1952 Florida Gators football team

The 1952 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida during the 1952 college football season. The season was Bob Woodruff's third and most successful as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Woodruff's 1952 Florida Gators finished with an overall record of 8–3 and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record of 3–3, placing sixth among twelve SEC teams.[2]

1952 Florida Gators football
Gator Bowl, W 14–13 vs. Tulsa
ConferenceSoutheastern Conference
Ranking
APNo. 15
1952 record8–3 (3–3 SEC)
Head coachBob Woodruff (3rd season)
Home stadiumFlorida Field
(Capacity: 39,453)[1]
1952 Southeastern Conference football standings
Conf  Overall
TeamW L T  W L T
No. 2 Georgia Tech $ 7 –0 –0  12 –0 –0
No. 8 Tennessee 5 –0 –1  8 –2 –1
No. 7 Ole Miss 4 –0 –2  8 –1 –2
No. 9 Alabama 4 –2 –0  10 –2 –0
Georgia 4 –3 –0  7 –4 –0
No. 15 Florida 3 –3 –0  8 –3 –0
Mississippi State 3 –4 –0  5 –4 –0
Tulane 3 –5 –0  5 –5 –0
No. 20 Kentucky 1 –3 –2  5 –4 –2
LSU 2 –5 –0  3 –7 –0
Vanderbilt 1 –4 –1  3 –5 –2
Auburn 0 –7 –0  2 –8 –0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

Before the season

After Sullivan's early departure for the Boston Red Sox left the Gators without a starting quarterback, Doug Dickey advanced from seventh on the Gators' depth chart to starter.[3] The Gators were led by fullback Rick Casares, halfback J. "Pappa" Hall, alternating quarterbacks Doug Dickey and Fred Robinson, and lineman Charlie LaPradd, the Gators' lightest tackle and one of their two captains.[4][note 1] Also in the backfield was Buford Long.

Schedule
DateOpponentRankSiteResult
September 20Stetson*
W 33–6
September 27at Georgia Tech
L 14–17
October 4The Citadel*
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL
W 33–0
October 11Clemson*
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL
W 54–13
October 18at Vanderbilt
L 13–20
October 25vs. GeorgiaNo. 20
W 30–0
November 1AuburnNo. 17
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL (rivalry)
W 31–21
November 15at No. 7 TennesseeNo. 18
L 12–26
November 22Miami (FL)*
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL (rivalry)
W 43–6
December 6KentuckyNo. 17
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL
W 27–0
January 1, 1953vs. No. 12 Tulsa*No. 15
W 14–13
  • *Non-conference game
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Primary source: 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide.[2]

Season summary

Stetson

The season opened with a 33–6 defeat of the Stetson Hatters.

Georgia Tech

The national champion Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets beat Florida on a last-second field goal, 14–17.

Citadel

The Citadel lost to Florida 33–0.

Clemson

Florida blew out the Clemson Tigers 54–13.

Vanderbilt

On a cold Dudley Field, Florida lost to Vanderbilt 20–13.

Georgia

The Gators dominated rival Georgia 33–0 in Jacksonville, remaining the Gators' largest victory over the Bulldogs for almost forty years.[6] Casares ran for 108 yards, kicked a field goal, and made all the extra points.[7] Even National champion Georgia Tech needed a last-second field goal to defeat the Gators.

Auburn

The defeat of Georgia was followed by another conference victory, 31–21 over Auburn Tigers.

Tennessee

The Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Gators 12–26.

Miami

The Gators had another blowout of the in-state rival Miami Hurricanes 43–6.

Kentucky

Florida defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 27–0.

Postseason

The season ended with the Gators' first appearance in an NCAA-sanctioned bowl game, a closely matched 14–13 Gator Bowl victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on January 1, 1953, in which star fullback Rick Casares kicked the winning extra points for the margin of victory.[8]

LaPradd was All-American.[4]

Notes
  1. LaPradd became a football coach at FSU and then president of St. John's River Community College in Palatka.[5]
gollark: But that was bad and cancelled anyway.
gollark: Except possibly Phi or something?
gollark: There is no 896 core CPU.
gollark: It might work with normal disk-as-cache functionality in OSes, but less efficiently than something dedicated probably.
gollark: I think they do work as normal NVMe disks based on interweb searching™, yes.

References
  1. The Department of Publicity and The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. "1952 Florida Football Facts 'n Figures" (PDF). floridagators.com. University Athletic Association, Inc. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  2. 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 107 (2015). Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  3. Norm Carlson, University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators, Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia, p. 61 (2007).
  4. Associated Press, "LaPradd Is Thrilled By His Selection to All America", Daytona Beach Morning Journal, p. 7 (December 6, 1952). Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  5. McCarthy 2000, p. 44
  6. College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. Georgia Archived 2015-07-07 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  7. Golenbock, Go Gators!, p. 64
  8. Noel Nash, ed., The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football, Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois, pp. 16–18 (1998).

Bibliography
  • Golenbock, Peter (2002). Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory. St. Petersburg, Florida: Legends Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0-9650782-1-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • McCarthy, Kevin M (2000). Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-0559-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.