ONE On October 6, 1913 the Gators crushed Southern by the score of 144-0. The game was played under high school conditions (Four 12 minute quarters) and was over in less than an hour and a half. UF scored 22 touchdowns, averaging a TD every two minutes. The weird part? The game was played on a Monday afternoon. TWO The 1950 Gator football squad started the season 3-1. Their only loss was a 16-13 heartbreaker to always tough Georgia Tech. On October 21st, they traveled to face an unbeaten SEC foe. Their opponent was 3-0 in conference with wins over Bama, Auburn and Ole Miss. The homecoming day crowd must've been shocked when the Gators jumped to a 19-0 second quarter lead. Three times the UF lead was cut to within a touchdown, but the Gators held on to win 31-27. The victory sparked a huge celebration back in Gainesville. Students held an impromptu pep rally at the intersection of 13th and University. The next day, an estimated crowd of 10,000 met the team at the airport. Another 5,000 unable to get to the airport lined Waldo Road to cheer the team bus as it headed back to campus. The weird thing? The opponent was Vanderbilt. THREE In the fall of 1965, the Gators traveled to Oxford to play Ole Miss. Steve Spurrier had a fantastic game and his performance won him Associated Press National Back of the Week honors. He threw an eight yard TD pass to end Charlie Casey and ran nine yards for another touchdown in the Gators 17-0 win. For the day he finished 18 of 31 for 245 yards. The weird part? He set school records for number of passing attempts, number of completions and total passing yards in a single game. FOUR In 1939, the Gators started the season off with a 21-0 win over Stetson. Unfortunately, the Gators were shut-out in their next two games (losses to Texas and Miss St) and with a big road game looming, traveled to Boston with a 1-2 record. Their opponent would be undefeated Boston College, who'd crushed the Gators the year before in Gainesville 33-0. The Golden Eagles were coached by Frank Leahy. In Leahy's two years as head coach at BC, he would take the Eagles to a Cotton and Sugar Bowl appearance. He then headed to South Bend where he led the Irish to four national titles and at one point, a 38 game unbeaten streak. The Eagles were a four touchdown favorite to beat the Gators, but UF jumped to an early 7-0 lead. As the game wore on, BC had plenty of opportunities to score, but they were thwarted time and time again by a fired-up Gator defense. Thanks to that defense UF held on for a 7-0 upset win in what was the first of the only two losses Leahy would ever have at Boston College. The weird thing? The game was played on a Columbus Day Friday..........in Fenway Park. FIVE In 1924 the Gator football team headed to Austin, Texas to play the University of Texas Longhorns. The game was not too popular with the UF faculty. They thought the trip was too long and would keep the players away from their studies. The faculty's worries proved to be legitimate. According to head football coach Gen. James A. Van Fleet, "We took Judge Robert Cockrel, a great football enthusiast and morale builder, along as a faculty representative under the guise that he would hold daily classes in the Pullman. But after the first attempt the judge surrendered". Regardless of how much studying was done on the trip, the game ended in a 7-7 tie. The weird thing? Both touchdowns shouldn't have counted. The Longhorns scored on the last play of the first half, but the ball was snapped AFTER the whistle had blown. UF's touchdown came on a pass to Pete Leitsey from Edgar Jones. The only problem was Leitsey was playing tackle and thus was an ineligible receiver. SIX In December of 1978, Charley Pell accepted the position of head football coach at the University of Florida. Pell took the job sight unseen and was mortified when he arrived on campus and saw what lousy facilities the athletic department had. He knew immediately that he needed to raise cash to upgrade things. The first person he contacted was a businessman whose daughter was a student at UF. Pell tells the story like this, "I told him our weight room was about on par with most big high schools. He asked how much it would take to fix it and I told him $50,000. He swallowed hard, and said, 'you got it'". The weird thing? That businessman was Dave Thomas, the owner of Wendy's. And who was his daughter? Some girl named Wendy. SEVEN The 1930's weren't a great time for UF football. Only three seasons in that decade found the Gators posting a winning record. One of the few hi-lights from that time period was a player by the name of Walter Mayberry. Nicknamed Tiger because of his ferocious style of play, he gave the UF faithful one of their few reasons to cheer. A speedy runner as well as a fine quarterback, Mayberry's specialty though was punting. He was one of the first punters to