1.
Florida Gators football
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The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and they play their home games in Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the universitys Gainesville campus. The Gators have won three championships and eight SEC titles in the 108-season history of Floridas varsity football program. The Florida football program has evolved from its beginnings and achieved notable successes. Florida has had a home field since the beginning of their football program. Since 1930, their home field has been Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the stadium was known as Florida Field until 1989 when its name was extended to honor alumnus and sports benefactor Ben Hill Griffin. During the 1990s, football coach Steve Spurrier called the stadium the Swamp, the quickly became popular. Since 1906 Florida has had twenty-five head coaches, including three who were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame for their coaching success and their first head coach was Pee Wee Forsythe in 1906, the 2015 season was the first for their twenty-fifth head coach, Jim McElwain. During the programs early years, Florida was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, in 1932 the University of Florida was a founding member of the Southeastern Conference, and it is currently one of fourteen member institutions. The Gators have competed in the SEC Eastern Division since the league began play in 1992. Florida plays an eight-game SEC schedule, with six games against the other Eastern Division teams, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, the schedule is filled out with an annual game against Louisiana State and a rotating SEC Western Division team. Until 2003, the Gators also played Auburn every season, Florida has also played in-state rival Florida State every year since 1958, usually facing off in the last game of the regular season. The two teams emergence as perennial football powers during the 1980s and 1990s helped build the Florida–Florida State rivalry into a game often has national-title implications. The remaining dates on Floridas regular schedule are filled by non-conference opponents which vary from year to year, previously known as the worlds largest outdoor cocktail party, it is most commonly called the Florida–Georgia game by Gator fans. The game is held at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, the designated home team alternates, with ticket distribution split evenly between the schools. In the rivalrys early years, games rotated among locations in Savannah, Georgia, Tampa, Florida, Jacksonville and, occasionally, Gainesville, since 1933 the game has been played in Jacksonville, except for 1994 and 1995. Georgia had early success in the rivalry, winning the first six games, after the 2014 game Florida had won 21 out of the most-recent 27 games, and holds a 38–28–1 advantage in the series since 1950. The Bulldogs lead the overall, 49–43–2
2.
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
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Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, popularly known as The Swamp, is the football stadium for the University of Florida and the home field of the universitys Florida Gators football team. It is located on the universitys Gainesville, Florida campus, the stadium was originally built in 1930, and has been regularly expanded, renovated and improved since then. It is the 12th largest stadium in American college football, as measured by its seating capacity of 88,548 – though it has often held in excess of 90,000 for the Gators home football games. The stadium is located on the edge of the University of Florida campus near the center of Gainesville. The stadium and its approach are bordered by West University Avenue on the side, Gale Lemerand Drive on the west. Just west of the stadium across Gale Lemerand Drive is the Stephen C, OConnell Center, which is the home arena for the Florida Gators mens basketball, womens basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, and swimming and diving teams. Just beyond the OConnell Center are the teams practice facilities and Alfred A. McKethan Stadium. Prior to the 2015 Season a new practice facility was added just north of the baseball field. However, the surface remained Florida Field, and the facilitys full name was Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field from 1990 until 2016. On September 3,2016, the surface was renamed in honor of former Florida quarterback. As UF athletic director Jeremy Foley explained, Coach Spurrier did more than win a Heisman Trophy, a championship. Coach Spurrier changed the culture of Florida athletics, as a result, the facilitys official name is now Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The facility may be best known as simply The Swamp, a nickname which was coined by Spurrier in the early 1990s, in describing Floridas home-field advantage, Spurrier noted that a swamp is where Gators live. We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative, a swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous. Both the nickname and the only Gators get out alive tagline quickly became popular and have commonly used ever since. The university built a field in the summer of 1911. A grove of trees along University Avenue was cleared and leveled, a single bank of low wooden bleachers were built. Larger bleachers were installed by 1915, when the facility was rechristened Fleming Field in honor of former Florida governor Francis P. Fleming
3.
