Gator Bowl Memories
By Jim Joanos
It is bowl time again. Florida State will play Virginia Tech in this year's issue of the Gator Bowl classic in Jacksonville. Going to bowl games is one of the great pleasures of being an FSU fan. Lately, it is expected that FSU would play in a bowl game each year. FSU's selection this year is the 20th straight year that the team will play a post season game. It has not always been that way. In the earlier years, because there were not a large number of bowls, and, because the team was not always good enough or popular enough to be selected, FSU was often left out during the holiday season. Folks that have been around awhile are still very appreciative when FSU is invited to play in the post season.
Going to the Gator Bowl has been especially enjoyable. This will be FSU's fifth Gator Bowl game. Because of its close proximity to most of the school's alumni, fans and students, the Gator Bowl has been a bowl that Seminole fans could attend easily and inexpensively. Consequently, the Gator Bowl games have always been well attended by FSU fans. Jacksonville, as a host town, boasts a lot of social activities and offers an entertaining environment in which to enjoy some post Christmas celebrating. In addition, all four of the previous games have not only been thrilling but ended favorably for FSU. FSU's record for the Gator Bowl games is three wins and one tie. It has been sixteen years since FSU's supporters last enjoyed the Gator Bowl post season festivities.
JANUARY 2, 1965: FLORIDA STATE 36, OKLAHOMA 19. The Gator Bowl following the 1964 season was the first bowl game that FSU fans attended in large numbers. It was only the fourth bowl game in FSU history. The first three bowls were the Cigar Bowl (after the 1949 season), the Sun Bowl (after the 1954 season), and the Bluegrass Bowl (1958). When those games were played, it had not yet become customary for large groups of fans to travel with the team. In addition, the Sun Bowl was in El Paso and the Bluegrass Bowl was in Louisville, and neither place was easily accessible.
The 1965 Gator Bowl was one of the most important games in FSU history. FSU had gone 8-1-1 during the regular season under Bill Peterson as head coach. The team featured the legendary defense that was called the "seven magnificents" and the "forgotten four". To this day, old timers compare FSU defenses to that group. The offense was fueled by the great passing combination of Steve Tensi to Fred Biletnikoff. Tensi to Biletnikoff was FSU's first really great passing combination. Coach Peterson's effective utilization of the forward pass during that season would stimulate much of the college football world to go more to the pass in the years that followed the 1964 season. Peterson would receive much acclaim as a pioneer in college football for building his offense around the passing game. Bobby Bowden also had a hand in that highly acclaimed passing attack. A young assistant at the time, he was FSU's receivers coach. The 1964 season also marked the first time that FSU had been considered among the best football teams in the country. The season had included an early, wonderful, homecoming victory over Kentucky, 48-6, when the Wildcats had come into Campbell Stadium ranked number five in the country. There was also a victory over Georgia on the road, 17-14. In the last game of the regular season, FSU beat the University of Florida for the first time in the modern era. FSU people were enthusiastic going to the Gator Bowl to play Oklahoma, one of the big time programs. They went by car, bus and train. On a beautiful, sunny afternoon, FSU beat Oklahoma in a most spectacular way. Quarterback Tensi completed 23 0f 36 passes for 303 yards and five touchdowns. His favorite receiver, Biletnikoff, FSU's very first consensus All-American, caught 13 of those passes, 4 for touchdowns.
Both teams had to play the game shorthanded. FSU's kicker during the year, Les Murdock, was not available for the game. Consequently, although FSU scored six touchdowns during the game, they did not make a single extra point. An FSU fullback was also held out because of academics. Oklahoma had four players, including future NFL stars Lance Rentzel and Ralph Neely, declared ineligible for the game because they had previously signed professional contracts.
Both, Tensi and Biletnikoff signed professional football contracts on the field following the game. Frank Pope remembers that he sat behind Al Davis, President of the Oakland Raiders and Weldon "Babe" Starry, a Tallahassee attorney during the game. Davis had come to sign Biletnikoff. Starry, a former chairman of the Seminole Boosters, was there to assist Biltenikoff in the signing transaction. From the stands, we could see the Biletnikoff signing near one of the goal posts.