develop a skill for the "coffin corner" kick. Mayberry played three seasons for the the Gators (1935-37) and in 1937, was the first UF player to be named to the All-Southeastern Conference team. The weird thing? While in high school, Mayberry broke his neck playing football. For a time, it was feared he may never walk again much less resume his gridiron career. On a sad note: Mayberry was a Marine pilot in WWII. He was shot down in the Pacific and died in a Japanese prison camp. EIGHT The 1969 edition of the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party ended in a 13-13 tie. A record crowd of 70,869 saw the Gators jump out to a 10-0 lead, only to have Georgia roar back and go ahead 13-10. UF knotted the score at 13 and had a chance to win it with 15 seconds left. But a bad snap caused the Gators to miss what would've been a winning 32 yard field goal. The weird thing? For the first time in the 36 years the game has been played in Jacksonville, Georgia was designated the "home" team...........and it may have cost them. With UF leading 7-0 in the second quarter, the Gators lined up for a 37 yard field goal. Jack Hairston of The Jacksonville Journal explained what happened next like this: "Georgia, as the home team told the troopers to keep all photographers back five yards off the playing field. Florida lined up for a second quarter field goal attempt - or what looked like a field goal attempt - and one of the photographers got too close to the field to suit one of the officials. The official blew his whistle to stop the play, but before he could get it stopped, the ball was snapped and Florida faked the field goal...and failed". Given another chance, Richard Franco nailed the 37 yarder. Another weird thing? During the game a thief broke into the UF locker room and stole over $4,000 in cash and jewelry from the Gator players and coaches. NINE The 9,000 people who showed up for the October 8, 1932 Florida/Sewanee game in Jacksonville's Fairfield Stadium didn't realize they'd see a UF record set that day. Much less a record that would last 56 years. Sewanee was trailing 6-0 in the third quarter when they started driving towards the Gator goal. The drive stalled on the UF 9 yard line where they were forced to turn the ball over on downs. The Gators struck immediately when Herb (Hub) McAnly scampered 91 yards for a touchdown. The 91 yard run was not broken until Emmitt Smith ran 96 yards for a touchdown in 1988 game against Mississippi State (Though Willie Wilder tied McAnaly's mark with a 91 yard run in a 1976 game, also against MSU). The weird thing? McAnaly's didn't take a handoff and run the 91 yards. He faked a punt.............on first down. TEN In October of 1948, a crowd of 18,000 at Tampa's Phillips' Field watched the Gators defeat Auburn 16-9. UF struck quickly when Hal Griffin scampered 18 yards for a touchdown on the Gators' first possession. A 23 yard Chuck Hunsinger run in the 3rd quarter sealed the fate for the Tigers this day. The weird thing? It was the Gators first SEC win in over three years. ELEVEN On November 9, 1963, the Gators defeated the Georgia Bulldogs for the fourth consecutive time. Larry Dupree was the hero in UF's 21-14 victory. He rushed for 74 yards on 19 carries, scored a touchdown and hauled in a 34 yard pass reception. The weird thing? The day before the game his wife gave birth to a stillborn child. Denise Dupree went into labor late Thursday night and gave birth in the early morning hours of Friday. Not only was the baby stillborn, but Denise was in pretty bad shape. Larry and the family were devastated. Fortunately Denise's condition got better, and on the morning of the game she, as well as her father, Eldridge Beach, a former UF football letterman, encouraged Larry to play against Georgia. It helped that Mr. Beach was the current head of the Gainesville district of the Florida Highway Patrol (and soon to be head of the State Highway Patrol). He arranged for a police escort for Larry to get to Jacksonville. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Dupree made the trip in two hours...just in time to suit up. As the gun sounded at the end of the 21-14 Gator victory, Larry Dupree's teammates hoisted him upon their shoulders and carried him off the field. "As the game ended, Jimmy Morgan grabbed the ball from the official and pushed it into my arms. I have it still and always will." - Larry Dupree TWELVE The first recorded football game in University of Florida history was a 6-0 UF win over Stetson in 1906. But an argument could be made that the first game was really played in 1901. Prior to 1906, the University of Florida was located in Lake City and was known as Florida Agricultural College. In the late 1890's, students had petitioned the school to form a football team, but parents and faculty deemed the sport too brutal and shot done their requests. But