terrific teams in 1977 and 1978 and went 10-1 with only a loss to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl in 1979, it was a win in 1980 that proved to Bowden, FSU and the nation that the Seminoles were for real. 

Bowden took a heavily under dogged Florida State team to vaunted Nebraska where the #3 ranked Cornhuskers were eager to show the southern team a thing or two about football.  When the final whistle finally blew, Bowden and his Seminoles had pulled off the unthinkable and left the field to a standing ovation by the shocked Nebraska crowd.

The rest, as they say, is history.  But it is history the likes of which has never been written in college football. 

Bowden and Florida State comfortably transitioned from a school looking to make its name to the nation’s most powerful  college program.  No school in the history of college football even comes close to Florida State’s remarkable 14 straight seasons of Top 5 Associated Press poll finishes.  Never before and most suggest never again has a college program been that consistently successful.  And to achieve it in the modern era of scholarship limitations, increased parity and against schedules that regularly ranked as the toughest in the country makes it even more astonishing.

Any doubt of Bowden and Florida State’s greatness was erased at the Orange Bowl in 1994 when his Seminoles defeated Tom Osbourne’s Nebraska squad for the national championship.  Six years later, Bowden and FSU put an exclamation point on Seminole Football with a perfect, wire-to-wire run as the nation’s #1 ranked team and won a second national title.

Over his FSU career that spanned from 1976-2009, Bowden  took FSU to a mind boggling 28 straight bowl games and won 22  of them including 10 straight.

By the time he coached his last game against, ironically, the Mountaineer program he left to join FSU, he had won more football games than all but one other person in the history of major college football. 

In addition, Bowden had provided the spark that lifted the entire university to the place of prominence it enjoys today.

And he did all this without every losing the enthusiasm, affable nature, love of people and faith that he displayed when he accepted the job in 1976.

With Ann always at his side, Bobby Bowden became the greatest coach in college football history and we all got to watch.