Florida Gators

"Some say it began in the spring of 1918 when soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas, burned tons of manure. A gale kicked up. A choking dust storm swept out over the land. A stinging, stinking yellow haze. The sun went dead black in Kansas. Two days later, on March 11, 1918, an army private reported to the camp hospital before breakfast. He had a fever, sore throat, headache, nothing serious. One minute later, another soldier showed up. By noon, the hospital had over 100 cases. In a week, 500. That spring, 48 soldiers, all in the prime of life, died at Fort Riley." – Actress Linda Hunt, narrating the documentary "Influenza 1918" on PBS.
 

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In the dusty annals from the early days of Gators football, so much seems so out of place in today's world. Annual games against schools such as Rollins, Mercer and Stetson in the program's first decade of existence. Nebulous opponents with names like Gainesville AC (Athletic Club), Columbia AC and Olympics.

Still, by the time the UF football program kicked off its second decade, the schedule had started to resemble one that would make sense in 2020. For instance, during the five-game season of 1916, the Gators played Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn and Indiana. They managed to score only three points all season but started to develop a stronger competitive base.

Other than 1943, when the University of Florida did not field a team due to World War II while some other schools did, UF has been represented by a football team every fall since 1906. Even so, each time I scan the year-by-year results in the media guide, my eyes stop on 1918.

The 100-year anniversary of that season inspired a look back at head coach Alfred Leo Buser in November 2018 and how World War I impacted the long-forgotten Gators coach. If you are a history buff, you know World War I was the predominant reason college football did not play a normal season in 1918. Buser and most of the players from the previous year's team had war obligations.

But that wasn't the only reason. The Spanish Influenza pandemic that year disrupted the plans of those schools with enough young men left on campus to field a team.

In Florida's case, the Gators are credited with playing only one game that season, the only time in program history that has happened.



 

More than 100 years later, as we navigate life during the coronavirus pandemic, some of the same concerns facing America today – and whether college football will be played this fall – are being debated daily by politicians in the headlines, on social media and by the general public.

Based on the current landscape, the final answer does not appear imminent.

So while we wait, time for some historical perspective on what transpired during the Gators' one-game season of 1918. I searched far and wide in the UF archives and other sources to find out answers to some questions I've always had when I stumble upon that abbreviated season in the record book.

Some answers remained elusive. Others proved easier to discover.

For starters, in the Gators media guide and in many newspaper stories over the years, whenever Florida's 1918 season is referenced, the opponent is often cited as Camp Johnson. In fact, the opposing team represented Camp Johnston, which was located where Naval Air Station Jacksonville resides today. The base's official name was Camp Joseph E. Johnston and it was an army training center commissioned in October 1917.

Based on news reports of the day, it was not unusual for UF students headed into the military to assist in the country's World War I efforts to make a stop at Camp Johnston prior to their deployment.

The camp not only provided military training, but it offered a variety of athletic opportunities and fielded its own football and baseball teams. The baseball team occasionally hosted an exhibition game against a major league team headed north for the season according to reports.

Despite the location of the Florida-Camp Johnston game listed as Gainesville in the media guide, it appears the game actually took place at Camp Johnston. Here is a synopsis of the 1918 UF football season from the Seminole, UF's annual yearbook in those days.
 
There is also a discrepancy in the score and the date of the game. According to the year-by-year results of Gators football, Camp Johnston won 14-2 on Oct. 5, 1918. If the game happened that day, there seems to be no record to be found in the resources available on Newspapers.com and the UF library system online. Numerous cross-referenced searches came up empty.

As for the Spanish Influenza epidemic's impact on UF, this news item ran in the Oct. 5, 1918, edition of the St. Petersburg Times: Meanwhile, as referenced above in the recap from the yearbook, Camp Johnston reportedly defeated the Florida team 12-0 on Thanksgiving Day, which in 1918 fell on Nov. 28. In searching news reports, there is proof of a big game at Camp Johnston on that day but not involving a Gators team comprised of players from the school's Student Army Training Corps.

A preview of the upcoming game in the Nov. 25, 1918, edition of the Tampa Times starts off in hyperbolic fashion below:

ARCADIA, Nov. 25 – Jacksonville is to be the scene of one of the greatest football games ever played in the state and it will rank with any even ever polled off in the South, because of the prominence of the men who are to take part in the game. The players will be lieutenants from the aviation camps here, who are from the leading colleges and universities of the Unites States, against a picked eleven from Camp Johnson [sic], Jacksonville.

On the Friday following Thanksgiving, the Nov. 29, 1918, edition of the Tampa Tribune carried the following report:

Ohio State star Chick Harley was the featured player according to the story.

Meanwhile, the day was filled with extracurricular activities such as a flyover and the presence of General Duvall, the commanding officer at the camp.

As for the presence of a Gators team or an official report from their game on that day, my lengthy search struck out other than for the season recap from the yearbook. Several cross-referenced searches for any news report from the Florida-Camp Johnston produced nothing. 

Thankfully, the exercise did uncover some items that provide more historical context of the era and just how different the 1918 season was at Florida. The Seminole yearbook, which can be found online in the UF library system, uncovered the best finds.

Here are historical tidbits you may find interesting, starting with the organization of the SATC and the role it played during the 1918-19 school year on campus from the Seminole:
   

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In regard to today's events, this is a recent tweet from longtime college football writer Tony Barnhart that provides an image from a Georgia Tech football game from that season and fans taking precaution against the influenza pandemic ...
 

Here is a photo of an undetermined Georgia Tech home game during the 1918 college football season. That's when the sport was hit by the Spanish flu and the end of World War I. The photo was taken by a student, Thomas Carter. It was provided by Georgia Tech alumnus Andy McNeal. pic.twitter.com/jgVvgtlUbK

— Tony Barnhart (@MrCFB) May 6, 2020

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Another report in the 1918-19 Seminole yearbook that touches on the impact of World War I at UF ...

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