The Gators also forfeited their first game against FSU

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Welcome to 1902, when college football's top rivalry was Princeton-Rutgers and when touchdowns were worth five points, not six.

Before it was Florida State University and before it was Florida State College for Women, FSU was Florida State College.

UF was Florida Agricultural College, located not in Gainesville but in Lake City.

Samuel Proctor and Wright Langley, who compiled a history of Gator football in 1986, pegged the state's first college football game as a match between FAC and Stetson College of DeLand in 1901, a game won by FAC in Jacksonville, 6-0.

One year later, W.W. Hughes, a Latin professor and former football player at Vanderbilt, volunteered to coach a fledgling varsity team in Tallahassee.

On Dec. 12, 1902, after a one-week postponement because of heavy rains, FSC and FAC triggered an emotional series. FSC, known simply as ''the Eleven'' because it had no formal nickname or mascot, trailed at halftime, 5-0, but rallied in the second half.

Kabat's research indicates that FAC's players became tired and frustrated despite their lead. FAC's quarterback hit FSC's right end ''in the temple and was promptly disqualified,'' according to the Weekly Tallahasseean.

After FSC drove to FAC's 16 and FAC was penalized five yards for an illegal defensive formation, the Eleven successfully attempted a trick offsides play. It worked, but it also infuriated FAC's players, who marched off the field and refused to come back.

Officials declared the Eleven victorious by forfeit.

The ending warranted a rematch. Both sides agreed to schedule one for the following week in Lake City.

''Through the next week, the Eleven prepared to seek redress from the Lake City men, whom they considered guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct,'' Kabat wrote.



No such luck.

Five days before Christmas, FSC lost its only game of a three-game season, 6-0.

''Although the game was hotly contested from the very first, it was plain that the local team was stronger,'' reported the Lake City Citizen-Reporter.

The game's highlight came afterward. At a dance thrown by FAC, the players became friends, and the Eleven won a high-placed fan.

Said Mrs. Thomas H. Taliaferro, wife of FAC's president, of the Eleven: ''They not only know how to play football but are thorough gentlemen and know how to dance as well.''

Emotions weren't as upbeat the following year, when the state faced a philosophical debate - academics vs. athletics.

The Eleven won, 12-0, in Tallahassee in a game filled with both surprises and squabbling.

It seems the Eleven had planned on playing former Clemson star Jack ''Pee Wee'' Forsythe at fullback. When the visitors from Lake City found out, they threatened to leave.

FSC's captain, A.B. Clark, said the team wouldn't use Forsythe if FAC did not play its physical education director, J.D. Jeffery.

''Both Forsyth and Jeffery likely were professionals; certainly, neither was a student,'' Kabat wrote. ''Finally, Lake City acquiesced, and the game went on as scheduled.''

The schools agreed to play each other again the next year in Lake City. FSC earned its most convincing victory in three seasons, 23-0.

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