Global InformationHistory of Florida Gators football information
The history of Florida Gators football began in 1906, when the newly established "University of the State of Florida" fielded a football team during its first full academic year of existence. The school's name was shortened to the University of Florida in 1908, and the football team gained the nickname "Gators" in 1911. The program started small, usually playing six to eight games per season against small colleges and local athletic club teams in north Florida and south Georgia. The Orange and Blue developed early rivalries with the Stetson Hatters from nearby Deland and Mercer Bears from Macon. During the 1910s, Florida began playing a wider range of opponents from more established football programs across the southeastern United States and faced off against several future rivals - such as Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and Auburn - for the first time.
Florida's football program first rose to national prominence in the 1920s, when coach Charlie Bachman's 1928 team led the nation in scoring and were kept from a perfect season and a possible invitation to play in the Rose Bowl by a season-ending one point loss to Tennessee in Knoxville. The success of the 1928 Gators inspired the school to replace primitive Fleming Field with a modern facility, and Florida Field opened in 1930. Despite their new home stadium, Gator teams did not find much success on the field through the 1930s and 1940s and had only four winning seasons in those decades. The period did see the beginning of a long annual series with the Miami Hurricanes and the cancelling of a football season when the university did not field a team in 1943 due to World War II
The program began an upward trend in the 1950s under coach Bob Woodruff, whose 1952 team was the first in school history to win a bowl game. The 1950s also saw the beginnings of rivalries with Florida State and LSU. Coach Ray Graves continued the success in the 1960s, with the Gators appearing in the AP top ten rankings for the first time. His 1966 team won the school's first Orange Bowl with quarterback Steve Spurrier, the school's first Heisman Trophy winner. Florida football slipped in the late 1970s under head coach Doug Dickey but was rejuvenated under coach Charley Pell, whose 1984 team won the school's first conference title. However, the championship was later stripped due to NCAA infractions committed under Pell, who was fired.
The 1990s brought unprecedented success to Florida football under head coach Steve Spurrier, who returned to lead his alma mater to many firsts. The 1991 team won the first official conference title, the first of six SEC titles under Spurrier. The Gators won their first national championship in 1996, and quarterback Danny Wuerffel became the first Heisman winner to be coached by a Heisman winner when he won the award in that year. Coach Urban Meyer led Florida to two additional national championships in 2006 and 2008 with quarterback Tim Tebow, who was the school's third Heisman Trophy winner. After a decline for several seasons after Meyer's departure in 2010, Florida returned to top-10 rankings and major bowl games in 2018 and 2019 under former coach Dan Mullen.
The Gators have competed in the Southeastern Conference since 1933, in its eastern division since 1992. Previously, Florida was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) from 1912 to 1921 and the Southern Conference (SoCon) from 1922 to 1932. There have been 25 head coaches for the team, starting with player-coach Pee Wee Forsythe in 1906.