History of the Hall of Fame Florida-Georgia rivalry

It is shaping up to be a big weekend in Atlanta. The Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs taking their annual rivalry again this year and playing that game up at Mercedes-Benz Stadium tomorrow afternoon. This is a rivalry that has gone on for years, has a lot of history. And some cool things that you may not know about it as well. And so joining us live now to talk about the history of this rivalry, pleased to be joined by Dennis Crawford, who is a lead historian at the College Football Hall of Fame that's up in Atlanta, actually. So any Gators fans who may be traveling up for the weekend, give you something to check out as well, because we also know at the College Football Hall of Fame a number of artifacts there that relate to this rivalry. So, Dennis, thanks so much for joining us here on Fox Orlando Live. Thank you very much for having me, sir. It's always a pleasure to talk about the Hall of Fame. We love talking football here, and talk with us. This is a big weekend, and this is a rivalry that goes back a while when it comes to the Gators and the Bulldogs. Yeah, what I love about the rivalry is nobody really knows how far back the rivalry goes. Georgia claims that it started in 1904 when they beat the University of Florida in Macon. But the University of Florida claims that because that was not the University of Florida that was in Gainesville, it was closer to Lake City, I believe, they don't accept that as a result. So they say the rivalry did not begin until 1915. So right away, the two schools have a major disagreement over even their anniversary. Imagine that, them not seeing eye to eye. Yeah. And ever since then, I also love the fact that those first games were also at neutral sites. This is one of the true great traditions of college football is this concept of the neutral site game. And we're just tickled to have it here in Atlanta for the weekend. That's interesting. So I did not realize that it had kind of been the MO for it even back near the beginning. That's certainly interesting. What stands out to you about some of what we have seen on the field from this rivalry over the years? Well, I think what I love about it is that it's a very cyclical rivalry. There's different eras of dominance. You know, Wally Butts, you know, in the 50s, you know, his team dominated Ray Graves and his team with Spurrier quarterback in the 60s tended to dominate. Then we get, you know, Vince Dooley and Herschel Walker and, you know, 70s into the 80s. It's a Georgia domination. And then it counters back when Spurrier becomes head coach in the 90s and the Gators just seem to win every single year. And now Georgia's on a little bit of a streak. So I think that's the thing I love, and I also love how personal and petty sometimes the rivalry can be. Talk to us about some of the things you've got there at the Hall of Fame that pertain to this rivalry that folks would be able to check out. Well, temporarily, I hope we get their attention when they walk in, is we've put a Herschel Walker and Tim Tebow jersey in a display cube just to show the history of both Heismans and national champions that both schools have had. We also have them featured in our rivalry exhibit where we have a second Tim Tebow jersey next to NoSean Moreno, which is my shout out to one of my favorite moments. In the rivalry history, and that was the infamous Gator stomp in 2007 when Hall of Fame head coach Mark Richt ordered the entire 70 to 80 players on the sideline to go and celebrate NoSean Moreno scoring the opening touchdown in the game because he wanted to show that Georgia wasn't intimidated by the Gators anymore. And that didn't sit too well with head coach Urban Meyer. So the next year in 2008, Florida wins 49 to 10. And at the end of the game, Urban Meyer is constantly calling timeout to just extend the misery for Mark Richt and the Bulldogs. What that certainly a moment for sure. There's no doubt about that. Now, talk to us about what you've got in the background behind you that we can see right now. Well, like any museum, we only put out about 2% of our holdings at any one time. And so I thought people there back in Orlando might be interested to see some of the things that we have concerning the game. We have Carlos Alvarez, the Cuban Comet, All-America player in 1969 and Hall of Famer, because we realize not a lot of people know. We're much past the 80s or 70s sometimes for history, so we wanted to show off what the uniforms looked like for the Gators back during the Ray Graves era, and we got Steve Spurrier's Florida helmet from that era. And then also Vince Dooley is arguably one of the greatest coaches in the history of college football in general and the Bulldogs specifically. And so he was prone to wearing a nice Letterman style jacket on the sideline. And his family was kind enough to allow us to have this piece of Vince Dooley's personal connection to the rivalry. Really cool stuff there. Now, college football is one of those things that people are just so passionate about, especially when we're talking about the fan bases of a couple of programs that are so storied, like Georgia, like Florida. Sort of. That has to be cool, doing what you do to see folks coming and embracing the history and some of what came before. Yes, and that's one of the things, I never want to sound like the old man yelling at clouds. I embrace change, change is the way things get better. In some ways, college football is much better now than it was when I was a boy watching it. But one of the things I do worry about for the future is the rivalries. As we go to a 24-team playoff and as conferences get larger and larger, Sure. Will we see the end of rivalries that we love? Now, the good thing about Georgia and Florida is that they're in the same conference. And I think there would just be way too much of an outcry if Florida and Georgia was to go away. But some of the wonder of rivalries is that concept of ruining your opponent's season. And I think back to when I was a kid in 1985, the Florida Gators had finally made it to number one in the nation. It was the first time they'd ever been ranked number one. And that very weekend, Georgia beat them 24 to three and, and knock them out of it and knock them out of any serious national championship consideration. And, and so that, that concept of ruining your rival's season may be going away because this weekend, Uh, granted Florida may have a greater chance of being knocked out right now than Georgia does, but there's this possibility that even if Georgia was to lose this weekend, they're still going to make the college football playoff. And so that kind of takes some of the fun, uh, out of the rivalry game for me. And given given this kind of situation where we have seen so much upheaval in the game or, you know, some of it good, some of it bad, some of it may be neutral, just different. But given that, why is it so important to to to kind of keep in mind and and honor the history and some of what we have seen and some of these things that remind us of some of these great rivalries and other things that we have seen along the way in this this great sport? Well, I think it's because rivalries is probably the thing that college football has always done best. It's something that makes college football truly unique. I know in professional sports, there's rivalries, but it's not quite to that level of competitiveness and looking to smack talk, looking to own the opposition that you see in college football. Because Because, um... I grew up in Florida many, many years ago. There was Florida, Florida State, and Miami. And if you're a Florida fan and you beat Florida State, then you get bragging rights over them for 365 days. And that's a literal 365 days because you're going to run into them at Publix. You're going to run into them at church. You may have to share desk space with them at work. And so I feel like it's important for us at the Hall of Fame to keep celebrating rivalries, to talk about the passion and the emotion and the tradition of rivalries, to bring back memories of some of the greatest people in it. One of the artifacts that I kind of like having around my office is Steve Spurrier's visor. You know, to me, nothing would drive him battier than losing to Georgia or losing to Florida State. And so when I see this particular artifact, I think of Steve Spurrier, not for the national championships, which, of course, he helped win. But I think of him on the sideline against Bobby Bowden or on the sideline against Georgia. And I think that's college football. Yeah, some of those personalities that have done so much to shape the game, to shape fanhoods, to shape, you know, generations of people who have grown up with a passion for one team or the other. It is certainly, you know, you love seeing all of that. And I love that you were able to share so much of that with us. Dennis Crawford, lead historian with the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Thank you so much for taking the time and joining us here on Fox Orlando Live today. This was a lot of fun. Oh, it was an absolute pleasure. And because I have to be neutral, I'll say go dogs and go Gators. All right. We won't hold that against you, Dennis. Thank you so much.