Andrew Owens

Andrew Douglas Owens, Jr. (born March 21, 1947), nicknamed Andy Owens, is an American attorney, former state court judge, and former college basketball star.

Andrew Owens
Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of Florida
In office
March 1983 – March 22, 2017[1]
Appointed byBob Graham
Succeeded byAndrea W. McHugh[2]
Chief Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of Florida
In office
2011–2015
Personal details
Born
Andrew Douglas Owens, Jr.

(1947-03-21) March 21, 1947[3]
Atlanta, Georgia
EducationB.S., University of Florida, 1970
J.D., University of Florida, 1973

Family

Andrew is the son of Andrew Sr. and Doris E. Purcell.[3] His mother's father was Sanford P. Purcell, a Georgia State Senator and member of the Democratic Party.[3]

Early life

Owens was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to Tampa, Florida as a child with his family, where his father became the owner of an auto parts store.[4] His mother, who had played basketball at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, taught him how to play the sport.[4] Owens attended Hillsborough High School in Tampa, where he became a standout basketball player for the Hillsborough Terriers high school basketball team.[5] He played in seventy-seven prep games, while scoring 1,806 points and averaging 23.5 points per game.[5] As a senior, he scored 397 points in sixteen Western Conference games, averaging 24.8 per game, including 51 points against rival King High School.[5] He was named as a high school All-American along with Lew Alcindor and Pete Maravich.[5]

College career

Owens received athletic scholarship offers to attend the University of Kentucky and the University of North Carolina, but he accepted a scholarship to attend his home-state University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. As a Florida undergraduate, he played forward for coach Tommy Bartlett's Florida Gators men's basketball team for three seasons from 1967 to 1970, and was team captain for the 1969–70 season.[6] In 1968–69, he played with Neal Walk and helped lead the Gators to their first postseason tournament.[6] During the 1969–70 season, he scored 677 points and averaged twenty-seven points a game for the season—still the current record for the Gators men's basketball team.[6] During his three-season college career, he scored a total of 1,445 points and compiled eleven games in which he scored thirty or more points.[6] He was an All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1968 and 1970, and an Academic All-American in 1970, and received an NCAA post-graduate scholarship.[6]

The Seattle SuperSonics selected Owens in the eleventh round of the 1970 NBA Draft, and the New Orleans Buccaneers picked him in the twelfth round of the 1970 ABA Draft.[6] Instead of playing professional basketball, he decided to attend law school.[5]

Owens graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in finance in 1970 and a law degree in 1973, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1978.[7][8] He was honored as an "SEC Basketball Legend" at halftime of the Florida–Vanderbilt game in 2001.[9]

Law career

Owens worked as an attorney in Punta Gorda, Florida after graduating from law school.[4][5] Florida Governor Bob Graham appointed him to a newly created judgeship on the Twelfth Judicial Circuit in 1982, and he later presided over the Carlie Bruscia murder trial.[10][11] He was one of the driving forces behind the creation of a Mental Health Court in Sarasota,[12] as well as the Court Intervention Program also known as "Drug Court," a year-long out-patient program for felony drug offenders.[4] He served as the chief judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit from 2011 to 2015.[13][14][15] He resigned from the court on March 22, 2017.

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See also

References
  1. Letter of Resignation
  2. Governor appoints Sarasota judge (March 31, 2017) - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
  3. Georgia's Official Register 1959-1960
  4. James Hellegaard, "Switching Courts: From the home court to the Drug Court, Judge Andy Owens makes the goal," UF Law, pp. 26–29 (Fall 2008). Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  5. Anwar S. Richardson, "Tampa Bay's All-Century Team: No. 34 Andy Owens Archived March 6, 2003, at the Wayback Machine," The Tampa Tribune (October 25, 1999). Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  6. 2011–12 Florida Gators Men's Basketball Media Guide Archived May 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 71, 76–83, 92, 95, 103, 110, 150, 153, 157, 160–162, 165 (2011). Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  7. F Club, Hall of Fame, Gator Greats. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
  8. "Bean And Koch Inducted," The Ledger, p. 1D (March 30, 1978). Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  9. "An SEC legend," Sarasota Herald-Tribune (March 8, 2001). Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  10. Todd Ruger, "Judge sentences Carlie's killer to die," Sarasota Herald-Tribune (March 16, 2006). Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  11. "Carlie's Killer Sentenced To Death," CBS News (February 11, 2009). Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  12. Jill Barton, "Program offers an alternative," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, pp. 1B & 2B (April 3, 2002). Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  13. Todd Ruger, "12th Circuit elects new chief judge Archived December 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine," Sarasota Herald-Tribune (February 22, 2011). Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  14. The Honorable Andrew D. Owens Jr. (bio as of September 10, 2015)
  15. Chief Judge/Drug Court Andrew D. Owens Jr. (bio as of March 16, 2015)
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