Florida Gators

The Florida Gators are the athletic teams that collectively represent the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Lady Gators is an alternative often used for the women's teams. The sum of the program and its followers is referred to collectively as the Gator Nation.

All Gator athletic teams compete in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference, of which they are charter members, in NCAA Division I.

The athletic department is run by the University Athletic Association (UAA), a private non-profit organization that was established in 1929. Jeremy Foley has been the athletic director since 1992.

All athletic teams have on-campus facilities. Most are located on Stadium Drive, including Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field (dubbed The Swamp) for football; the Stephen C. O'Connell Center (also known as the O-Dome) for men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball and gymnastics; McKethan Stadium for baseball, Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium for softball and Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex for men's and women's tennis.

The athletic program is one of the best in the nation and has been arguably the best overall in the SEC for the past two decades. The men's and women's teams have combined to win the Southeastern Conference All-Sports Trophy in every year but one since its inception. The Gators have also been in the top ten of the National All Sports rankings every year for the past two decades.

Most recently, the Gators won back to back Division I Men's basketball championships while sandwiching a BCS National Title in football in between, all in 366 days.

Overview

The University of Florida was one of the charter members in the Southeastern Conference. Previously the Gators were in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1912 to 1921, and in the Southern Conference from 1922 until the SEC was founded in 1932.

Orange and blue were officially adopted as the school colors in 1910 from the main colors of the two institutions that had united to form UF in 1903.

With the state of Florida being home to an estimated million alligators, the American Alligator ,often just called a "Gator" for short, was chosen as the mascot to represent the University of Florida in 1911. The official costumed mascots of the Florida Gators are Albert (Albert E. Gator) and Alberta.

The Gators' most prominent current rivals are SEC Eastern Division foes, the Georgia Bulldogs and Tennessee Volunteers, and the ACC's Florida State Seminoles. Florida has also shared past rivalries with the Auburn Tigers and Miami Hurricanes which have lessened in intensity in recent years.

There are 7 men's athletic teams and 10 women's teams currently fielded by the UAA. They are:

Men's Sports Baseball Basketball Football Golf Swimming & Diving Tennis Track & Field

Women's Sports Basketball Cross Country Golf Gymnastics Soccer Softball Swimming & Diving Tennis Track & Field Volleyball

In addition, women's lacrosse is scheduled to begin play in 2010.

Football

Heisman Trophy Winners
Steve Spurrier	1966
Danny Wuerffel	1996
Tim Tebow	2007

Florida first fielded an official football team in 1906. Since then, the Gators have played in 34 bowl games, won seven Southeastern Conference titles, produced 135 All-Americans coming into the 2006 season, 35 NFL first round draft choices and three Heisman Trophy winners.

The football team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which is frequently referred to by its former designation of Division I-A.

Florida plays an eight-game conference schedule, headlined by annual SEC Eastern division showdowns against Tennessee and Georgia, the latter being held in Jacksonville, Florida every year and formerly dubbed "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." The SEC West team the Gators face every season is LSU. In addition, the team has a yearly out-of-conference meeting with in-state rival Florida State at the end of the season.

The football team has been one of the winningest in Division I-A/FBS since 1990, the year Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier returned to his alma mater as head coach. The 1996 team, led by another Heisman winner, Danny Wuerffel, went 12-1 and won the national championship game in the Sugar Bowl, avenging an earlier loss to rival Florida State.

Following the 2001 season, Spurrier left the program to try his hand at coaching in the National Football League. Ron Zook, at one time the defensive coordinator under Spurrier, was hired as his replacement. Zook's squads were known for inconsistency, and he was fired midway through the 2004 season, following a loss to heavy underdog Mississippi State in Starkville, MS.

Urban Meyer was announced as Florida Football's new head coach in December 2004. His first season in 2005 brought an immediate improvement of Florida's record at 9-3. The team narrowly missed out on playing for the SEC title due to a shocking loss to Spurrier's new team, the South Carolina Gamecocks.

The 2006 team played for the school's second National Championship in January 2007, defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes 41-14.

The Gators have won the SEC Championship Game a record six times in eight tries since the game began in 1992. They won their first official conference title in 1991, the year before the first championship game was played.

Men's Basketball

Florida had limited success prior to the mid-1990s. Under the tenure of Norm Sloan, Vernon Maxwell led the team to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen in 1987, and Sloan coached the team to the tournament again the following two years. After a drug scandal involving Maxwell, Sloan left and the program went on probation.