DECEMBER 30, 1967: FLORIDA STATE 17, PENN STATE 17. The 1967 football season was full of surprises. The Seminoles, coached by Bill Peterson, opened the season by losing to Houston in the Astrodome, 33-13. In the next game, they shocked the football world by tying Alabama at Legion Field in Birmingham, 31-31. Then almost as surprising, they lost to North Carolina State at home, 20-10. So, after three games, the team stood 0-2-1. Few would have predicted that the 1967 Seminoles would not lose again. But that is what happened. After six straight victories, FSU played Florida at Florida Field in the last game of the season. Going into the game, the word was out that the winner would be invited to the Gator Bowl. FSU took an early lead based on Ken Hammond's passing. But then in the second quarter, Hammond was knocked out after being tackled by the facemask. He would not return to the game until the fourth quarter. By then, Florida had gained the momentum of the game. And then, like a knight on a horse, Hammond came to the rescue. In three plays, two of them passes to FSU's All-American Ron Sellers, Hammond took the Seminoles the length of the field for a touchdown. Consequently, FSU won, 21-16, and, soon thereafter, got the bid to the Gator Bowl.
Coming off that dramatic victory, the FSU fans poured into the Gator Bowl for a matchup with Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions. Jacksonville was filled with garnet and gold. There were even car antenna pennants that urged "Sellers for President" and "Hammond for Governor".
The game was one of two distinct halves. Penn State won the first half 17-0.
I remember the disappointed feeling that FSU fans had at half time. One of my friends, Cliff Gwynn, who was sitting in the row behind me suggested that some of us switch seats to bring the team good luck. To humor him, some of us did. The Seminoles rallied in the second half. To this day, when things are going bad for the Seminoles, I look for somebody to switch seats with.
The game is best remembered for the gamble that Joe Paterno, Penn State's coach, made and lost. Early in the third quarter with his team up, 17 to 0, it was fourth and inches for the Nittany Lions on their own 15 yard line. Paterno chose to go for it, but the Seminoles held. Three plays later, FSU scored for the first time in the game on a Kim Hammond to Ron Sellers pass. From then on, FSU did the only scoring. With 17 seconds to go in the game, FSU was still behind 17-14. FSU had the ball, but it was fourth down and five yards to go on the Penn State 15 yard line. Peterson sent Grant Guthrie in and he kicked the field goal for the 17-17 tie.
Frank Pope considers the 1967 Gator Bowl as his favorite of the FSU bowl games. He would, as he was National Chairman of Seminole Boosters that season and as such was included in a lot of the inner workings. He still treasures one of the Waltham watches with the Gator Bowl logo that was presented to each member of the team and a few supporters at a ceremony at the team hotel after the game, although the watch has not worked in a long time. Pope remembers how an elated group of Boosters chided Coach Peterson for kicking the field goal for the tie rather than trying to score a touchdown and win. They were, of course, just kidding. Coach Peterson was understandably not about to take a chance on failing to get the tie when his team had fought so valiantly in coming form behind against Penn State.
DECEMBER 30, 1982: FLORIDA STATE 31, WEST VIRGINA 12. In 1982, FSU went 8-3 during the regular season. Satisfying victories had come at Ohio State, 34-17, at Miami, 24-7, and at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 24-17, where the Seminoles had avenged a 58-14 trouncing the previous year in Tallahassee by Mississippi Southern. The three losses had been to Pittsburgh, LSU, and Florida. An 8-3 season at the time would not have been bad, however, the way the last two games of the season were lost, had cast a shadow upon the season. In the next to last game, the team sporting an 8-1 record went to Baton Rouge to play LSU. Word was out that the winner would get an Orange Bowl bid, while the loser would go to the Gator Bowl. The game started out relatively even but then the dam broke. FSU made some mistakes and LSU romped to a 55-21 victory amid a shower of oranges being hurled onto the field which was immersed in a Mississippi River fog. Matters got worse in the last game of the season when FSU was upset at home by Florida, 13-10. At one time, the Seminoles had led in the game 10-0, but lost in the last moments when Florida's placekicker kicked a twenty-two yard field goal to win the game.
Consequently, despite a good 8-3 record, FSU limped into the Gator Bowl to play the University of West Virginia. My wife and I went over to the Jacksonville area a couple of days before the game to partake of the pre-game activities. We stayed with a large group of FSU fans at Amelia Island. In contrast to the rather quiet, reserved Seminole fans, there was also an equally large group of Mountaineer fans staying at the same resort. Unlike the FSU fans, the WVU fans were quite boisterous and enthusiastic but nice folks. Many of them were from the mountains of West Virginia. They had saved money for the trip and looked at the experience as a rare opportunity to go to "Florida" and follow their beloved football team. Some of them sported felt hats with big ears to symbolize the "mountaineers" or "eers"(Get it ?). After all, their team was ranked 10th in the country and highly favored to win the game.
