Gator Bowl Memories: "Super Sophs" Lead Gators to Victory Over Tennessee in Wild 1969 Gator Bowl
Thursday, December 29, 2011 | Football
By Chris Harry
GatorZone.com Contributing Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The story of the 1969 season actually starts with the 1968 season, which wasn't a great one for Florida football. The Gators beat Florida State and Miami, but lost to both Auburn and Georgia, the latter a 51-0 embarrassment on the way to finishing 6-3-1 and without a bowl berth.
Throughout that '68 season, however, UF coach Ray Graves knew he had some players on the roster. Unfortunately, the best of them were freshmen and ineligible to participate. Instead, those freshmen beat up on the varsity players during scrimmages and scout team, with Graves all the while looking to what he fully anticipated would be a great '69 season.
Sure enough, it started when John Reaves, Carlos Alvarez, Jack Youngblood and the rest of the “Super Sophs” destroyed Houston, Playboy's preseason pick to win the national championship, by the score of 59-34 in the season opener. The Gators won their first six games for only the third time in school history and went on to finish 8-1-1, as rumors flew that Graves was ready to go out with a bang and retire from coaching but keep his role as UF athletic director.
Florida's reward for the program's first one-loss season since 1928 was a trip to the Gator Bowl to play 11th-ranked Tennessee (9-1). The Volunteers were champions of the Southeastern Conference, but were bypassed by the Sugar Bowl in favor of No. 8 Ole Miss and their star quarterback Archie Manning, who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting and led the Rebels to a 38-0 shutout of the Vols in November.
Coincidentally, Tennessee coach Doug Dickey was rumored to coaching his final game for the Vols, also.
And that's where things got really weird.
To the time capsule we go.
THE DATE: Dec. 27, 1969
IN THE HEADLINES THAT DAY
* Man's landing and walk on the moon was named the top story of the year by The Associated Press.
- President Nixon indicated he'll sign into law the tax reform bill, saying his budget-making headache is finding ways to offset an anticipated $2.5 billion loss stemming from the measure.
- A major winter storm swept up the east coast and stranded Christmas travelers and dumped as much as two feet of snow on parts of the New England. Winds as high as 40 and 50 miles per hour whipped snow drifts to five feet and some flooding was triggered by high tides and power lines were knocked down.
- Rocks brought back from the moon in November may be as much as a billion years younger than those picked up 950 miles away on the site of the first lunar landing in July, a prominent geochemist said.
IN THE THEATERS
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”
“They Shoot Horses, Don't They?”
“Hello Dolly”
ON THE TUBE
“Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In”
“The Brady Bunch”
“The Courtship of Eddie's Father”
ON THE RADIO
(Billboard's Top 3 songs of 1952)
“Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies
“Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by The Fifth Dimension
“Honky Tonk Woman” by The Rolling Stones
FOR SALE
3-bedroom, 2-bath home (avg. cost): $15,550
Toyota Corona: $1,950
Gallon of gas: 35 cents
Gallon of milk: $1.26
Box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes: 29 cents
THE GATOR BOWL SET-UP
The showdown between two of the SEC's best -- Florida with its high-powered offense and Tennessee with an outstanding defense -- would have offered plenty of football intrigue on its own.
But by the time the team's arrived in North Florida to begin bowl preparations, the rumor mills were bubbling not only about Graves' reported move to an AD-only post, but that Dickey -- get this -- was the top candidate to become head coach at Florida.
This was surreal stuff, folks.
The guy believed to take over the Gators stood 53 yards away on the opposite sideline.
Dickey earlier in the week leaked confirmation of his interest in his alma mater's job to the a newspaper in Memphis. Maybe he should have just crossed the field and started coaching the Gators that night.
THE GAME
Florida's high-powered offense was amped down somewhat, but its defensive counterpart picked up the slack with an early tone-setting touchdown that helped fuel a 14-12 upset of Tennessee in the Gator Bowl before a record-crowd of 72,248.
The win “certainly will allow the Gators to proclaim themselves honorary champions of the Southeastern Conference,” cried next day's editions of The Tampa Tribune. “Florida has never won the SEC and didn't yesterday, but it's as close as the school has come.”
Senior Steve Tannen blocked a Herman Weaver punt in the first quarter and Mike Kelly caught the ball on the first bounce and scored the game's opening touchdown. Only moments before, Kelly intercepted a Bobby Scott pass at the UF 9 to thwart UT's promising opening drive of the game.
Alvarez, the All-America wide receiver, hobbled on a sore foot most of the game, but with the Gators trailing 10-7 in the third quarter he caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Reaves to push Florida ahead 14-10.
Reaves finished 15 of 26 for 161 yards, while Scott struggled in hitting just 12 of 34 throws for 174 yards, one touchdowns and two interceptions.
The UF defense stopped a fourth-quarter UT drive, limiting the Vols to a field goal instead of the go-ahead touchdown, and the Gators -- behind a strong defensive performance and inspired by popular defensive coach Gene Ellenson -- held on to send Tennessee and its 17 seniors into graduation without ever winning a bowl game.
And Dickey into in a post-game maelstrom.
IN THEIR WORDS
“I have no comment on the florida job. I have not talked to the players about it.”
-Tennessee coach Doug Dickey
“I'm still coach and athletic director. If I decide to make a change next week or next year, the boys will hear about it first.”
-Florida coach Ray Graves
“We held a team meeting last night. We dedicated this one to you.”
-UF quarterback John Reaves, who passed for 161 yards, in the post-game locker room, presenting a game ball to Ellenson, aka the “Gray Fox,” the players' choice to replace Graves.
“They wanted to win this one for the 'Gray Fox.' I didn't attend the meeting, but I was told about it. Sure, I want the job. Coach Graves wants me to have it.”
--Gators defensive coach Gene Ellenson
Note: On Dec. 30, 1969, Doug Dickey was named the 15th head coach in Florida football history.
