Florida vs. Georgia Football Classic
| Florida vs. Georgia Football Classic | |||||
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| Sport(s) | Football | ||||
| Total meetings | 89 (per Florida) 90 (per Georgia) | ||||
| Series record | 47–40–2 (per Florida) 48–40–2 (per Georgia) | ||||
| First meeting | November 6, 1915 (per Florida) October 15, 1904 (per Georgia) | ||||
| Georgia 37, Florida 0 (per Florida) Georgia 52, Florida 0 (per Georgia) | |||||
| Last meeting | October 29, 2011 | ||||
| Georgia 24, Florida 20 | |||||
| Next meeting | 2012 | ||||
| Largest win | Georgia, 75–0 (1942) | ||||
| Longest win streak | Florida, 7 (1990–1996) Georgia, 7 (1941–1948) | ||||
| Current win streak | Georgia, 1 (2011) | ||||
| Trophy | Okefenokee Oar | ||||
The Florida vs. Georgia Football Classic or Georgia vs. Florida Football Classic is an an American college football game played annually by the University of Florida Gators and the University of Georgia Bulldogs nearly every year since 1915. The name of the game rotates each year depending on which team is the designated home team. It is one of the great rivalry games in college football, and since 1933 it has been held in Jacksonville, Florida, with only two exceptions, making it one of the few remaining neutral-site rivalries. The game attracts huge crowds to Jacksonville, and the associated tailgating and other events earned it the nickname of the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party". Since 1992, the game has usually been played on the last Saturday in October.
Series history
The two teams do not agree on when the rivalry began. The University of Georgia's athletic department counts a 1904 match its football squad played against a team from a school known as the University of Florida. The game was held in Macon, Georgia, and Georgia won 52–0. However, this was not the modern University of Florida in Gainesville, but one of its four predecessor institutions: a school previously known as Florida Agricultural College, based in Lake City. Florida's University Athletic Association does not include this game in the series record, as it occurred before the modern university was established by the Florida Legislature in 1905, and before the new entity fielded its first officially-recognized football team in 1906.
The first game acknowledged by both schools was held in Jacksonville in 1915, and except for the 1943 season when Florida did not field a team during World War II, the teams have met every year since 1926. From 1916 to 1932, the game was played at several different sites in Georgia (Athens and Savannah), and Florida (Tampa, Gainesville and Jacksonville). Every year since 1933, the game has been held in Jacksonville, except for 1994 and 1995, when the contest was held at the respective schools' campus stadiums due to the reconstruction of what is now EverBank Field for the National Football League's Jacksonville Jaguars expansion team.
The two teams disagree as to the overall series record as a result of their disagreement over whether to count the 1904 game. Following the 2011 contest, Georgia held a 48–40–2 overall record by its reckoning, and 47–40–2 by Florida's count. Florida has compiled an 18–4 record in the series since 1990 (Georgia winning in 1997, 2004, 2007 and 2011), following a dominating 15–5 streak by Georgia in the 1970s and 1980s.
The designated "home" team alternates from year to year, with ticket distribution split evenly between the fans of the two teams. In past years, fans from Florida and Georgia were assigned seats grouped in alternating sections of the stadium, and the contrasting colors worn by the fans created a "beach ball" visual effect in the stands. Recently the seating arrangement has split the stadium lengthwise and fans sit on the side corresponding to the sideline their team occupies. Before the game, much tailgating takes place on the Jacksonville Landing, a riverfront plaza facing the St. Johns River.
Nicknames and trophies
The game is one of the busiest annual events in downtown Jacksonville, and attracts huge crowds that congregate around the stadium for tailgating and other happenings. As a result the game and associated revelry have been known as "the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party", a nickname first coined in the 1950s by Bill Kastelz, sports editor for The Florida Times-Union. Kastelz claimed he came up with the name after seeing a drunk, stumbling fan offer an alcoholic beverage to an on-duty police officer. The "Cocktail Party" nickname proved so popular that the City of Jacksonville used it for many years. However, the city dropped it from most official usage in 1988 following a series of alcohol-fueled outbursts. In 1984, Florida fans stormed the field and tore down the goal posts after a 27–0 victory; the following year, a 24–3 Georgia win led Bulldogs fans to do the same, ultimately resulting in 65 arrests. Thereafter, the city cracked down on excessive drinking and soon dropped its use of the name. In 2006 both schools and the Southeastern Conference asked CBS and the city to abandon the name in promotions due to concerns about alcohol abuse by students and other attendees. As a result, the rivalry has lacked an official name. It is now officially known as the "Florida vs. Georgia Football Classic" or "Georgia vs. Florida Football Classic", with the names alternating each season so that the "home" team is listed first.
