On the official NCAA website Florida is recognized as one of the National Champions for the 1984 season. In fact, there were 47 entities who chose a NC and the Gators were picked by more of them than BYU. You must not have been following the Gators back then, because we considered ourselves the National Champions and we often went to look at the SEC and NY Times National Championship trophies before games and before they hid them away.
As I remember it, it seems like we ended up shooting ourselves in the foot with the bowl ban, too. I believe the administration elected not to appeal the bowl ban penalties and take the bowl ban for '84 and '85 making us eligible for a bowl in '86. That turned out to be all for naught as our record in '86 wasn't good enough for a bowl game. We should have appealed and played in a bowl after the '84 season. Those players deserved it.
Same for UCF in whatever year they claim. I hope we could agree on separating the debate for SEC Title and National Championship. They don't need to be bundled together. The SEC Championship was won on the field, celebrated, and only later stripped away. People can agree or disagree on whether or not that was an acceptable punishment, but nobody disputes that FLORIDA won it on the field at the time. As for the National Championship, you and I clearly fan differently, and I have no problem with that. Given your strong position on this, I would love to know how the majority feels if fans were to be surveyed (I'll certainly bring it up to the old guard at our tailGATOR on Saturday). I know quite a few fans older than myself, and not a one of them would claim that 52-20 wasn't for our first national championship (including some former players pre-Spurrier). In fairness, the old system was stupid and clunky and ripe for traditional bias. But that is the system that we all lived with and accepted, and if a champion wasn't voted for, it generally was not counted. The New York Times, Sagarin, and others, were/are all various forms of computer rankings. They just weren't regarded the same way. I'm glad we have differing views on this, it makes it more interesting. Do you really know exactly where you were and how you felt when the 1984 National Championship was considered "won" for FLORIDA? Did it feel just like the other three titles that we celebrated? Regardless, no problem with the different views, my view probably seems as odd to you as yours does to me. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Yes, to both questions. It was the first time we'd even been close to something of that magnitude in anything at UF. That was the team that told Gators fans that we'd finally gotten there probation or not. I remember when Washington State's coach was asked who do you think the best team is replied, "I don't know who the best team is, but Florida is the team no one want's to play." As far as the 1996 team, I feel without question they were the best team, but it too, was based on a vote and computers were part of the determination of who played where. We were very lucky that season that Ohio State beat Arizona State or we wouldn't have been national champions.
All we had to do was beat Kentucky. We beat Auburn in miracle fashion, came back to beat Georgia, and handled FSU in a downpour, only to lose to Kentucky for the last time until Dan Mullen coached us.
Two NC and four conference titles in the offseason? Impressive! 84’ team has the trophy, now the school needs to add it to the stadium.
This was when I went from thinking Foley was a wimp( that is the clean version of what I think ) to loathing him. The damage that he did to our football program is immeasurable and we are still living through it today. He didn’t support the coaches, and he didn’t fund the facilities and the infrastructure. Thank you to Scott Stricklin for correcting the selfish misdeeds of your awful predecessor. Now we need to pressure the NCAA to posthumously lift Pell’s and lift Hall’s Show Cause Letters. They were as big a travesty as stripping titles. I hope that Galen makes it back for this event. Ward Pell as well. They both deserve a great reception from all Gator fans.
I appreciate your perspective. That requirement of Ohio State beating Arizona State is part of what made the whole thing so special. It was an oddly scripted set of requirements for validation that we were all seeking (anybody remember the divide between SWAC fans and FLORIDA fans at gathering places on or near Bourbon Street watching that Rose Bowl?). It would have been different had Arizona State won even if the Sugar Bowl result was exactly the same. Just my two bits. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
It sounds like you wanted to rant about Foley and that's fine. But you are off base in using this to criticize Foley. We painted 84,85 and 90 on the stadium while Foley was AD, though I'm not sure the year it went up. I know it was the 90s and Foley was AD from 92-16. As far as when it came down- again I don't know the year. If it was Foley I don't agree with the decision but he made 1000s of decisions- not all of them can be correct. Some of the football hires are proof of this.
It was Foley who removed the “Best in the SEC 84, 85, and 90” from the Swamp. Not off base at all criticizing Foley. He had the opportunity to recognize this team at the 10, 20, 25 and 30 year marks. He chose not to do so. Instead, he decided to remove the only recognition that the 84 team has from The Swamp , along with the 85 and 90 teams recognition.
He probably should have stayed Ticket Manager. But in fairness, as bad as Foley eventually became as AD, he was probably still much better than Arnsparger any day of the week.
From what I remember it was more like Don Corleone sending Tom Hagen to make Arnsparger and offer he couldn’t refuse. It was probably pretty easy to shut up after that
Without looking it up, I seem to recall that Arnsbarger was leaning toward the late Dave Archer to replace Galen, when he suddenly had a dramatic change of heart. I never knew the details, but I surmised that his departure from the scene, not too long afterward, had much to do with his reluctance to embrace the Spurrier hire. Incidentally, IMO, Foley was a stalwart in some respects. But his blinkered approach to sustaining the greatness of the FB program, plus his lilly-livered response to the Darnel Dockett outrage, contributed to the unnecessary demise of what might have been a far more durable place in the upper reaches of CFB. It irks me to this day the way he left the greatest Gator of all time twisting in the wind without an ounce of backup in that tawdry and despicable episode.
Arnsparger wanted Mike Archer, his hand chosen successor at LSU who was about to be fired, we couldn't "afford" Steve.
There were actually two other tawdry episodes, but only one of them involved Spurrier. He also let Spurrier twist in the wind after the 96 FSU game they hit Danny late and low so many times I lost count. Mickey Andrew’s was at UF under Pell. He was a dirty coach. The other tawdry episode was the Swindle in the Swamp. Just just bent over and took it. Oh wait, no he didn’t. He just told the ACC refs that they would have to cheat at Doak for a few years. A game so crooked it forced instant replay.
