College Sports
Jacksonville's football bowl game, the Gator Bowl, began in 1946. The Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs have played their annual Florida–Georgia game, commonly known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party", in Jacksonville every year since 1933, save a two-year hiatus caused by the razing of the Gator Bowl Stadium and construction of the EverBank Field. The Florida State Seminoles have also held individual regular season games there, and in 1964 Georgia Tech and Navy played a regular season game there. The latter game was notable because 1963 Heisman Trophy winner and NFL Hall of Famer Roger Staubach played quarterback for Navy. Georgia Tech won the game, 17-0. On September 2, 1989 Florida State played Southern Mississippi in the regular season opener at the Gator Bowl. Southern Miss quarterback Brett Favre led his team to a 30-26 upset of the heavily-favored Seminoles.
Jacksonville was the host city for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship games in football through 2007.
In March 2006, Jacksonville was a host site for the first round of the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship. The games were held at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. The eventual national champion Florida Gators emerged from the Jacksonville regional.
Read more about this topic: Sports In Jacksonville, Florida
Famous quotes containing the words college and/or sports:
“If any proof were needed of the progress of the cause for which I have worked, it is here tonight. The presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of all those college girls who will some day be the nation’s greatest strength, will tell their own story to the world.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“In the past, it seemed to make sense for a sportswriter on sabbatical from the playpen to attend the quadrennial hawgkilling when Presidential candidates are chosen, to observe and report upon politicians at play. After all, national conventions are games of a sort, and sports offers few spectacles richer in low comedy.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)