I had intended to do this last season, but things piled up, and so I waited until this season.
Before You Go. Jacksonville is in Florida. It's frequently hot, even during the Winter season. But for this game, Jacksonville.com, the website of North Florida's largest newspaper, the Jacksonville-based Florida Times-Union, is predicting low 70s for the weekend afternoons, and mid-50s for the evenings. They're predicting rain for Friday, but not Saturday.
Florida is a former Confederate State, and the parts of Florida north of the Tampa Bay region sure seem like a foreign country. But you won't need to bring your passport or change your money. And it's in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to fool with your timepieces.
Tickets. You may have to pay through the nose for this one. The game has gotten over 83,000 every year since the new Jacksonville stadium opened. StubHub has tickets for as low as $70, mostly for between $70 and $80.
At the University of Florida, tickets are usually $100 in midfield, and $80 in the end zone. At the University of Georgia, tickets sell out well in advance, so if you want to see a game there, it'll have to be next season at the earliest. Those seats that are not snapped up by students and alumni are $55.
Getting There. It's 942 miles from Times Square in New York to TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida; 1,010 miles to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida; and 826 miles to Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. Knowing this distance, your first reaction is going to be to fly down there.
This will be a lot easier to Jacksonville than to either of the college towns. You could get a round-trip, nonstop flight for a little over $600. The airport is 14 miles north of downtown, almost halfway from downtown to the Georgia State Line. Bus 1 will get you downtown in less than an hour.
To get to Gainesville, you may actually have to fly to Jacksonville, and rent a car to go the remaining 81 miles southwest -- or to Orlando, and drive the remaining 122 miles northwest. To get to Athens, you may have to fly to Atlanta and rent a car to go the remaining 75 miles northeast.
The train is not a very good idea, because Amtrak does not go to Athens or Gainesville. It does go to Jacksonville, but you'll have to leave Penn Station on Amtrak's Silver Star at 11:02 AM on Friday and arrive in Jacksonville at 6:39 on Saturday morning, a 19 1/2-hour ride. The return trip on the Silver Star will leave at 11:03 PM Saturday and return to New York at 6:50 PM Sunday. Round-trip, it'll cost $288. And the station isn't all that close, at 3570 Clifford Lane, 5 miles northwest of downtown. Bus 3 will get you downtown in a little over half an hour.
How about Greyhound? There are 3 buses leaving Port Authority every day that go to Jacksonville. The ride, including the changeovers, takes about 25 hours. Round-trip fare is $402, but it can be cut by nearly in half to $266 with advanced purchase. The station is at 10 N. Pearl Street, downtown.
Gainesville: $321, 103 NW 23rd Avenue, about 3 miles northeast of campus, and you'd need to walk half a mile west and then take Bus 6. Athens: $181, 4020 Atlanta Highway, a whopping 6 miles west of campus, take Bus 20 or 21.
If you want to drive, it'll help to get someone to go down with you, and take turns driving. You'll be going down Interstate 95 (or its New Jersey equivalent, the Turnpike) almost the whole way. It'll be about 2 hours from the Lincoln Tunnel to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, 20 minutes in Delaware, and an hour and a half in Maryland, before crossing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, at the southern tip of the District of Columbia, into Virginia.
Then it will be 3 hours or so in Virginia, another 3 hours in North Carolina, about 3 hours and 15 minutes in South Carolina, a little under 2 hours in Georgia, and about half an hour in Florida before you reach downtown Jacksonville. Given rest stops, preferably in one in each State from Maryland to Georgia, you're talking about a 24-hour trip.
To Gainesville: Get to Jacksonville, then take Interstate 10 West to to Exit 343, for U.S. Route 301 South, which will get you into Gainesville. It's an additional hour and a half, so, 25 and a half hours.
To Athens: Go as if you were going to Atlanta. Take the New Jersey Turnpike/I-95 all the way from New Jersey to Petersburg, Virginia. Exit 51 will put you on Interstate 85 South. But instead of taking I-85 all the way into Atlanta, get off at Exit 164, and take Georgia Route 106 into Athens.
You'll be in New Jersey for about an hour and a half, Delaware for 20 minutes, Maryland for 2 hours, inside the Capital Beltway (Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia) for half an hour if you're lucky (and don't make a rest stop anywhere near D.C.), Virginia for 3 hours, North Carolina for 4 hours, South Carolina for about an hour and 45 minutes, and Georgia for about 45 minutes. That's about 14 hours, or 18 hours counting rest stops.
Once In the City. A lot of people don't realize it, because Miami is Florida's most famous city, but the most populous city in the State is Jacksonville. However, while Miami has about 425,000 people within the city limits, there are 6.5 million living in the metro area, making it far and away the largest in the South, not counting Texas. In contrast, Jacksonville has about 913,000 people, but only 1.6 million in its metro area. It ranks 30th in NFL markets, ahead of only Buffalo and New Orleans. It would rank dead last in both MLB (31st) and MLS (27th), and close to it in the NBA (28th) and the NHL (27th).
The city was 70 percent white as recently as the 1990 Census, but is now about 55 percent white, 31 percent black, 8 percent Hispanic and 4 percent Asian.
The French first settled the area in 1561, but the Spanish took it away from them in 1565. It was given to Britain in a 1763 treaty, back to Spain in another treaty in 1783, and Spain ceded it to the U.S. in 1821. Formerly known as Fort Caroline, for the wife of King George III, it was renamed for the U.S. Army General who conquered Florida, Andrew Jackson.
Florida was the 27th State admitted to the Union, on March 3, 1845; the 3rd State to secede from the Union in the run-up to the American Civil War, on January 10, 1861; and the 3rd former Confederate State to be readmitted to the Union, on June 25, 1868.
The sales tax in Florida is 6 percent. ZIP Codes in Jacksonville and the surrounding area begin with the digits 320, 322 and 344. The Area Code is 904. The St. John's River bisects the city, but it is Bay Street, 2 blocks north of the River, that divides addresses into North and South, and Main Street into East and West. JEA, the Jacksonville Electrical Authority, runs the electricity.
The Jacksonville Skyway is a monorail system around downtown, similar to Detroit's PeopleMover and Miami's Metromover, with the difference being that it's free. The Jacksonville Transportation Authority runs it, and also runs the buses, which have a single-ride fare of $1.50. A 1-day StarCard is $4.00. Florida East Coast Railway runs service from Jacksonville to Miami, with intermediate stops in St. Augustine, Fort Pierce and West Palm Beach.
Gainesville was founded in 1869, and was named for General Edmund P. Gaines, commander of U.S. Army troops in Florida early in the Second Seminole War (1835-42). The Gainesville Sun is the local newspaper.
Of its 132,000 people, 59 percent are white, 24 percent black, 10 percent Hispanic and 7 percent Asian. Its racial history isn't as troubled as Miami's or Tampa Bay's. But on January 1, 1923, the Rosewood Massacre took place, about 50 miles southwest of Gainesville. Rosewood had been a primarily black self-sufficient whistle stop on the Seaboard Air Line Railway. But accusations that a white woman in nearby Sumner had been assaulted by a black man led a white mob to destroy the town, killing 150 people.
University Avenue divides street addresses into North and South, and Main Street into East and West. The city does not have a beltway. The Area Code is 352, and ZIP Codes start with 326. Gainesville Regional Utilities runs the electricity. The Gainesville Regional Transit System runs buses, including Gator Aider to take fans to UF football games, and Later Gator that runs until 3:00 AM. The fare is $1.50.
Century Tower, UF's tribute to students and alumni
lost in World Wars I and II
Aside from the football players I'll get to in "Team History Displays," its notable athletes include:
* Baseball: Cleveland Indians All-Star 3rd baseman and former Yankee general manager Al Rosen, Boston Red Sox catcher and general manager Haywood Sullivan, his son and also a Red Sox catcher Marc Sullivan, 1987 Minnesota World Series catcher Steve Lombardozzi, Yankee All-Star catcher Mike Stanley, Yankee pitcher and pitching coach (now Met pitching coach) Dave Eiland, San Francisco Giants All-Star 2nd baseman Robby Thompson, 2002 Anaheim and 2006 St. Louis World Series hero David Eckstein, and Montreal Expos outfielder and 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Brad Wilkerson. While he never played the game professionally, Yankee co-owner Hal Steinbrenner is also a UF graduate, probably because he grew up in Tampa.
* Basketball: Houston Rockets title-winner Vernon Maxwell; Miami Heat title-winners Jason Williams, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller; former Knick turned Golden State Warriors title-winner David Lee, fomer Knick Joakim Noah, Boston Celtics All-Star Al Horford, and Los Angeles Sparks star and 2000 and 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist DeLisha Milton-Jones.
* Soccer: Olympic Gold Medalists and Women's World Cup winners Heather Mitts and Abby Wambach.
