Mr. C on his top memories of Florida-Georgia rivalry
Friday, October 29, 2010 | Football, Volleyball, Scott Carter
Around the office, he is known simply as Mr. C.
I had known of him for several years – he is the father of a friend and former colleague of mine at The Tampa Tribune – but not until recently have I gotten to know him.
Every time I stop by his office to chat, I learn something new.
His name is Norm Carlson, and if anyone knows anything about the Florida-Georgia rivalry, Mr. C is the man.
He joined UF's communications staff in 1963 and first stepped onto campus in 1952 as a student.
In 2002, Mr. C was inducted in the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame, joining former Gators receiver Ricky Nattiel and Georgia's Ray Goff and Bob Etter in that year's class.
Carlson attended Friday's Hall of Fame ceremony honoring Florida's Wilber Marshall and Scot Brantley, and Georgia's Zeke Bratkowski and Knox Culpepper.
Before the ceremony, I asked Mr. C to share his five top memories from the storied rivalry. Here are his favorites:
--Florida 30, Georgia 0 (1952): “The first Florida-Georgia game I ever saw when I was a student. Georgia was favored. They had a great quarterback Zeke Bratkowski. They were favored in the game and we came in here and caught them off guard. I thought that was how a Florida-Georgia game was supposed to be. Obviously I was wrong about that, but that was a great win.''
--Florida 7, Georgia 6 (1958): “I was with the Atlanta Journal and I covered the Florida-Georgia game. Georgia dominated the game and led, but Florida stopped them inside our 10 four times, and they kicked two field goals and led 6-0. Late in the fourth quarter, Jimmy Dunn, our quarterback, ran off to the right side, cut back, and ran 76 yards for a touchdown and we won 7-6. It was the only first down we had in the second half. After the game, Bob Woodruff, the Florida coach who had no sense of humor, when he met [Georgia coach] Wally Butts at the middle of the field, he said, 'Wally, how did you like our offense?' That was another great memory before I was on the staff here.''
--Florida 14, Georgia 10 (1965): “I was on the staff here by then. Georgia dominated the game. They were ahead 10-7 in the fourth quarter. We could hardly get anything done. We got one last shot with just a couple of minutes to go in the game. We started on our 48. In two passes, [Gators quarterback Steve] Spurrier took us to a touchdown. The first one was to Charlie Casey and the second one was to Jack Harper. It was a really dramatic win.”
--Florida 17, Georgia 16 (1967): “Richard Trapp made a catch over on the sideline by our bench over on the west side of the field and zigzagged his way through eight people who should have tackled him and scored on the far other side of the field in the corner to win that game for us. And Bill Kastelz, the sports editor of the Times-Union, the next day wrote that [Trapp] zigged and zagged and did everything but the Mambo as he went across the field. That was a big-time win for us.”
--Florida 38, Georgia 7 (1990): “Gosh, in the '90s we had so many great wins. I like the 1990 game because Steve Spurrier came in and announced in the spring that if we're ever going to be a legitimate contender in the SEC, we had to start beating Georgia. Vince Dooley had dominated us and we had to start beating Georgia. There was just no reason that we shouldn't beat them. He said, 'The game is in the Gator Bowl, it's played in the state of Florida, and it's at a critical time in the conference race. And we beat them bad. [Spurrier] went on to win 11 out of 12 against Georgia.''
