Cross & Crescent

Not surprisngly, Ron Sellers (Florida State 1969) remains a diehard Florida State University football fan.

“People ask me all the time who’s my favorite pro football team…and I tell them Florida State University,” he says.

This year the Florida State football program is going through some rebuilding but Sellers knows they will be back as a top national contender very soon.

Sellers grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and played varsity football and basketball, including being a starting forward on a state championship basketball team.

He was a awarded a football and basketball scholarship to Florida State but soon realized that he couldn’t continue to successfully play both sports.

“It was really almost impossible in my personal opinion to do more than one sport,” he says. “We went to a bowl game all three years I played varsity football and so the bowl games weren’t over until mid to late December, and the basketball team had already played five or six or seven games.

He decided playing both sports was not possible so he made football his top priority.

“Football was the only sport where I could have gone as far as I did,” he says. “I could catch a football and I could run. Basketball, ‘if you can’t leap, you can’t compete,’ is the old saying, and I couldn’t leap. But I could catch a football and I could run with it and I was very fortunate to be proficient at that.”

Florida State Record Setter

Of course Sellers is extremely modest about his phenomenal college football achievements. At Florida State he became the greatest college pass receiver of his time.

No man has ever gained more yards receiving passes. In an NCAA record, still standing, he caught 240 passes for 3,979 yards. As a result of his play, he was named consensus All-American in 1967 and 1968. He established the Florida State single-game record of 16 receptions, single game record of 260 yards, and the one game mark of five touchdowns and 30 points.

His best performance came in 1968 against South Carolina with 16 catches. In other games in his career he caught 14 passes (three times) and 13 passes (three times). His 14 receptions against Penn State in 1967 set a Gator Bowl record. Against Wake Forest in 1968 he caught five touchdown passes.

In 1967, Sellers led the nation in receiving yardage while ranking second in receptions. In the 1967 Gator Bowl against Penn State, his 14 receptions broke Fred Biletnikoff’s (Florida State 1965) record.

“I was just very fortunate to have some great coaches like Joe Gibbs, who was my offensive coordinator at Florida State for two years,” Sellers says. “I was very lucky and that’s why I still hold like 17 records at Florida State from my days from 40 years ago.”

Sellers has been inducted into seven Sports Halls of Fame, including the National College Football Hall of Fame, which took place in 1987.

NFL and Super Bowl VIII

After graduating from Florida State with a bachelor’s degree in risk management, Sellers became the No. 1 draft choice of the Boston Patriots in 1969.

After three years, he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys where he became their leader in receptions in 1972, in addition to catching a touchdown pass in the playoff game with the San Francisco 49ers from Roger Staubach with 30 seconds to play. He was traded to the Miami Dolphins in 1973, where he won a Super Bowl ring for the Miami Dolphins’ victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII.

“I played my first three years with the Patriots as their No. 1 draft pick in 1969,” he says. “I loved Boston and have gone back there many times. For the Dallas Cowboys, I was their leading receiver in 1972 before I was traded finally to the Dolphins.”

Even though he played for three different teams, Sellers says he made many good friends at each stop.

“I would really say that I just enjoyed the whole experience of pro football and the different teammates I had,” Sellers says. “I loved the guys. Every team, I still have special people that I stay in touch with. It was a great experience, especially being on a Super Bowl team.”

Ron Sellers & Associates

During his tenure with the Boston Patriots and during the off-season, Sellers was a stock broker with Burgess & Leith, a regional stock brokerage firm in New England.

He started his insurance career with Massachusetts Mutual in 1974. He broke all sales records for first year agents for the 123 year-old company and was named to the Freshmen Five Group.

In 1975, Ron Sellers & Associates, Inc. was established in Palm Beach County, Florida, to provide corporate and personal insurance services, including group benefit products, life insurance and annuities, retirement/401(k) programs, estate planning and wealth preservation, business succession planning and executive benefits.

“I really love helping people and I also love numbers,” he says. “Being able to explain those to people so they can see what they are going to get. Just relationships. Our business is relational, about relationships between the client and also the insurance companies. I love that.”

Lambda Chi Alpha

When Sellers enrolled at Florida State, some of his friends were Lambda Chis and he was a big admirer of Biletnikoff who had also been a very successful wide receiver at Florida State.

After joining, he developed many lifelong friendships and he also found a way to keep playing basketball by leading the chapter’s intramural team.

“I’ve still got a lot of good friends from Lambda Chi days that I still see or talk to occasionally,” he says. My Lambda Chi days were also very nice and rewarding. I had another family…in addition to my football teammates.”

A few years ago, Sellers became involved with helping the chapter raise funds for a new chapter house and he thoroughly enjoyed helping them achieve their goal of erecting a beautiful new house.

“It was just great to be a brother and to make friends, and sometimes you appreciate it more after you leave than when you were there,” he says.