Early Life and Education
Dickey was born in Vermillion, South Dakota in 1932, and grew up in Gainesville, Florida, where his father was a speech professor at the University of Florida. After graduating from P.K. Yonge High School in Gainesville, he attended the University of Florida and played for coach Bob Woodruff's Florida Gators football team from 1951 to 1953. Dickey was a walk-on after being encouraged by assistant coach Dave Fuller. Dickey began his college career as a defensive back, but he remarkably advanced from seventh on the Gators' quarterback depth chart to starter after Haywood Sullivan's early departure for the Boston Red Sox left the Gators without a starting quarterback in 1952. As a quarterback Dickey was not a drop-back passer, but a football-savvy game manager, who Woodruff called "one of the brainiest quarterbacks I ever saw." In January 1953, Dickey led the Gators to a 14–13 win over the University of Tulsa in the Gator Bowl, Florida's first-ever NCAA-sanctioned bowl game.
While a student at Florida, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity (Florida Upsilon chapter). He graduated with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1954.
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