- Sep 8, 2014
- 25,417
- 59,311
I'm not sure if I buy this (Bianchi coming up w/ the name):
25 YEARS AGO: THE 'SWAMP' IS BORN
Steve Spurrier pitched a story to a Gainesville Sun columnist and something about Florida football changed forever.
http://floridagators.com/news/2017/6/8/chris-harry-25-years-ago-the-swamp-is-born.aspx
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Back when his teams at Duke were lighting up scoreboards and shattering school records, Steve Spurrier once called a reporter with a request. Spurrier was not fond of the repeated references labeling him an "offensive genius." So he offered a suggestion.
"Call me 'mastermind,' instead," Spurrier said.
Pretty good story, eh? Well, here's another one that highlights Spurrier's aptitude for vocabulary, his flair for branding and, best of all, the orange and blue blood that runs through his veins.
This is a "Swamp" story.
Actually, this is the "Swamp" story.
Steve Spurrier is carried off the field after clinching the 1991 SEC title with a 35-26 defeat of Kentucky.
It ran in The Gainesville Sun exactly 25 years ago today — June 9, 1992 — and all it did was change Florida football vernacular forever.
Spurrier, two seasons in as Gators coach, was the story's inspiration. Mike Bianchi, columnist for The Sun, was the messenger. It opened with a line from a Charlie Daniels Band song called "The Legend of Wooly Swamp." The next line came from the far more famous Tennessean in these parts.
"The 'Swamp' is a place where only Gators get out alive," Spurrier said.
The day before, you see, Spurrier called Bianchi with a pitch. It had been seven months since the Gators ended their 1991 regular season by defeating Kentucky to finish unbeaten in Southeastern Conference play and win the first league title in school history. They followed that milestone victory with a thrilling 14-9 defeat of No. 3 Florida State that marked the first win over the rival Seminoles in six years. It also gave UF a perfect 12-0 record at Florida Field in Spurrier's first two seasons.
The UF home field (and its crowd) had taken on an identity all its own and Spurrier felt it was time to give the place a nickname.
"The 'Swamp' is where Gators live," Spurrier told Bianchi. "We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous. We feel this is an appropriate nickname for our stadium."
How's it worked so far?
Plans are in the works (with details forthcoming) to commemorate the silver anniversary of Spurrier's consummate trademark. But it was a quarter-century ago today it was introduced into the mainstream.
"I knew immediately, despite some eye-rolling among UF administrators, that the 'Swamp' was yet another stroke of Spurrier brilliance," Bianchi, now columnist at The Orlando Sentinel, said Thursday. "I knew it because Spurrier absolutely loved it. He was giddy about it. And you knew if it excited him, it was damn sure going to excite Gator Nation. That's because Spurrier thinks like the most rabid Gator fan thinks. He is the ultimate Bull Gator, and he came up with the perfect name at the perfect time."
It's true (and as Bianchi said and wrote at the time), the nickname was not universally embraced by the University Athletic Association in 1992, with some feeling it was too "backwoods" and did not "do justice to a state-of-the-art-facility like Ben Hill Griffin Stadium."
But that didn't stop Spurrier from tossing out countless "Swamp" references during his spring '92 booster tour and his many public appearances throughout the summer and into the SEC Media Days in Birmingham.
The "Swamp," though, would be used in a limited capacity, the UF Sports Information Department deemed at the time, with no plans for posters, bumper stickers or a marketing theme, the column said.
Instead, it was a Spurrier thing, and it quickly became a thing — a "Swamp" thing, if you will — because he felt so strongly about it.
He had elevated Florida football from mediocrity to national prominence overnight those initial two seasons. Along the way, Spurrier always credited the rabid, racket-making UF home crowds for the Gators' blowout performances. He'd coached (and won) in both "Death Valleys" — the one in Clemson during his time at Duke, as well as the one at LSU with the Gators — and in dominating opponents at home by a combined score of 471-228 and out-gaining them by nearly 200 yards per game those first two seasons, Spurrier deemed Florida Field every bit the pit of either "Death Valley."