in 1900, a new president took over at FAC and the "first" team was created. Their inaugural game was scheduled for November 22, 1901 at the Fairground's race track in Jacksonville. Ironically, the opponent would be Stetson. By the start of the match over 2,000 people had gathered for this historical event. FAC won the toss and started driving down the field. A few plays into the drive a FAC runner broke free and was headed for a touchdown when he was tripped up. FAC wouldn't get close to the Stetson endzone again and lost 6-0. The weird thing? He wasn't tripped up by a Stetson player.......he literally tripped over a tree stump that was on the playing field. (Note: I've read several different accounts of the "tree stump incident". One says he tripped over it. Another says he ran into it and was knocked back seven yards and yet another said the drive stalled when the Gators reached a tree stump that was in the playing field). THIRTEEN The Gators started the 1968 season off in front of 52,000 spectators in Tampa's brand new Tampa Stadium. The Gators got behind early when the Falcon's Curtis Martin returned the opening kickoff nearly 100 yards for a TD, but UF was able to score a late touchdown for a 23-20 win. The weird thing? Air Force not only lost the game, but they lost their mascot. At least temporarily. At halftime, the live falcon was supposed to swoop down from the pressbox and go to his handler on the field. The guy was waving a rope above his head near the 50 yard line and the bird was trained to go to him whenever he saw the trainer perform rope tricks. For some reason the bird decided to take a little side trip and disappeared into the Tampa sky. For days the Tampa police looked for the bird. One officer even learned the rope trick in hopes of attracting him. Unbeknownst to Tampa's finest, the falcon had spotted the Air Force bus and was waiting on its hood when the team returned after the game. The happy trainer put the bird in its cage and took it back to Colorado. He just failed to tell the Tampa police department. FOURTEEN In September of 1983, the Gator played host to the Miami Hurricanes in the season's first game. Starting for the Canes that night was a redshirt-freshman quarterback named Bernie Kosar. Playing in his first collegiate game, Kosar was far from impressive. Constantly harassed by a fierce Gator pass rush, he was forced into throwing three interceptions. He received little help from the Cane's ground attack. They were held to only 75 total yards rushing. The Gators went on to club the Hurricanes 28-3. "This is not my proudest moment" said Miami head coach Howard Schnellenberger after the game. Things would get better for the Canes. They'd win their next 10 games and then in what was virtually a UM home game, they beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl for the national title. The Gators won 9 of their next 11 games to finish ranked #6 in the final AP poll. The weird thing? The only three points Miami scored against UF that evening came on the game's final play. Schnellenberger kicked a field goal in order to avoid a shutout. FIFTEEN The 1956 football season was an up and down one for the Gators. During the middle stretch of the season UF rolled off 4 straight wins over SEC foes. Vandy, LSU, Auburn and Georgia went down by a combined score of 90-13. Unfortunately the Gators ended the year with losses to Georgia Tech and Miami to finish with a 6-3-1 mark. Things started out well in '56. UF traveled to Starkville in the season's first game and manhandled the Bulldogs 26-0. The hero of the Mississippi State game was Joe Brodsky who intercepted three passes that day, returning one 100 yards for a touchdown. The weird thing? After Brodsky ran the length of the field for a score..............he passed out in the endzone. SIXTEEN It was late 1959, and the University of Florida was looking for a new football coach. Bob Woodruff who'd been the head coach for the past 10 years had been released from his duties (though he was asked to stay on as athletic director) despite winning more games than any other UF football coach in the history of the program. His 53-42-6 mark only tells part of the story of his legacy. He not only turned the fortunes of the football program around by making them a competitive member of the Southeastern Conference, he was instrumental in the first major expansion of Florida Field. But this was not enough to save his job. Critics complained that his play calling was too conservative and he all too often played not to lose, instead of playing to win. After Woodruff was let go, university president Dr. J. Wayne Reitz headed a committee to find a new leader for the football program. One of the first people interviewed was the head coach at Northwestern University. The coach had been in Evansville for the past four years and on paper his 15-20-1 