* Swimming, with their Olympic Gold Medal years listed: Catie Ball 1968, Tracy Caulkins 1984, Theresa Andrews 1984, Geoff Gaberino 1984, Mike Heath 1984, Mary Wayte 1984, Dara Torres 1984 (still winning medals as late as 2008), Matt Cetlinski 1988, Troy Dalbey 1988, Duncan Armstrong 1988 (Australia), Anthony Nesty 1988 (Surinam), Nicole Haislett 1992, Lea Loveless 1992, Janie Wagstaff 1992, Ashley Tappin 1992 and 2000, Witney Hedgepeth 1996, Darian Townsend 2004 (South Africa), Ryan Lochte 2004 and 2008, Dana Vollmer 2004 and 2012, Conor Dwyer 2012, and Caeleb Dressel 2016.
* Track & Field, with their Olympic Gold Medal years listed: Frank Shorter 1972 (marathon), Dennis Mitchell 1992, Bernard Williams 2000, Kerron Clement 2008, Christian Taylor 2012.
* Sportswriters: Israel Gutierrez.
* Sportscasters: Red Barber, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, Erin Andrews, Jenn Brown.
* Science: Computer pioneers John Atanasoff, Philip Estridge ("Father of the IBM PC") and Manuel Fernandez (essentially invented the laptop); Louis MacDowell, co-creator of frozen concentrated orange juice. (Trading Places fans, take note); and, I suppose he counts as a scientist, This Old House creator and former host Bob Vila.
* Business: Douglas Leigh, a pioneer in outdoor advertising, creator of Times Square's advertising signs; Alexander Grass, founder of Rite Aid; Melinda Lou Thomas-Morse, a.k.a. Wendy Thomas, daughter of Dave Thomas and namesake of his burger chain; Bill France Jr., former President of NASCAR (you'll notice I don't include him with the sports personalities, because auto racing is not a sport).
* Journalism: Forrest Sawyer, and WPIX-Channel 11 weather forecaster Linda Church.
* Literature: Carl Hiaasen, Rita Mae Brown, Michael Connelly, Frances Mayes.
* Entertainment: Singers Mel Tillis, Johnny Tillotson, Stephen Stills, and David and Howard Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers); actors Buddy Ebsen, Patrick O'Neal, Faye Dunaway, Wil Shriner, Darrell Hammond, Rain Phoenix and Adrian Pasdar; and directors Hugh Wilson and Jonathan Demme.
* Politics, representing Florida unless otherwise stated: Governors Farris Bryant, Spessard Holland, Charley Johns, Daniel McCarty, Wayne Mixson, Fuller Warren, Lawton Chiles, Reubin Askew, Bob Graham, Buddy MacKay, and Beverly Perdue of North Carolina; U.S. Senators Holland, Chiles, Graham, Charles O. Andrews, George Smathers, John East of North Carolina, Connie Mack III (grandson of the Philadelphia Athletics manager, and his son Connie IV served in the U.S. House), Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio; Congressmembers Joe Scarborough (now host of Morning Joe on MSNBC), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee), and Tom Rooney (grandson of Pittsburgh Steelers founding owner Art Rooney); current Mayors Lenny Curry of Jacksonville, Buddy Dyer of Orlando, and Rick Kriseman of St. Petersburg.
The British Colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733, and named for the monarch at the time, King George II. The southernmost of the Original 13 Colonies, it was the 4th State to ratify the Constitution of the United States, on January 2, 1788; the 5th State to secede from the Union in the run-up to the American Civil War, on January 19, 1861; and the last of the 11 former Confederate State readmitted to the Union, on July 15, 1870.
Atlanta became majority-black in the 1960, and is now the 4th-largest majority-black city: About 51 percent black, 41 percent white, 4 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian. The northern half of the city is mostly white, the southern half mostly black. As a major center for both black filmmaking and hip-hop, Atlanta is, essentially, the Black Hollywood.
Both the Hispanic and the Asian populations of the city have more than doubled since 2000. And, with 12.8 percent of the population willing to classify themselves as gay or bisexual, Atlanta has the 3rd-highest gay percentage of any major city in America, behind San Francisco and Seattle.
Athens, Georgia was founded in 1801, as a site for the University of Georgia, which had been chartered in 1785. (Supposedly, the reason their teams are called the Bulldogs is because the school had been founded by missionaries from Yale University, whose teams are also called the Bulldogs. Of course, both names are late 19th Century creations.)
With classical education in mind, the city was named for the capital of Greece, whose ancient civilization was so beloved by educators. But it became known for its "alternative music" scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, led by bands The B-52's and R.E.M.
Athens is home to about 126,000 people, about 64 percent white, 27 percent black, 6 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian. The Area Code is 706, with 762 overlaid, and ZIP Codes start with 306. The sales tax in Georgia is just 4 percent.
Georgia Power provides the electricity. The Athens Banner-Herald is the daily newspaper. U.S. Route 78 (to the south of the city) and Georgia Route 10 (to the north) form a sort of a beltway. Broad Street divides addresses into North and South, and Lumpkin Street into East and West. Athens Transit runs buses, with a $1.75 fare. UGA Campus Transit is free.
The University's abbreviation is never "UG," always "UGa," which led to the Bulldog mascot being named Uga. Among its non-football athletes are 1940s Yankee pitcher Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler, Chicago White Sox infielder Gordon Beckham, basketball legends Dominique Wilkins and Teresa Edwards, and Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Missy Franklin. The school also produces sportscasters Chip Caray and Ernie Johnson Jr., both children of Atlanta Braves broadcasters. Notable alumni in other fields include:
* Music: Bill Anderson, Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, Michael Houser of Widespread Panic, and all 4 members of R.E.M.: Singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry.
* Acting: Sonny Shroyer, Kyle Chandler, Wayne Knight, Ryan Seacrest, James Michael Tyler, Josh Holloway, Tituss Burgess. So, Enos from The Dukes of Hazzard, Newman from Seinfeld, and Gunther from Friends.
* Politics, representing Georgia unless otherwise stated: Governors Howell Cobb, Herschel Johnson (later a Confederate Senator), James Johnson, Alexander Stephens (he had been the Confederacy's Vice President), John B. Gordon, William Y. Atkinson, William J. Samford of Alabama, John M. Slaton, Nathaniel E. Harris, Richard Russell, Eugene Talmadge and his son Herman Talmadge, Ellis Arnall, Melvin E. Thompson, Ernest Vandiver, Carl Sanders, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes and Sonny Perdue (current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture); Senators Russell (a major Senate Office Building is named for this powerful segregationist), Herman Talmadge (but not Eugene), Miller, William C. Dawson, Phil Gramm of Texas and Saxby Chambliss.
* Journalism: Charlayne Hunter-Gault (she and Dr. Hamilton Holmes, an orthopedist, were the 1st 2 black graduates of the school, Class of 1961), Lewis Grizzard, Deborah Norville, Deborah Roberts (a.ka. Mrs. Al Roker), Amy Robach and Julie Moran.
Going In. Jacksonville Municipal Stadium opened in time for the Jaguars' 1995 preseason debut. It was renamed Alltel Stadium in 1997, for a now-defunct wireless service provider. In 2006, its original name was restored. In 2010, it was renamed EverBank Field, and with EverBank being acquired by TIAA Bank (standing for "Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association") earlier this year, it's now TIAA Bank Field. Like a few other facilities, including Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, is nicknamed "The Bank."
The field has always been natural grass, even when it was the Gator Bowl, and runs (more or less) north-to-south. It hosted Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, with the New England Patriots beating the Philadelphia Eagles. The Gator Bowl game, has been played there since 1996.
And the annual game between the universities of Florida and Georgia, a.k.a. "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," has been played there since 1996. Being in Florida makes it hardly a neutral site, but the tickets are split right down the middle, as with such other neutral-site games like Texas vs. Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl.
The Gator Bowl game was played there from 1946 to 1993. The old North American Soccer League's New England Tea Men moved there from Foxboro in 1981, but after 2 seasons, the people of North Florida and South Georgia decided they didn't want to see a professional soccer team called the Jacksonville Tea Men.
The Beatles were scheduled to play the Gator Bowl on September 11, 1964. When they found out that the stands were going to be racially segregated -- and this was 2 months after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law -- they refused to play. John Lennon actually said, "We never play to segregated audiences, and we aren't going to start now. I'd sooner lose our appearance money." Whether this was Lennon's 1st "revolutionary" act is unclear, but the group, and manager Brian Epstein, were unanimous. The City of Jacksonville, owners of the stadium, relented, and the concert went on.
The U.S. national soccer team has played at the new Jacksonville stadium 5 times, all wins, most recently a World Cup Qualifier over Trinidad & Tobago on September 6, 2016. It played at the old stadium once, an exhibition game (or a "friendly") that was a warmup for the 1994 World Cup, a 1-1 draw with the former Soviet "republic" of Moldova. The U.S. women's team played there this past April 5, and beat Mexico 4-1.
UF's Florida Field opened in 1930, was renamed Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field in 1989, and Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2016. The official address is 157 Gale Lemerand Drive, about a mile and a half west of downtown. Bus 5. Don't drive in: Parking is a whopping $50.
I'll get to Spurrier in "Team History Displays." Ben Hill Griffin Jr. was a UF graduate who became a titan in food production in the State, served 12 years in the Florida legislature, ran for Governor in 1974 (losing the Democratic Primary to Reubin Askew), and was a major donor to the University. His son Ben III was also a major UF donor, and has a campus building named for him; and his son, Ben IV, now runs the company.
