Through the Years With the Cocktail Party

I have been a College Football fan longer than most. My first memory of the game was a big 1980 clash between Miami and Virginia Tech (more on that next week when those two rivals meet) but by 1982, I was a full fledged junkie, even though I was only 8. In September of 1982, I broke into tears when my mother told me the NFL was on strike and my only recourse was to obsess over "Saturday football" as I called it then. I was already a big University of Miami fan but I decided I would rout for Florida and Florida State as well. While the Canes and Noles of the early 1980s were always fun to watch and featured exciting offenses the Gators were a bore and usually underperformed.

My first memory of the annual cocktail party held in Jacksonville wasn't pleasant. Herschel Walker, the best player of his generation ripped the hapless Gator defense en route to 44-0 Dawg win. The next year, I assumed Florida was really good because they had beaten Miami, the eventual national champs who by this point in the season looked like world beaters in the opening game. The Gators for their part started 7-0 but then dropped a critical game @ Auburn and needed the game against the Dawgs to keep alive the dream of a first SEC Championship. After the Gators lost again to the Dawgs, I remembered hearing on the radio that the Gators would never win the SEC if they couldn't win with the team they had 1983.

A year later the Gators lost the opening game to Miami (a thriller at Tampa Stadium which was ironically the first college football game ever broadcast live on ESPN) but ran the table entering the game with Georgia. The NCAA however had dropped a hammer on the Florida program and the Gators were ineligible for the postseason. It didn't matter this day however because the Gators shutout the Dawgs and the Florida fans stormed the Gator Bowl field. I recall being so proud that day, but the thrill was short lived as a few months later the first ever SEC crown for Florida was vacated as the SEC Presidents voted 6-4 to strip Florida of the title. Only Bama, and the two Mississippi schools voted with UF.In 1985, the Gators beat Auburn and for the first time in school history became ranked #1 in the nation. (From the final poll in 1983 until 1997 a school from the state of Florida would be ranked #1 at some point during every season) But much like Miami the year before who laid an egg in Ann Arbor against Michigan after becoming #1, the Gators were smoked by the Dawgs. The 24-3 game was not televised because of Florida's probation, but I can just recall wondering how the Gators could get destroyed when clearly they were the best team in the nation.

While the Gators beat the Dawgs in 1986, nobody could see the game on TV once again. Entering 1987, the Gators were finally off probation, and hopes were high. But the Gators were killed by Miami to open the season and then lost to LSU and Auburn in poor style. Then came the Cocktail Party. The Gators were trounced by the Dawgs 23-3 and the game wasn't that close. I remember the game being on TBS, and thinking that the announcers must be biased because the network was from Atlanta. The next year the Gators again were destroyed by the Dawgs. That year the Gators had started 5-0 (largely because Miami had been dropped from the schedule, and Tennessee wasn't on the schedule regularly yet) but then lost to Memphis for homecoming and was routed at Vanderbilt. All I can recall of this Georgia game was that it was on TBS again and it was another rout. 1989 was more of the same. The Gators were an SEC joke.

Enter Steve Spurrier. The old ball coach had been a Heisman Trophy winner at Florida, the one of the few genuine heroes Gator football had before the 1980s. As a player, Spurrier had a combined 1-5 record against UF's two biggest rivals at the time, Georgia and Miami. Since Miami and Florida had moved in different directions during the 1980s with the Canes moving towards conference affiliations with the Big East and then the ACC and non conference games based on the program being of a high national stature and needing to be on TV every week,(to satisfy CBS and ABC's desire to get as many Miami games as possible on TV) while Florida was struggling, the series was ended. Thus, Spurrier had to exercise all his anger at Georgia.In High School I spent a lot of time at debate tournaments. Sadly in 1990 the day of the Florida-Georgia game I was at North Miami Beach High School trying desperately to get a score. 38-7 someone said.....I thought, okay Spurrier needs more time, it's just more of the same for now. 38-7 Gators! Wow, I thought, Spurrier really is the greatest! That afternoon I reached the semifinals of the tournament but could not concentrate. Had the Gators really smashed Georgia, I kept thinking? I ran home afterwards to see the highlights.Thus began the worst era of Georgia football, the Ray Goff/Jim Donnan era. The next year the Gators bombed the Dawgs again, 45-13 and in 1992 my first year at UF, the Gators won 26-24 despite having a clearly inferior team. Then in 1993, the Gators won in what seemed like a Hurricane thanks to a dropped pass in the end zone. Georgia QB Eric Zeier was nothing short of awesome in the game despite the lack of talent around him. That day Zeier became one of my all time favorites even though he played for the Dawgs. Around that time I finished a book written by Cale Conely, a UGA grad called War Between the States. That book summed up the rivalry better than anyone before or since ever could.

The game in 1994 was perhaps the most special. For the first time the game was being played at Florida Field. Georgia wasn't very good and the night was stormy but that did not dampen the mood. (Nor did a UF loss to Auburn in the previous game) What a show, the Gators put on. Freshmen WRs Ike Hilliard and Reidel Anthony put on a show as the Gators walloped the Dawgs 52-14. The next year in Athens, the Gators won 51-10 and Coach Spurrier was accused of running up the score. The 1996 game which was a return to Jacksonville, I quite frankly do not remember.

The 1997 game was particularly painful. My friend Gregg and I watched the game together and assumed it would be another easy win. But a UGA team featuring Hines Ward and Robert Edwards was tough to stop, and the Gators shuffling of 3 QBs (Doug Johnson, Noah Brindise and Jesse Palmer) didn't help. 1998 and 1999 were returns to form for the decade as the Gators won easily. In 2000, I had to play hooky from the Al Gore Campaign office to watch the game and I saw the Gators come from behind to beat Quincy Carter and the Dawgs. The next year would be Steve Spurrier's last at UF and he beat the Dawgs again, to finish 11-1 against them as UF Head Coach.

The following year the Gators were struggling at 5-3, having barely beaten Auburn after being pounded by Miami and LSU at home, along with a close loss to Ole Miss. Georgia on the other hand was unbeaten and ranked #2 behind Miami in the BCS poll. New Florida coach Ron Zook was the subject of ridicule throughout the nation and one assumed the Dawgs would smash the Gators. In what was perhaps the most improbable result of the season, the Gators completely shut down the eventual SEC Champs, handing them their only loss of the season and sending Dawg fans into a frenzy against Coach Marc Richt's offense. The next year, another 3 loss Florida team beat a highly ranked Georgia team and the ungrateful Dawg fans intensified their dislike of Coach Richt. While a lame duck Ron Zook lost to the Dawgs in 2004, his team gave a great effort, a sign of how hard they would play for him down the stretch of the season. Last year's game in which Georgia QB DJ Shockley was missed due to injury was a snoozer but the Gators won 14-10 against the eventual SEC champs.

The Florida-Georgia game is special. It's one of the few annual contests still played in neutral site, and perhaps the only one where record don't matter. The game is as intense as always and even if younger Gator fans don't appreciate the rivalry the way they should, beating Georgia is always special to the majority of the Gator nation.