record wasn't anything too impressive, but remember this was Northwestern, not normally known as a football power. In his last two years, he led the Wildcats to a combined 11-7 record and back-to-back winning seasons. If he wasn't beating the Notre Dames and the Ohio States of the college football world, his teams were at least giving them all they could handle. He flew down to Gainesville for an interview and many years later had this to say about the experience, "I liked what I saw. I went back home and decided to take the Florida job if it were offered to me. I told my athletic director, Stu Holcomb, that". Holcomb reluctantly accepted his coach's decision, but told him if he wasn't officially offered the position within the next two weeks he'd like him to stay at NU. The annual coaches convention was coming up and Holcomb knew that this was the best possible venue to interview a new coach for the Wildcats. If he waited until after the convention, he'd have a hell of a time getting a good man for the 1960 season. The coach agreed and then waited for the call from Florida. Reitz was leaning towards Delaware's coach Davey Nelson, but his committee recommended the Northwestern guy and finally after much deliberation Reitz called and offered him the job. But it was too late. He'd already decided to stay on with the Wildcats. The weird thing?........................ The Northwestern coach was Ara Parseghian. Parseghian stayed at Northwestern through the 1963 season and then moved on to Notre Dame. He won 95 games in South Bend (while only losing 17) and led the Irish to two national titles in 11 seasons. SEVENTEEN In 1910, the Gators scored 186 points while only allowing their opponents a measly 15. UF posted a 6-1 mark that year and shutout their rivals in five of their six victories. In the final game of the year, the Gators traveled to Lake City, the former home of the university to play Columbia College. UF mauled them 33-0. The weird thing? The Gators were literally run out of Lake City after the win over Columbia. UF football manager Tom Bryant remembered the scene like this: "The people of Lake City hated the people of Gainesville because they felt Gainesville had taken the university away from them. Another fellow and I went up to Lake City a couple of days ahead of time to make arrangements for the team. We went by excursion train. When we got there we were like a couple of foreigners, and it was worse when the team got there. We beat them 33-0 and as quickly as the final whistle blew, the Lake City people behind our bench broke through and we had to run for our lives. We escaped to a building on the campus assigned to us, and the police watched over us. We were escorted to the train station. We did not even eat". EIGHTEEN For years the Auburn Tigers were the football nomads of the South. SEC football started in 1933, and during its first six years, the Tigers played only four games in Auburn (with three of those games being played against some school named Oglethorpe). From 1933 through '39, AU played in such cities as Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Detroit and San Francisco. During this stretch the Tigers played in 22 different towns. Normally an Auburn "home game" was played in Montgomery or Birmingham. The Tigers played on the road constantly during this period for two reasons, they didn't have much of a home field and secondly, not many schools wanted to travel to Auburn, Alabama. Auburn officials knew they had to have a legitimate football stadium to compete athletically and financially with the rest of the conference (plus they were tired of having homecoming in Montgomery). So in 1939 they started to construct one. Jeff Beard, Auburn's assistant track coach (and future AU athletic director) drove the first stake to mark off the stadium and his brother Percy (who later would have the UF track field named after him) did the surveying. Convicts from a local prison did the grading. On November 30, 1939, 7,290 seat Auburn stadium, complete with a track, was ready to open. The Tiger's opponents this day? None other than the University of Florida. It's fitting that the Gators would be Auburn's first opponent in the Tiger's new home. The UF football team was a bit nomadic in those days as well. Though UF had a football stadium, in order to attract a larger crowd, they often played "home" games in Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami. The weird thing? The Gators had to dress in nearby Opelika and ride to the game in their uniforms. Even though AU had a new stadium, they had yet to build lockerrooms (In fact, in the entire town of Auburn there were only two public restrooms, both at gas stations). NINETEEN In the fall of 1973, the Gators clung to a four point lead late in their game against Ole Miss. The Rebs had moved the ball deep into UF territory and with