By changing his mind, he changed history, too. At first, Dickey hesitated, but eventually yielded to his players. “Let 'em score!” shouted Clark, the senior cornerback, who led the lobbying efforts of UF coach Doug Dickey. The Gators sidelines knew how close Reaves was. The Hurricanes, down 45-8 and driving deep into UF territory, were on the verge of running out the clock. After another UM punt, Reaves again appeared poised to reach the milestone - until he threw an interception. When Reaves had amassed 330 yards, the record seemed a foregone conclusion when UM was forced to punt with just under eight minutes to go - until UF's Harvin Clark went 82 yards for a touchdown with the punt. What happened: UF senior quarterback John Reaves entered the final game of his career needing 344 yards to eclipse the all-time career passing yardage record of 7,544 held by Jim Plunkett, the 1970 Heisman Trophy winner from Stanford. The choice for the top of the list, by the way, wasn't even close. So it's off to Memory Lane, folks, for a look at five of the most memorable games the Gators and Hurricanes played (plus a mention of a few more). No current players have any real sense of the historical significance rivalry - which dates to 1938 and is led by UM 28-26 - but view it, understandably, as a battle between in-state heavyweights. So here it is, 26 years since the annual series shut down with the 1987 game, and the Gators and Canes will meet for just the sixth time over that span. UF requires a minimum number of home games to fund its athletic budget. So when UF announced in 1987 that it was dropping UM as an annual opponent it was a really big deal in this state.Īt the time, Florida Athletic Director Bill Arnsparger said publicly the move was being made so the Gators could play a more “national schedule,” but home-and-home contracts with the likes of Michigan State and Washington - as well as a two-game reboot of the series against the Hurricanes - had to be cancelled when the Southeastern Conference expanded and moved to an eight-game schedule. The series was so big that from 1953 until 1979, it was the last game on both team's schedules 24 of those 27 seasons. Twenty years before UF and Florida State ever took the field against each other in 1958, the Gators and Hurricanes already had played 19 times, skipping only the first season following World War II when soldiers were returning home to become college students. Allow me to provide some perspective to Saturday's game between Florida and Miami that should put just what this once-bitter series meant back in the days into proper context.
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