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Most people don't go through all those names, and just call the stadium by its nickname, also the nickname of the surgeons' tent on M*A*S*H: "The Swamp." It opened with 21,769 seats, was expanded to 40,000 in 1950, 46,000 in 1960, Spurrier's success as a player led the University to expand it to 62,000 in 1966, then it was 72,000 in 1982, Spurrier's success as a coach grew it to 83,000 in 1991, and in 2003 it reached its current official capacity of 88,548, making it the largest stadium in the State of Florida.
The field is aligned north-to-south, and, after having been Astroturf from 1971 to 1989, was changed back to real grass. It hosts the high school State Championships, and was a temporary home for the Tangerine Bowl in 1973 during construction at Orlando's Citrus Bowl, and for the Gator Bowl in 1994 while the Jacksonville stadium was being rebuilt.
There are no "seats" at Florida Field. The stands are all aluminum benches. Early in the season, they can be hot. They could get cold late in the season, if Florida got cold. StadiumJourney.com recommends bringing a seat cushion.
Starting in the 1970s, Florida Field hosted concerts, including for Bob Dylan, Elton John, The Eagles and Florida resident (Key West) Jimmy Buffett. But after a Rolling Stones concert in 1994, the University moved all future concerts to the adjacent basketball arena, the Exactech Arena at Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
Indeed, go 31 miles north or 38 miles west of the Jaguars' stadium, and you will be in Georgia. So don't expect a lot of bagels, pasta or Cuban sandwiches. More like barbecue and, as one of George Carlin's routines went, "How ya cook them grits?"
Okay, all joking aside: The concessions at TIAA Bank Field are rather ordinary. As with the west stand at Rutgers Stadium, there's stands at Sections 405 and 431 in the upper deck where you can get a turkey leg. There, and downstairs at 119, you can get a pork sandwich. At 142, a prime rib sandwich. There are a few stands selling Italian and Polish sausages. Other than that, no big deal, which is odd for a Southern stadium.
According to StadiumJourney.com, this is what food is like at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium:
Georgia goes whole hog -- or should that be "whole Dawg"? -- when it comes to chain foods: Chik-fil-A behind Sections 101, 123, 137, 143, 314 and 323; Dippin Dots at 102 and 140; Sonny's BBQ at 106 and 323; Kong Ice at 109; Papa John's pizza at 123, 222 and 323; Edy's Ice Cream at 123, 222, 322 and 324; and Subway at 139 and 323.
So the Florida-Georgia rivalry extends to brands: Gators, Domino's and Pepsi; Bulldogs, Papa John's and Coke. If I were deciding on this alone, I'd have to root for Florida. But Georgia won the National Championship when I was 10 years old, and I've had a soft spot for them ever since.
Which is a neat segue into...
Team History Displays. There's not much history to display. The 2017 season marked only the Jags' 3rd division title, winning the AFC South after winning the AFC Central in 1998 and 1999. They also reached the AFC Championship Game in 1996 as a Wild Card and in 1999 as Division Champions. And there's no display for these minor titles at TIAA Bank Field.
Nor do the Jags have any officially retired numbers. Since offensive tackle Tony Boselli retired in 2002, his Number 71 has not been given back out. Nor has the Number 28 of running back Fred Taylor since he was released in 2008.
There is a team hall of fame, the Pride of the Jaguars. Offensive tackle Tony Boselli, running back Fred Taylor, quarterback Mark Brunell, receiver Jimmy Smith, and original team owners Wayne and Delores Weaver have been elected to it.
Florida has been awarded the National Championship for the seasons of 1996, 2006 and 2008. They've been awarded 8 Southeastern Conference Championships. Well, 9: The 1st time they won it, in 1984, they were stripped of the title after infractions committed by Charley Pell were discovered. They've legitimately (as far as we know) won the SEC in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2008; and also won the SEC Eastern Division in 1992, 1999, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2016. Their 12 appearances in the SEC Championship Game is a record.
They've won 23 bowl games, including the Orange Bowl in 1966, 1998 and 2001; the Sugar Bowl in 1993, 1996 and 2009; and the BCS National Championship Game in 2007 and 2009 (for the 2006 and 2008 seasons).
Florida has had 3 Heisman Trophy winners, all quarterbacks: Steve Spurrier, 1966; Danny Wuerffel, 1996, coached by Spurrier; and Tim Tebow, 2007. Statues of all 3 were dedicated outside the stadium's west stand in 2011.
Despite being a star on their late 1980s teams, running back Emmitt Smith never finished higher than 7th in the Heisman voting. He would have been a contender for it in 1990, but Spurrier was hired as head coach, and, with his pass-first philosophy, Smith decided to turn pro. It was a good move: He won 3 Super Bowls and the 1993 NFL MVP, which has never been called, but is effectively, the pro Heisman.
Spurrier's Number 11 and 1970s linebacker Scot Brantley's Number 55 were once retired by the University, but Spurrier reissued them. Putting his own retired number back into circulation was a rare act of humility by "the Ol' Ball Coach."
Instead of retiring numbers, there is the Florida Football Ring of Honor, created in 2006 for the 100th Anniversary of UF football. The display is on the facade of the north end zone. The honorees are Spurrier, Wuerffel (7), Tebow (15), Smith (22), 1960s defensive end Jack Youngblood (74), and 1980s linebacker Wilber Marshall (88) -- but not Brantley.
There are 9 Gator players in the College Football Hall of Fame: Spurrier, Youngblood, Marshall, Smith, Wuerffel, 1920s end Dale Van Sickel, 1940s guard Marcelino Huerta, 1950s quarterback Doug Dickey, and 1970s receivers Carlos Alvarez and Wes Chandler. (Tebow is not yet eligible.)
Elected as head coaches have been Charlie Bachman (1928-32), Ray Graves (1960-69), Dickey (1970-78), and Spurrier (1990-2001). Dickey and Spurrier are 2 of the 4 men who have been elected to this Hall as both a player and a coach, along with Amos Alonzo Stagg and Bobby Dodd.
Other notable Florida players include 1950s running back Rick Casares, 1950s guard John Barrow, 1970s quarterback John Reaves (who later played under Spurrier on the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits), 1970s receiver Chris Collinsworth, 1980s quarterback Kerwin Bell (now head coach at Jacksonville University), 1980s offensive tackle Lomas Brown, 1980s defensive end Trace Armstrong, 1990s running backs Errict Rhett and Fred Taylor (the later Jaguars star), 1990s receivers Ike Hilliard and Reydel Anthony, 2000s cornerback Lito Sheppard, and, ultimately tragically, 2000s tight end Aaron Hernandez.
Notable college and pro head coaches who graduated from UF, in addition to some of the preceding, include Lindy Infante, Chan Gailey, Mike Mularkey, Todd Haley and Charlie Strong. Also UF graduates: Sportscaster and original Jets owner Harry Wismer, original Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, current Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, and current Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman.
The Florida Sports Hall of Fame is located at Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale, 186 miles south of Everbank Field.
Georgia won the National Championship in 1942 and 1980, each time with a running back that would win the Heisman Trophy: Frank Sinkwich, and freshman Herschel Walker, who went on to win it as a junior, and nearly lead them to another National Championship, in 1982.
They've won 15 Conference Championships. They won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1896 and 1920. They've won the SEC title in 1942, 1946, 1948, 1959, 1966, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 2005, 2015 and 2017. They've won the SEC East, but lost the SEC Championship Game, in 2003, 2011 and 2012; and tied for the Division title, but lost the tiebreaker for the Championship Game, in 1992 and 2007.
Georgia has won 31 of their 54 bowl games, including the Orange Bowl in 1942 and 1960; the Rose Bowl in 1943 and 2018; the Sugar Bowl in 1947, 1981, 2003 and 2008; and the Cotton Bowl in 1967 and 1984. They have not won the Fiesta Bowl.
They've retired 4 numbers: Sinkwich's 21, Walker's 34, the 40 of 1950s running back Theron Sapp, and the 62 of 1940s running back Charley Trippi.
There are 13 Bulldogs in the College Football Hall of Fame: Sinkwich, Trippi, Walker, 1910s running back Bob McWhorter, 1930s end Vernon "Catfish" Smith, 1930s running back Bill Hartman, 1940s quarterback John Rauch, 1950s quarterback Fran Tarkenton, 1960s defensive tackle Bill Stanfill, 1960s safety Jake Scott, 1980s safety Terry Hoage, 1980s placekicker Kevin Butler, and 1990s offensive tackle Matt Stinchcomb.
Trippi and Tarkenton have also been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At age 96, Trippi is the last surviving member of the 1947 NFL Champion Chicago Cardinals. Rauch would later coach the Oakland Raiders to the 1967 AFL Championship, losing Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers -- who adapted Georgia's oval "G" monogram as their own helmet logo. He returned to Georgia as an assistant with the Atlanta Falcons, and with a little irony, was one of Spurrier's assistants on the Tampa Bay Bandits. Stanfill and Scott would be teammates on the Miami Dolphins' Super Bowl VII and VIII winners.