Site of game
By playing the game at a neutral site, rather than on their respective campuses, both universities' athletic programs derive more revenue from the game than if the site rotated on a "home-and-away" basis. As of the 2009 contest, the universities made $1.7 million every year, or $3.4 million every two years, as opposed to an expected $2.2 million every two years if the game were played at their respective home stadiums. The game weekend is also extremely lucrative for Jacksonville businesses, particularly in the downtown area, with many reporting that it is their busiest weekend of the year.
Some persons associated with the University of Georgia, including head coach Mark Richt, have expressed interest in moving the game away from Jacksonville periodically or entirely. The most frequently cited reason is Georgia's 4–18 win-loss record in the series since 1990, leading to questions about whether Jacksonville, located 342 miles (550 km) from Athens but only 73 miles (117 km) from Gainesville, is truly a neutral site. As such, some Georgia fans and officials have suggested moving the game to the home stadiums, or playing alternately on the campuses, in Jacksonville, and in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia every four years. Others, such as former Georgia athletic director Damon Evans, have dismissed the idea that Georgia's recent losing record is due to the game being played in Jacksonville. University of Florida officials maintain that it makes financial sense to keep the game in Jacksonville; both universities stand to lose revenue if the game were played on a standard "home-and-away" basis. Furthermore, as a proposed alternate site, the Georgia Dome seats 13,000 fewer spectators than EverBank Field. In 2009, Georgia's athletic board unanimously agreed to a six-year contract to keep the game in Jacksonville through 2016.
Notable games
As with most rivalries, there have been a number of close games over the years, often generating controversy and anguish over how the game ended for one of the teams involved. Like the series itself, most of the early memorable games favored the Bulldogs, with more recent ones favoring the Gators. Among the most memorable:
1928: Ending the drought
When Charlie Bachman became the 1928 Gators' new head coach, he inherited a team loaded with talent recruited by his predecessor. It was, however, a team that had never beaten the Georgia Bulldogs in six previous meetings, and had been out-scored by a total of 190–6 in those games. Bachman's Gators changed history; led by All-American end Dale Van Sickel and the "Phantom Four" backfield of Carl Brumbaugh, Rainey Cawthon, Clyde Crabtree and Royce Goodbread, they decisively defeated the 'Dawgs 26–6 in Savannah, Georgia. In an era before national polling, the 1928 Gators outscored their opponents 336–44, set a single-season national scoring record, and finished 8–1.
The 1929 Gators also defeated the Bulldogs, and the 1930 Gators tied them, but Florida would only win three of the next twenty games in the series against Georgia.
1942: 75 and oh!
Having lost most upper-class players to service in World War II, the 1942 Florida Gators brought an inexperienced 3–4 squad into Jacksonville for the 1942 contest with Georgia. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, still had many veteran players thanks to the draft deferments of the players who were enrolled in the University of Georgia's ROTC program, and brought a 7–0 record and No. 1 ranking to Jacksonville.
Georgia halfback Charley Trippi and Heisman Trophy-winning back Frank Sinkwich combined to score seven touchdowns as Georgia crushed Florida 75–0—the largest margin in series history. The Bulldogs finished the regular season 10–1, won the Southeastern Conference championship, defeated the UCLA Bruins 9–0 in the Rose Bowl, and were named national champions by multiple polls and ratings services. Meanwhile, the depleted Gators did not win another game during the 1942 season, and with even more players joining the war effort afterward, would not field a team at all in 1943.
