The '84 Reign

By: Alyssa Britton-Harr

Courtesy of the UAA and GatorsFB

The 1984 Florida Gators football team curated a team that never backed down as they continued to work together despite significant setbacks. At the start of their season, Head Coach Charley Pell was forced to resign three games into the season due to a NCAA report detailing numerous recruiting violations. This forced offensive coordinator Galen Hall to step in as the interim head coach for the season. 

Under Hall, the Gators went 8-0 to post a 9-1 overall record, including a 5-0-1 record in the SEC where the team won five of its six games while tying one. With the team's great success, Hall was named SEC Coach of the Year. Florida was also named number three in the country by the Associated Press poll, the highest finish in program history up to that time, and by many pollsters named national champions. 

However, the team wasn’t permitted to participate when it came time for the Gators bowl game decision due to NCAA sanctions. Before ‘84 no other Gators football squad had gone undefeated in the SEC or won a conference championship, so Gator Nation was ecstatic at the record this team had clinched. 

At the time, Florida led the SEC in both points, scoring 31 points per game and allowing 15.5 points scored against them per game. The team fed off their freshman quarterback and SEC Player of the Year, Kerwin Bell, who would be three first-round running backs: John L. Williams, Neal Anderson and Lorenzo Hampton. 

Neal Anderson became a first-round pick in the 1986 NFL Draft and was drafted by the Chicago Bears, where he played with them for eight seasons. Anderson and more than 50 members of the ‘84 team came back to the Swamp for homecoming weekend in a tense matchup between the Kentucky Wildcats. 

"We had a great time, a lot of unbelievable athletes, and many of them went on to play professionally," Anderson said. "A great memory was when we won the SEC Championship flying back from Kentucky, over the stadium, we saw so many fans, and even to this day, people still talk about where they were when we won the championship."

In a prominent time when the Gators team had great success and the people in Gainesville were feeling on top of the world, when it came down to the decision for the team to be selected for a bowl game, the university did not back them up in fighting for their success. 

Returning to the Swamp, after 40 years of being unrecognized, the team still has not received a banner even though they still believe they deserve one. 

First-round NFL Draft pick in 1987 Ricky Nattiel, also known as "Ricky the Rocket," was an offensive weapon for the ‘84 Gators football team. He played six seasons in the league with the Denver Broncos and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He came back to be recognized and to cherish the bond he and his teammates had during the season. 

"A lot of the memories I have are ones with the bond we had with the guys, probably one of the best teams in Florida history," Nattiel said. "We had guys who were tenacious on defense and opportunistic on offense…we played hard together and left everything on the field."

While the ‘84 teams' success was cut short due to NCAA rules, their season, trophies and the joy they brought to the University of Florida and its fans will never be forgotten.