Mindful of the 120th anniversary of the first Georgia-Florida football game, the following is an updated version of a story we’ve published before—an account or an explanation for why the Gators dismiss that initial meeting between the two teams in 1904.
For as long as anyone can remember, there has been a discrepancy between the Georgia and Florida football programs regarding their series record. Whereas the Bulldogs declare they have a 56-44-2 all-time advantage, the Gators claim to only trail 44-55-2. The one meeting between the two schools in dispute was played in 1904 in Macon by a University of Florida squad, which evidently is not acknowledged by the school as a "true" Florida Gators team.
Leading up to the 1906-07 academic year, the assets and academic programs of four separate institutions in the state of Florida, including the University of Florida in Lake City, were consolidated to form what we know of today as the University of Florida in Gainesville. Still, the university claims it was established in 1853 when the first of the predecessor institutions was opened. Yet, the school does not recognize any football results prior to the school's move to Gainesville from Lake City in 1906.
Therefore, the five Florida football teams from 1901 to 1905, all located in Lake City, have been disregarded in the team's history.
Notably, just prior to the 1903 football season, the school at Lake City began referring to itself as the "University of Florida," as did the media from that point going forward. That year, the Florida football team won just one of three games.
The next season, in 1904, the school recorded likely one of the worst campaigns in the history of Southern football, losing all five of its contests by a combined 225-to-0 score. To illustrate how bad the 1904 University of Florida football team must have been, it was defeated by Georgia, 52-0, in a 30-minute game (two 15-minute halves) and back when touchdowns were worth five points. The same team that annihilated Florida would play five more games the rest of the year, lose them all, and by a combined 68-to-16 score.
In 1905, and while actually featuring a “Fightin’ Florida” marching band, the Florida football team appeared for only one game. Against the Julian London Institute, the team refused to take the field for the second half after discovering the opposing squad fielded a professional player. The game was suspended with Florida leading 6-0.
Florida finally began acknowledging their football history upon the relocation to Gainesville the following year. Thus, what Georgia claims is the rivalry's second game—a 37-0 win over Florida in 1915—is what the Gators actually believe to be the first. Or what most Gators believe to be the first.
In 1941, Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union identified the 1904 Georgia-Florida game, and not the 1915 contest, as “the No. 1 game in the famous series.”
In 1974, Tom McEwen, a Florida graduate and then-sports editor of the Tampa Tribune, wrote the book, The Gators: A Story of Florida Football. For years, McEwen's book was considered the "bible" of the school's football history. In the back pages, under "Florida's Past Scores," listed are the team's historical results—and included are the games from 1901 to 1905:
Also in the 1970s, Dr. William Rowlett, a respected physician and governmental leader in Tampa, was interviewed at the age of 91 prior to his death. Dr. Rowlett, who was captain of the 1904 University of Florida team, recalled, “We played in Alabama . . . Georgia, and we played Georgia Tech. I remember we were the first University of Florida team to play those schools, to travel so far.”
Indeed in 1904, Florida lost to Alabama, 29-0, and Georgia Tech, 77-0, and like Georgia, both the Crimson Tide and Yellow Jackets recognize the games in their records. But the University of Florida does not, citing its then location of Lake City as the rationale.
UGA legendary coach and historian Dan Magill, the greatest Bulldog of them all, might have put it best when summing up Georgia’s position on the disputed game in 1904: “That’s where Florida was back then. We can’t help it if they got run out of Lake City.”
There's a notion that if the University of Florida football team, whether located in Lake City, Gainesville, or any other place for that matter, had achieved a better mark than its actual 3-9-1 record from 1901 to 1905, perhaps the results would be counted by the school, including the game against Georgia in 1904. However, apparently taking advantage of somewhat of a gray area, the Gators have rather decided their football history began in 1906 when they started a streak of 10 consecutive winning campaigns.
“Oh, I remember some of the players [from the 1904 Florida team], like Ruey Cason, John Lykes, and the Bridges boys,” Dr. Rowlett said. “It all meant a great deal to me.”
Although the Florida players and coaches from the pre-Gainesville teams have long passed away, like Dr. Rowlett, they would likely want their efforts to be recognized—even if primarily losing efforts, like a 52-0 loss to Georgia. Instead, the efforts of these men, who sweated and bled while playing football under the “University of Florida” name, have seemingly been dismissed by the Gators.