1949: Hunsinger ends Georgia's streak
The post–World War II 1940s were a tough slog for the Florida Gators. Coached by Raymond Wolf, the Gators' collection of recent high school graduates and returning war veterans suffered the indignity of four consecutive losing seasons—the lowest point in the history of the Gators football program, ironically remembered by the close-knit players as the "Golden Era." But there were still stars and bright moments; Wolf's 1949 Florida Gators were led by senior lineman Jimmy Kynes and running back Chuck Hunsinger. Given little chance by anyone to beat coach Wally Butts' Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville, Kynes inspired his two-way linemen to their outstanding effort of the season, stopping the Bulldogs' running game on defense, and blocking for Hunsinger on offense. Hunsinger rushed eighteen times for 174 yards and three touchdowns, and the Gators won 28–7, breaking a seven-game Georgia winning streak. Wolf's overall coaching record doomed his four-year tenure in Gainesville, but on that day he was carried from the field by his players.
1964: Vince Dooley arrives
Notwithstanding Georgia's overall advantage in the series, Florida enjoyed a 10–2 streak from 1952 to 1963 under head coaches Bob Woodruff and Ray Graves. That changed with the arrival of Vince Dooley as the new head coach of the underdog 1964 Georgia Bulldogs. In a game where the Bulldogs' quarterback failed to complete a single pass and was intercepted twice, Dooleys' 'Dogs relied on their running game, a staunch second-half defense, and a little bit of luck to beat Graves' tenth-ranked Florida Gators. With the game tied at 7–7 in the fourth quarter, Bulldogs placekicker Bob Etter lined up for a potential game-winning field goal. Instead, in a wild broken play, the Bulldogs' center and placeholder mishandled the snap, but Etter picked up the bobbled ball and ran it for a touchdown to win the game 14–7.
Dooley's teams would split their first seven games 3–3–1 against Graves' Gators. Thereafter, Dooley's 'Dogs would go on to dominate the rivalry, winning fourteen of the nineteen games from 1970 to 1988.
1966: Heisman curse?
The seventh-ranked 1966 Florida Gators entered the game with a 7–0 record and the opportunity to clinch a share of their first-ever SEC title. The Gators' senior quarterback, Steve Spurrier, had just locked up the Heisman trophy the previous week with a stellar performance versus the Auburn Tigers. The Florida–Georgia game turned out very differently, however, as the Bulldogs defense dominated the game, and Spurrier threw three interceptions in the 27–10 Georgia victory.
Spurrier returned to Gainesville as the Gators' head coach in 1990, and emphasized the annual Florida–Georgia contest as the "biggest of the year," and enjoying the Gators' overwhelming 11–1 success against their bitter rivals during his tenure.
1970: Rip, strip, and grip
The 1970 Florida Gators featured All-American defensive end Jack Youngblood, and he pulled off one of the most remarkable plays in Florida football history. With Bulldogs leading 17–10 and in possession of the ball at the Gators' two-yard line, Youngblood stood up Georgia back Ricky Lake short of the goal, forced a fumble and fell on the football. "They ran a lead play to my side, and I cut it off," Youngblood said. "I'm standing there holding the ballcarrier and I take the ball away from him, and gave it back to our offense." Gators quarterback John Reaves and wide receiver Carlos Alvarez then connected for two touchdown passes in the final 5:13 to rally the Florida Gators to a 24–17 victory.
1975: Appleby to Washington
The 1975 Florida Gators came into the game with a 6–1 record and No. 7 ranking, while the Georgia Bulldogs were 5–2 and ranked No. 19. The Gators' offense was led by running back Tony Green, who ran an early one-yard touchdown to put the Gators ahead 7–0. The Gators led 7–3 as time was winding down in the fourth quarter. Georgia's "Junkyard Dawgs" defense allowed yards between the 20-yard-lines, but ceded little ground in the red zone. The Bulldogs set up at their own 20-yard-line with 3:10 remaining, and head coach Vince Dooley did something he rarely did: he called a trick play. Tight end Richard Appleby accepted the handoff on a reverse to the right, but instead of running downfield, he threw the ball to wide receiver Gene Washington for an improbable 80-yard touchdown play. The Gators' final field goal attempt never had a chance, as the snap was rolled to the holder, and Georgia won 10–7.