Lon Kruger slowly brought increased success and reached the NIT final four in his second year as coach. In 1993-94, the pieces fell into place for Florida. Behind Andrew DeClercq and Dametri Hill, the Gators went to their first Final Four following a dramatic victory over UConn. Two years later, Kruger's final season resulted in a losing record, and he left to coach at Illinois.

Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, looking for a young coach with a proven track record, hired Billy Donovan, then at Marshall, as Kruger's replacement. His recruiting prowess was evident early, bringing future NBA star Jason Williams with him from Marshall and having early recruiting classes with future NBA players Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Matt Bonner, among others. The Gators made the NCAA Tournament every year since Donovan's third season with the team until the 2008 season, an eight-year streak that is easily a school record.

The team had the distinction of never having won their conference tournament despite several regular-season titles under Donovan until the 2004-05 season, when they beat rival Kentucky in the SEC title game.

The 2005-2006 team's start of 17-0 was the best in school history, surprising many with a young but selfless squad led by four sophomores. The team started the season unranked, yet still managed to win its second consecutive SEC Tournament championship. On April 3, 2006, the Gators defeated the UCLA Bruins 73-57 in the National Finals to win the school's first men's basketball championship. All five starters announced they would return for another season to try to win consecutive championships. The University of Florida Athletic Association then purchased the floor used in Indianapolis for the Final Four, and installed it in the O'Connell Center.

Before the start of the 2006-2007 basketball season, the Gators were picked as the preseason #1 in both major media polls for the first time in school history. The Gators won their second consecutive NCAA National Men's Basketball Championship on April 2, 2007, defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes 84-75. They became the first team since the 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils to win back-to-back tournaments and the first in history to do so with the same starting lineup.

The Thursday after the National Championship, Florida's four juniors announced they would enter the NBA draft. After spurning the open Kentucky coaching job the week after winning the championship, head coach Billy Donovan accepted the head coaching job with the NBA's Orlando Magic on June 1, 2007. A day later, Donovan informed the Magic he wanted to return to Florida instead. On June 6, 2007, the Orlando Magic let Donovan out of the five-year contract he had previously signed. He signed a contract on June 7, 2007 to become the highest-paid coach in college basketball.

Women's Basketball

Women's basketall was approved as a sport by UF in March 1972 and began play in 1973 as a club team. In 1975 they debuted as a varsity program under head coach Dr. Paula Welch. They made local headlines in 1976 by winning the "state championship" by beating the other three women's teams in the state at that time.

While traditionally being overshadowed by divisional (and national) basketball powers Tennessee and Georgia, the Lady Gators have made several NCAA Tournament appearances and sent players to the WNBA, such as DeLisha Milton-Jones. The winningest coach at Florida is Carol Ross, who guided the team for 12 seasons but now coaches at her alma mater, Ole Miss.

Florida's women's team had been coached by Carolyn Peck, a former WNBA coach who won a national title with Purdue, since the 2002-03 season. Her brother, Michael, had been an assistant on the staff since 2001. Peck was fired midway through the 2006 season (though allowed to finish out the year) after enduring the worst losing streak of any Gator sports.

Former UF player and previous Charlotte coach Amanda Butler was named the new women's basketball coach on April 13, 2007.

Baseball

Andy Lopez took over the program in 1994, one season removed from leading Pepperdine University to its only national championship in the College World Series. In 1996, he coached the Gators to a 50-win season and College World Series bid. By 2000 the program had seemingly hit a plateau and Lopez was replaced.

Pat McMahon became head coach in 2001 after coaching at Mississippi State.

The 2005 season was the best in school history, as the team won the SEC title and made the College World Series for the first time in seven years. They advanced to the championship round against Texas, ultimately losing two games to none. The baseball team has made the Series five times in total.

The expectations for the team were high for 2006; they opened the season as the #1 team in the polls. The team struggled through the 2006 season, however. The Gators found themselves one game under .500 (26-27) heading into their final series, against LSU in Gainesville. UF surprisingly took two of three to finish right at .500, 28-28. However, the team's 10-20 SEC record was the second worst in the conference (only Auburn's 9-21 campaign was worse), and they did not qualify for the SEC Tournament. There was slight hope that the team might be selected for the NCAA Regionals, but they did not get a bid.

After missing the NCAA Regionals again in 2007, McMahon was terminated as Florida baseball coach on June 7, 2007. Former Clemson associate head coach Kevin O'Sullivan agreed to become the Gators' new head baseball coach on June 13, 2007.

The baseball team currently plays at the Alfred A. McKethan Stadium.

