Gators Great Emmitt Smith

New for 2010:   GatorsNow.com will  feature the “Gators Vault” where we take a look back in the past in the Florida Gators history book. For the first installment, I had to choose  the player that made me a Gators fan when I was growing up.

Before he was a Gator,  Emmit was a star at Escambia High School in Pensacola, Florida. Smith rushed for 106 touchdowns and 8,804 yards.

Emmitt was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 1987 and also finished ninth the Heisman voting that year. A unanimous first-team All-American selection in 1989,  he  finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy. In his years as a Gator, he was a three-time first-team All-Southeastern Conference pick. With a 1,599 yards and 16 touchdowns,  he was voted SEC Player of the Year in 1989. Smith broke 58 school records, and compiled 3,928 yards and 36 touchdowns in only three seasons as a Gator.

Emmitt Smith scores a 7 yd TD against LSU on 10/03/87.

Emmitt Smith did not break the starting line up in his first two games of his college career, but he made the most of his carries in those first two games. In his second game versus Tulsa,  Smith got 10 carries for 109 yards, and broke one for a 66 yard touchdown.

In his first start versus Alabama, Smith introduced himself to Gator fans by breaking Florida’s all-time single game rushing record. He was a work horse that day,  carrying the ball 39 times for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Gators upset the Crimson Tide. Smith went on to break the 1000-yard barrier in the 7th game of his freshman season, the fastest any running back had ever broken that barrier to begin his college career.

Smith injured his knee against Memphis State in his sophomore season. The Gators got off to a 5-0 start with Smith healthy but lost the the Memphis St game which began  a four game losing streak with Smith unable to play.   Emmitt finished the 1988 season with 988 rushing yards.

1989 was a much different season for Emmitt. He ended up setting the University of Florida record for rushing yards in a season at 1,599, rushing yards in a single game by piling up 316 versus New Mexico, longest rushing play by breaking one for 96 yards against Mississippi State in 1988, career rushing yards 3,928 (which is still 2nd all-time), and career rushing touchdowns with 36. In all, Smith owned 58 school records at the conclusion of his Florida career.

Emmitt Smith scores a 19 yd TD against LSU on 10/07/89.

Smith was subsequently inducted into the Gator Football Ring of Honor and the College Football Hall of Fame. Emmitt left school early, but he returned to the University of Florida  in 1996 to earn his degree in Public Recreation.

The “Gator flop” occurred during a 1971 NCAA football game between the Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes. In the final minutes of the game, Gator John Reaves needed to throw just another 14 yards to break the all-time NCAA career passing record. The members of the Gators’ defense dropped to the turf so that the Hurricanes could gain possession and take the ball to the other end of the field. After the Hurricanes scored a touchdown, the Gators recovered the ball and Reaves threw a pass to break the record. — Courtesy of www.wolfsonarchive.org

Highlights of the University of Kentucky Wildcats against the University of Florida Gators at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington on November 15th, 1986. UK quarterback Bill Ransdell set a single-game UK record for completion percentage, completing 20 of his 23 passing attempts (87%). UK went on to win the game 10-3, and is the last time that UK has defeated Florida in football.

From Humble Beginnings To The Top Of The College Football Mountain.

Dr. Kevin McCarthy’s Historic Photos of University of Florida Football takes Gators’ fans on a visual history of the Florida Gators Football program. This book is a must have for any Gators fan and should be displayed proudly on your coffee table. With the success of the Gators Football program in the last few years, there are lots of new fans that may not be aware of Ray Graves, Steve Spurrier the player, and the early years of the program.

Historic Photos of University of Florida Football starts out by taking the reader on a journey back to the program’s modest beginnings. The University of Florida official records have the football program starting in 1906, but Dr. McCarthy was able to dig up photos of the building blocks of Gators football dating back to 1902. It is refreshing to see those early photos from the turn of the 19th century when the players battled on the fields with little more than a leather helmet and shoulder pads smaller than any woman had on in the 1980’s. Those early teams were not the most dominant of the era, but they did lay the foundation for Gators Football.