Four of Georgia's head coaches have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Pop Warner (1895-96) and Jim Donnan (1996-2000), Bulldog bosses 100 years apart, were elected for coaching achievements elsewhere. But Wally Butts (1939-60, including the '42 title) and Vince Dooley (1964-88, including the '80 title) were elected for what they did for UGa.
Other notable Georgia football players include 1950s quarterback Zeke Bratkowski (later Bart Starr's backup on the 1960s Packers), 1950s guard Pat Dye (Tarkenton's former protector was an All-American before becoming Auburn's coach), 1990s running back Garrison Hearst, 1990s cornerback Champ Bailey, 1990s defensive tackle Richard Seymour, 2000s linebacker Boss Bailey (Champ's real name or Roland, and his brother Boss' real name is Rodney), and 2000s running back Knowshon Moreno.
Probably the most familiar names in Georgia football are that of Johnny Carson, an All-American end in 1953, and George Patton, an All-American defensive tackle in 1965. Not the longtime Tonight Show host and the World War II general: I said their names were familiar.
Actually, with Herschel Walker not having played a down of pro ball in over 20 years, the most familiar name of a Georgia Bulldog football player might be Bill Goldberg, a late 1980s linebacker who played 14 games for the Atlanta Falcons from 1992 to 1994, before becoming a professional "wrestler," an actor, and a TV show host.
The Florida-Georgia rivalry is known, due to the wide spread of cocktail parties in the Jacksonville stadium parking lot, as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." It's been played since 1915, and every year since 1926. Since 1933, it's been played in Jacksonville, except for the time of the stadium reconstruction there, and they traded home games: Gainesville in 1994, Athens in 1995.
Georgia dominated early on, going 21-4-1 from 1915 to 1948. From 1952 to 1963, Florida went 10-2. From 1971 to 1989, Georgia went 15-4. From 1990 to 2010, Florida went 18-3. Overall, Georgia leads the series 50-43-2. Since 2009, the schools have played for a trophy called the Okefenokee Oar.
Each school also has nasty in-State rivalries, Florida leads Florida State 34-25-2, and trails the University of Miami 29-26. The 3 teams play for the Florida Cup. Georgia leads their rivalry with Georgia Tech, a matchup known as "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate," 66-41-5. There is no trophy for that game. Both the UF-FSU game and the UGa-GT game usually take place on Thanksgiving Saturday. Georgia's rivalry with Auburn has been played since 1892, and is known as "The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry." Georgia leads it 58-56-8.
(UPDATE: Through the 2019 season, Florida leads Florida State 36-26-2, Georgia leads Florida 53-43-2, and Georgia leads Georgia Tech 68-41-5.)
Stuff. The Official Gator Sports Shop is in the northeast corner of the ground floor of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The University of Florida Bookstore is in the UF Welcome Center, at 1900 Museum Road, a 5-minute walk south of the stadium.
The Sanford Shop is at Gate 7, in the southeast corner of Sanford Stadium. The University of Georgia Bookstore is in the Tate Student Center, across Sanford Drive from Sanford Stadium's west end.
In 2013, Buddy Martin, who's written several books about Florida football, and Woody Paige, the Memphis native who wrote a sports column for the Denver Post and is the all-time leading winner on ESPN's Around the Horn, collaborated on The Boys from Old Florida: Inside Gator Nation. In 2006, UF released the DVD Gridiron Gators: The History of Florida Gator Football.
In 2008, Patrick Garbin published About Them Dawgs! Georgia Football's Memorable Teams and Players. The year before, UGa released the DVD Legends of the Georgia Bulldogs.
During the Game. As with any other college football game, especially in the South, and particularly so in rivalry games, stick with the home fans, and leave the visiting fans alone. If it's a "neutral site" game like this, where the tickets are split down the middle, pick one team and stick with them.
"A bulldog cemetery filled with former mascots"?!? I'll get to that later.
Florida occasionally wears "Swamp Green" jerseys, but usually wears blue at home, which clashes with their orange helmets, making blue & orange an eyesore that the Mets, the Knicks and the Islanders never dreamed of. Georgia usually wears red at home.
Florida's band is officially known as The University of Florida Fightin' Gator Marching Band -- an apostrophe instead of a G at the end of "Fightin'," but not "Marching" -- and unofficially known as The Pride of the Sunshine. They've won awards, but who's kidding who? They're the 4th best college band in the State. The 3rd best is Florida State. The 2nd best is Bethune-Cookman, a historically black school. And the very best is another HBCU, Florida A&M (FAMU).
The band's practice facility is the Steinbrenner Band Hall, so named before George and Joan Steinbrenner made a donation to UF, son Hal's alma mater. It includes the Stephen Stills Band Rehearsal Room, named for the UF alum and music legend (albeit rock and roll, not marching band).
At the start of the pregame show, they play the fight song "Orange and Blue," then form a block F, then the march "Men of Florida," then form an outline of the State, then the National Anthem, then the Alma Mater, then the "We Are the Boys March," then form a script "Gators" a la Ohio State's "Script Ohio." (Ohio State, Joan Steinbrenner's alma mater, also got big donations from her and George). They close with a reprise of "Orange and Blue" and "Suwannee."
Because of the fans' "Gator Jaws" gesture, they play the theme from Jaws. They play Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby" and Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me All." After every first down they play, "Da, da da, go, Gators!" They play another rendition of "We Are the Boys" at the end of the 3rd quarter, and the fans sway to the rhythm. In 2005, then-coach Urban Meyer started an end-of-the-game tradition, since taken up by each new coach, including the newly-hired Dan Mullen: He leads the team over to the band, shakes the band director's hand, and the band, the team, and the fans all sing the Alma Mater together.
Florida's mascot is Albert the Alligator -- a guy in a costume, not a real alligator. He's not one of the more memorable college mascots. With Georgia, it's a whole other story. It's practically a novel. Actually, the man behind it, Frank W. "Sonny" Seiler, a famous trial attorney in the coastal Georgia city of Savannah, was a character in a 1994 nonfiction book that many people mistakenly thought was a novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. (Australian actor Jack Thompson played him in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film version.)
In 1956, Seiler was a student at the University of Georgia School of Law, and was given a white bulldog puppy, said to be the grandson of a bulldog that went with the team to the 1943 Rose Bowl, when they won their 1st National Championship.
On September 29, 1956, Sonny and his wife Cecelia brought the dog to UGa's 1st home game of the season. The game was no big deal, the Dawgs beating Florida State 3-0. But Dan Magill, the school's sports information director, told head coach Wally Butts that, since the dog was a bulldog, it should become the official team mascot. Butts agreed, and, through the original's descendants, an Uga the Bulldog has been at every Georgia football game, home and away, for 62 years.
Ever since, Seiler, now 85, has bred these pure white bulldogs, and personally transported them from Savannah to the game site. That's not easy: Athens is 220 miles northwest of Savannah, and that's just for home games. Uga has an air-conditioned doghouse at Sanford Stadium, and is provided with ice bags, as bulldogs are susceptible to heatstroke. (This is the South, after all.) For away games, Seiler and Uga stay at the same hotel as the players.
Uga wears a red sweater with a black varsity letter G on it. In 1982, when Herschel Walker was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy (he won it), Seiler began the tradition of taking Uga (in that case, Uga IV) to the Heisman ceremony wearing a tuxedo. (Sonny wears a tux, or the dog?) Both. No, I'm not making that up.
In 1997, Sports Illustrated named Uga the nation's best college mascot.
When an Uga gets to be too old for this, he is "retired" in a pregame ceremony, and Seiler removes his spiked collar, and puts in on the dog's successor, usually a son, sometimes a grandson, and the Georgia fans chant, "Damn good dog!" Not their usual catchphrase, which is, "How 'bout them Dawgs!"
And when an Uga dies, he is interred in a mausoleum in the southwest corner of the stadium, where a bronze statue of Uga I stands. Before games, fans are invited to leave flowers at the tomb of the mascot from their college days. Their epitaphs are as follows:
* Uga I, 1956-66: "Damn Good Dog."
* Uga II, 1966-72: "Not Bad for a Dog."
* Uga III, 1972-81: "How 'Bout This Dawg." Served during the 1980 National Championship season.
* Uga IV, 1981-90: "The Dog of the Decade." The one who got taken to New York, got a doggie tux put on him, and saw Herschel get the Heisman.
* Uga V, 1990-99: "Nation's Best College Mascot." That title was bestowed upon the Ugas by Sports Illustrated in 1997, and Uga V was put on the cover. (He didn't seem to suffer The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx, though. Nor did the team, which went 10-2 that year.) He's probably the best-known version, for reasons good and not so good. He portrayed his father, Uga IV, in the film version of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." In 1996, he lunged at Auburn receiver Robert Baker after scoring a touchdown, the only instance of an Uga attacking a person in 62 years. Other than that, the worst offense has been barking at other mascots who come over to see him. He also once injured himself jumping off his hotel room bed.
* Uga VI, 1999-2008: "A Big Dog For a Big Job, and He Handled It Well."
* Uga VII, 2008-09: "Gone Too Soon," as he was the briefest-serving mascot yet, until...
