The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party - Georgia vs. Florida
College football traditions often centre around a specific game, trophy or rivalry. One of the most fun traditions has all three and takes place every year in Jacksonville where the central Florida city hosts one of the fiercest encounters in the SEC.
The rivalry between Florida and Georgia took is so contentious they can’t even decide when it began.
The History
A 1904 game between the University of Georgia and a school known as Florida Agricultural College and a historical predecessor to the University of Florida is cited by Georgia as the first meeting. They won 52-0.
Florida cite that as their university wasn’t officially established until 1905, that the first meeting took place in 1915. Apart from a wartime break on 1943, the two teams have met every year since 1926.
Jacksonville has hosted the game since 1933. A neutral site for college football games was more lucrative. The Cotton Bowl has hosted Texas-Oklahoma for years. Jacksonville’s easy access by road and rail and it’s situation as the largest city between Athens and Gainesville made it the natural neutral venue.
Thousands of Gators and Dawgs fans would descend on Jacksonville on game weekend, turning it into a party town and earning it the nickname “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”.
Two back-to-back years in the 1980s of drink-fuelled fans tearing down the goalposts in victory led to both schools and the city dropping the nickname.
The Trophy
As with Alabama-Georgia, this game was becoming a modern classic without a trophy. This changed in 2009 when the two universities’ student bodies created the Okefenokee Oar. This 10-foot trophy is symbolic as it was carved from the remains of a cypress tree that grew in the Okefenokee Swamp which straddles the border between the two states.
The Rivalry
As with most rivalries, periods of dominance swayed, with both teams reaching winning streaks of seven games. Bob Woodruff and Ray Graves’ teams swung meant Florida dominated the late Fifties and early Sixties, before Georgia’s hiring of Vince Dooley turned the games in their favour.
Steve Spurrier, Florida’s Heisman-winning quarterback in 1966, became coach of his alma mater in 1990 and led a period of dominance, continued by Urban Meyer through the Nineties and mid-2000s.
The 1992 split of the SEC into West and East divisions put Florida and Georgia in the latter, and intensified the rivalry as only the winner got to play for the SEC title.
Uniquely, Florida-Georgia has its own Hall of Fame, established in 1995 and inducting two new members from each school every year. This unique tradition is a perfect way to commemorate key figures from this rivalry, including Herschel Walker, Lindsay Scott and Vince Dooley for the Dawgs and Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow for the Gators.
In recent years, Georgia's rise under Kirby Smart has elevated the Bulldogs and put the Gators in the shadows, winning eight of the last ten meetings since 2016. New coach Jon Sumrall, with wins over Texas and Ole Miss under his belt, looks poised to lead Florida, a sleeping giant, up the SEC rankings.
Due to ongoing work to expand Jacksonville's EverBank Stadium, The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party will be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta tomorrow, and will be hosted by Tampa Bay in 2027 before returning to Jacksonville in 2028.
Can No.17 Florida upset the form book with a win over No.3 Georgia, or will the Bulldogs leave the Gators shaken, not stirred?
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