Newton's powerful leg was also pivotal in the biggest upset victory in Gators' history, a 16-6 win over Wallace Wade’s Alabama team in driving rain and ankle deep mud in Birmingham in 1923. The Gators trailed 6-0 at intermission when coach J.A. VanFleet had his troops strip off their waterlogged socks and return to the field at the last possible moment. Alabama, encumbered by its soggy hosiery, could not keep up. "[Coach Wadel was so mad he never spoke to me again," VanFleet said. "But, as I remember, he had his boys play bare-legged in the future in bad weather."

VanFleet left after the 1927 season to pursue a military career, and Charles Bachman arrived from Kansas State, inheriting a team that had gone 7-3 in '27. Florida won its first eight games in 1928-including a 26-6 victory over Georgia, its first over the Bulldogs-and outscored its opposition 324-31 in the process. "Talk about pulling rabbits out of a hat," one scribe wrote. "Why, dear friends, these Gators can pull touchdowns out of a thimble." End Dale Van Sickel became the first Gators All-America, and 5' 8", 148-pound quarterback Clyde (Cannonball) Crabtree of Cicero, Ill., piloted what became known as the Phantom Four backfield. One of only four out-of-staters on the 42-man squad, the nimble Crabtree could kick with either foot and throw with either arm-"a double-quadruple option," Bachman called him.

With a win over 7-1-1 Tennessee in the finale at Knoxville, Florida would have claimed its first Southern Conference championship and a berth in the Rose Bowl. But a Crabtree lateral was picked off and returned 70 yards for one Tennessee touchdown and both Florida conversion attempts failed. The Vols won 13-12. "When it began, I thought our team could beat anybody, anywhere," Vols quarterback Bobby Dodd would recall. "When it was over, I confess, we were a bit lucky to beat Florida."

The Gators remained strangers to good luck. After an 8-2 finish in 1929, Florida would not forge a seven-win season for the next 23 years. Florida joined the newly formed SEC in 1933 and floundered. The Depression dried up alumni contributions; no athletic scholarships were available until after World War II. After Sewanee abandoned the conference, Florida became one of its regular whipping boys, along with Vanderbilt. Frustrated by the team's lackluster performance during the early '40s, students hurled coach Tom Lieb into a lake.

Highlights from this era are few. Quarterback Walter (Tiger) Mayberry became the school's first All-SEC honoree in 1937, and two years later end Forest Ferguson spearheaded a stunning defeat of Boston College, dealing Eagles coach Frank Leahy one of his two losses over a two-year stretch. Governor Fuller Warren pledged a winning Gators team in his 1948 campaign. Two years later stodgy Bob Woodruff was hired from Baylor, and the campaign promise was barely kept: He went 53-42-6 in 10 seasons. To his credit, Woodruff stabilized the program financially, beat Georgia six times, churned out a handful of All-America linemen and led the team to its first bowl appearance, a 14-13 victory over Tulsa in the 1953 Gator Bowl.

But Woodruff was not exactly Knute Rockne in the locker room; he deemed himself "the oratorical equivalent of a blocked punt," and his rallying cry was "ooski wow-wow!" After a 13-13 tie with Rice in 1959, during which Woodruff had opted to run out the clock rather than risk an interception in his own territory, the coach's own words no doubt hastened his ouster. "I'll gamble to win," he said, "but I'll never gamble to lose."