Or the "Big House" at Michigan. Or the "Horseshoe" at Ohio State. Or "Happy Valley" at Penn State.
And certainly that place "Between the Hedges" at rival Georgia.
Spurrier, along with then-UF communications director and resident historian Norm Carlson, did some homework on this. In 1930, UF President John J. Tigert selected the location for the school's football stadium and described the area as a "swampy depression." The school hired engineers to drain the area and install pipes that funneled water down the hill along North-South Drive and dumped it into what is now known as Graham Pond.
So Florida Field, in essence, was built on a swamp 60 years before it became the "Swamp."
Perfect, right?
It was for the Orange & Blue Game in '92 that Spurrier first had a fiberglass Gator head, donated then by a local company that built museum exhibits, placed in the south end zone hallway. He had the UF players rub the creature's head as they ran onto the field.
Into the "Swamp," that is.
The Gators went unbeaten at home in '92 and did not lose a game in the "Swamp" — Spurrier's first 23 there — until FSU's Charlie Ward clinched his Heisman Trophy in the regular-season finale of '93. Midway through the '94 season, UF took off on a streak of 31 consecutive home wins on the way to claiming four straight SEC titles and the 1996 national championship.
All told, Spurrier's teams went 68-5 at home during his 12 seasons. In time, Urban Meyer went 38-5 at Florida Field on his way to two national titles. Jim McElwain is 11-1 at home after going unbeaten in the "Swamp" last year, the same season the Head Ball Coach's name, appropriately enough, officially was put on the building.
But even the namesake of Steve Spurrier/Florida Field will tell you his house goes by another name.
'Cause he's the one who named it … 25 years ago today.
"His mission when he returned to UF was to give Gator fans a program they could be proud of and rally around — and the 'Swamp' epitomized that," Bianchi said. "It wasn't just a name; it was a symbol and a personality. It turns out Steve Spurrier wasn't just an offensive genius. He was a marketing genius, too."
Mastermind.
=========================================================
25 YEARS AGO: THE 'SWAMP' IS BORN
Steve Spurrier pitched a story to a Gainesville Sun columnist and something about Florida football changed forever.
http://floridagators.com/news/2017/6/8/chris-harry-25-years-ago-the-swamp-is-born.aspx
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Back when his teams at Duke were lighting up scoreboards and shattering school records, Steve Spurrier once called a reporter with a request. Spurrier was not fond of the repeated references labeling him an "offensive genius." So he offered a suggestion.
"Call me 'mastermind,' instead," Spurrier said.
Pretty good story, eh? Well, here's another one that highlights Spurrier's aptitude for vocabulary, his flair for branding and, best of all, the orange and blue blood that runs through his veins.
This is a "Swamp" story.
Actually, this is the "Swamp" story.
Steve Spurrier is carried off the field after clinching the 1991 SEC title with a 35-26 defeat of Kentucky.
It ran in The Gainesville Sun exactly 25 years ago today — June 9, 1992 — and all it did was change Florida football vernacular forever.
Spurrier, two seasons in as Gators coach, was the story's inspiration. Mike Bianchi, columnist for The Sun, was the messenger. It opened with a line from a Charlie Daniels Band song called "The Legend of Wooly Swamp." The next line came from the far more famous Tennessean in these parts.
"The 'Swamp' is a place where only Gators get out alive," Spurrier said.
The day before, you see, Spurrier called Bianchi with a pitch. It had been seven months since the Gators ended their 1991 regular season by defeating Kentucky to finish unbeaten in Southeastern Conference play and win the first league title in school history. They followed that milestone victory with a thrilling 14-9 defeat of No. 3 Florida State that marked the first win over the rival Seminoles in six years. It also gave UF a perfect 12-0 record at Florida Field in Spurrier's first two seasons.
The UF home field (and its crowd) had taken on an identity all its own and Spurrier felt it was time to give the place a nickname.