under two minutes left were on the Gator eight yard line. Under pressure, Ole Miss quarterback Bill Malouf tossed a desperation pass into the Florida endzone. Gator defensive back Randy Talbot, wanting to make sure nobody caught it, knocked the ball down. Unfortunately for UF, he knocked it right to Reb receiver Rick Kimbrough, who caught for an Ole Miss touchdown. The Gators now had only 1:26 left to try to at least salvage a tie. UF quarterback David Bowden led the Gator down field where they faced a 4th and five at the Ole Miss 33. The weird thing? Bowden thinking that UF had gained enough for the first down on the play before, tossed the ball out of bounds to stop the clock. He stopped the clock alright....and any chance the Gators had of winning. TWENTY In December of 1912, the Gators traveled to Cuba for a pair of games against two Cuban football clubs. The first game was on Christmas Day, and the Gators gave themselves a nice present with a 27-0 win over the Vedado Club. The second game, against the Cuban Athletic Club was scheduled for the 30th. In the days leading up to the CAC game, the Gator team was wined and dined. A cousin of the King of Spain even treated them to a ride on his yacht. The weird thing? The UF head coach was arrested during the second game. 1,500 people (almost half of them police officers) saw things start off well for the Gators. Twice UF scored a touchdown, but both times the score was called back due to a penalty. G.E. Pyle, the Florida head coach, was livid. Later in the game, the CAC committed an obvious penalty by dragging one of their own players forward (despite the fact that he had already been tackled). Pyle demanded a 15 yard penalty, but the ref tried to bargain down to only a five yarder. Pyle had seen enough and pulled the Gators from the field. The fans went nuts and Pyle was arrested. Apparently, there was some Cuban law that said a game can't be forfeited, but must be played. Pyle was taken to a police station and pleaded innocent. He was released until the trial which was to take place the next day. He never made it to court as the Gators and their coach left Cuba that night. And haven't returned since. TWENTY-ONE New Gator head coach, Ray Graves, started the 1960 season off well. He led UF to wins over George Washington and FSU, but things would get tougher when Bobby Dodd would bring his tenth-ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to Gainesville for the season's third game. Not only would it be a match-up of undefeated teams, but it would be a "teacher versus student" game. Graves had come from Tech where he had been Dodd's top assistant. In fact, it was Dodd who had recommend Graves for the position to UF president Dr. J. Wayne Reitz. The game generated a lot of build-up and lived up to the hype. Trailing 17-10 with five minutes remaining, the Gators took over at their own 10 yard line. Florida QB Larry Libertore guided the Gators to a couple of first downs and were nearing mid-field when Graves inserted a new quarterback. The change looked like a failure when on he was soon sacked for an 18 yard loss. With a third and long looming, Graves stuck with the QB. His move paid off when Gator halfback Don Deal's catch-and-run picked up 32 yards and more importantly, a UF first down at the Jacket's 25 yard line. The Gators kept marching towards the Tech endzone, but with only 32 seconds left in the contest, UF was faced with a 4th and goal at the Yellow Jacket three. Graves put the speedy Libertore back in and called an option play. Libertore ran right and pitched to Lindy Infante, who was just able to sneak into the endzone which cut the Tech lead to one. Graves immediately signaled for a two-point conversion. Once again the option play was called. Libertore faked a hand-off, ran right and then pulled up and hit fullback Jon MacBeth for the conversion and the Gator victory. MacBeth bobbled the ball before he caught it, which prompted Graves to say after the game, "He juggled the ball. He almost lost his scholarship right there, maybe his life". The weird thing? The quarterback who completed the important third and long pass which kept the drive alive.........Bobby Dodd Jr., the son of Georgia Tech's head coach. TWENTY TWO In September of 1949, a young man named George Edmundson attended his first Gator football game. The Gators weren't fairing so well and the folks in his section weren't extremely vocal in their support of old UF. So he decided to take matters into his own hands. He stood up and led the section in a famous cheer, "Two bits! Four bits! Six bits a dollar! All for the Gators stand up and holler!". George continued to come to Gator games in '49 and soon the cheer caught on in his section. It became so popular that people in other sections started asking him to come over to where they were sitting and lead the cheer for them. George