University of Florida
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The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university on a 2, 000-acre campus in Gainesville, Florida. It is a member of the State University System of Florida and traces its origins to 1853. The University is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, for 2017, U. S. News & World Report ranked Florida as the fourteenth best public university in the United States. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and it is the third largest Florida university by student population, and is the eighth largest single-campus university in the United States with 49,913 students enrolled for the fall 2012 semester. The University of Florida is home to sixteen colleges and more than 150 research centers. The University of Florida traces its origins to 1853, when the East Florida Seminary, on January 6,1853, Governor Thomas Brown signed a bill that provided public support for higher education in Florida. Gilbert Kingsbury was the first person to take advantage of the legislation, and established the East Florida Seminary, the East Florida Seminary was Floridas first state-supported institution of higher learning. James Henry Roper, an educator from North Carolina and a senator from Alachua County, had opened a school in Gainesville. In 1866, Roper offered his land and school to the State of Florida in exchange for the relocation of the East Florida Seminary to Gainesville, the second major precursor to the University of Florida was the Florida Agricultural College, established at Lake City by Jordan Probst in 1884. Florida Agricultural College became the states first land-grant college under the Morrill Act, in 1905, the Florida Legislature passed the Buckman Act, which consolidated the states publicly supported higher education institutions. The member of the legislature who wrote the act, Henry Holland Buckman, later became the namesake of Buckman Hall, the Buckman Act organized the State University System of Florida and created the Florida Board of Control to govern the system. The City of Gainesville, led by its Mayor William Reuben Thomas, on July 6,1905, the Board of Control selected Gainesville for the new university campus. Andrew Sledd, president of the pre-existing University of Florida at Lake City, was selected to be the first president of the new University of the State of Florida, architect William A. Edwards designed the first official campus buildings in the Collegiate Gothic style. Classes began on the new Gainesville campus on September 26,1906, in 1909, the schools name was simplified from the University of the State of Florida to the University of Florida. The alligator was incidentally chosen as the mascot in 1911, after a local vendor ordered. Murphree is the only University of Florida president honored with a statue on the campus, before this, only the summer semester was coeducational, to accommodate women teachers who wanted to further their education during the summer break. Lassie Goodbread-Black from Lake City became the first woman to enroll at the University of Florida, john J. Tigert became the third university president in 1928. By the end of the 1946–47 school year,954 men were enrolled at the Tallahassee Branch, the following semester, the Florida Legislature returned the Florida State College for Women to coeducational status and renamed it Florida State University
4.
Steve Spurrier
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Stephen Orr Spurrier is a former American football player and coach. Spurrier served as the coach of three college and two professional teams. He was also a college football player, and spent a decade playing professionally in the National Football League. Spurrier retired from coaching in 2015 and now serves as an ambassador and he is nicknamed the Head Ball Coach. Spurrier was born in Miami Beach, Florida and grew up in Tennessee and he is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he was the Florida Gators starting quarterback for three seasons. Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy in his season of 1966, was a consensus All-American in both 1965 and 1966, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986. Spurrier was drafted in the first round of the 1967 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers, in 1976, the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers traded for Spurrier, and he was the teams starting quarterback for most of their inaugural season. After retiring as a player, Spurrier returned to the game in 1978 as an offensive assistant at Florida under head coach Doug Dickey. Dickey and his staff were fired after the season, and Spurrier served as the quarterbacks coach at Georgia Tech in 1979 under head coach Pepper Rodgers. At his first two coaching stops, Spurrier had been primarily a position coach without play calling responsibilities, in 1980, Duke University head coach Red Wilson hired Spurrier as his offensive coordinator. When asked in later years how he developed his offense, Spurrier has often stated that he learned it all at Duke University, the Bandits had a successful run, going 35-19 over three seasons, and Spurriers Bandit Ball offense was popular with fans. However, the team folded along with the rest of the USFL after the 1985 season, Spurrier returned to Duke University as the Blue Devils head coach in 1987, and his Fast Break offense broke many of the records set during his tenure as offensive coordinator. Spurriers 1989 Duke squad won the programs first conference championship since 1962, in 1990, Spurrier returned to the University of Florida to become the Gators head coach. For the next seasons, he led Floridas program to unprecedented success, including Floridas first six Southeastern Conference championships. His wide-open offensive scheme continued to produce at Florida, and his squads and individual players set numerous school, in 1996, Spurrier became the first Heisman Trophy winner to coach a Heisman Trophy winner when Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel won the award. In 2005, he returned to the game as the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks. Spurrier retired as the winningest coach in both Florida and South Carolina history, and has the second most coaching wins in the history of the SEC behind only Bear Bryant. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2017, in July 2016, Spurrier returned to the University of Florida as an ambassador and consultant to the athletic department
5.