Softball

The Florida Gators softball team started competing in the Southeastern Conference in 1997 under Head Coach Larry Ray. The Gators won the SEC tournament in 1998 while they reached the Super Regionals in 1997 and were within one win of reaching the College World Series. The Gators compete at the Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium which is located on campus.
On May 24, 2008, the Gators defeated the University of California Bears 4-2 to win the South Super Regional and reach its first ever College World Series. With their 67th victory of the season, they also tied the all-time NCAA record for single-season wins, tying the 1998 University of Arizona, 1999 Illinois-Chicago and the 2005 University of Tennessee teams. Junior pitcher All-American Stacey Nelson is 45-3 with 337 strikeouts in 316.2 innings pitched for a 0.73 earned run average through May 28, 2008.

Soccer

Becky Burleigh has been the coach since the team first began play in 1996. The team quickly became a contender and, in 1998, won the national title in its third year of existence against the storied North Carolina program. A player from that team, Heather Mitts has enjoyed a career on and off the field, including a spot on the US women's national team. The soccer team currently plays at the James G. Pressly Stadium.

Another former player, Abby Wambach, has become a recent star on the U.S. team and scored the game-winning goal in the final game of the 2004 Olympic Games.

Volleyball

Florida began competing in Volleyball in 1984 under the lead of Marilyn McReavy but didn't achieve true success until Mary Wise took over the program in 1991.

In her 17 years at Florida, Wise has compiled a 551-57 (0.906) record, won 17 consecutive SEC regular season titles (1991-2007), 14 SEC Tournament titles (1992-96, 1998-2003, 2005-07) and the Gators have made 17 consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament, including 7 final four appearances (1992, '93, '96, '97, '98, 2002, '03) and a trip to the NCAA National Championship match in 2003, where they fell to undefeated Southern California.

For the upcoming 2008 season, Florida's recruiting class was ranked #1 by Prepvolleyball.com and Volleyball Magazine, as they signed the nation's top recruit and Gatorade National Player of the Year, Kelly Murphy, as well as five other recruits ranked in the top 50.

Golf

Florida has won four team titles, in 1968, 1973, 1993, and 2001, and had two individual champions, Bob Murphy in 1966 and Nick Gilliam in 2001.

Tennis

Florida has one of the strongest and most storied women's tennis programs in NCAA history, producing such former greats as Lisa Raymond and Jill Craybas. Currently, they are second to only Stanford with 4 NCAA Championships.

Olympics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics was one of the first women's sports added at the University of Florida and achieved early success winning the 1982 AIAW Championship. Since the NCAA took over the championships in 1982, Florida has advanced to the National Championships (Top 12) 15 times and an additional 10 times, has advanced to the Super Six. Florida's highest finish in NCAA competition was as runner-up in 1998.

Currently, the Gators are coached by Rhonda Faehn and finished 4th at the 2006 NCAA Championships.

Florida finished the 2007 season third overall behind Utah and Georgia despite being ranked #1 in the nation and the SEC Champion. The Gator's collapse coupled with Georgia's dominant performance in the final further solidified the Bulldog's reign as the top gymnastic program overall in the SEC.

Lacrosse

In early 2006, the UF Athletic Association announced they would soon begin play in women's lacrosse, due to the growth of the sport and increased availability of competition. They became the second SEC school to offer lacrosse as a varsity sport, following Vanderbilt. They will begin play in 2010.

Cheers and Spirit Program

A short video showing alligators moving in on their prey, with the famous Jaws theme playing in the background, is displayed on the Daktronics ProStar Video Board, commonly known as a jumbotron during every football game before the players come out of the tunnel. ESPN's College Gameday analyst Lee Corso, a former coach and graduate of rival school Florida State, called it one of the most thrilling moments in college football.

"Orange and blue" is one cheer that is very popular at home games, with the student section yelling "Orange!," and the alumni section answering back with their loudest "Blue." This can go back and forth for several minutes, with both sides competing to be the louder one.

The marching band that performs at halftime and after big plays during the football season is known as "The Pride of the Sunshine."

The coordinated dance team that performs at many sports are known as the Dazzlers.

The football team has a long-time tradition of having George Edmondson Jr.--better known as Mr. Two Bits--wandering through the stands with a sign and a whistle to pump up the crowd to the cheer of:

Two bits, Four bits,

Six bits, A dollar.

All for the Gators,

Stand up and Holler!

Though he officially retired in 1998, Edmonds has been seen at many football games since, and was made an honorary alumnus in 2005.

Another tradition--at home and on the road--is when Gator fans link arms and sway, singing We are the Boys after the end of every third quarter.

We are the boys from old Florida

F - L - O - R - I - D - A

Where the girls are the fairest,

the boys are the squarest

of any old state down our way.

We are all strong for old Florida,

down where the old Gators play.

