1969 'Super Sophs' squad to celebrate 45th anniversary
Friday, October 10, 2014 | Football, Soccer, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Together they shared an amazing bond. What the 1969 Florida football team accomplished that season, with its star-studded rookies and talented upperclassmen, instantly became one of the great stories in Gators lore.
But it wasn't until a few years later, at the wedding of offensive tackle David Peek in Ocala, Fla., that a different bond was forged. A lasting one that locked in on friendships and keeping memories alive.
“Everybody was there and we had a such a great time,” recalled Mac Steen, an offensive guard and senior on that '69 squad. “We had so much fun we decided to get together every five years.”
Happy 45th anniversary, fellas.
This weekend, more than 50 members of UF's 1969 team, whose 9-1-1 record and defeat of Tennessee in the Gator Bowl stood as the gold-standard of Florida seasons until Steve Spurrier returned to coach his alma mater, will gather once again for golfing, barbecuing, story-telling and football-watching.
A group that includes the iconic “Super Sophs” -- quarterback John Reaves, fullback Mike Rich, running back Tommy "Touchdown" Durrance and wide receiver Carlos Alvarez (all pictured above), among others -- will be recognized from their seats during Saturday night's Florida-LSU game. Any Gators fans unaware of the imprint the '69 team put on the program, take note. 
It was as spectacular as it was explosive.
“We didn't really know what we had,” recalled Steen, now 66 and an orthodonist in DeLand. “You're always cautiously optimistic, but I don't think anyone could have foreseen a season like that. No one.”
That's because 1968 was supposed to be the so-called “Year of the Gator.” Instead, the team went 6-3-1 with a 51-0 loss to Georgia. Heading into '69, one preseason publication cited UF in "bottom 20" teams in the nation.
Florida returned some good players, especially on the offensive line and across the defense, but the the skill-position spots on offense were being turned over to a bunch of guys who had never tasted varsity SEC football.
What's more, in the run-up to training camp, rumblings commenced that Coach Ray Graves would step down at the end of the season, prompting staff members to wonder about their futures. Offensive coordinator Ed Kensler stepped down a month before the start of camp to go into private business and replaced by receivers coach Fred Pancoast.
Pancoast's first order of business was trashing Kensler's I-formation system and installing a wide-open, pass-happy attack that few saw coming.
Including the Houston Cougars.
Houston, out of the Southwest Conference, was ranked No. 7 in the nation, but Playboy magazine crowned the Cougars as its preseason pick to win the national championship. A season opener at Florida barely registered a blip on the nation's relevance radar.
After being promoted to offensive coordinator, Pancoast paid a visit to the New York Jets training camp -- mere months after the Joe Namath-led shocking upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III -- and was intrigued by the club's downfield, vertical schemes. He brought them back to Gainesville and wasted no time testing the Gators' version against Houston's base two-deep zone.
UF ran its first two plays out of that old I-formation, then on third-and-2 from the 30, Pancoast called “69 Fade,” with Alvarez (above left) splitting that Houston deep-deep and running free 10 yards behind the Cougars secondary and hauling in a perfect strike from Reaves for a 70-yard touchdown.
It was the first of five Reaves TDs that day, as the Cougars were befuddled by UF's downfield aggression.
Final: Florida 59, Houston 34.
Six times that season, the Gators scored at least 31 points. They beat Florida State 21-6 in Week 3 and clobbered Miami 35-16 in the regular-season finale. The "Super Sophs" got most of the headlines -- "The glory guys, the ones that touched the ball, they were the ones to get the fancy nicknames," Steen said -- but that Florida team had a bunch of outstanding players on the offensive line, like captains Steen and Tom Abdelhour (pictured right), and defensive stars such as Steve Tannen and Jack Youngblood.
[Little-known fact: UF's lone defeat that season was a 38-12 rout at Auburn, which in turn was crushed 38-7 in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl ... by Houston.]
That first game -- and the season and the memories it launched -- is what longtime Gators remember.
“That's the game everybody talks about,” Steen said.
The guys that made it possible will be talking about and reliving it a lot this weekend. And again in 2019. And beyond.