Clemson Tigers football
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The Clemson Tigers, known traditionally as the Clemson University Fighting Tigers, represents Clemson University in the sport of American football. The Tigers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the team is known for its storied history, military academy origins, distinctive helmet, fight song and colors, as well as the many traditions associated with the school. The Tigers most recent ACC championships came back-to-back in 2015 and 2016, the latter with a 12-1 regular season, the Tigers have 41 bowl appearances,18 of which are among the New Years Six Bowls, including 2 during the BCS big four era. Clemson has finished in the Final Top 25 rankings 31 times in the modern era, the Tigers play their home games in Memorial Stadium on the universitys Clemson, South Carolina campus. The stadium is known as Death Valley after a Presbyterian College head coach gave it the moniker in 1948 due to the many defeats his teams suffered there. Currently, it is the 16th largest stadium in college football, Clemsons streak of six consecutive 10 win seasons ranks 2nd in active streaks behind the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tigers have had 13 total seasons with 10 wins or more, Walter Merritt Riggs can be characterized as the Father of Clemson Football, as he brought the game with him from Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. The fact that Auburn and Clemson share the same mascot is no accident, Riggs allowed his players to pick the team mascot and, although he may have influenced their decision, the players chose Tigers because Princeton University had just won the national championship. Riggs helped organize and coach the infant Tiger team in 1896, with little money to spend on uniforms, Riggs brought some of Auburns old practice uniforms with him, which happened to have orange and navy jerseys. Because the jerseys had gone through a few washboard scrubbings, they were quite faded, so Riggs made the schools predominant color orange and the faded condition of the navy became the purplish color, officially known today as Regalia. The team played as a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, when the Tigers traveled to Greenville on Halloween to play Furman in their very first match, only Coach Riggs and backfield player Frank Thompkins had ever seen a football game played. Today in Clemson, the field is named Historic Riggs field after Walter Riggs. Riggs took the team to a 2–1 record in the inaugural year and he then stepped aside at the urging of the military cadets/students, who felt that he should concentrate on his scholastic duties rather than coach the team for free. William M. Williams coached the Tigers in 1897, guiding them to a 2–2 record, the team beat South Carolina for the first time and was state champion. In 1898, John Penton led the Tigers to a 3–1 record, Riggs overall record of 6–3 gives him a.667 winning percentage. He served until his death on January 22,1924 while on a trip to Washington. Riggs hired John Heisman to coach Clemson, Heisman stayed only four years at Clemson, where he compiled a record of 19–3–2, an.833 percentage, the best in Clemson football history. In four seasons, he had three SIAA titles, the season had various other firsts, including the schools first defeat of the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide
6.
Camping World Stadium
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The Citrus Bowl, also known as the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl for sponsorship purposes, is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It was previously known as the Tangerine Bowl, the Florida Citrus Bowl, the bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Russell Athletic Bowl and Florida Classic. Since becoming one of the bowls, the Citrus Bowl is typically played at 1 p. m. EST on New Years Day, immediately before the Rose Bowl. When January 1 is a Sunday, the game has played on January 2 or December 31. As of 2015, at $4.25 million per team, in nearly every year since 1985, the game has featured two teams ranked in the Top 25. The game, which play in 1947, is one of the oldest of the non-CFP bowls, along with the Gator Bowl. By 1952, the game was dubbed the Little Bowl with the Big Heart, from 1964 through 1967, it was one of the four regional finals in the College Division, along with the Pecan, Grantland Rice, and Camellia bowls. In 1968, the Boardwalk Bowl in Atlantic City took over as a final. In 1986, it was one of the bowl games considered for the site of the winner take all championship game between Penn State and Miami, before the Fiesta Bowl was eventually chosen. The 1990 season game had national implications, Georgia Tech won the Florida Citrus Bowl, finished 11–0–1. The 1997 season game, which featured nearby Florida beating Penn State, in 2004, the bowl bid to become the fifth BCS game, but was not chosen, primarily due to the stadiums aging condition. Following the 2014 game, Capital One ceased its sponsorship of the bowl, Buffalo Wild Wings was announced as the new title sponsor of the bowl game in 2014. Buffalo Wild Wings had previously been the sponsor of what is now the Cactus Bowl. The 2016 season game was played on December 31, the first time in 30 years that the game was not played on January 1st or 2nd. From 1968 through 1975, the featured the Mid-American Conference champion against an opponent from the Southern Conference. MAC teams were 6–2 during those games, from the 1987 season through the 1991 season, the bowl featured the Atlantic Coast Conference champion against an at-large opponent. ACC teams were 3–2 during those games, from the 1992 season through the 2015 season, the bowl featured an SEC vs. Big Ten matchup – the SEC won 14 of those games, during the 1990s, the second-place finisher in the SEC typically went to this bowl
7.