happily obliged, carrying with him a trumpet to announce to each section that the cheer was about to begin. After a few seasons he deemed the trumpet too cumbersome and traded it in for a whistle. For the next 50 years he spent a great deal of each game travelling to various parts of the stadium to lead fans in his two-bits cheer. Edmundson missed only 3 Gator football games during that span. In 1998, he officially retired from going from section-to-section leading "his" cheer, but still attends each UF home game and for the really big contests still does a two-bits cheer right before the Gators take the field. George has since been made an honorary alumni of UF as well as an honorary cheerleader. He's also been admitted to the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame. "A lot of people have said to me, boy, they pay you well. I tell them I don't get any money at all, and I don't deserve any, don't need any or don't want any. What I do is from the heart. It's for the Gators." - George "Mr. 2-Bits" Edmundson The weird thing(s)? The first game he attended was against his alma mater, the Citadel. Also, his wife graduated from FSU and his daughter from the University of Georgia. TWENTY-THREE The Gators' 1964 Homecoming opponent was the South Carolina Gamecocks. It was the first meeting between the two teams in 25 years. They wouldn't meet again on the gridiron until 1992. Good thing for USC, because the Gators routed them 37-0. The weird thing? Prior to warm-ups, members of UF's Phi Gamma Delta fraternity pulled a little prank on the crowd. About 30 of them took the field dressed as South Carolina football players and began their stretching drills. But soon they were jumping on each other's backs, playing patty-cake and falling down and rolling on the ground. After about 6 minutes of this silliness, they did their fraternity cheer and ran off the field. TWENTY-FOUR The Friday before the 1963 Florida/Miami football game, President John Kennedy was assassinated. Many colleges cancelled or postponed their games that were scheduled for the next day, but UF and UM decided to play. 57,000 spectators came out to see the Gators score four rushing touchdowns and hold off the Canes 27-21. UF quarterback Tommy Shannon scored two of the Gators' touchdowns, both on one yard QB sneaks. Larry Dupree ran 6 yards for another, while Hagood Clarke scampered 70 yards for UF's final tally of the day. The weird thing? The game was almost cancelled by University of Miami president Henry King Stanford right before kickoff. He tried to make it to the announcers booth, but was blocked by the Miami Herald's sports editor, Jimmy Burns. By the time Stanford made it past Burns, the game had already begun. TWENTY-FIVE For the second game of the 1952 season, the Gators traveled to Atlanta to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Tech was coming off an impressive 10-0-1 '51 season and virtually had everyone returning. The year before the Jackets had smashed the Gators 27-0 in Gainesville. The Tech crowd of 32,000 expected more of the same this September afternoon. They would be wrong. UF jumped out to a 7-0 lead when Buford Long barreled into the endzone after a three yard run. Tech later knotted the score at seven, but once again the Gators went ahead. Papa Hall took a handoff from Rick Casares and bolted 64 yards to paydirt. Heading into the final quarter UF clung to the seven point lead, but this day the Jackets proved to be too much. They tied the score on a 24 yard pass and in the final minutes, Tech's Pepper Rodgers kicked a field goal to give Georgia Tech a 17-14 victory. Despite the loss, Florida went on to a 8-3 final record which included their first bowl victory (14-13 over Tulsa in the Gator Bowl). The Jackets had a bigger vision, the national championship. They routed almost all of their remaining opponents, allowing only 52 total points the entire regular season. A 24-7 Sugar Bowl triumph over Ole Miss, was just the crowning jewel in their 1952 title run. The weird thing? The Gators were the only team all season to score two touchdowns on the Jackets. TWENTY SIX On their way to Nashville for a 1950 game against Vandy, Gator lineman Red Mitchum decided to play a trick on teammate Curtis King. Unbeknownst to King or any of the UF players or coaches, Mitchum had been practicing imitating King's speech pattern. He had the accent down pretty well and decided to pull the trick while airborne enroute to the Music City. After the plane had left Gainesville, Mitchum kept giving King glasses of water under the ruse that it would help prevent airsickness. After about ten glasses Curtis had to use the men's room. Once he was inside the stall, Mitchum walked to the back of the plane, pulled a curtain that separated the area where the intercom was from the rest of the plane, and in his best Curtis King voice