First game you ever attended in The Swamp?

[Gatorwitt]

1989 Central Michigan I believe. Emmitt ran for over 300 that game. Nose bleed section South endzone. Family has had season tickets ever since.

 

[fischerwood]

1st game in Swamp: 1990-Okie St. we won. SOS 1st game as coach of UF.
1st game to see my Gators: 1964 Sept. Memorial Stadium Jackson, MS SOS to Casey et al. won 16-13.
1st game @ Floida Field: 1972 Miss St. we won

 

[-THE DUDE-]

1998 Northeast Louisiana

 

[BoomTown]

FL Field = UK 1979. South End Zone between the goal posts about 20 rows up. It was our last loss to the kittys. :( However, I knew I'd forever be a Gator.
Swamp = Arky State 1993

 

[Alagator]

Really don't remember. My Dad started taking me when I was very young. I was born in '75 so probably around 1980.

One of the most memorable was the 1984 (or 85) game against AU when our D shut down Bo Jackson and he took himself out of the game. I Was there that day to see Kerwin Bell, on his bad knee, run the two point conversion in for the 18 - 17 win. I remember the players piling on top of him in celebration and my Dad screaming , "Be careful! Don't hurt him again!" :)


Was also in Baton Rouge around 85 or 86 when the refs added one second on the clock and our kicker came in to kick the game winning FG. I remember listening to the local radio call in show and one of the callers saying the LSU coach deserved to be castrated. We were afraid we weren't gonna make it out of Baton Rouge alive.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Really don't remember. My Dad started taking me when I was very young. I was born in '75 so probably around 1980.

One of the most memorable was the 1984 (or 85) game against AU when our D shut down Bo Jackson and he took himself out of the game. I Was there that day to see Kerwin Bell, on his bad knee, run the two point conversion in for the 18 - 17 win. I remember the players piling on top of him in celebration and my Dad screaming , "Be careful! Don't hurt him again!" :)


Was also in Baton Rouge around 85 or 86 when the refs added one second on the clock and our kicker came in to kick the game winning FG. I remember listening to the local radio call in show and one of the callers saying the LSU coach deserved to be castrated. We were afraid we weren't gonna make it out of Baton Rouge alive.

The Auburn game with Kerwin Bell was 1986, I was there as well.

 

[Alagator]

2003 Ole Miss game. Ugh.

I was there. I was miserable sick with Bronchitis. Slept all the way there and all the way back. I was unfortunately awake to see Eli Manning chunking it all over the yard on us.

 

[Alagator]

The Auburn game with Kerwin Bell was 1986, I was there as well.

I almost went 85 or 86 but thought it was a year earlier. My Mom was sick as hell on the way home. Her side was killing her and she thought she had pulled a muscle cheering so hard. He appendance ruptured the next day...Needless to say, she's a pretty big fan. She was sure as hell a trooper that day.

 

[TheDouglas78]

I almost went 85 or 86 but thought it was a year earlier. My Mom was sick as hell on the way home. Her side was killing her and she thought she had pulled a muscle cheering so hard. He appendance ruptured the next day...Needless to say, she's a pretty big fan. She was sure as hell a trooper that day.

I was there with my Dad and his best friend (who was a big donor and season ticket holder) we were in that corner of the stands when Bell ran it in. We didn't leave the tailgating area until late that night, so we could have a "sober enough" driver.

 

[PastyStoole]

I've told this story before, but here goes...
My father who was a UF alum from the 50s called me and told me he was coming up to the first game of the season my freshman year at UF. It was my first at Florida Field, I had a student ticket, and we figured we'd get him one when he got up to Gainesville. The opponent was Miami and the year was 1982. For some reason the game was not televised. Tickets were impossible to get. My friends and I ran all around the stadium trying to find a ticket for my dad before the game, but to no avail. He finally told me to go in, just before kickoff, got my section information, and said he'd meet me there in the unlikely event he got in. I was pretty sad about it, but lo and behold in the first quarter, I look down and here is my dad climbing the steps toward my section. He'd pretended to be the supervisor of these maintenance guys and hopped on the back of an ice truck with them. Squeezing in on a section was fairly common back then. Most people in the student section stood most of the game anyway. It's one of my favorite memories with my dad and, of course, it was one of the greatest games ever played at Florida Field. With time running down late in the game Wayne Peace threw a desperation pass over a horde of rushers and James Jones made a beautiful one-handed grab while falling backward just inside the pylon and just below where we were sitting.

Not long after that, my buddies and I drunkenly climbed over the gate in the north end zone with a football, went down on the field and took turns trying to re-create "The Catch." The next morning I realized I'd been left with a ton of carpet burn from the field, (it was a padded covered surface back then like the one at Boise State), and hobbled around campus.

We had the best backfield Gator history back then. Jones, John L. Williams, Neal Anderson and Lorenzo Hampton. I don't remember who played QB for the Canes, I think Jim Kelly may have been hurt before that game, but they had Mark Richt, (yes that Mark Richt) and a guy who had brought them back against us the year before named Kyle Vanderwende. It was Testaverde's freshman year and he played sparingly.