1976: "Fourth and dumb"
The 1976 Florida Gators were 6–1 and ranked No. 10 coming into the game, and again seeking to secure their first SEC football championship. The Gators held a 27–13 halftime advantage and seemed to have the game in hand until the Bulldogs scored early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 27–20. Then, faced with a fourth-and-one situation at the Gators' own 29-yard-line, coach Doug Dickey decided to go for the first down rather than punt. Gators running back Earl Carr was stopped short by Bulldogs safety Johnny Henderson. Led by quarterback Ray Goff's game management and running back Kevin McLee's 198-yard rushing performance, the Bulldogs seized the momentum and scored three touchdowns on their way to a come-from-behind 41–27 win. After the game, Dickey said: "We were not outplayed. We were outcoached. I made some dumb calls." Sports writers seized on Dickey's mea culpa, and in subsequent months and years popularized the phrase "fourth and dumb" to refer to Dickey's failed fourth down attempt and the game itself.
1980: "Run, Lindsay, run!"
Trailing the underdog 1980 Florida Gators with their perfect season and their No. 2 ranking in jeopardy, the Georgia Bulldogs executed one of the most famous plays in college football history. Georgia was behind 21–20 with time running out, facing third down and long yardage from their own 7-yard-line. After scrambling around in his own endzone, Bulldog quarterback Buck Belue found wide receiver Lindsay Scott open in the middle of the field near the Georgia 25-yard-line, and hit him with a 25-yard pass. Scott darted through Florida's secondary and outran everyone down the sideline, scoring the game-winning touchdown with only seconds left on the game clock.
Long-time Georgia radio announcer Larry Munson's legendary call of the play (which still gives old fans of both schools the shivers, though for opposite reasons) gave the game its name:
1984: Bell to Nattiel
After suffering many a heartbreaking defeat to the Bulldogs with a conference championship at stake, coach Galen Hall's 1984 Florida Gators entered the contest undefeated in the SEC. The Gators dominated early, building a 17–0 lead by early in the second half. But the Bulldogs seemed to come alive in the third quarter, mounting a long drive; however, Georgia's drive died in the shadow of the Gators' goal line when they were stuffed on fourth down, checking the Bulldogs momentarily but pinning the Gators deep in their own territory. On the third play following the change of possession, Gators quarterback Kerwin Bell dropped back into his own end zone and lofted a long pass to streaking receiver Ricky Nattiel, who went 96 yards for a touchdown. The Bulldog momentum was snuffed out and the Gators went on to a convincing 27–0 victory, eventually completing an undefeated conference schedule for the first time in Gators history.
1985: 'Dogs upset No. 1 Gators
The 1985 Florida Gators entered the contest on a roll: coming off an emotional win over the Auburn Tigers, undefeated, and ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time in school history. This would not be a repeat of the 1984 game, however. As they had done so many times in the past, the Bulldogs spoiled Florida's season, defeating the Gators 24–3 with freshmen running backs Keith Henderson and Tim Worley both rushing for over 100 yards.
1993: Timeout?
In constant rain, the usually prolific passing game of coach Steve Spurrier's 1993 Florida Gators was stymied. Instead, the Gators relied on tailback Errict Rhett to amass 183 yards and two touchdowns to build a 33–26 fourth-quarter lead. Led by quarterback Eric Zeier, the Georgia Bulldogs mounted a drive into Florida territory in the final minute and a half. Zeier completed what appeared to be the game-tying touchdown to Jerry Jerman with five seconds remaining in the game. However, Gators cornerback Anthone Lott had called a timeout just before the ball was snapped, forcing the Bulldogs to play the down again. Lott was called for pass interference on the ensuing play, giving Georgia one last untimed chance to score. Zeier's final pass fell incomplete, and the Gators won a hard-fought, but controversial 33–26 victory.
1995: "Half a hundred" in Athens
With Jacksonville's rebuilt Jacksonville Municipal Stadium still under construction, this traditional neutral-site showdown was held on the universities' campuses for the first time in over sixty years in 1994 and 1995. After winning at "The Swamp" the previous season, the undefeated 1995 Florida Gators hoped to repeat the feat at Sanford Stadium against a struggling Georgia Bulldogs team led by soon-to-be-fired coach Ray Goff.