said into the P.A. system, "I don't want anyone to get too excited, but the right wing just fell off the plane". In the bathroom King couldn't hear the announcement and a few seconds later when he exited the stall he was met by a coach who told him to "Get your mind on the football game!!!" King returned to his seat and told Mitchum, "Gosh, can't you even go to the bathroom without getting your mind off the football game?" The weird thing? The coach who reprimanded Curtis King was Frank Broyles. Broyles went on to a long and successful career as the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. He's currently the athletic director in Fayetteville. TWENTY SEVEN On October 12, 1963, UF head coach Ray Graves took a rather nondescript Gator team into Tuscaloosa to meet the Alabama Crimson Tide. The previous four seasons had seen Bama boast a 34-3-3 record. The '63 squad was led by quarterback Joe Namath and once again was in the thick of the national title chase. The Gators struck first when Bobby (Grubby) Lyle nailed a 42 yard field goal. The 3-0 lead held up through three quarters, and early in the final stanza when Dick Kirk scampered 42 yards for a touchdown suddenly UF was on the verge of a huge college football upset. Namath led the Tide back and scored on a one yard dive to cut the Florida lead to 10-6, but that's as close as Bama would come this day. Bear Bryant didn't taste defeat often in Tuscaloosa. He only lost once there as player on Bama's early 1930's teams and the 10-6 loss to UF in '63 was his first as a Alabama head coach. The weird thing? Both of the losses, the one as a player and one as a coach both happened on October 12th. Bryant wouldn't loss again in Tuscaloosa for nearly twenty years. In his final game in Bryant-Denny as the Tide's head coach, he was defeated by Southern Miss. The only other time he came close to a loss during this stretch was an 8-7 nailbiter over Florida State. The date of that game? October 12, 1974. TWENTY EIGHT The 1982 UF/FSU game didn't start off well for the Gators. The Noles jumped ahead 10-0 and were driving again. But UF held them on a 4th-and-one gamble at the Gators 34 and with only a few minutes left in the half, Florida head coach Charley Pell decided it was a time for a quarterback change. He replaced Wayne Peace (who was leading the nation in completion percentage with an amazing 71.6% of his passes going for completions) with back-up QB Bob "The Snake" Hewko. The Snake had been the Gators' starter back in 1980, but a series of knee injuries had kept him pretty much on the bench the past three seasons. Hewko didn't do much but hand-off on the drive's first three plays, but that's all he needed to do as Lorenzo Hampton ripped off consecutive runs of 34, 18 and 8 yards. The next play was once again a run by Hampton, but the Noles weren't caught off-guard again and nailed him for a two-yard loss. Hewko and the Gators now faced a third and four from the FSU ten yardline. If the last run by Hampton didn't catch FSU off-guard then the next play certainly did. Hewko, bad knee and all, ran an option and charged into the endzone to cut the Nole's lead to 10-7 at the half. A third quarter field goal tied the game for UF, but early in the 4th quarter FSU caught a break when they recovered a Neal Anderson fumble at midfield. Following the turnover, the Noles were able to move the ball into field goal range, but Philip Hall's kick sailed to the left. The Noles had their chance, it was now time for the Gators to take over. And that's exactly what they did. Hewko led UF on a 17 play drive that chewed 8:23 off the clock, and ended with 22 yard Jim Gainey field goal. FSU's last drive died the UF 32 and The Snake and the Gators ran the clock out and went home with a 13-10 win. But before he left the field Hewko grabbed the ball from an official and tossed it up into the Florida section. "I threw it into the endzone because the fans backed me up through the whole damn season," Hewko said, "they deserved the game ball more than me." The weird thing? The field goal Phillip Hall missed that left the door open for the Gators.....was the only one he missed all season. Another weird thing? Burt Reynolds and Charles Nelson Riley gave FSU a pep talk before the game. No wonder those bastards lost. TWENTY NINE The 1966 homecoming game against Auburn game should've never come down to a last minute field goal. The Gators were undefeated and ranked 7th, while Auburn was a mediocre 3-3. Aided by a kickoff return for a touchdown and a 91 yard Gusty Yearout (who makes my list of all-time great SEC names) fumble recovery for a touchdown, Auburn was able to hang with the Gators. With just a few minutes left, the game was tied 27-27. UF faced a fourth and long. Steve Spurrier called time out and came over to the sidelines. Coach Ray Graves had a dilemma on his hands. Should he try