The 1949 Florida Gators football team represented the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

during the

1949 college football season The 1949 college football season finished with four teams that were unbeaten and untied-- Notre Dame, Oklahoma, California, and Army had won all their games at season's end. Notre Dame, however, was the overwhelming choice for national champion ...

. The season was

Raymond Wolf Raymond Bernard Wolf (July 15, 1904 – October 6, 1979), nicknamed "Bear" Wolf, was an American football and baseball player and coach. Wolf was a native of Illinois and an alumnus of Texas Christian University (TCU), where he played college f ...

's fourth and last as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Wolf's 1949 Florida Gators finished 4–5–1 overall and 1–4–1 in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC), placing tenth of twelve SEC teams,
2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 110–111 (2015). Retrieved August 14, 2015. and ending the Gators' "Golden Era."

Schedule

The highlight of the 1949 season was the Gators' 28–7 upset of the

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

.Noel Nash, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois, pp. 11–13 (1998). Led by halfback

Chuck Hunsinger Charles Ray Hunsinger (July 25, 1925 – March 23, 1998) was an American college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) and the Canadian Football League (CFL) for six seasons during t ...

, who rushed for 171 yards and three touchdowns, and team captain Jimmy Kynes, who was the defensive star and played every minute of the sixty-minute game, the Gators beat the Dawgs for the first time since

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

Mr. Two Bits

The otherwise lackluster season is notable for the beginning of the

Mr. Two Bits George E. Edmondson Jr. (July 17, 1922 – July 2, 2019) was an insurance salesman from Tampa, Florida who was known to the University of Florida community as "Mr. Two Bits". Edmondson was a long-time fan of — and unofficial cheerleader for — ...

tradition. Tampa insurance salesman George Edmondson, Jr., a former Citadel student, was in attendance at the season opening game against his former school and was struck by the lack of support shown by the fans at Florida Field. Feeling sorry for Florida's players, he began leading his section in the traditional "two bits" cheer. The Gators won, and the cheer was so well received that Edmonson returned to Gainesville later in the season to lead it again. This began a decades-long tradition, as Edmonson would continue to lead the cheer from the stands and (eventually) from the field as "Mr. Two Bits" until his retirement from the role in 2008.Gators' Mr. Two-Bits to hang it up after 60 years at Florida – Orlando Sentinel
/ref> Since then, Gator "celebrities" and selected students have filled the role.

Postseason

After Wolf left Gainesville, he returned to his alma mater,

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

, where he became a long-time administrator.

References

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Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Florida Gators football seasons

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...