"The 'Swamp' is where Gators live," Spurrier told Bianchi. "We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous. We feel this is an appropriate nickname for our stadium."
How's it worked so far?
Plans are in the works (with details forthcoming) to commemorate the silver anniversary of Spurrier's consummate trademark. But it was a quarter-century ago today it was introduced into the mainstream.
"I knew immediately, despite some eye-rolling among UF administrators, that the 'Swamp' was yet another stroke of Spurrier brilliance," Bianchi, now columnist at The Orlando Sentinel, said Thursday. "I knew it because Spurrier absolutely loved it. He was giddy about it. And you knew if it excited him, it was damn sure going to excite Gator Nation. That's because Spurrier thinks like the most rabid Gator fan thinks. He is the ultimate Bull Gator, and he came up with the perfect name at the perfect time."
It's true (and as Bianchi said and wrote at the time), the nickname was not universally embraced by the University Athletic Association in 1992, with some feeling it was too "backwoods" and did not "do justice to a state-of-the-art-facility like Ben Hill Griffin Stadium."
But that didn't stop Spurrier from tossing out countless "Swamp" references during his spring '92 booster tour and his many public appearances throughout the summer and into the SEC Media Days in Birmingham.
The "Swamp," though, would be used in a limited capacity, the UF Sports Information Department deemed at the time, with no plans for posters, bumper stickers or a marketing theme, the column said.
Instead, it was a Spurrier thing, and it quickly became a thing — a "Swamp" thing, if you will — because he felt so strongly about it.
He had elevated Florida football from mediocrity to national prominence overnight those initial two seasons. Along the way, Spurrier always credited the rabid, racket-making UF home crowds for the Gators' blowout performances. He'd coached (and won) in both "Death Valleys" — the one in Clemson during his time at Duke, as well as the one at LSU with the Gators — and in dominating opponents at home by a combined score of 471-228 and out-gaining them by nearly 200 yards per game those first two seasons, Spurrier deemed Florida Field every bit the pit of either "Death Valley."
Or the "Big House" at Michigan. Or the "Horseshoe" at Ohio State. Or "Happy Valley" at Penn State.
And certainly that place "Between the Hedges" at rival Georgia.
Spurrier, along with then-UF communications director and resident historian Norm Carlson, did some homework on this. In 1930, UF President John J. Tigert selected the location for the school's football stadium and described the area as a "swampy depression." The school hired engineers to drain the area and install pipes that funneled water down the hill along North-South Drive and dumped it into what is now known as Graham Pond.
So Florida Field, in essence, was built on a swamp 60 years before it became the "Swamp."
Perfect, right?
It was for the Orange & Blue Game in '92 that Spurrier first had a fiberglass Gator head, donated then by a local company that built museum exhibits, placed in the south end zone hallway. He had the UF players rub the creature's head as they ran onto the field.
Into the "Swamp," that is.
The Gators went unbeaten at home in '92 and did not lose a game in the "Swamp" — Spurrier's first 23 there — until FSU's Charlie Ward clinched his Heisman Trophy in the regular-season finale of '93. Midway through the '94 season, UF took off on a streak of 31 consecutive home wins on the way to claiming four straight SEC titles and the 1996 national championship.
All told, Spurrier's teams went 68-5 at home during his 12 seasons. In time, Urban Meyer went 38-5 at Florida Field on his way to two national titles. Jim McElwain is 11-1 at home after going unbeaten in the "Swamp" last year, the same season the Head Ball Coach's name, appropriately enough, officially was put on the building.
But even the namesake of Steve Spurrier/Florida Field will tell you his house goes by another name.
'Cause he's the one who named it … 25 years ago today.
"His mission when he returned to UF was to give Gator fans a program they could be proud of and rally around — and the 'Swamp' epitomized that," Bianchi said. "It wasn't just a name; it was a symbol and a personality. It turns out Steve Spurrier wasn't just an offensive genius. He was a marketing genius, too."
Mastermind.
=========================================================