The welcome sign off State Road 589 in Sumrall, Mississippi. (Photo: Scott Carter/UAA Communications)
Jon Sumrall Series, Part I: A Sumrall — Not Summerall — in Sumrall
Saturday, August 29, 2026 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories that tell the journey of Gators head coach Jon Sumrall, from his birth in Texarkana, Texas, to his formative years in Huntsville, Alabama, to his time playing and suffering a career-ending injury at the University of Kentucky. From there, the series discusses the birth of his coaching career in Lexington and San Diego. Finally, his multiple stops at Troy and Tulane paved the way for him to the University of Florida. But first, we open the series with Sumrall's connection to a small town in Mississippi and his lack of connection to someone whose surname is often used instead of Sumrall's own.
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SUMRALL, Miss. — He has made his living and a name for himself in a game that produced a famous figure with an iconic voice and a similar surname.
Jon Sumrall is accustomed to seeing his name misspelled.
The first-year Gators head coach has no connection to Pat Summerall, the Florida native who grew up in Lake City and became a national treasure in the CBS broadcast booth with TV partner John Madden.
Pat Summerall occasionally visited the UF campus, and during his NFL career, the coach who recruited Summerall to Arkansas – former Lake City Columbia High coach Hobe Hooser – was Florida's defensive line coach for a decade under Bob Woodruff. Jon Sumrall hugs his mom, Sandy Sumrall, when he first arrived in Gainesville in December. His late father, George Sumrall, sits beside him. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
Still, in the months since Sumrall took over the Gators, it has not been uncommon to see "Sumrall" spelled "Summerall" on social media, on message boards, or in a friend's text.
You know what they say about old habits.
When former NFL and Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks randomly bumped into Sumrall in April 2019 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky – Sumrall played for Brooks in college – Brooks did what people do these days. The then-78-year-old retired coach took a photo and shared it on social media.
Brooks considered it "a treat for me" to cross paths with Jon Summerall.
In tracing Sumrall's path from a young boy born in Texas to the face of the Florida Gators football program, there was no real reason other than curiosity to take a detour this summer through the backwoods of Mississippi off Interstate 59 on the way from Huntsville, Alabama, to New Orleans. Sumrall never lived in Sumrall. He was born in Texarkana and raised in Huntsville.
What a treat for me today at Keeneland to run into Matt McCutcheon, Gerald Parker and Jon Summerall. pic.twitter.com/bldDhs1En3
But the 44-year-old Sumrall has been to many places and done many things on the recruiting trail over the years.
"I've ridden a tractor on an in-home visit. I've ridden a horse on an in-home visit,'' he said recently. "It's probably easier to say what I have not done."
And Sumrall has been here, too — in the only incorporated town in America named Sumrall.
"A good little town,'' he said. "I've had a few meals in Sumrall at one of those country store kind of restaurants. It's like a down-home mom-and-pop Cracker Barrel." The water tower that looms over downtown in Sumrall, Mississippi. (Photo: Scott Carter/UAA Communications)
He couldn't remember the restaurant's name, but a safe bet is that it's Lau-toni's. The popular spot offers antique china for those who want to take something home besides leftover fried catfish or country fried steak, and it displays trophies local teams have won and other memorabilia.
Unlike her youngest son, Sandy Sumrall has ties to the community that go beyond the fleeting.
Back in the early 1970s, soon after Sandra Gayle Massey married George Warren Sumrall – they married in Jackson, where George grew up, and Sandy moved in the seventh grade from Alabama – the couple relocated to Collins, Miss. George, who studied as an undergrad and played football at Southeastern Louisiana University, was taking classes at Southern Miss, and Sandy was launching a teaching career after earning her bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama.
Collins was about halfway between Sumrall and Hattiesburg, and Sandy worked as a student teacher at Sumrall Elementary School for a year.
The family still laughs about the fluky coincidence decades later.
"It was a fun experience,'' Sandy said. "Everybody thought I owned the city."
"They thought she was the mayor and their teacher,'' Jon said.
As you cruise into Sumrall from the north on State Road 589, you see more cows and farm equipment than people. Finally, at the intersection of 589 and SR 42, downtown Sumrall appears. If the light is green, you better not blink or you'll miss it as you cruise down the sloped Main Street and up a hill past the white tower with "Sumrall" painted in black across its globe.
Main Street in downtown Sumrall, Mississippi. (Photo: Scott Carter/UAA Communications)
Emily Pack, whose tenure as executive director of the Sumrall Main Street Association ended earlier this month, is a strong proponent of the rural community about 20 miles northwest of Hattiesburg, with a population of about 1,800, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau information.
"I love it here. It's just a fun little town. Sumrall was a railroad town,'' she said. "We have a depot right off the trace [paved outdoor trail] in the middle of town. There's something about Sumrall that feels like coming home."
In fact, the welcome sign with a Southern accent touts Sumrall as a place "like comin' home."
As for the original namesake, Sumrall was founded in the late 1800s by Daniel Sumrall, a Union officer during the Civil War who operated a grist mill, cotton gin and farm. A controversy erupted when officials named it Sumrall – early residents opposed it being named after a Union officer – and it was incorporated in 1903 and served as a stop along the Mississippi Central Railroad.
Today, it's best known for producing great baseball teams at Sumrall High, which has won three state championships in the last five years, and for its annual July 4 celebration and Olde Towne Christmas Festival.
"They've sent a ton of kids to play at Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Southern Miss,'' Jon said.
It's the kind of place most people visit with a purpose or on their way to somewhere else. That is the life of a recruiter – or a school teacher just starting out.
For the locals who call it home, Sumrall can be whatever you make it.
"We've always been called the bedroom community to Hattiesburg, and I think it will always be that,'' former mayor and fire chief Heath Sumrall – no relation known to Jon – told the local newspaper during his campaign. A building on the campus of Sumrall Elementary School. (Photo: Scott Carter/UAA Communications)
Sandy Sumrall hasn't been back in years. She and George eventually settled in Huntsville, where Jon first made a name for himself as a star player at Grissom High.
The couple followed Jon's career closely the past two decades as he established himself as an up-and-coming coach. They traveled often to his games on weekends, and Sandy plans to be at as many Gators games this season as she can. George, after an extended illness, passed away in December two weeks after attending his son's introductory press conference at UF.
A reporter's trip into the Mississippi countryside to explore Sumrall stirred memories of the past and how a small country town fits into the story.
"I have been led to believe … it's somehow tied into the family,'' Sandy said. "The Sumralls kept a fairly good record of genealogy, and I've been looking back at some of that, trying to figure it out. Jon still has some distant relatives around those parts, but you know how you lose contact as time goes on."
What is certain? Pat Summerall is nowhere to be found in the Sumrall family tree.
