Great Teams and Eras: The Fabulous 50s
Tuesday, August 22, 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.
Florida's Fabulous 50's
By: Norm Carlson
The Gators' “Fabulous '50s” included the hiring of the man who would be credited by most for turning the Gator athletic program around and heading it in the right direction.
It has been more than five decades since Bob Woodruff switched from Baylor University to Florida to become Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach. Known as a man of few words, he was nonetheless a man of action in building the football program, the total athletic program, establishing Gator Boosters, Inc. and upgrading facilities.
Woodruff was hired on January 6, 1950 for $17,000 with no perks. What he asked for and received was the authority to make the decisions he felt necessary to build the foundation for the future of Gator football. UF President J. Hillis Miller gave him that power and he used it in a manner which had a positive impact on the future of Florida athletics.
As head coach for the decade of the '50s, he produced 29 SEC wins, 11 more than all previous Gator teams had managed from 1935 to 1950. From the inception of the SEC in 1933 until 1950 no Florida team had finished higher than sixth. Woodruff's teams finished third three times.
He came to Florida at the age of 34 and had been the head coach at Baylor since 1947. His 1949 team wound up 8-2, an impressive mark for one of the Southwest Conference's have-not teams.
Among his decisions as athletic director at Florida were borrowing $750,000 and building the west stands at Florida Field, raising the seating capacity from 22,000 to 40,000 and housing a modern press box and offices for the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Woodruff also created Gator Boosters, Inc., as the fund-raising arm of the athletic program, with donations going into the athletic department scholarship fund.
He started the high school all-star football game and clinics on the UF campus as part of increased support of the Florida High School Activities Association.
His early football staffs included Frank Broyles, Dale Hall, later head coach at Army, Hank Foldberg, who went on to become head coach at Texas A&M, and Tonto Coleman, who was to become commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.
“Florida had potential but I felt it couldn't be reached unless the program had the money and authority to function,” he recalls. “The job wasn't getting done in recruiting, our facilities were below par and assistant coaches were underpaid. I wanted a separate athletic department with the athletic director answering to the president.”