The game had an especially interesting aspect to it. FSU's Bobby Bowden had come to FSU after being the head coach at West Virginia.
Game night seemed to fit the mood that most FSU fans were in. It was raining and it was cold. I recall sitting down after the playing of the National Anthem into a puddle of ice cold water that had accumulated in the recessed seat.
Highlights of the first quarter included FSU's Philip Hall kicking a field goal and then the blocking of a West Virginia attempted field goal by FSU defensive tackle Alphonso Carrerker. However, early in the second quarter, WVU tied it up with a field goal. But then on the ensuing kickoff, Seminole Billy Allen took it on the 5 yard line and went 95 yards for a touchdown. The Seminoles led the rest of the way and finished up with a 31-12 overwhelming victory. FSU's rushing leader was the game's MVP, Greg Allen, who ran for 138 yards and scored two touchdowns. Blair Williams, FSU's quarterback, also had a great game. He had been a surprise starter for the game. He was selected, apparently, because of the rain and his ability to throw under those conditions. He ran from the shotgun formation for most of the night.
Following the game we hurried back to Amelia Island where the resort was having a joint party for WVU and FSU fans. It was great to get out of the rain and cold and into the hall where the party was being held. When my wife took off the new garnet colored leather gloves that she wore to the game, we discovered that her hands from the wrists to the fingers were dyed garnet. It would ultimately take days and lots of soap to remove the discoloration. We were also surprised and very impressed as to how well the Mountaineer fans took the loss. They were really classy about it.
DECEMBER 30, 1985: FLORIDA STATE 34, OKLAHOMA STATE 23. The last time that FSU played in the Gator Bowl was in 1985 when it beat Oklahoma State 34-23.
The Seminoles with the motto, "Find a Way" started the 1985 season on a high note with a 4-0 record. This included a 17-13 upset victory over Nebraska in Lincoln. But in the fifth game, FSU lost to Auburn 59-27. During the game, FSU's outstanding sophomore quarterback, Danny McManus was hurt. He would play very little after that. In the games following, the Seminoles tried three other quarterbacks, before settling on Chip Ferguson, a true freshman. The regular season ended with an 8-3 record as FSU beat the remainder of their opponents after Auburn, except Miami and Florida.
Similar to the 1982 Gator Bowl, the 1985 trip to Jacksonville, was a rather subdued event for FSU fans. A regular season that had started out full of promise had turned into a good but not great one. Among FSU fans, not much was said about going to the game, but in the end many found their way to Jacksonville to cheer on their beloved Noles. Optimism waned when it was learned that FSU's three most prolific pass receivers, Hassan Jones, Darrin Holloman, and Philip Bryant would not be available for the game. Oklahoma State had a very potent offense which featured Running Back Thurman Thomas. The future pro had rushed for 1553 yards during the regular season.
But the game went well for Florida State. Oklahoma State's vaunted offense was held in check. Seminole Deion Sanders, a freshman at the time, gave a hint of what the future would be like in making a key interception in the second half when the Cowboys tried to run a flea flicker play. Running backs Tony Smith and Victor Floyd did some nifty running behind some great blocking by Jamie Dukes and the rest of the offensive line. Young wide receiver Herb Gainer, stepped up. He caught six passes including two for touchdowns. FSU's freshman quarterback, Chip Ferguson, received honors as the most valuable player of the game. Until this year, that was the last time that FSU started a freshman quarterback. In the game, Ferguson threw for 338 yards and two of the touchdowns.
The game is also remembered for the surprising offensive game plan that FSU utilized. Without its three most prolific pass receivers, everyone expected FSU to go with a running attack. But Coach Bowden, as he has been so prone to do through the years, fooled everybody by passing on 15 of the first 20 offensive plays. Ferguson's passing combined with Tony Smith's running (201 yards on 24 carries) provided the inertia for FSU to rack up 34 points to the opponents 23.
JANUARY 1, 2002: FLORIDA STATE ??, VIRGINIA TECH ??. Florida State's bowl game this year will be in the Gator Bowl where FSU has enjoyed four of the most thrilling games in its history. Those games were especially fun for fans as they were as accessible as this one will be. I expect that this year's Gator Bowl game will be as memorable for FSU people as were the four previous times when FSU has gone to play for the Gator Bowl Championship. See you in Jacksonville.