* Uga VIII, 2010-11: "He Never Had a Chance," as he developed canine lymphoma, and died after just 6 games, including an overtime loss to Florida and a shootout win over Georgia Tech.
* Uga IX, 2011-15: "He endeared himself to the Georgia people. His dedication to duty when called upon was exemplary." A half-brother of Uga VII, he had to fill in for his brother late in the 2009 season, and for his nephew Uga VIII on New Year's Eve 2010, as Georgia lost to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. After Uga VIII died, his uncle was "given a battlefield promotion," and went from backup mascot to official mascot for 5 years, until his own death.
* Uga X, the current mascot, a grandson of Uga IX.
Ugas I, II, IV, V and VI have each lasted 10 seasons. This seems to be the upper limit, as 10 years is the average lifespan of a bulldog.
In 1981, Hairy Dawg was added, named for the cheer, "Go, you hairy dawgs!" He's a guy in a costume, and he wears a Number 1 jersey.
Georgia is often called the Heartland of the South. So why does the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band play "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the Union song of the American Civil War? They don't. They use the melody -- which Julia Ward Howe had taken from "John Brown's Body," about the leader of a failed slave rebellion shortly before the war -- but the lyrics make it quite clear who the song celebrates: "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia."
The band is introduced over the public address system with, "Keep your seats, everyone: The Redcoats are coming!" They spell out "GEORGIA" (in ALL CAPS), play "Let's Go Dawgs," anD form an Arch, in honor of the campus landmark, the Georgia Arch, and then plays "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia," the Alma Mater, and the National Anthem.
The north stand shouts, "Georgia!" and the south stand answers "Bulldogs!" This repeats a few times. When this is done, a celebrity, often a former Georgia player, will lead the crowd in a chant: "Goooooooo Dawgs! Sic 'em!" Then the band forms an outline of the State, plays the official fight song "Hail to Georgia," stops so the pregame video "It's Saturday In Athens" plays on the scoreboard, and then plays "Glory, Glory" again as the team comes onto the field. They also play "Glory, Glory" after every 1st down and every score.
After the Game. TIAA Bank Field is one of those venues which is not only not in a bad neighborhood, it's not in any neighborhood. I don't know how rough the surrounding area is, but the highways in the parking lot act as buffers anyway, so you have no reason to worry about the safety of yourself or your car.
As for where to go after the game, I can't be sure. I checked for area bars where New Yorkers gather, and the closest I came was finding a 2008 reference for Jet fans at a Beef O'Brady's. But it's now a Woody's Bar-BQ, and if you're a Jet fan, you probably don't like owner Woody Johnson, so do you really want to go to a place called Woody's?
The Gators Den Sports Grill is the most popular hangout for UF fans. 4200 NW 97th Blvd. But it's kind of, as they would say in the South, a fur piece: 7 1/2 miles northwest of the stadium. You could get there by public transportation, but not on weekends, which means, for postgame, you'd have to drive.
For postgame dining, UGa recommends their Visitor Center, at 405 College Station Road, a mile and a quarter south of the stadium. Two of the more renowned Bulldog fan restaurants are Fuzzy's, a Mexican restaurant at 265 N. Lumpkin Street; and Bar South at 104 E. Washington Street. Both are downtown, about a mile north of the stadium.
If you visit Jacksonville during the European soccer season (we're now in it), the leading "football pub" in town is Culhane's, at 967 Atlantic Blvd. in Atlantic Beach, 15 miles east of downtown and a mile in from the Atlantic Ocean. Bus 10. In Gator country, it's the Gainesville House of Beer, at 19 W. University Avenue, downtown. Bus 5 from campus. In Bulldog land, it's The Royal Peasant, at 1675 S. Lumpkin Street, about a mile and a half south of downtown and a mile and a half southwest of the stadium.
Sidelights. Jacksonville is home to the NFL's Jaguars. The nearest NBA team is the Orlando Magic, 113 miles; the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 130 miles; MLB, the Tampa Bay Rays, 151 miles; MLS, Atlanta United, 346 miles.
The nearest NFL team to Gainesville is the Jaguars, 84 miles; the NBA, the Magic, 113; the NHL, the Lightning, 130; MLB, the Rays, 151; and MLS, Atlanta, 346.
The nearest MLB, NFL, NBA and MLS city to Athens is Atlanta, 71 miles. The nearest NHL team is the Nashville Predators, 306 miles. It's 340 miles from Athens to Jacksonville, and 344 miles between Athens and Gainesville.
The nearest minor-league baseball team to Sanford Stadium is the Gwinnett Stripers, the Triple-A farm team of the Braves, 44 miles east in Lawrenceville. The closest to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, 84 miles northeast.
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If you stick to either the Florida Gators or the Georgia Bulldogs, and stay away from the other, a visit to "The World's Largest Cocktail Party" can be a grand sporting experience. If you'd prefer seeing a home game at either campus, you might be better off.
Both the Hispanic and the Asian populations of the city have more than doubled since 2000. And, with 12.8 percent of the population willing to classify themselves as gay or bisexual, Atlanta has the 3rd-highest gay percentage of any major city in America, behind San Francisco and Seattle.
Which is not to say that Atlanta, and Georgia in general, have been free from strife. It's still the South. The Camilla Massacre in Camilla, southwest Georgia, on September 19, 1868 resulted in the deaths of 15 people, black and white alike, attempting to assist black people in voting during the post-Civil War period known as Reconstruction. Atlanta was struck by a race riot on September 22, 1906, killing 25 black people and 2 white people. A race riot struck Augusta, the eastern Georgia city that is home to the Masters golf tournament, on May 11, 1970, resulting in 6 deaths.
And, 15 miles east of Atlanta, Stone Mountain Park opened on April 14, 1865 -- 100 years to the day after Abraham Lincoln was shot, and that is no coincidence. In 1972, a sculpture was unveiled on its north face, showing Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on horseback. The carving of these 3 traitors to the United States of America is larger than that of the 4 Presidents on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
One thing that people tend to forget: The movie Deliverance, with its psychopathic hillbillies, is often thought to take place in West Virginia. In fact, it's set in Georgia, and was filmed on the Chattooga River, which separates eastern Georgia from western South Carolina, and on both sides of the river.
Athens, Georgia was founded in 1801, as a site for the University of Georgia, which had been chartered in 1785. (Supposedly, the reason their teams are called the Bulldogs is because the school had been founded by missionaries from Yale University, whose teams are also called the Bulldogs. Of course, both names are late 19th Century creations.)
With classical education in mind, the city was named for the capital of Greece, whose ancient civilization was so beloved by educators. But it became known for its "alternative music" scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, led by bands The B-52's and R.E.M.
Athens is home to about 126,000 people, about 64 percent white, 27 percent black, 6 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian. The Area Code is 706, with 762 overlaid, and ZIP Codes start with 306. The sales tax in Georgia is just 4 percent.
Georgia Power provides the electricity. The Athens Banner-Herald is the daily newspaper. U.S. Route 78 (to the south of the city) and Georgia Route 10 (to the north) form a sort of a beltway. Broad Street divides addresses into North and South, and Lumpkin Street into East and West. Athens Transit runs buses, with a $1.75 fare. UGA Campus Transit is free.
Park Hall, UGa's administration building
The University's abbreviation is never "UG," always "UGa," which led to the Bulldog mascot being named Uga. Among its non-football athletes are 1940s Yankee pitcher Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler, Chicago White Sox infielder Gordon Beckham, basketball legends Dominique Wilkins and Teresa Edwards, and Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Missy Franklin. The school also produces sportscasters Chip Caray and Ernie Johnson Jr., both children of Atlanta Braves broadcasters. Notable alumni in other fields include:
* Music: Bill Anderson, Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, Michael Houser of Widespread Panic, and all 4 members of R.E.M.: Singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry.
* Acting: Sonny Shroyer, Kyle Chandler, Wayne Knight, Ryan Seacrest, James Michael Tyler, Josh Holloway, Tituss Burgess. So, Enos from The Dukes of Hazzard, Newman from Seinfeld, and Gunther from Friends.
* Politics, representing Georgia unless otherwise stated: Governors Howell Cobb, Herschel Johnson (later a Confederate Senator), James Johnson, Alexander Stephens (he had been the Confederacy's Vice President), John B. Gordon, William Y. Atkinson, William J. Samford of Alabama, John M. Slaton, Nathaniel E. Harris, Richard Russell, Eugene Talmadge and his son Herman Talmadge, Ellis Arnall, Melvin E. Thompson, Ernest Vandiver, Carl Sanders, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes and Sonny Perdue (current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture); Senators Russell (a major Senate Office Building is named for this powerful segregationist), Herman Talmadge (but not Eugene), Miller, William C. Dawson, Phil Gramm of Texas and Saxby Chambliss.
* Journalism: Charlayne Hunter-Gault (she and Dr. Hamilton Holmes, an orthopedist, were the 1st 2 black graduates of the school, Class of 1961), Lewis Grizzard, Deborah Norville, Deborah Roberts (a.ka. Mrs. Al Roker), Amy Robach and Julie Moran.