In all kinds of weather,

we'll all stick together. for

F - L - O - R - I - D - A

Traditionally fans add "Hey!" at the end of the first stanza, and shout "Go Gators!" after the line "Down where the old Gators play," and at the conclusion of the song.

The University of Florida Fight Song (" The Orange and Blue") is also sung frequently at all Florida sporting events.

So give a cheer for the Orange and Blue

Waving for-ev-er

Forever Pride of old Flor-i-da

May she droop nev-er…

We'll sing a song for the flag to-day

Cheer for the team at play!

''On to the goal we'll fight our way for Flor-i-da.

All-Sports Rankings

NACDA Directors' Cup

Annual Finishes in the National All-Sport Rankings

Academic Year	UF Finish
1983-84	5th
1984-85	4th
1985-86	8th
1986-87	4th
1987-88	5th
1988-89	9th
1989-90	5th
1990-91	5th
1991-92	5th
1992-93	4th
1993-94	4th
1994-95	5th
1995-96	3rd
1996-97	5th
1997-98	T2nd
1998-99	4th
1999-00	7th
2000-01	7th
2001-02	3rd
2002-03	7th
2003-04	6th
2004-05	6th
2005-06	5th
2006-07	6th
2007-08	6th

Florida has finished in the top 10 in national all sports rankings every year since 1983-84. UCLA is the only other program that has matched that feat. Perhaps more impressive is that Florida has managed this accomplishment while fielding fewer sports than other perennial top athletic programs.

In the 2007-08 academic year, Florida finished sixth place in the NACDA Directors' Cup. The finish marks Florida's 25th consecutive position among the nation's top-10 programs. The following programs finished in the top 10 in 2007-08:

· Women's golf (No. 9)
· Softball (No. 3)
· Women's tennis (No. T-3)
· Men's tennis (No. T-9)
· Women's outdoor track & field (No. 9)
· Women's gymnastics (No. 4)
· Men's swimming & diving (No. 6)
· Men's swimming & diving (No. 8)
· Women's indoor track & field (No. 8)
· Men's indoor track & field (No. 8)
· Women's soccer (No. T-9)
· Volleyball (No. T-9)

2007-08 NACDA Top Ten

1. Stanford - 1,461
2. UCLA - 1,182
3. Michigan - 1,160
4. Arizona State - 1,146
5. Texas - 1,129.50
6. Florida - 1,126.75
7. California - 1,119
8. LSU - 1,081.66
9. Penn State - 1,041
10. Georgia - 1,040

SEC All-Sports Trophy

At the end of the 2005-06 season, Florida has claimed 168 SEC titles, the most in conference history. The next closest program is Tennessee with 141 titles.

The SEC All-Sports Trophy began in 1973 as the Bernie Moore trophy and tabulated the league's best men's sports program. In 1983, the SEC also began calculating the best women's sports program in the conference, as well as tabulating an overall champion. In 1994, the "New York Times" Regional Newspaper Group took over the awarding of the trophy.

In the history of the award, Florida has won 13 Women's Trophies, 11 Men's Trophies, and 16 Overall Trophies.

Georgia won the 2005-06 All-Sports trophy to snap Florida's record streak at 14 straight (1990-91 through 2004-05).

Florida reclaimed the SEC All-Sports Trophy for the 2006-07 athletic year. The Gators won in the overall, men's, and women's sports trophies. They are the only SEC program to earn all 3 in a single year, and had last accomplished the feat in 2000-01.

National Championships

In its history, Florida has won 27 total team titles, 16 of which are NCAA championships, and 185 individual national championships. Florida is also the only team to hold both major championships at the same time (as the 2006 BCS Champions and the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions). The Gators basketball team repeated in NCAA Men's Basketball in the 2005-2006 season and in the 2006-2007 season being the first time since Duke in the early 90's.

• Men's
• Basketball - 2006, 2007
• Football - 1996*, 2007
• Golf - 1968, 1973, 1993, 2001
• Swimming & Diving - 1983, 1984
• Outdoor Track & Field - 2004^, 2005^
• Women's
• Golf - 1985, 1986
• Gymnastics - 1982*
• Soccer - 1998
• Swimming & Diving - 1979*, 1982
• Tennis - 1988*, 1991*, 1992 (ITA & NCAA), 1996 (ITA & NCAA), 1997*, 1998, 2003

* indicates a non-NCAA championship. ^ indicates not an official championship; finished second both years when Arkansas was stripped of its championships for recruiting violations.

Notable alumni

• University of Florida Athletic Association

References

External links

• Gatorzone.com - Official website of the Florida Gators.
  
• University Athletic Association - Official site of UF's athletics board.