The 1930’s ushered in a new era for the Gators when University President John Tigert III set a priority to build Florida Field. Any fan today has the image of “The Swamp” ingrained in his or her mind, but it is shocking to see that home started out as a field the size of most high school stadiums these days. Also during this time, the Gators took their game on the road to play colleges in the Northeastern part of the US. We take for granted the ease of travel today, but back then each of these road games was an adventure and McCarthy captures some of these early trips.

After World War II, the reader sees the team photos start to grow, both in the number of the players and the size of the players who suited up as Florida Gator. McCarthy does a great job of capturing the accelerated change of the game. These photos of the post WWII era just feel like the players are moving faster. This era also began a time known for its cheesy staged photos. It was very popular to have a Gator on a leash, and one of the best staged photos is on page 120 with Steve Spurrier on the shoulders of Coach Ray Graves and another unnamed coach.

Its safe to say that a book on the Gators reviewed by a Gator fan is going to get rave reviews, but I would love to see some more of the post 1996 Gators in the book. All Gators fans need to have the three years of the Zook regime captured in print. What better way to to keep us humble with this great run of success than to remind us of the tough times in the recent past. Also, I feel is hard to consider a complete history of the Gators without the shot of Chris Leak holding the Waterford Crystal football in his hands or any photo of Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow complete.

Historic Photos of University of Florida Football is now on sale and is available on Amazon. If you have a Gator fan on your Christmas list, then you are already finished shopping for him or her. If you’ve just jumped on the Gators bandwagon after BCS Championship number one or two, then this is a must read to show you the history of Gators football before Tim Tebow. In fact, I’ve been a Gators fan as long as I can remember and still learned a good deal about Gators Football from this book.

Bonus: Can you name the player on the cover of the book?

The inside scoop - I did not pay for this book and was asked to review it by the its publisher. The book was sent to me with no strings attached, and I was free to give my honest opinion of the book.

Here is some of Percy Harvin old High School highlights. Coach Meyer is good at finding talent, but it was safe to say after watching Percy here he was a very safe recruit. Havrin had 32 touchdowns (19 rushing, 13 receiving) in three seasons, and is the only player in Florida history to have 100 yards rushing and receiving in a game.

Ike Hilliard puts on one of the greatest moves of all time and breaks the ankles of two Florida State Defensive Backs. He finished his career at Florida with 126 receptions for 2,214 yards and 26 touchdowns. The video quality is not that great, but the move more than makes up for it.

The Florida Gators put together a game-winning drive to beat the #1 ranked FSU Seminoles 32-29 in “The Greatest Game played at the Swamp.” From Nov, 1997.

George Edmundson has been during his Mr. 2 Bits thing since 1949, and has sadly retired after almost 60 years of being a fixture at every UF home game.

2006 Championship QB Chris Leak

Florida first fielded an official football team in 1906. Since then, the Gators have played in 34 bowl games, won eight Southeastern Conference titles, produced 135 All-Americans coming into the 2006 season, 35 NFL first round draft choices and three Heisman Trophy winners.

The football team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which is frequently referred to by its former designation of Division I-A.

Florida plays an eight-game conference schedule, headlined by annual SEC Eastern division showdowns against Tennessee and Georgia, the latter being held in Jacksonville, Florida every year and formerly dubbed “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.” The SEC West team the Gators face every season is LSU. In addition, the team has a yearly out-of-conference meeting with in-state rival Florida State at the end of the season.

The football team has been one of the winningest in Division I-A/FBS since 1990, the year Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier returned to his alma mater as head coach. The 1996 team, led by another Heisman winner, Danny Wuerffel, went 12-1 and won the national championship game in the Sugar Bowl, avenging an earlier loss to rival Florida State.

Following the 2001 season, Spurrier left the program to try his hand at coaching in the National Football League. Ron Zook, at one time the defensive coordinator under Spurrier, was hired as his replacement. Zook’s squads were known for inconsistency, and he was fired midway through the 2004 season, following a loss to heavy underdog Mississippi State in Starkville, MS.

Urban Meyer was announced as Florida Football’s new head coach in December 2004. His first season in 2005 brought an immediate improvement of Florida’s record at 9-3. The team narrowly missed out on playing for the SEC title due to a shocking loss to Spurrier’s new team, the South Carolina Gamecocks. Continue Reading