Rivalries and Series: Florida-Kentucky
Thursday, September 21, 2006 | Football
As part of the celebration of the 100th season of Florida football, gatorzone.com will run a series of historical features throughout the preseason and the 2006 campaign. The series will give Gator fans an appreciation and understanding of the past teams and players that helped build the Gator football program.
During preseason practice, readers can learn about ground-breaking Florida teams of the past on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the “Great Teams and Eras” series. In addition to those stories, each Friday from the beginning of preseason practice until the season's first game will feature a look at one of Florida's legendary players as part of the “Gator Greats” series.
Once the season is underway, the look back in time will continue on Tuesdays and Thursdays with “Rivalries and Series” and “Great Games” entries relevant to the week's opponent. Occasionally, additional stories will be unveiled on Wednesday of game weeks when the opportunity arises.
As the 2006 football season approaches, take some time to sit back and reflect on the teams, players and moments that all lead up to this, the 100th season of Florida Gator football.
By Norm Carlson
Can you believe it has been 15 years since the Gators captured their first-ever-official SEC football championship on Florida Field against Kentucky?
However, Ion (Speedy) Walker can still remember Florida's first victory against the Wildcats. Walker, who was a quarterback on the 1927 team and now resides in Mobile, Alabama, recalls that the Gators led 7-6 at halftime and went on to a 27-6 victory in Jacksonville that year with Ernest (Goof) Bowyer scoring a TD and dropkicking two extra points.
Florida's fortunes against the Wildcats since that time have been generally good since Goof and the gang got that initial victory, although some of those losses have been especially painful. The 1974 Sugar Bowl team was upended, 41-24, and the 1976 squad lost on a frigid afternoon in Lexington, 28-9, getting knocked out of a major bowl game in the process.
Kentucky dominated the series through 1956, winning 12 of the first 16 games, including all seven contests played in Lexington. Florida's biggest win up to that point came in Gainesville in 1952 as Rick Casares, J. (Poppa) Hall and Buford Long led the Gators to a 27-0 victory in the final game of that year. The win put Florida in its first bowl game, and was the only shutout against the Bear Bryant-coached team that year.
Kentucky came into that 1952 game unbeaten in their previous five games and the loss knocked them out of a bowl matchup. It was the second-worst loss in Coach Bryant's career at Kentucky (1946-53), where he produced teams that went to four bowls, including the Orange, Sugar and Cotton in 1949-50-51.
Long after his Kentucky coaching career ended, Coach Bryant still called that loss to the Gators one of his worst.
The series started moving Florida's way in 1957 when the Gators recorded their first win in Lexington, 14-7, with Jimmy Dunn running 32 yards for one touchdown and throwing a 27-yard scoring pass to Jim Rountree for the other. Dramatic last-second wins in Lexington took place in 1978, 18-16 on a Berj Yepremian field goal, and in 1980, 17-15, on a Brian Clark field goal. The all-time last-second victory came, of course, in Lexington in 1993 on the Danny Wuerffel to Chris Doering pass for a 24-20 margin.
There were three straight very competitive Florida-Kentucky games early in the 90s. The 'Cats played in Gainesville in 1991 and 1992 and lost 35-26 and 35-19. The win in 1991 gave the Gators their first official SEC championship, and was the last conference title won on a campus in the league. The SEC championship game matching winners from eastern and western divisions started the following year.
Florida has captured 14 consecutive wins on television in this series. One of those contests - the 73-7 win in 1994 - was a regional ABC-TV game which no doubt created a plethora of channel switches.
The all-time series
Overall: UF leads 39-17
At Gainesville: UF leads 22-4
At Lexington: UF leads 15-10
At Neutral Sites: UK leads 3-2
