1923 Florida Gators football team

1923 Florida Gators football
ConferenceSouthern Conference
Record6–1–2 (1–0–2 SoCon)
Head coach
Offensive schemeNotre Dame Box
CaptainW. M. Robinson
Home stadiumFleming Field
Uniform
Seasons
← 1922
1924 →
1923 Southern Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Washington & Lee + 4 0 1 6 3 1
Vanderbilt * + 3 0 1 5 2 1
VPI 4 1 0 6 3 0
Alabama 4 1 1 7 2 1
Maryland 2 1 0 7 2 1
Florida 1 0 2 6 1 2
North Carolina 2 1 1 5 3 1
Georgia 3 2 0 5 3 1
Mississippi A&M 2 1 2 5 2 2
Tennessee 4 3 0 5 4 1
Tulane 2 2 1 6 3 1
Clemson 1 1 1 5 2 1
Georgia Tech 0 0 4 3 2 4
NC State 1 4 0 3 7 0
Auburn 0 1 3 3 3 3
Kentucky 0 2 2 4 3 2
Virginia 0 3 1 3 5 1
LSU 0 3 0 3 5 1
Ole Miss 0 4 0 4 6 0
South Carolina 0 4 0 4 6 0
  • + – Conference co-champions
  • * co-member of SIAA

The 1923 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida during the 1923 Southern Conference football season. This was Major James Van Fleet's first of two seasons as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Van Fleet was a serving officer in the U.S. Army and a professor of military tactics in the university's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, and had been a standout fullback on the undefeated West Point Cadets team of 1914. Van Fleet's 1923 Florida Gators finished 6–1–2 overall,[1] and 1–0–2 in the Southern Conference, placing third of twenty-one teams in the conference standings.[2]

Notably, Florida alumni and students celebrated their first-ever homecoming with a 19–7 victory over the Mercer Baptists. The Gators tied the defending SoCon champion Georgia Tech Golden Tornado, and the highlight of the 1923 season was a 16–6 upset of coach Wallace Wade's previously undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide on a muddy, rain-soaked field in Birmingham, Alabama in the final game of the year.

  1. ^ 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 107–108 (2015). Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  2. ^ 2009 Southern Conference Football Media Guide, Year-by-Year Standings, Southern Conference, Spartanburg, South Carolina, p. 74 (2009). Retrieved August 30, 2010.