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UF Hall of Fame will add basketball greats Vernon Maxwell and Andrew Moten

On3 imageby: Keith Niebuhr05/22/26NiebuhrOn3

In the mid-1980s, the Florida Gators arguably had the top backcourt in the Southeastern Conference. The group consisted of Vernon Maxwell, Andrew Moten and the late Ronnie Montgomery.

Friday, the school revealed that Maxwell and Moten will be inducted into the 2026 UF Athletics Hall of Fame class. Gators basketball coach Todd Golden shared the news with the pair, which the school posted on social media.

Just last year, UF announced it was restoring Maxwell’s final two seasons of individual statistics, which had been wiped from the record books due to the program’s NCAA issues in the late 1980s.

That gives Maxwell 2,450 points during his four seasons at Florida (1985-88).

“It’s time,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin told Chris Harry of FloridaGators.com. 

Maxwell, who attended Gainesville Buchholz High, officially is the third all-time leading scorer in SEC hoops history. At the time his UF career concluded he was No. 2 behind only legendary LSU guard “Pistol” Pete Maravich. 

“I fell on the floor. I was ecstatic,” Maxwell told Harry of UF’s decision last year. “Man, I am just so happy. This is a blessing for me and my family. Honestly, I never, ever thought this was going to happen.”

With Maxwell as a do-it-all scoring guard, the Gators were selected to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1987 and reached the Sweet 16. He later played several years in the NBA and won two championships with the Houston Rockets.

Moten, guard from Quincy, Fla., averaged 16 points a game on that same team.

Moten is Florida’s fourth all-time leading scorer with 1,930 career points in 125 appearances—even though he played just one season with the 3-point line. 

Per a UF release, “Moten averaged 15.4 points for his career, scoring 16 or more points per game three of his four seasons. The Quincy, Fla., native earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors in 1984 averaging 11.9 points per game and went on to be a three-time All-SEC honoree and a member of the 1985 All-SEC Tournament Team.

In addition to points, Moten stands among Florida’s all-time leaders in field goals (fourth, 711), games started (fifth, 124), minutes (seventh, 3,930), free throws (seventh, 447) and assists (10th, 411). He is one of three Gators to score more than 1,300 career points in SEC play (1,306).”

Moten was a fourth-round selection in the 1987 NBA Draft but never played in the NBA.

The third member of the backcourt, known affectionately as the M&Ms, Montgomery played in 130 games, many alongside Maxwell and Moten. He made 56 starts, scored 500 points and recorded 503 assists. The latter was the school record until being bested by Erving Walker in 2012.  

Montgomery, a Jacksonville, Fla., native, died in 2024 due to complications from a brain aneurysm at age 58.