 

[BoomTown]

FL Field = UK 1979. South End Zone between the goal posts about 20 rows up. It was our last loss to the kittys. :( However, I knew I'd forever be a Gator.
Swamp = Arky State 1993

I just thought about something after writing this. I had just turned 9 and the dad of my best friend from Elementary school took us. He and my friend's grandfather walked with us to the stadium and headed to their seats on the 45 alumni side. We walked ourselves to the other seats they had that were in the South end zone. After the game, we walked back to his grandfather's house on the far side of the golf course all by ourselves. I was 9. He was 8 1/2.

WTH were they thinking!?! Didn't they know that the moment you stop hovering over your kids and turn your back on them for a second that some lunatic serial rapist killer will abduct your kids and shred them into tiny bits? Odd that I don't remember that happening. How did my "Home Alone" generation become such wimps as parents when everyone I know came out just fine? Well, most of us anyway.

 

[TheDouglas78]

I just thought about something after writing this. I had just turned 9 and the dad of my best friend from Elementary school took us. He and my friend's grandfather walked with us to the stadium and headed to their seats on the 45 alumni side. We walked ourselves to the other seats they had that were in the South end zone. After the game, we walked back to his grandfather's house on the far side of the golf course all by ourselves. I was 9. He was 8 1/2.

WTH were they thinking!?! Didn't they know that the moment you stop hovering over your kids and turn your back on them for a second that some lunatic serial rapist killer will abduct your kids and shred them into tiny bits? Odd that I don't remember that happening. How did my "Home Alone" generation become such wimps as parents when everyone I know came out just fine? Well, most of us anyway.

We have grown up as a generation of pussies and unfortunately the media likes the glorify the perverts.

 

[KCgator]

'94 Auburn... Ouch

That game never happened in my opinion.

 

[KCgator]

I've told this story before, but here goes...
My father who was a UF alum from the 50s called me and told me he was coming up to the first game of the season my freshman year at UF. It was my first at Florida Field, I had a student ticket, and we figured we'd get him one when he got up to Gainesville. The opponent was Miami and the year was 1982. For some reason the game was not televised. Tickets were impossible to get. My friends and I ran all around the stadium trying to find a ticket for my dad before the game, but to no avail. He finally told me to go in, just before kickoff, got my section information, and said he'd meet me there in the unlikely event he got in. I was pretty sad about it, but lo and behold in the first quarter, I look down and here is my dad climbing the steps toward my section. He'd pretended to be the supervisor of these maintenance guys and hopped on the back of an ice truck with them. Squeezing in on a section was fairly common back then. Most people in the student section stood most of the game anyway. It's one of my favorite memories with my dad and, of course, it was one of the greatest games ever played at Florida Field. With time running down late in the game Wayne Peace threw a desperation pass over a horde of rushers and James Jones made a beautiful one-handed grab while falling backward just inside the pylon and just below where we were sitting.

Not long after that, my buddies and I drunkenly climbed over the gate in the north end zone with a football, went down on the field and took turns trying to re-create "The Catch." The next morning I realized I'd been left with a ton of carpet burn from the field, (it was a padded covered surface back then like the one at Boise State), and hobbled around campus.

We had the best backfield Gator history back then. Jones, John L. Williams, Neal Anderson and Lorenzo Hampton. I don't remember who played QB for the Canes, I think Jim Kelly may have been hurt before that game, but they had Mark Richt, (yes that Mark Richt) and a guy who had brought them back against us the year before named Kyle Vanderwende. It was Testaverde's freshman year and he played sparingly.

THIS!

 

[LagoonGator68]

[QUOTE='78;n172059]It occurs to me that some of us oldtimers are going to need to change our answer. My first game at Florida Field was 1975. My first game at the Swamp was 1990. There's a difference. [/QUOTE]
It will always be Florida Field to me. I'm not too much for newfangled nicknames.

 

[ShadowGator]

1988 vs Montana State.

Kyle Morris and Herbert Perry were fighting over who got to hand the ball off each play to Emmitt Smith.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

[QUOTE='78;n171756]SMU, 1975. Opening handoff, DuBose ran it in from about 70 yards out.[/QUOTE]
I didnt know Andre Dubose had been playing that long.

 

[LagoonGator68]

1949 Florida vs Alabama... My first game ever was 1949 Florida vs Georgia at the Gator Bowl... I was six years old...

My first ever was a regular season game vs Clemson in Jacksonville in 1954... I was nine. Hooked ever since... First "Swamp" game was 1962 Georgia Tech, my freshman year.
(Jacksonville ,and later Tampa, used to buy the home games of away teams for many years. For you noobs.)

 

[Chomper]

1964 vs. Ole Miss, coached by John Vaught and at the time an SEC powerhouse. Ray Graves' Gators were big underdogs, but pulled off a big upset 30 - 14.

 

[KCgator]

[QUOTE='78;n172059]It occurs to me that some of us oldtimers are going to need to change our answer. My first game at Florida Field was 1975. My first game at the Swamp was 1990. There's a difference. [/QUOTE]

Good point. What is the cutoff year to be considered an "old-timer"?