Gator Talk: A Stepping Stone to Victory
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 | Football
By Norm Carlson, Assistant Athletics Director/Gator Historian
Florida's football program was attempting to bounce back from two consecutive losing decades when Bob Woodruff was hired as head football coach in 1950. The turn around began that season on October 21 against undefeated and 13th-ranked Vanderbilt in Nashville.
The Commodores featured Bill Wade, the nation's finest quarterback, and Bucky Curtis, the best receiver in the SEC. Their 4-0 overall record included wins over Auburn (40-0), Alabama (27-22) and Mississippi State (20-14) for an SEC-leading 3-0 mark.
The Gators did have a little edge on defense, thanks to tackle Red Mitchum from Ocala, a noted humorist whose big claim to fame at that time was being the emcee of Gator Growl. Here's what Woodruff told Tom McEwen, sports editor of the Tampa Tribune:
"We were watching film of Vandy games the week of our game with them. In the back of the room, Mitchum was calling out, just as each Vanderbilt play would begin, 'Run,' or 'Pass.' I stopped the movie and asked Red what he meant. He told me that they had a lineman who was telegraphing. He would make a move on his haunches when it was a run. We dropped our man off him all day so our linebacker could see what he was doing, especially on third down, and he'd call out the play in our code, whether it was run or pass. It worked. I don't believe they converted a third down."
Vanderbilt turned the ball over six times, with four fumbles and two passes which were intercepted.
Even with that, Woodruff admitted, it was hard to win. The Gators managed a 31-27 victory that set off a celebration in Gainesville. Students marched down University Avenue and started a bonfire at its intersection with 13th Street.
Quarterback Haywood Sullivan completed nine of 14 passes with a touchdown and no interceptions. He went on that year to become the first sophomore quarterback in SEC history to pass for more than 1,000 yards in a season.
The star of the game was halfback Loren Broadus, who carried eight times for 105 yards, including a 51-yard TD run, and caught three passes for 44 yards and another score. He also intercepted two passes, returning them 33 yards. Jack Nichols scored on a 55-yard run and Billy Reddell and Floyd Huggins each ran for touchdowns as the Gators rushed for 330 yards.
Woodruff was certainly not known for his sense of humor; his best remembered line came when he described himself as "the rhetorical equivalent of blocked punt." However, his memory of the last few seconds of that Vanderbilt game was good for a laugh.
"We got the ball with 30 seconds left," he told the media after the game. "Broadus was smart. I sent him in and told him to use the old drop-dead quarterback sneak twice. Just take the ball and fall on it, then sit on it until the ref makes you get up. He did the first time, then the second, and a big Vanderbilt lineman said to Loren, 'Get off that ball or I'll kill you.' Broadus pointed to the clock which showed zero, and said, 'you don't have time, fella.'"
That victory in Nashville was an important stepping-stone for the Gator program under Woodruff.
In the first 17 seasons of competition in the SEC, the Gators had only won 18 games and with the exception of Sewanee, which dropped out of the league after 37 straight losses in eight years, that was the worst mark in the league.
Woodruff teams went on to win 29 games in his 10 seasons in Gainesville.
-UF-
