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.
Southeastern Conference
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The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the Southern part of the United States. Its fourteen members include the public universities of ten states. The conference is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, the SEC participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I in sports competitions, for football, it is part of the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-A. The SEC was also the first NCAA Division I conference to hold a game for college football and was one of the founding members of the Bowl Championship Series. The current SEC commissioner is Greg Sankey, the conference sponsors team championships in nine mens sports and twelve womens sports. The SEC consists of 14 member institutions located within the borders of 11 contiguous states and these divisional groupings are applied exclusively to football and baseball as well as their scheduling and standings. The other charter members were, The University of the South left the SEC on December 13,1940 and it is currently a member of the Division III Southern Athletic Association. Georgia Institute of Technology left the SEC in 1964, in 1975, it became a founding member of the Metro Conference, one of the predecessors to todays Conference USA. Georgia Tech competed in the Metro Conference in all sports except football, in 1978, Georgia Tech joined another Southern Conference offshoot, the Atlantic Coast Conference, for all sports, where it has remained ever since. Tulane University left the SEC in 1966, along with Georgia Tech, it was a charter member of the Metro Conference. Unlike Tech, however, Tulane remained in the Metro Conference until it merged with the Great Midwest Conference in 1995 to form Conference USA, Tulane remained an independent in football until C-USA began football competition in 1996. Tulane left C-USA in 2014 for the American Athletic Conference, in 1990, the SEC expanded from ten to twelve member universities with the addition of the Arkansas Razorbacks and the South Carolina Gamecocks. The two new members began SEC competition with the 1991–1992 basketball season, at the same time, the SEC organized competition for some sports into two divisions. Initially, the format was used in football, baseball. The divisional format was dropped for mens basketball following the 2011–2012 season, the 1992 and 1993 championship games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, and all championship games from 1994 onward have been held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. On November 6,2011 the SEC commissioner announced that the University of Missouri would also join the SEC on July 1,2012, for football, Texas A&M was scheduled to compete in the Western Division, and Missouri in the Eastern Division. Texas A&M and Missouri both left the Big 12 Conference, the office of Commissioner was created in 1940. Under the leadership of Michael F, the SECU rebranded its mission to better serve as a means through which the collaborative academic endeavors and achievements of Southeastern Conference universities would be promoted and advanced
3.
Doug Dickey
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Douglas Adair Dickey is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator. Dickey is a South Dakota native who was raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida, where he played college football. He is best known as the coach of the University of Tennessee and the University of Florida football teams. Dickey was born in Vermillion, South Dakota in 1932, and grew up in Gainesville, Florida, yonge High School in Gainesville, he attended the University of Florida and played for coach Bob Woodruffs Florida Gators football team from 1951 to 1953. Dickey was a walk-on after being encouraged by assistant coach Dave Fuller, as a quarterback Dickey was not a drop-back passer, but a football-savvy game manager, who Woodruff called one of the brainiest quarterbacks I ever saw. In January 1953, Dickey led the Gators to a 14–13 win over the University of Tulsa in the Gator Bowl, while a student at Florida, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. He graduated with a degree in physical education in 1954. After graduating from the University of Florida, Dickey served in the U. S. Army, from 1957 to 1963, he worked as an assistant football coach on the staff of Frank Broyles at the University of Arkansas. Dickey was hired as coach at the University of Tennessee in 1964 by athletic director Bob Woodruff. Many supporters of Tennessee Volunteers football credit Dickey with rejuvenating the program, when Dickey was hired the Volunteers had not won more than six games in a season, nor been to a bowl game, since 1957. Dickey was recognized as Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year in 1965 and 1967, in his six seasons as head coach, his overall win-loss record at Tennessee was 46–15–4, and the Volunteers received five consecutive bowl invitations. Dickey is credited with starting three Tennessee football traditions that endure today, undeterred, Dickey recruited wide receiver Lester McClain, who was admitted and became the first black Volunteer football player. In 1969, the Volunteers clinched their second SEC championship and were invited to play Florida in the Gator Bowl, rumors swirled that Dickey was planning to return to his alma mater to replace retiring Ray Graves as head coach. Tennessee lost the game 14–13, and Dickey left for Gainesville, Dickey became the head football coach at the University of Florida in 1970. In his nine seasons as the Florida coach, Dickey led the Gators to four appearances. Notably, Dickey gave the Gators former Heisman-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier his first coaching job, as the Gators quarterbacks coach, in 1978. Dickey did not achieve the level of success at Florida that he had at Tennessee. Dickey ended his coaching career with an overall record of 104–58–6
4.
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
