quote:
Governor LeRoy Collins entered the fray.

Governor Collins had been outraged that a bill had even been placed on the floor of the Senate. He believed that the State Legislature had more important things to do than schedule football games.

His outrage intensified to extreme anger, when he learned that as many as three other bills were in the process of being written.

He decided to act.

He summoned both Presidents to the Governor's Mansion for a meeting.

There are no official documents of what was said in that meeting, but whatever was said worked. Within a matter of a few weeks the Presidents of both Florida State and Florida appeared before the Board of Control and asked that the Board initiate action that would result in the two schools competing against each other in all sports.

A game was close, but still not official.

The Board turned the situation over to the athletic departments of both schools to finalize everything. Despite numerous meetings, nothing could be concluded and negotiations dragged on for another 6 months.

Finally, a still angry and now agitated Governor Collins ordered both President Campbell of Florida State and President Reitz of Florida to return to Tallahassee to meet with him and the Board of Control.

Collins would later be quoted..."there are some things that are better off not being mentioned in the sunshine," when he was asked why the meeting was behind locked doors.

The only thing known for certain is that when the meeting ended the Board of Control announced that Florida will play Florida State in football next year.

The headlines of the Tallahassee Democrat stated..."UF-FSU FOOTBALL ORDERED".

It would later be determined that the University of Florida did indeed have some contractual issues and they were granted a grace period from the Board of Control, and were ordered to play Florida State in 1958.

Fiction: There was never a law enacted that ordered Florida to play Florida State in Football.

Fact: The State Board of Control Ordered Florida to play Florida State in Football.

Information for this story researched from...

• The Tallahassee Democrat
• The Associated Press
• The Archives of the Florida Legislature
• The Video Production..."Garnet & Gold The First 50 years of FSU Football"
• The Book..."Sunshine Hate The Story of the Florida-Florida State Football Rivalry" written by Cale Conley