Gator football fans celebrate homecoming victory over the Wildcats

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – It was a happy homecoming for the Gator football team and its fans as Florida took care of business and defeated Kentucky to end a three-game losing streak against the Cats. And for a group of former Gator football players, it may have been an even happier weekend. After 40 long years, the 1984 SEC champion Florida football team was honored during Saturday’s game. It was a weekend-long event for the team, who met to golf on Friday and then set up a tent on the Reitz Union lawn on Saturday to gather, reminisce and perhaps begin a long-overdue healing process.

When that team won the SEC in 1984, it had never been done before in Florida football history. Never. The refrain of waiting until next year is finally gone. And you want talent? Three first-round draft choices at running back: Neal Anderson, John L. Williams and Lorenzo Hampton. NFL talent everywhere like quarterback Kerwin Bell, wide receiver Ricky Nattiel and a host of great players on the defensive side of the ball too. They knew what they were doing in 1984, and nothing the university, the SEC or anyone else did took away the fact that they had won an SEC title on the field.

This isn’t meant to excuse the cheating, but as someone who covered this team at the time, it was believed that many schools did what Florida did and just got caught. Again, what was done is not condoned, but after the SEC voted to vacate the 1984 title, the University of Florida athletic department wanted nothing to do with this team and refused any recognition of their performance. This left these players and coaches bitter and disillusioned and created a wedge against the university that remains to this day.

Talk to the players and coaches and they will tell you that. They felt that their achievements were in vain, that the university would never bring them back for recognition or honor them for what they had gained. Some players have fundamentally distanced themselves from the school they once played for.

There is now an initiative to install some sort of signage at Florida Field indicating the 1984 championship, and if that happens, it should also happen for Steve Spurrier’s 1990 SEC champions, who were disqualified from winning the championship due to their stay were violations of the NCAA. They also won it on the field and they should also be recognized in some way.

Many people believe that if Reggie Bush got his Heisman trophy back after it was taken away from him, then the 1984 and 1990 teams should get their titles back. While at USC, Bush took illegal incentives and the school was also punished. Bush was relegated to obscurity as if he had never played for the Trojans. But as payments for names, images and likenesses became a reality, Bush campaigned to get his trophy back because the rules he had allegedly broken were now legal. USC welcomed him back; Could this happen for the 1984 and 1990 teams?

Time will tell. But this past weekend, for a moment, hopefully the healing process began for the 1984 SEC Football Champions. I’m Steve Russell, this is the Russell Report.

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