The Georgia Arch
Going In. Jacksonville Municipal Stadium opened in time for the Jaguars' 1995 preseason debut. It was renamed Alltel Stadium in 1997, for a now-defunct wireless service provider. In 2006, its original name was restored. In 2010, it was renamed EverBank Field, and with EverBank being acquired by TIAA Bank (standing for "Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association") earlier this year, it's now TIAA Bank Field. Like a few other facilities, including Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, is nicknamed "The Bank."
Note the Jaguar statue in front.
The official address is 1 TIAA Bank Field Drive, but it's basically an island in a sea of parking, with elevated highways on 3 sides: The Arlington Expressway to the north, the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to the east, and the Hart Bridge Expressway to the south. To the west, on Franklin Street, is a Veterans' Memorial Wall. It's about a mile and a half east of downtown. Bus 31. If you drive in, parking is $30.And the annual game between the universities of Florida and Georgia, a.k.a. "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," has been played there since 1996. Being in Florida makes it hardly a neutral site, but the tickets are split right down the middle, as with such other neutral-site games like Texas vs. Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl.
Florida orange and blue on the left, Georgia red on the right
It was built on the site of the city's previous stadium. It opened in 1928 as the 7,600-seat Fairfield Stadium, and was renamed the Gator Bowl upon its 1948 expansion to 36,000 seats. It was expanded to 62,000 in 1957, 72,000 for the Jacksonville Sharks of the ill-fated World Football League in 1974, and 80,126 in 1984, for the also-ill-fated United States Football League's Jacksonville Bulls and the hopes that it could attract an NFL team.
The Gator Bowl game was played there from 1946 to 1993. The old North American Soccer League's New England Tea Men moved there from Foxboro in 1981, but after 2 seasons, the people of North Florida and South Georgia decided they didn't want to see a professional soccer team called the Jacksonville Tea Men.
The Gator Bowl, during the 1965 game. Georgia Tech beat Texas Tech.
The old Coliseum and Wolfson Park can be seen in the background.
The Beatles were scheduled to play the Gator Bowl on September 11, 1964. When they found out that the stands were going to be racially segregated -- and this was 2 months after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law -- they refused to play. John Lennon actually said, "We never play to segregated audiences, and we aren't going to start now. I'd sooner lose our appearance money." Whether this was Lennon's 1st "revolutionary" act is unclear, but the group, and manager Brian Epstein, were unanimous. The City of Jacksonville, owners of the stadium, relented, and the concert went on.
The U.S. national soccer team has played at the new Jacksonville stadium 5 times, all wins, most recently a World Cup Qualifier over Trinidad & Tobago on September 6, 2016. It played at the old stadium once, an exhibition game (or a "friendly") that was a warmup for the 1994 World Cup, a 1-1 draw with the former Soviet "republic" of Moldova. The U.S. women's team played there this past April 5, and beat Mexico 4-1.
UF's Florida Field opened in 1930, was renamed Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field in 1989, and Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2016. The official address is 157 Gale Lemerand Drive, about a mile and a half west of downtown. Bus 5. Don't drive in: Parking is a whopping $50.
There are no "seats" at Florida Field. The stands are all aluminum benches. Early in the season, they can be hot. They could get cold late in the season, if Florida got cold. StadiumJourney.com recommends bringing a seat cushion.
Starting in the 1970s, Florida Field hosted concerts, including for Bob Dylan, Elton John, The Eagles and Florida resident (Key West) Jimmy Buffett. But after a Rolling Stones concert in 1994, the University moved all future concerts to the adjacent basketball arena, the Exactech Arena at Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
"The O'Dome" opened in 1980, and was named for the University's president from 1967 to 1973. The Gators have reached 5 Final Fours: 1994, 2000, 2006, 2007 and 2014. Under coach Billy Donovan, they won back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and 2007, still the last team to do so. Not only that, but when the football team won the National Championship on January 8, 2007, it made UF the 1st school ever to hold both titles simultaneously. When the Gators repeated as basketball's National Champions, it made them the 1st school ever to win both in the same schoolyear.
But while Florida/Spurrier/Griffin Stadium is the biggest stadium in Florida, Georgia's Sanford Stadium is even bigger. It opened in 1929 with 30,000 seats, was expanded to 36,000 in 1949, 43,000 in 1964, and 59,000 in 1980. The National Championship that season, boosted by freshman star running back Herschel Walker, led to an expansion to 82,000 seats, later to 86,000 by 1991, and the current 92,747 in 2004.
Steadman Vincent Sanford arrived at the University of Georgia to each English in 1903. He became faculty representative to the athletics committee, and the stadium was named for him in 1929. And this was before he became president of the University in 1932, and then chancellor of the University System of Georgia in 1935, a post he held until his death in 1945.
The address is 100 Sanford Drive, about half a mile south of downtown. Bus M or O. Parking is considerably cheaper than Florida's, only $20.
Unusual among major college football stadiums, due to the path of the Sun, the field is more or less aligned east-to-west, a horseshoe open at the west end. Also unusual, the field has always been real grass, never artificial.
From the beginning, privet hedges have encircled the field, an idea based on the rose hedges at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Privet proved to be better for the Southern climate. Other Southern stadiums have copied this, but Georgia remains the only school to have hedges completely surrounding the field. And so, a game at Sanford Stadium is said to take place "Between the Hedges."
When the 1996 Olympics were held in Atlanta, Sanford Stadium, despite the distance, was chosen to host the soccer tournaments, won by Nigeria (men's) and the U.S. (women's). Because a soccer field is wider than an American football field, the original hedges had to be removed. But cuttings were taken, grown at a farm in Thomson, Georgia, and these "children" of the original hedges were installed in time for the 1996 season, and remain there today.
Food. Miami is South Florida. Jacksonville is The South. Big difference. Florida is the opposite of the rest of the country: The further north you go, the redneckier it gets. (This is also true of Maine, Michigan, California once you get above the Bay Area, and Nevada once you get past Las Vegas.) Pretty much anything north of the Orlando Science Center, north of downtown Orlando, might as well be Hazzard County, which was apparently in rural Georgia.
Indeed, go 31 miles north or 38 miles west of the Jaguars' stadium, and you will be in Georgia. So don't expect a lot of bagels, pasta or Cuban sandwiches. More like barbecue and, as one of George Carlin's routines went, "How ya cook them grits?"
Okay, all joking aside: The concessions at TIAA Bank Field are rather ordinary. As with the west stand at Rutgers Stadium, there's stands at Sections 405 and 431 in the upper deck where you can get a turkey leg. There, and downstairs at 119, you can get a pork sandwich. At 142, a prime rib sandwich. There are a few stands selling Italian and Polish sausages. Other than that, no big deal, which is odd for a Southern stadium.
According to StadiumJourney.com, this is what food is like at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium:
Georgia goes whole hog -- or should that be "whole Dawg"? -- when it comes to chain foods: Chik-fil-A behind Sections 101, 123, 137, 143, 314 and 323; Dippin Dots at 102 and 140; Sonny's BBQ at 106 and 323; Kong Ice at 109; Papa John's pizza at 123, 222 and 323; Edy's Ice Cream at 123, 222, 322 and 324; and Subway at 139 and 323.
So the Florida-Georgia rivalry extends to brands: Gators, Domino's and Pepsi; Bulldogs, Papa John's and Coke. If I were deciding on this alone, I'd have to root for Florida. But Georgia won the National Championship when I was 10 years old, and I've had a soft spot for them ever since.
Which is a neat segue into...
Team History Displays. There's not much history to display. The 2017 season marked only the Jags' 3rd division title, winning the AFC South after winning the AFC Central in 1998 and 1999. They also reached the AFC Championship Game in 1996 as a Wild Card and in 1999 as Division Champions. And there's no display for these minor titles at TIAA Bank Field.
Nor do the Jags have any officially retired numbers. Since offensive tackle Tony Boselli retired in 2002, his Number 71 has not been given back out. Nor has the Number 28 of running back Fred Taylor since he was released in 2008.
There is a team hall of fame, the Pride of the Jaguars. Offensive tackle Tony Boselli, running back Fred Taylor, quarterback Mark Brunell, receiver Jimmy Smith, and original team owners Wayne and Delores Weaver have been elected to it.
Florida has been awarded the National Championship for the seasons of 1996, 2006 and 2008. They've been awarded 8 Southeastern Conference Championships. Well, 9: The 1st time they won it, in 1984, they were stripped of the title after infractions committed by Charley Pell were discovered. They've legitimately (as far as we know) won the SEC in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2008; and also won the SEC Eastern Division in 1992, 1999, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2016. Their 12 appearances in the SEC Championship Game is a record.
Florida has had 3 Heisman Trophy winners, all quarterbacks: Steve Spurrier, 1966; Danny Wuerffel, 1996, coached by Spurrier; and Tim Tebow, 2007. Statues of all 3 were dedicated outside the stadium's west stand in 2011.
Also on the wall outside the stadium is a plaque titled "Tebow's Promise." On September 27, 2008, Florida lost to the University of Mississippi at home. At the postgame press conference, Tebow made a promise to Gator fans that is now inscribed on the plaque. He kept that promise, leading them to the National Championship.
