Florida vs Miami History: The Florida Flop

I'd heard about it plenty of times throughout the years. If you're a college football fan -- and especially if you're from South Florida -- you probably have, too.

The Gator Flop.

In case you don't know the story, here's the short version: Miami and Florida were both having miserable seasons when they squared off at the Orange Bowl for the final game of the 1971 season. But the game still had plenty of juice -- in part because of the schools' longtime rivalry and in part because Florida quarterback John Reaves needed 343 passing yards to break Jim Plunkett's NCAA career passing record of 7,544 yards.

With time winding down and Florida winning by a lopsided score of 45-8, Reaves was still 10 yards shy of the record. Miami had the ball and was slowly driving for a meaningless touchdown -- too slowly for Florida's taste. Fearing that time might expire before Reaves could get the ball back, the Florida defense repeatedly called timeout. But Miami kept creeping down the field.

That's when the Florida defense played its trump card: As Miami snapped the ball from the Florida 8-yard line, the Gators players fell down on the job -- literally. They simply flopped to the ground, giving Miami quarterback John Hornibrook an uncontested touchdown.

A few minutes later, Reaves got his record by completing a pass to Carlos Alvarez as time expired. But the Miami players were incensed, and so was Canes coach Fran Curci, who called the incident "the worst thing I have ever seen in football."

I'd read about the Gator Flop before, but I'd never seen the play until a clip of it recently showed up on YouTube. I was curious about how the principals involved felt about it at the time and how they feel about it now, nearly 40 years later.

The first thing I wanted to know was whether the record had been on the players' minds in the week leading up to the game and how prominently it figured in their thinking as the game unfolded. Nowadays, media coverage would lead to endless discussion about a passing record that was within reach, but was that the case back in 1971?

*The article goes on in depth with player interviews after this.

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That's classic. And you guys give us shite for stomping on the damn logo..

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Oh yeah, Coach Doug Dickey who is in the University of Tennessee Hall of Fame. He is a Florida alumnus as well.

Oh man I would love to have some beers with you and swap a few stories!

I didn't know DD went to high school in Gainesville.

It was a terrible thing to do. But Gator fans kind of like it now because we don't like both Miami and Doug Dickey. Can't stand them at all. As a matter of fact we probably hate Dickey more than Miami.

Actually he is talking about being a D-1 program, which FSU was not for about their first 10 years until 1958. Also Florida was a good team in the ‘60’s. We sucked donkeys in the 70’s.

Dickey graduated sometime before me, but we both went to P.K. Yonge near the UF campus. I grew up despising Georgia. A high school classmate and I both left Gainesville for UGA. Life is funny sometimes.

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Florida was pretty good in the 60's. Then in the 80's we had a very good run but probation end up costing us. We were coming to form, then Spurrier took over and it was GG

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One brief run in the 60s does not a major program make. You were an average program at best. Miami damn sure wasnt a major program

I remember when there was talk of Miami moving down to 1-AA in the late 70s, after they lost a homecoming game to FAMU...And then Snellenburger showed up....

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except for 1944, when UF did not field a team during WW II.

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Just a small correction...UF didn't field a team for 1943...they did field teams for 1940-'42, '44 and '45.

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing that.