There are starts and stops, straightaways and bends alongside the route. But Hathcock, who put in his elementary school yrs below, never really left. His coronary heart generally remained close by due to the fact of the Gators. It did not make any difference that he created his property and developed a vastly effective company in Valdosta, Ga., where by most locals bank loan their loyalty to a different Southeastern Convention powerhouse.
Hugh’s father, the late Douglas Hathcock, passed his passion for the Gators down to his son. Hugh did the very same when his boys arrived alongside, scheduling family members journeys to Sugar Bowls and Last Fours with sons Brandon and Gage, and nephew Seth Rountree, whom Hugh stated is “like my son.”
All those Orange & Blue reminiscences over the a long time trace back to Hugh’s formative many years.
“My earliest Gator reminiscences are my father using me to view Spurrier perform when I am like 5 a long time outdated,” Hathcock stated. “Without the need of him, I would in no way have been a Gator admirer.”
Hathcock’s father labored for Western Electric powered in individuals days, and the family members ultimately moved to Valdosta, where Hathcock went to large university. When the time arrived for higher education, Hathcock found his way back again to UF — but not for lengthy.
He attended for a semester. His interest in Gators sporting activities however burned deep, but there was a large world outside town limitations, and Hathcock dreamed of generating his mark as a businessman.
“At that position, I failed to truly feel like any college was going to educate me how to be an entrepreneur,” Hathcock explained. “My relatives was incredibly center class. My mother and father labored their ass off, but they had no income. I grew up with no revenue, so persons who increase up with no dollars want to make funds.”
Right before a dive into the facts, know that Hathcock made ample income to not long ago pledge a $12.6 million contribution to Gator Boosters, the most significant solitary financial reward from a donor in the organization’s record. To figure out and honor this video game-modifying gift, in early December the UF Board of Trustees accepted the naming of the Hugh Hathcock Suite Tower at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and the Hugh Hathcock Basketball Elaborate at the UF Basketball Follow Facility. Parts of the present will be earmarked for renovations to the basketball apply facility, though the balance will assist the UAA Facilities Master Strategy. Gator Boosters has obtained commitments of $148.8 million in private support toward the grasp program.


Hathcock’s loyalty to the Gators goes properly beyond his most-the latest gift.
“This history-placing present is a further example of Hugh’s unwavering motivation and help,” stated Phil Pharr, Gator Boosters Executive Director.
As his 5 youngsters grew up, the UF football and men’s basketball teams served as consistent companions. Two of his daughters attended UF, which include one particular established to graduate in late April.




— Hugh Hathcock (@HughHathcock) February 27, 2020
The Hathcock family members designed trips typically to the UF campus for sporting gatherings. They traveled to bowl online games close and much. They celebrated nationwide championships and bought to know coaches and players.
Doug Brown, Deputy Government Director of Gator Boosters, has identified Hathcock since he was beginning out and has watched Hathcock’s business occupation blossom. No make a difference his station in lifetime, Hathcock constantly kept interested in what was occurring with the Gators.
“Hugh is a Gator to his core,” Brown mentioned. “For a long time he has supported us in so numerous ways. He is a fantastic Gator and we require a whole ton far more just like him.”
The Gators became section of the Hathcock relatives.
“Even when I was in my 20s, just starting off to make cash, I was nevertheless a period-ticket holder,” Hathcock stated. “When they did the Touchdown Terrace, I was 1 of the initially kinds to [contribute]. You are not able to seriously do the matters you want to do right up until you strike it massive. They understood me back again when my corporations were being just smaller providers.”
Hathcock’s business enterprise job is the actual story here. In the mid-1980s, he begun a enterprise named Fresh Beginnings to assistance auto dealers all over the state hook up in a additional own way with customers. He came up with a easy still good idea.
“It was cookies that we put in 2.5-pound designer canister bins, and we experienced a card software that I put the dealers’ name on it,” Hathcock stated. “It was a thank-you card. We went to motor vehicle sellers all throughout the United States telling them when they offered a motor vehicle, we would mail this can of cookies with this card procedure.”
Hathcock started small. His father and other family members users even aided bake the cookies. The strategy was a massive hit and developed into a company named eLead, which created and integrated CRM (client partnership management) technology to develop a databases for client referrals, support visits, and several jobs associated with the automotive marketplace.
Refreshing Beginnings grew to indicator up far more than 3,000 dealerships to use the provider in its first 5 yrs. It opened a contact middle in Valdosta that turned the most significant in the country in the auto field. The moment Hathcock pivoted to the a lot more technological eLeadCRM, the business serviced much more than 5,000 dealerships throughout the U.S.
“I was producing telephone calls for everything from support visits to acquiring a car or truck to fairness phone calls,” Hathcock claimed. “Then, in 2000, I formulated the initially CRM. This is truly what I did to make the dollars to give this present. In the car or truck industry in the late ’90s, there was no CRM. I bought a business in Destin, and I created this application business and created an automotive CRM, and I was the initially to marketplace with it.”
ELeadCRM grew into an sector large for the upcoming two many years right up until Hathcock bought the company in 2019 to CDK International for $550 million.
But Hathcock’s story won’t end there. In its place of retiring to a recliner, Hathcock is motivated by a passion for shaping the long term of the automotive field. He released a new organization in 2020 named Velocity Automotive Remedies and subsidiary ReconVelocity. The organization is centered in Destin, where by Hathcock now life, and features a technological innovation center in Atlanta.


According to its mission statement on the web, Velocity Automotive Remedies is “focused to encouraging dealers transform how they engage with their consumers and their small business by offering evolving computer software options that streamline and change how dealerships share info with their shoppers and build operational effectiveness for expanding gross revenue.”
Hathcock mentioned the company is escalating and has signed up 1,000 dealerships in its very first two yrs. Hathcock and enterprise executives just lately traveled to Las Vegas this month for the National Car Sellers Affiliation once-a-year trade clearly show to promote their latest engineering.
You could say existence is good for Hathcock. He recently married Kalah McCoy. She has blended seamlessly into Hathcock’s Orange & Blue-tinted lifetime over the earlier a few a long time. McCoy attends Gators functions with Hathcock and was with him at football mentor Billy Napier‘s introductory push conference in December.
Hathcock stated the timing was right for these a important financial present to the Gators.
“I sold my business in excess of three yrs back,” he said. “When you come into that kind of funds, that can make it a superior time. There are tons of great tips, but you have to set a ton of terrific men and women all around you, and you have to execute. I never experienced any one finance me. I by no means took associates in. I never ever took any investors. To get a firm from zero and be a lousy region boy from Gainesville and then Valdosta, it can be been pretty good.
“You never aspiration that when you begin anything, that it is likely to turn into something that tends to make you pretty much a billionaire.
A significantly diverse daily life than Hathcock knew growing up. The just one continuous has been his loyalty to the Gators.