Spurrier's Number 11 and 1970s linebacker Scot Brantley's Number 55 were once retired by the University, but Spurrier reissued them. Putting his own retired number back into circulation was a rare act of humility by "the Ol' Ball Coach."
Instead of retiring numbers, there is the Florida Football Ring of Honor, created in 2006 for the 100th Anniversary of UF football. The display is on the facade of the north end zone. The honorees are Spurrier, Wuerffel (7), Tebow (15), Smith (22), 1960s defensive end Jack Youngblood (74), and 1980s linebacker Wilber Marshall (88) -- but not Brantley.
There are 9 Gator players in the College Football Hall of Fame: Spurrier, Youngblood, Marshall, Smith, Wuerffel, 1920s end Dale Van Sickel, 1940s guard Marcelino Huerta, 1950s quarterback Doug Dickey, and 1970s receivers Carlos Alvarez and Wes Chandler. (Tebow is not yet eligible.)
Elected as head coaches have been Charlie Bachman (1928-32), Ray Graves (1960-69), Dickey (1970-78), and Spurrier (1990-2001). Dickey and Spurrier are 2 of the 4 men who have been elected to this Hall as both a player and a coach, along with Amos Alonzo Stagg and Bobby Dodd.
Other notable Florida players include 1950s running back Rick Casares, 1950s guard John Barrow, 1970s quarterback John Reaves (who later played under Spurrier on the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits), 1970s receiver Chris Collinsworth, 1980s quarterback Kerwin Bell (now head coach at Jacksonville University), 1980s offensive tackle Lomas Brown, 1980s defensive end Trace Armstrong, 1990s running backs Errict Rhett and Fred Taylor (the later Jaguars star), 1990s receivers Ike Hilliard and Reydel Anthony, 2000s cornerback Lito Sheppard, and, ultimately tragically, 2000s tight end Aaron Hernandez.
Notable college and pro head coaches who graduated from UF, in addition to some of the preceding, include Lindy Infante, Chan Gailey, Mike Mularkey, Todd Haley and Charlie Strong. Also UF graduates: Sportscaster and original Jets owner Harry Wismer, original Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, current Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, and current Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman.
The Florida Sports Hall of Fame is located at Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale, 186 miles south of Everbank Field.
Georgia won the National Championship in 1942 and 1980, each time with a running back that would win the Heisman Trophy: Frank Sinkwich, and freshman Herschel Walker, who went on to win it as a junior, and nearly lead them to another National Championship, in 1982.
They've won 15 Conference Championships. They won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1896 and 1920. They've won the SEC title in 1942, 1946, 1948, 1959, 1966, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 2005, 2015 and 2017. They've won the SEC East, but lost the SEC Championship Game, in 2003, 2011 and 2012; and tied for the Division title, but lost the tiebreaker for the Championship Game, in 1992 and 2007.
Georgia has won 31 of their 54 bowl games, including the Orange Bowl in 1942 and 1960; the Rose Bowl in 1943 and 2018; the Sugar Bowl in 1947, 1981, 2003 and 2008; and the Cotton Bowl in 1967 and 1984. They have not won the Fiesta Bowl.
They've retired 4 numbers: Sinkwich's 21, Walker's 34, the 40 of 1950s running back Theron Sapp, and the 62 of 1940s running back Charley Trippi.
The number retirement ceremony, 1985.
Left to right: Walker, Sapp, Trippi and Sinkwich.
There are 13 Bulldogs in the College Football Hall of Fame: Sinkwich, Trippi, Walker, 1910s running back Bob McWhorter, 1930s end Vernon "Catfish" Smith, 1930s running back Bill Hartman, 1940s quarterback John Rauch, 1950s quarterback Fran Tarkenton, 1960s defensive tackle Bill Stanfill, 1960s safety Jake Scott, 1980s safety Terry Hoage, 1980s placekicker Kevin Butler, and 1990s offensive tackle Matt Stinchcomb.
Trippi and Tarkenton have also been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At age 96, Trippi is the last surviving member of the 1947 NFL Champion Chicago Cardinals. Rauch would later coach the Oakland Raiders to the 1967 AFL Championship, losing Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers -- who adapted Georgia's oval "G" monogram as their own helmet logo. He returned to Georgia as an assistant with the Atlanta Falcons, and with a little irony, was one of Spurrier's assistants on the Tampa Bay Bandits. Stanfill and Scott would be teammates on the Miami Dolphins' Super Bowl VII and VIII winners.
Four of Georgia's head coaches have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Pop Warner (1895-96) and Jim Donnan (1996-2000), Bulldog bosses 100 years apart, were elected for coaching achievements elsewhere. But Wally Butts (1939-60, including the '42 title) and Vince Dooley (1964-88, including the '80 title) were elected for what they did for UGa.
Other notable Georgia football players include 1950s quarterback Zeke Bratkowski (later Bart Starr's backup on the 1960s Packers), 1950s guard Pat Dye (Tarkenton's former protector was an All-American before becoming Auburn's coach), 1990s running back Garrison Hearst, 1990s cornerback Champ Bailey, 1990s defensive tackle Richard Seymour, 2000s linebacker Boss Bailey (Champ's real name or Roland, and his brother Boss' real name is Rodney), and 2000s running back Knowshon Moreno.
Probably the most familiar names in Georgia football are that of Johnny Carson, an All-American end in 1953, and George Patton, an All-American defensive tackle in 1965. Not the longtime Tonight Show host and the World War II general: I said their names were familiar.
Actually, with Herschel Walker not having played a down of pro ball in over 20 years, the most familiar name of a Georgia Bulldog football player might be Bill Goldberg, a late 1980s linebacker who played 14 games for the Atlanta Falcons from 1992 to 1994, before becoming a professional "wrestler," an actor, and a TV show host.
The Florida-Georgia rivalry is known, due to the wide spread of cocktail parties in the Jacksonville stadium parking lot, as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." It's been played since 1915, and every year since 1926. Since 1933, it's been played in Jacksonville, except for the time of the stadium reconstruction there, and they traded home games: Gainesville in 1994, Athens in 1995.
Georgia dominated early on, going 21-4-1 from 1915 to 1948. From 1952 to 1963, Florida went 10-2. From 1971 to 1989, Georgia went 15-4. From 1990 to 2010, Florida went 18-3. Overall, Georgia leads the series 50-43-2. Since 2009, the schools have played for a trophy called the Okefenokee Oar.
(UPDATE: Through the 2019 season, Florida leads Florida State 36-26-2, Georgia leads Florida 53-43-2, and Georgia leads Georgia Tech 68-41-5.)
Stuff. The Official Gator Sports Shop is in the northeast corner of the ground floor of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The University of Florida Bookstore is in the UF Welcome Center, at 1900 Museum Road, a 5-minute walk south of the stadium.
The Sanford Shop is at Gate 7, in the southeast corner of Sanford Stadium. The University of Georgia Bookstore is in the Tate Student Center, across Sanford Drive from Sanford Stadium's west end.
In 2013, Buddy Martin, who's written several books about Florida football, and Woody Paige, the Memphis native who wrote a sports column for the Denver Post and is the all-time leading winner on ESPN's Around the Horn, collaborated on The Boys from Old Florida: Inside Gator Nation. In 2006, UF released the DVD Gridiron Gators: The History of Florida Gator Football.
In 2008, Patrick Garbin published About Them Dawgs! Georgia Football's Memorable Teams and Players. The year before, UGa released the DVD Legends of the Georgia Bulldogs.
During the Game. As with any other college football game, especially in the South, and particularly so in rivalry games, stick with the home fans, and leave the visiting fans alone. If it's a "neutral site" game like this, where the tickets are split down the middle, pick one team and stick with them.
On October 6, 2017, Thrillist compiled a list of their Best
College Football Stadiums, the top 19
percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium did not make the cut. Sanford Stadium did, ranked 20th:
The trademark hedges around the field make this one of the most easily recognizable stadiums in college football. But cramming 93,000 barking Georgia fans into this fully enclosed arena is what makes it a terrifying venue for visiting teams. Add in a bulldog cemetery filled with former mascots and the ability to walk down onto the field to get to the concession stands and restrooms, and you have a unique venue in the sport.
The trademark hedges around the field make this one of the most easily recognizable stadiums in college football. But cramming 93,000 barking Georgia fans into this fully enclosed arena is what makes it a terrifying venue for visiting teams. Add in a bulldog cemetery filled with former mascots and the ability to walk down onto the field to get to the concession stands and restrooms, and you have a unique venue in the sport.
"A bulldog cemetery filled with former mascots"?!? I'll get to that later.
Florida occasionally wears "Swamp Green" jerseys, but usually wears blue at home, which clashes with their orange helmets, making blue & orange an eyesore that the Mets, the Knicks and the Islanders never dreamed of. Georgia usually wears red at home.
Florida's band is officially known as The University of Florida Fightin' Gator Marching Band -- an apostrophe instead of a G at the end of "Fightin'," but not "Marching" -- and unofficially known as The Pride of the Sunshine. They've won awards, but who's kidding who? They're the 4th best college band in the State. The 3rd best is Florida State. The 2nd best is Bethune-Cookman, a historically black school. And the very best is another HBCU, Florida A&M (FAMU).
