Ben Hill Griffin Seating Chart 
Florida plays an eight-game Southeastern Conference schedule, headlined by annual SEC Eastern division showdowns against Tennessee and Georgia, the latter being held in Jacksonville, Florida every year and unofficially dubbed "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" (a nickname officially deprecated after recommendations of the NCAA and SEC in an effort to diminish excessive drinking). The permanent SEC Western division team the Gators face every season is LSU, previously playing Auburn as well before new SEC rules took effect in 2003.
In addition, the team has a yearly out-of-conference meeting with Florida State at the end of the season. Prior to 1988, the University of Miami was also an annual opponent and rival. However, Florida and Miami have met only twice during the regular season since then (2002 and 2003) and do not plan to play each other again until 2008.
Unlike many other teams at the college and pro level, the Gators do not currently have any retired numbers from former players. The numbers of Gator Football Ring of Honor players Steve Spurrier (11) and Jack Youngblood (74) had been retired in the past, but the numbers were re-issued to players during Spurrier's time as Florida head coach.
The Gators began play in football in 1906, coached by James Forsythe for three winning seasons. In 1909, G.E. Pyle took over coaching duties.
The 1910's saw the team face many of their current rivals for the first time. The first game against South Carolina was in 1911. When Florida joined the now-defunct Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1912, they faced Auburn for the first time, followed by Georgia in 1915. The Gators joined the Southern Conference in 1922, following their traditional rivals' departure from the SIAA a year earlier.
The Gators joined the Southeastern Conference in 1932, along with several other rivals from the Southern Conference—Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, and Georgia Tech.
Florida had its first taste of long-term success in the mid-1960s, when Ray Graves set the team record for wins at Florida with 70, a record that stood for thirty years. One of his best teams was in 1966, a squad led by Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier. He retired after a 9-1-1 season in 1969 to let Florida alumnus Doug Dickey to take over the reins. Dickey had some success, going 58-43-2, but it wasn’t enough to keep his job after a 4-7 season in 1978.
Charley Pell took over from Dickey, bringing the Gators back to respectability on the field, but had troubles off of it. Though he began his career with an 0-11 season, the Gators turned it around with an eight win season the following year, which set an NCAA record for win differential in a year (this has since been surpassed). He went 33-15 after the winless opening season. He was fired during his (and, at the time, the Gators’) best season in 1984 in light of major NCAA violations.
Galen Hall coached the team from the middle of 1984 to 1989 with much success, including an SEC title in 1984 and 1985, though these were to be stripped due to NCAA violations committed by Pell. Future NFL stars such as Lomas Brown and Emmitt Smith headlined the rosters. Hall went 40-18 at Florida. He had his own violation scandal, however, and was fired during the 1989 season. Gary Darnell finished the season for him.
The football team has been one of the winningest in Division 1-A since 1990, the year Spurrier returned to his alma mater as coach. That year, the Gators finished first in the SEC for the third time ever (the others being the title-stripped years of ’84 and ’85), but were ineligible for the SEC title. They won their first official SEC championship in 1991. The team played for the championship in the first ever championship game in 1992 but lost to the eventual national champions, Alabama. To date, the team has played in the most championship games of any team in either division, winning six times (1993-1996, 2000, 2006) in eight appearances. Spurrier broke his old coach—Ray Grave's—mark for wins as Florida coach in 1996.
The Gators had their first unbeaten regular season in 1995, but were denied a national championship in the 1995 Fiesta Bowl, later nicknamed the “Fiasco Bowl” for its lopsided score in favor of Nebraska (62-24). |
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