1930 Florida Gators football team

Image from Florida-Florida Southern game.

The Gators faced the Florida Southern Moccasins on Fleming Field in Gainesville to open the season on September 27, winning 45 to 6. Southern scored its points in the second quarter, at that point making the game tied 6 to 6. The Gators responded with a barrage of points which continued until the final whistle.

Red Bethea had three touchdowns on his first three touches, including runs of 46 and 48 yards. This got Bethea a column in Ripley's Believe It Or Not.[4]

For the second week of play, Florida beat the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Plant Field in Tampa 27 to 0.

After being held scoreless in the first half with a number of fumbles, a 37-yard end run from Red Bethea sparked the Gator attack.[5] Ed Sauls had a 61-yard kick return, which ended when he stumbled and fell. On the next play he scored. Sam Gurneau and Charlie Cobb starred for NC State.[6]

The Gators just defeated coach Chet A. Wynne's Auburn Tigers in Jacksonville by a 7 to 0 score; seen as a moral victory by the Tigers.[7] Ed Sauls scored Florida's touchdown in the final period, and Monk Dorsett got the extra point.

On October 18, 1930, the Gators defeated coach Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons at Stagg Field 19 to 0 in a game was affected by wintry blasts of near-zero temperatures.[8] n . The victory was historic for the Florida football program, representing the first time the Gators had won an inter-sectional game outside the South.[9] The Gators had previously lost all six games it had played in the North—to Indiana in 1916, Harvard in 1922 and 1929, Army in 1923 and 1924, and Chicago in 1926.[10]

Red Bethea was the star of the historic victory over Chicago, rushing for 218 yards to set a school record that would not be broken until 1987, when Emmitt Smith ran for 224 yards in his first collegiate start. The Associated Press called Bethea Florida's "siege gun,"[11] and noted that his rushing total was "better than the whole Chicago backfield."[12] Bethea contributed to all of Florida's points.[13] The first came after Bethea made a series of 5-yard runs, down to the 5-yard line as the first quarter ended. He then ran behind Muddy Waters for the score.[14] Later, Bethea ran down to the 2-yard line on a fake reverse. Ed Sauls went over for the touchdown. Proctor kicked goal.[14] In the fourth quarter, Bethea ran for a 70-yard touchdown, "accomplished by brilliant, running, twisting, and swerving."[15] Bethea "went wide around the right side of the line, cut back to the left, reversed to the center and tore 70-yards."[16]

Chicago suspended its football program in 1939. One fellow quipped "Florida did it. When Florida beat them, that was the last straw."[17]

The starting lineup for the Gators against Chicago: Parnell (left end) Waters (left tackle), Steele (left guard), Clemons (center), McRae (right guard), Proctor (right tackle), Nolan (right end), Dorsett (quarterback), Bethea (left halfback), Sauls (right halfback), Silsby (fullback).[14][18]

Coach Dad Amis's Furman Purple Hurricane upset the Gators 14 to 13. Every score of the contest was made via the forward pass.[19] A missed extra point by Florida's Parnell and one made by Furman's Allred proved to be the difference.[20] The loss did not sit well with the alumni.[17]

The scoreless tie with the Georgia Bulldogs provided the upset of the conference that week,[21] as Georgia had defeated Yale and would lose just two games: to conference co-champions Alabama and Tulane. Sportswriter Lawrence Perry attributed Georgia's inability to score to its lack of using the forward pass at key intervals.[22]

Twice Georgia backs Spurgeon Chandler, Jack Roberts, and Austin Downes threatened Florida's goal but were turned back.[23]

The starting lineup for the Gators against Georgia: Parnell (left end) Waters (left tackle), Steele (left guard), Clemons (center), James (right guard), Proctor (right tackle), Hall (right end), Dorsett (quarterback), Bethea (left halfback), Sauls (right halfback), Jenkins (fullback).[23]

The first game at Florida Field.

The seventh week of play featured the first ever game on Florida Field, which had been slated for an August opening that was delayed due to unforeseen construction challenges.[24] The new, 22,000 seat stadium[25] planned to eventually house 50,000.[24]

The visiting team was Wallace Wade's Alabama Crimson Tide, and the eventual national champions spoiled Florida Field's debut by thumping the Gators 20–0. Despite the score, Florida showed much defensive strength, holding the undefeated Tide to 6 points until tiring late in the contest, with lineman Muddy Waters given praise.[26] However, Florida's offense struggled all afternoon against an Alabama defense that would only allow 13 points all season.[27]

The first score came when John Campbell broke through the line for 21 yards.[27][28] Later, after much wear on the Gator defense, Campbell scored on a short run through center. John Tucker, a substitute, also scored on a short run.[27] Johnny Cain was also cited as a strength for the Tide.[27]

The starting lineup for the Gators against Alabama: Parnell (left end), Waters (left tackle), Steele (left guard), Clemons (center), Forsyth (right guard), Proctor (right tackle), Hall (right end), Dorsett (quarterback), Bethea (left halfback), Sauls (right halfback), Jenkins (fullback).[26]

Using many passes, the Gators beat coach Josh Cody's Clemson Tigers 27 to 0. Two scores came on long passes from Monk Dorsett to John Hall. Coach Bachman said "Dorsett's quarterbacking has been the finest since I took charge of the 'Gators."[29]

The Gators beat coach Bill Alexander's Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for the first time, handing them their worst defeat in years, 55 to 7.[30] Red Bethea scored three touchdowns, Ed Sauls two, and John Hall one. After the Tech game, newspapers posted how Bethea "made the Florida fans forget there ever was a Cannonball Clyde Crabtree."[31]

The season's final game saw a bitterly fought contest end in a 13 to 6 loss to coach Robert Neyland's Tennessee Volunteers. Buddy Hackman scored both of Tennessee's touchdowns.[32] Tennessee quarterback Bobby Dodd also starred.[33]

A fake play with Vols center Gene Mayer netted 27 yards, placing the ball on Florida's 13-yard line. Dodd then passed to Hackman for the touchdown. Florida scored after a Hackman fumble put the ball on the 25-yard line. A pass to Parnell got a touchdown.[34] In the final few minutes, Hackman won the game with a 48-yard interception return for a touchdown.

An account of Bobby Dodd's trickery: "Against Florida in 1930 he got his teammates in a huddle and told them about a play he had used in high school. When the ball was snapped, it was placed on the ground unattended. The players ran in one direction. Then the center returned, picked up the ball, and waltzed to the winning touchdown."[35] This play would later come to be popularly known as the "fumblerooski", after Nebraska famously used it in the 1984 Orange Bowl versus Miami.[36][37]

The following chart provides a visual depiction of Florida's lineup during the 1930 season with games started at the position reflected in parentheses. The chart mimics a Notre Dame Box on offense.

• Carlson, Norm (2007). University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators. Atlanta, Georgia: Whitman Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-0-7948-2298-9.