The band's practice facility is the Steinbrenner Band Hall, so named before George and Joan Steinbrenner made a donation to UF, son Hal's alma mater. It includes the Stephen Stills Band Rehearsal Room, named for the UF alum and music legend (albeit rock and roll, not marching band).
At the start of the pregame show, they play the fight song "Orange and Blue," then form a block F, then the march "Men of Florida," then form an outline of the State, then the National Anthem, then the Alma Mater, then the "We Are the Boys March," then form a script "Gators" a la Ohio State's "Script Ohio." (Ohio State, Joan Steinbrenner's alma mater, also got big donations from her and George). They close with a reprise of "Orange and Blue" and "Suwannee."
Albert the Alligator demonstrates "Gator Jaws"
Florida's mascot is Albert the Alligator -- a guy in a costume, not a real alligator. He's not one of the more memorable college mascots. With Georgia, it's a whole other story. It's practically a novel. Actually, the man behind it, Frank W. "Sonny" Seiler, a famous trial attorney in the coastal Georgia city of Savannah, was a character in a 1994 nonfiction book that many people mistakenly thought was a novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. (Australian actor Jack Thompson played him in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film version.)
In 1956, Seiler was a student at the University of Georgia School of Law, and was given a white bulldog puppy, said to be the grandson of a bulldog that went with the team to the 1943 Rose Bowl, when they won their 1st National Championship.
On September 29, 1956, Sonny and his wife Cecelia brought the dog to UGa's 1st home game of the season. The game was no big deal, the Dawgs beating Florida State 3-0. But Dan Magill, the school's sports information director, told head coach Wally Butts that, since the dog was a bulldog, it should become the official team mascot. Butts agreed, and, through the original's descendants, an Uga the Bulldog has been at every Georgia football game, home and away, for 62 years.
Ever since, Seiler, now 85, has bred these pure white bulldogs, and personally transported them from Savannah to the game site. That's not easy: Athens is 220 miles northwest of Savannah, and that's just for home games. Uga has an air-conditioned doghouse at Sanford Stadium, and is provided with ice bags, as bulldogs are susceptible to heatstroke. (This is the South, after all.) For away games, Seiler and Uga stay at the same hotel as the players.
Uga wears a red sweater with a black varsity letter G on it. In 1982, when Herschel Walker was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy (he won it), Seiler began the tradition of taking Uga (in that case, Uga IV) to the Heisman ceremony wearing a tuxedo. (Sonny wears a tux, or the dog?) Both. No, I'm not making that up.
In 1997, Sports Illustrated named Uga the nation's best college mascot.
When an Uga gets to be too old for this, he is "retired" in a pregame ceremony, and Seiler removes his spiked collar, and puts in on the dog's successor, usually a son, sometimes a grandson, and the Georgia fans chant, "Damn good dog!" Not their usual catchphrase, which is, "How 'bout them Dawgs!"
And when an Uga dies, he is interred in a mausoleum in the southwest corner of the stadium, where a bronze statue of Uga I stands. Before games, fans are invited to leave flowers at the tomb of the mascot from their college days. Their epitaphs are as follows:
* Uga I, 1956-66: "Damn Good Dog."
* Uga II, 1966-72: "Not Bad for a Dog."
* Uga III, 1972-81: "How 'Bout This Dawg." Served during the 1980 National Championship season.
* Uga IV, 1981-90: "The Dog of the Decade." The one who got taken to New York, got a doggie tux put on him, and saw Herschel get the Heisman.
* Uga V, 1990-99: "Nation's Best College Mascot." That title was bestowed upon the Ugas by Sports Illustrated in 1997, and Uga V was put on the cover. (He didn't seem to suffer The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx, though. Nor did the team, which went 10-2 that year.) He's probably the best-known version, for reasons good and not so good. He portrayed his father, Uga IV, in the film version of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." In 1996, he lunged at Auburn receiver Robert Baker after scoring a touchdown, the only instance of an Uga attacking a person in 62 years. Other than that, the worst offense has been barking at other mascots who come over to see him. He also once injured himself jumping off his hotel room bed.
* Uga VI, 1999-2008: "A Big Dog For a Big Job, and He Handled It Well."
* Uga VII, 2008-09: "Gone Too Soon," as he was the briefest-serving mascot yet, until...
* Uga VIII, 2010-11: "He Never Had a Chance," as he developed canine lymphoma, and died after just 6 games, including an overtime loss to Florida and a shootout win over Georgia Tech.
* Uga IX, 2011-15: "He endeared himself to the Georgia people. His dedication to duty when called upon was exemplary." A half-brother of Uga VII, he had to fill in for his brother late in the 2009 season, and for his nephew Uga VIII on New Year's Eve 2010, as Georgia lost to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. After Uga VIII died, his uncle was "given a battlefield promotion," and went from backup mascot to official mascot for 5 years, until his own death.
* Uga X, the current mascot, a grandson of Uga IX.
Uga X. He's not a Nice Puppy, he's a Damn Good Dog.
Ugas I, II, IV, V and VI have each lasted 10 seasons. This seems to be the upper limit, as 10 years is the average lifespan of a bulldog.
In 1981, Hairy Dawg was added, named for the cheer, "Go, you hairy dawgs!" He's a guy in a costume, and he wears a Number 1 jersey.
Uga VIII didn't seem to mind.
Georgia is often called the Heartland of the South. So why does the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band play "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the Union song of the American Civil War? They don't. They use the melody -- which Julia Ward Howe had taken from "John Brown's Body," about the leader of a failed slave rebellion shortly before the war -- but the lyrics make it quite clear who the song celebrates: "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia."
The band is introduced over the public address system with, "Keep your seats, everyone: The Redcoats are coming!" They spell out "GEORGIA" (in ALL CAPS), play "Let's Go Dawgs," anD form an Arch, in honor of the campus landmark, the Georgia Arch, and then plays "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia," the Alma Mater, and the National Anthem.
The north stand shouts, "Georgia!" and the south stand answers "Bulldogs!" This repeats a few times. When this is done, a celebrity, often a former Georgia player, will lead the crowd in a chant: "Goooooooo Dawgs! Sic 'em!" Then the band forms an outline of the State, plays the official fight song "Hail to Georgia," stops so the pregame video "It's Saturday In Athens" plays on the scoreboard, and then plays "Glory, Glory" again as the team comes onto the field. They also play "Glory, Glory" after every 1st down and every score.
As for where to go after the game, I can't be sure. I checked for area bars where New Yorkers gather, and the closest I came was finding a 2008 reference for Jet fans at a Beef O'Brady's. But it's now a Woody's Bar-BQ, and if you're a Jet fan, you probably don't like owner Woody Johnson, so do you really want to go to a place called Woody's?
The Gators Den Sports Grill is the most popular hangout for UF fans. 4200 NW 97th Blvd. But it's kind of, as they would say in the South, a fur piece: 7 1/2 miles northwest of the stadium. You could get there by public transportation, but not on weekends, which means, for postgame, you'd have to drive.
For postgame dining, UGa recommends their Visitor Center, at 405 College Station Road, a mile and a quarter south of the stadium. Two of the more renowned Bulldog fan restaurants are Fuzzy's, a Mexican restaurant at 265 N. Lumpkin Street; and Bar South at 104 E. Washington Street. Both are downtown, about a mile north of the stadium.
If you visit Jacksonville during the European soccer season (we're now in it), the leading "football pub" in town is Culhane's, at 967 Atlantic Blvd. in Atlantic Beach, 15 miles east of downtown and a mile in from the Atlantic Ocean. Bus 10. In Gator country, it's the Gainesville House of Beer, at 19 W. University Avenue, downtown. Bus 5 from campus. In Bulldog land, it's The Royal Peasant, at 1675 S. Lumpkin Street, about a mile and a half south of downtown and a mile and a half southwest of the stadium.
Sidelights. Jacksonville is home to the NFL's Jaguars. The nearest NBA team is the Orlando Magic, 113 miles; the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 130 miles; MLB, the Tampa Bay Rays, 151 miles; MLS, Atlanta United, 346 miles.
The nearest NFL team to Gainesville is the Jaguars, 84 miles; the NBA, the Magic, 113; the NHL, the Lightning, 130; MLB, the Rays, 151; and MLS, Atlanta, 346.
The nearest MLB, NFL, NBA and MLS city to Athens is Atlanta, 71 miles. The nearest NHL team is the Nashville Predators, 306 miles. It's 340 miles from Athens to Jacksonville, and 344 miles between Athens and Gainesville.
The nearest minor-league baseball team to Sanford Stadium is the Gwinnett Stripers, the Triple-A farm team of the Braves, 44 miles east in Lawrenceville. The closest to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, 84 miles northeast.
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If you stick to either the Florida Gators or the Georgia Bulldogs, and stay away from the other, a visit to "The World's Largest Cocktail Party" can be a grand sporting experience. If you'd prefer seeing a home game at either campus, you might be better off.
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