Orlando, Florida
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Orlando is a city in the U. S. state of Florida and the county seat of Orange County. Located in Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 4,000,002, according to U. S. As of 2015, Orlando had an estimated population of 270,934, making it the 73rd-largest city in the United States, the fourth-largest city in Florida. The City of Orlando is nicknamed The City Beautiful, and its symbol is the fountain at Lake Eola, Orlando is also known as The Theme Park Capital of the World and in 2014 its tourist attractions and events drew more than 62 million visitors. The Orlando International Airport is the thirteenth-busiest airport in the United States, with the exception of Walt Disney World, most major attractions are located along International Drive. The city is one of the busiest American cities for conferences and conventions. Orlando is home to the University of Central Florida, which is the largest university campus in the United States in terms of enrollment as of 2015, in 2010, Orlando was listed as a Gamma− level of world-city in the World Cities Study Groups inventory. Orlando ranks as the fourth-most popular American city based on where people want to live according to a 2009 Pew Research Center study. Fort Gatlin, as the Orlando area was known, was established at what is now just south of the city limits by the 4th U. S. Artillery under the command of Ltc, alexander C. W. Fanning on November 9,1838 during the construction of a series of fortified encampments across Florida during the Second Seminole War. The fort and surrounding area were named for Dr. John S. Gatlin, king Phillip and Coacoochee frequented this area and the tree was alleged to be the place where the previous 1835 ambush that had killed over 100 soldiers had been planned. When the U. S. military abandoned the fort in 1839 the surrounding community was built up by settlers, prior to being known by its current name, Orlando was once known as Jernigan. Aarron Jernigan became Orange Countys first State Representative in 1845 but his pleas for military protection went unanswered. Fort Gatlin was briefly reoccupied by the military for a few weeks during October and November 1849, a historical marker indicates that by 1850 the Jernigan homestead served as the nucleus of a village named Jernigan. One of the countys first records, a grand jurys report, mentions a stockade where it states homesteaders were driven from their homes, Aaron Jernigan led a local volunteer militia during 1852. Jernigan appears on an 1855 map of Florida and by 1856 the area had become the county seat of Orange County and it is known for certain that the area was renamed Orlando in 1857. The move is believed to be sparked, in part, by Aaron Jernigans fall from grace after he was relieved of his command by military officials in 1856. His behavior was so notorious that Secretary of War Jefferson Davis wrote, in 1859, Jernigan and his sons were accused of committing a murder at the towns post office
8.
Gainesville, Florida
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Gainesville is the county seat and largest city in Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of Gainesville in the 2013 US Census estimates was 127,488, Gainesville is the largest city in the region of North Central Florida. It is also a component of the Gainesville-Lake City Combined Statistical Area, Gainesville is home to the University of Florida, the nations ninth-largest university campus by enrollment, as well as to Santa Fe College. The Gainesville MSA was ranked as the No.1 place to live in North America in the 2007 edition of Cities Ranked and Rated, also in 2007, Gainesville was ranked as one of the best places to live and play in the United States by National Geographic Adventure. About 12,000 years ago Paleo-Indians lived in Florida, although it is not known for certain whether any permanent settlements from that period were in the present city limits of Gainesville, archaeological evidence of human presence exists. Eventually more complex social organization and agricultural practices emerged into what archaeologists classify as the Deptford culture, a Deptford culture campsite has been excavated beneath the subsequent Alachua culture Law School Burial Mound on the grounds of the University of Florida. The UF campus burial mound was built about 1000 A. D. by Alachua culture inhabitants who lived along the shore of Lake Alice. In the recorded period, the region was home to the Potano, the remaining Timucua were converted to Roman Catholicism and organized into missions overseen by Franciscan priests. The Mission San Francisco de Potano, the first doctrina in Florida west of the St. Johns River, was founded in 1606 at the edge of present-day San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park. Chief Potanos town was relocated in the period to the vicinity of the Devils Millhopper. Spanish colonists began cattle ranching in the Paynes Prairie area using Timucua labor, between 1763 and 1784 what is now Gainesville fell within the jurisdiction of the colony of British East Florida. Gainesville was founded to place the Alachua County seat on the route of the Florida Railroad Companys line stretching from Cedar Key to Fernandina Beach. County residents decided to move the county seat from Newnansville in 1853, a site on Black Oak Ridge where the railroad was expected to cross it was selected in 1854. It is generally accepted that the new settlement was named for General Edmund P. Gaines, the railroad was completed from Fernandina to Gainesville in 1859, passing six blocks south of the courthouse. Hogtown is the village of the adjacent Hogtown Creek, which flows 5.7 miles through Gainesville. Hogtown continued to exist until after Gainesville was founded, as evidenced on a map showing both towns, which was published in 1864 based on surveys from 1855, two residents of Hogtown played a prominent role in establishing Gainesville. William Lewis, who owned a plantation in Hogtown, delivered 20 votes pledged to him to create a new town on the route of the railroad. Tillman Ingram, who owned a plantation and a sawmill in Hogtown