a field goal even though the 40 yard kick was out of range for Gator kicker Wayne "Shade Tree" Barfield? Or should he go for it? It was at this moment that Spurrier offered to kick. Graves thought a second and sent Steve in to try to win the game. Spurrier had already punted five times this day for a 47 yard average and was 27-40 for 259 yards passing. Graves probably thought what the heck, he's done everything else today . Over on the Auburn sidelines a Tiger assistant told Auburn head coach Shug Jordan that it was probably a fake. "You'd better hope it's a fake. Cause he'll make it" Jordan barked. Ol' Shug was right. The kick not only won the game for the Gators it probably won the Heisman for Spurrier. Auburn center and future teammate of Spurrier on the San Francisco 49ers, Forrest Blue, said this about the kick: "I think if there had been no goalposts and the official had said, Steve, you'll have to kick it through my upraised arms, Steve would have done that". The weird thing? That morning over breakfast, Spurrier turned to teammate Wayne McCall and told him he felt like kicking a field goal that day. THIRTY The University of Florida's first homecoming game was played on November 27, 1924. Previously, the closest thing to a homecoming game in Gainesville was something called "Dad's Day". In the fall of '24, a student group calling themselves "The Knights of the Blue Key" approached the university and asked if one game a year could be designated as homecoming. UF officials decided it was a good idea and asked the group to help organize the event. The students re-named their organization Blue Key (Later to be called Florida Blue Key) and dedicated their service to the university. The first homecoming parade consisted of nothing more than some decorated cars that drove down University Ave, circled around downtown and headed back to campus. There they were greeted by students, fans and the school's band. Food and drink were served and the band performed a concert. The band then led the group to Fleming Field where the Gators were to meet the Drake Bulldogs. UF's Ark Newton kicked a 35 yard field goal and Richard Brown returned an interception 30 yards for the game's only scores as the Gators went on to win 10-0. The weird thing? At halftime Blue Key initiated its first honorary member.......the captain of the Drake football team. THIRTY ONE The 1957 Gator football team was pretty good. They ended their season 6-2-1 with wins over Miami, LSU and Georgia (by a combined score of 58-14). The only losses were to eventual national champ Auburn and to Mississippi State. The 6-2-1 record should’ve been good enough to get the Gators to a bowl game, but early in the year, UF was put on probation because of an incident regarding illegal recruiting methods. The Gators were not only banned from any post-season games, they were also banned from any television appearances. The weird thing? The football team was put on probation because of illegal recruiting of a baseball player. Head football coach Bob Woodruff was also the athletic director, and they penalized him and the whole sports program. THIRTY TWO As the first half ended in the 1956 Florida/Georgia game, they Gators led by head coach Bob Woodruff ran off the field and headed to the lockerroom. The weird thing? As Woodruff was running off the field he ran right by the UF cheerleader’s cannon. As he reached the cannon, the cheerleaders set it off. Even though it was a toy, the cannon’s blast ripped a hole in the coach’s pants. A furious Woodruff grabbed the cannon and ran off the field with it. Former Gator Jackie Simpson said that Woodruff’s halftime speech was a little intimidating since the coach held onto the cannon the entire time. “Here’s the coach yelling at you with a cannon under his arm” said Simpson. “You start to wonder; golly did I play that bad?” THIRTY THREE In 1958, the Gators played only two games outside of the Sunshine State. One trip was to Baton Rouge and the other was all the way out to Los Angeles for a game against UCLA. UF officials brought baby alligators with them to present to UCLA as a token of goodwill. When the UF got off the plane in Los Angeles they were met by the “Bruin Girls” who were all dressed in powder blue and handed the players oranges. In turn, the Gators handed them baby alligators. The Gators made the most of their trip out west, by seeing many of the tourist attractions that Southern California has to offer. One day the spent an afternoon at Disneyland and another day found them touring Tijuana. Despite all the sight-seeing the Gators still had enough energy to defeat the Bruins on gameday, 21-14. The weird thing? The game was supposed to be played a year earlier, but UF had to cancel the game. A flu epidemic ran through campus and at least 45% of the team spent the week prior to the cancelled game in the infirmary.