Gators starting quarterback Danny Wuerffel threw for 242 yards and five touchdowns before leaving the game in the third quarter. With the Gators leading 38–17 in the fourth quarter, Gators backup quarterback Eric Kresser threw for two more touchdowns, one with 1:21 remaining, to make the final score 52–17. After the game, Gators coach Steve Spurrier stated that he had wanted to be the first opponent to hang "half a hundred" on the Bulldogs in their own stadium because "we heard no one had ever done that before." The Gators' fifty-two points remains the record for most scored against Georgia "between the hedges."
2002: Gators upset No. 4 Bulldogs
In twelve seasons as the Gators' head coach, Steve Spurrier had led them to an 11–1 record against the Bulldogs, so his departure to the NFL following the 2001 season gave Georgia fans reason to cheer. The 2002 Bulldogs brought a perfect 8–0 record and No. 4 ranking to the annual grudge match in Jacksonville. Under new head coach Ron Zook, the Gators limped into the game with a 5–3 record and unranked for the first time in over a decade.
Trailing 7–6, the Gators took the lead with a key play on defense. Georgia head coach Mark Richt had inserted freshman quarterback DJ Shockley to run the offense for a series or two each game during the season. Upon entering the contest in the second quarter, Shockley was intercepted by Florida safety Guss Scott, who ran it back for a touchdown, giving his team a 12–7 lead after a failed two-point conversion attempt. The Bulldogs moved the ball but could not punch it into the endzone, settling for two field goals to take a 13–12 lead at halftime.
Defense continued to dominate the game in the second half with the exception of an early fourth-quarter Gator drive that ended with a touchdown pass from quarterback Rex Grossman and gave Florida a 20–13 advantage. The Georgia offense failed to score again and failed to convert a third-down in thirteen attempts as Florida held on for the upset victory.
Georgia finished the 2002 season 13–1 and won the SEC championship, but the defeat by the Gators almost certainly cost the Bulldogs a chance to play for the BCS National Championship.
2007: The "Gator Stomp"
The 2007 Georgia Bulldogs are remembered for the "Gator Stomp," a first-quarter mass celebration of the entire Georgia team in the Gators' endzone after Georgia's first touchdown, a move that emotionally rallied the underdog Bulldogs. Because of the staged celebration, Georgia received two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and was forced to kick off from their own 8-yard line. After the game, Georgia coach Mark Richt acknowledged that he ordered his team to draw an excessive celebration penalty after their first touchdown, but intended that only the eleven players on the field would celebrate, not the entire team. The motivational tactic paid off for Richt, as Knowshon Moreno ran for 188 yards and Georgia's defense sacked Gators quarterback Tim Tebow six times in a 42–30 victory. The high-scoring game was the first in series history in which both teams scored thirty or more points.
2008: "A Big Deal"
Before the 2008 Georgia-Florida game, both coaches repeatedly stated that the previous year's incident would have no bearing on the contest. Florida coach Urban Meyer went so far as to issue a gag order to his players, instructing them not to talk about the 2007 game with the media. In his authorized biography, published following the season, Meyer said: "That wasn't right. It was a bad deal. It will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team. We'll handle it, and it's going to be a big deal."
Coming into the game, the Bulldogs and Gators were both ranked in the top-10, and the winner would have the inside track in the SEC Eastern Division race and a possible shot at a national title. Some commentators went so far as to call it the biggest match-up in the history of the series, or at least the previous 20 years. After the Bulldogs missed two field goals and failed to recover an onside kick after their first score, the Gators took a 14–3 halftime lead. In the second half, the Bulldogs turned the ball over four times and the Gators turned the game into a 49–10 rout. Tim Tebow accounted for five touchdowns and Percy Harvin added a pair of scores in the Bulldogs' second worst loss of the series. (The Bulldogs lost 47-7 against the 1996 Florida Gators football team.)
In a move widely assumed to be a response to the Bulldogs' endzone celebration of the previous year, Meyer used both of his remaining timeouts with less than a minute to play, giving his team and their fans more time to celebrate the victory and prolonging the painful loss for Georgia players and fans. After the game, he broke his pre-game silence on the 2007 celebration. "Was it motivation for our players? Yeah, it was. Losing doesn't sit well with our players, and it was the only rivalry game we lost last year."
Game results
Florida victories are colored ██ blue. Georgia victories are colored ██ red. Ties are white.
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