9.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
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Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama. Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, Tuscaloosa is the regional center of industry, commerce, healthcare, and education for the area of west-central Alabama known as West Alabama. It is the city of the Tuscaloosa Metropolitan Statistical Area. Tuscaloosa is also the home of The University of Alabama, Stillman College, Tuscaloosa has been traditionally known as the Druid City because of the numerous water oaks planted in its downtown streets since the 1840s. The city has become well known nationally for the University of Alabamas success in sports. City leaders adopted the moniker The City of Champions after the Alabama Crimson Tide football team won the BCS National Championship in their 2009,2011, the Tide then went on to win the College Football Playoff in the 2015 season. In 2008, the City of Tuscaloosa hosted the USA Olympic Triathlon trials for the Beijing Games, nearly 12,000 years ago, Native Americans or Paleo-Indians arrived in what today is referred to as the Deep South. Paleo-Indians in the South were hunter-gatherers who pursued the megafauna that became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age, after thousands of years, the Paleo-Indians developed a rich and complex agricultural society. Archaeologists called these people the Mississippians of the Mississippian culture, they were Mound Builders, descendant Native American tribes include the Creek. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States and he had gained popularity when he defeated the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, following victories in the War of 1812. He long proposed Indian removal to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, Jackson abandoned the policy of his predecessors of treating different Indian groups as separate nations. Instead, he pursued plans to move all Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River. Most Muscogee-speaking peoples were removed to Indian Territory during the Trail of Tears in 1834, some Muscogee in Alabama live near Poarch Creek Reservation in Atmore. The pace of settlement in the Southeast increased greatly after the War of 1812. In 1817, Alabama became a territory, and on December 13,1819, from 1826 to 1846, Tuscaloosa was the capital of Alabama. During this period, in 1831, the University of Alabama was established, the towns population and economy grew rapidly until the departure of the capital to Montgomery caused a rapid decline in population. Establishment of the Bryce State Hospital for the Insane in Tuscaloosa in the 1850s helped restore the citys fortunes, during the Civil War following Alabamas secession from the Union, several thousand men from Tuscaloosa fought in the Confederate armies. During the last weeks of the War, a brigade of Union troops raiding the city burned the campus of the university, the larger town was also damaged in the battle and shared fully in the Souths economic sufferings which followed the defeat
10.
Bobby Dodd Stadium
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Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field is the football stadium located at the corner of North Avenue at Techwood Drive on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. It has been home to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team, often referred to as the Ramblin Wreck, in form since 1905. The team participates in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference and it is the oldest stadium in the FBS and has been the site of more home wins than any other FBS stadium. The stadium is located on the east side of the Georgia Tech campus, across from freshman housing facilities and just a walk from the campus library. The facility is located in Midtown Atlanta, just off Interstate 75/85, the stadiums atmosphere is unique in its setting, with a picturesque view of the downtown and Midtown Atlanta skylines looming overhead during games. Grant Field is the oldest continuously used site for college football in the Southern United States. Football has been played at the current site since 1905, in 1913, permanent grandstands were built for the first time, mostly by Tech students. It was originally named for Hugh Inman Grant, son of John W. Grant, from 1913 to 1919, the stadium grew from a capacity of 7,000 to one of 25,000. In 1988, the stadium was renamed in honor of Bobby Dodd, the playing surface is still named Grant Field. The stadium bears little, if any, resemblance to its original form, the original facility, roughly corresponding to the lower level of the current stadiums west grandstands, seated 5,600. The terrain in the area slopes upward from north to south, due to that natural grade, much of the field itself is below street level. The houses observable in the background of photos were replaced by dormitory buildings in the 1930s. By 1925, the east and south stands were completed, making the stadium a 30, the west stands were rebuilt and a large press box was added in 1947, bringing capacity up to 44,000. In 1985 the South stands were razed to make room for the William C, Wardlaw Center, a modern field house and athletic office facility to replace the facilities in the old Heisman Gym, which was located just to the north of the stadium. The current, modern west grandstand covers the old concrete one, the high interstitial space is currently used for storage. The lighting was replaced in 1998, following the 2001 season, a major expansion and renovation project was started, which was done in two phases in order to play the 2002 season in the stadium. For the 2002 season, seating was returned to the South end in front of the Wardlaw Center, after the 2002 season, the expansion was completed by adding a massive free standing upper deck in the north end zone. This addition of an end zone upper deck brought Bobby Dodd Stadium to its current capacity
11.
Atlanta
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
