Back in the early 1950s, Florida State University's football Seminoles fielded a hurting halfback dubbed "Johnson & Johnson" because he was wrapped in so much tape. A knee injury sidelined him in his second season, and soon thereafter he quit school. Since then both he and the Seminoles have fared much better. Last year the team lost only one regular-season game (by a single point), went to the Orange Bowl and wound up fifth in the nation. As for the dropout halfback, now better known as Burt Reynolds, he just made a command appearance at his alma mater at 44 to pick up an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
The campus love-in was warmed by Burt's donation last September of $600,000 to the theater department, though the school had voted to give Reynolds the degree even before his gift. The state added a $400,000 sweetener, resulting in what the dean of the department, Richard G. Fallon, terms "the richest and most eminent theater chair in the U.S."
Reynolds' involvement doesn't stop with his tax exemption. Two years ago he set up a foundation that offers students FSU college credit for on-the-job training at his $2 million dinner theater in Jupiter, Fla. Burt also teaches some workshops at the Tallahassee campus. While serving the school and between movies, he is based in a luxurious Spanish-style villa close by his theater.
Reynolds was visibly humbled by the honor, previously conferred on legendary acting colleagues like Lee Strasberg and Helen Hayes. But for this son of a small-town Florida police chief, the recognition struck closer to home. "I always felt this was the place I could come back to," said Burt. "I will always love this university and try to make it proud of me."
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