Former FSU student keeps 90-year-old UF family legacy alive

For Hallie Uhrig, attending UF is a family tradition that began in 1925.

Her great-grandmother, Lassie Goodbread Black, was the first female student to enroll at the university, and the legacy continued. Uhrig’s grandmother, a majorette

in the UF Fightin’ Gator Marching Band, graduated in 1958, and her mother, one of the first to certify in hand therapy, graduated in 1983.

Years of Gator cheerleading outfits and orange-and-blue shoes later, it was expected that Uhrig would follow the UF tradition. But before she enrolled this summer as a UF architecture sophomore, she took a slight detour into rival territory by enrolling at Florida State University.

Initially rejected from UF when she applied in high school, she stayed at FSU for a year before transferring.

While Uhrig was happy at FSU, having gone with high school friends and being part of the honors program, FSU’s architecture program only offered interior architectural design, not the full architecture program offered at UF, Uhrig said.

“I didn’t even know I wanted to go into architecture until my Spring semester at FSU,” she said. “I was not upset or unhappy about going to FSU, rather really excited to possibly start my own legacy outside of the UF one.”

Sara Uhrig, Hallie’s mother, who majored in health science, said she encouraged her daughter to transfer to UF.

She said she wanted her daughter to carry on the line of Uhrig women who attended UF, even if she didn’t start as a freshman.

Carl Van Ness, the UF historian, said legacy candidates used to have preference over other applicants. But that no longer applies.

During the 1920s, UF lacked diversity, he said. African-Americans couldn’t attend, and there were few Hispanic and Asian students.

The Buckman Act of 1905 stipulated that only men could attend UF, Van Ness said. FSU, known then as the Florida State College for Women, took female students.

In 1925, Van Ness said, the Florida legislature passed an act allowing women to enroll at UF if they were 21 years or older, had completed two years of college and wanted to study agriculture, law or pharmacy.

When Goodbread Black first tried to enroll at UF that year, she was turned away. But she came back, enrolling the next day, Sara Uhrig said.

Goodbread Black, married to a UF law student, earned her bachelor’s degree in agriculture before graduating in 1940 with three children, she said. Her daughter, Carolyn Lucille Black, graduated with two children. Sara Uhrig, Carolyn’s daughter, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health science.

“The multigenerational Gator families, like Hallie’s, are an indication of an institution’s maturity and success,” Van Ness said.

By coming to UF, Hallie Uhrig said she feels a kinship with her great-grandmother. After both being turned away, they each came back.

“I am proud of my legacy, and it reminds me of what a strong family I come from, that we must always push boundaries and persevere for what we want,” she said. “I am sure my great-grandmother would have been proud of me.”

From left: Sara Uhrig, Edna Black Hindson and Hallie Uhrig hold a photo from 1925 of Lassie Goodbread Black. The picture was taken at Smathers Library during a video interview on July 29.