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 ...

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

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 o ...

women's lacrosse Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a sport with twelve players on the field at a time (including the goalkeeper). Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduce ...

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

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 o ...

Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (in full Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium),Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field
. Retrieved July 12, 2009. th
Exactech Arena
at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center for basketball,GatorZone.com, Men's Basketball Facilities
Stephen C. O'Connell Center
Retrieved July 12, 2009.GatorZone.com, Women's Basketball Facilities
Stephen C. O'Connell Center
Retrieved July 12, 2009. gymnastics,GatorZone.com, Gymnastics Facilities
Stephen C. O'Connell Center
Retrieved July 12, 2009. swimming and diving,GatorZone.com, Swimming & Diving Facilities
Stephen C. O'Connell Center
Retrieved July 12, 2009. indoor track and field,GatorZone.com, Indoor Track & Field Facilities
Stephen C. O'Connell Center
Retrieved July 12, 2009. and volleyball;GatorZone.com, Volleyball Facilities
Stephen C. O'Connell Center
. Retrieved July 12, 2009. and James G. Pressly Stadium for soccerGatorZone.com, Soccer Facilities
James G. Pressly Stadium
Retrieved July 12, 2009. and outdoor track and field.GatorZone.com, Track & Field Facilities
Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium
Retrieved July 12, 2009. The

Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium The Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium is the home field of the Florida Gators softball team of the University of Florida. The stadium is located at the corner of Hull Road and Museum Road, on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus. Hi ...

, the

Florida Ballpark Condron Family Ballpark at Alfred A. McKethan Field is the college baseball stadium of the University of Florida, and serves as the home field for the Florida Gators baseball team. Condron Ballpark is located on the university's Gainesville, Fl ...

, and the

Donald R. Dizney Stadium The Florida Gators women's lacrosse team represents the University of Florida in the sport of college lacrosse. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and are single-sport members of the American ...

for lacrosse are located on Hull Road on the southwestern side of the campus.GatorZone.com, Softball Facilities
Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium
Retrieved July 12, 2009.FloridaGators.com, Baseball Facilities
Florida Ballpark
Retrieved September 24, 2020.GatorZone.com, Lacrosse Facilities
Donald R. Dizney Stadium
Retrieved July 12, 2009. The

Mark Bostick Golf Course The Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, is the home course of the Florida Gators men's golf and Florida Gators women's golf teams. The course is owned by the university and operated by the Uni ...

and Scott Linder Stadium for tennis are located on S.W. Second Avenue on the northwestern side of the campus.UFGolfcourse.com
Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida
Retrieved July 12, 2009.GatorZone.com, Men's Tennis Facilities
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Retrieved July 12, 2009.GatorZone.com, Women's Tennis Facilities
Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex
Retrieved July 12, 2009. The Florida Gators athletic program is administered by the University Athletic Association, Inc. (UAA), a private non-profit corporation that reports to the president of the university and its board of trustees. For the 2014–15 school year, the UAA had an operating budget of $103,310,001, projected revenues of $104,064,487, and made a $3.5 million contribution to the university's general fund. Scott Stricklin has been Florida's

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

since 2016.

Awards and records

Beginning in the early 1990s, the Florida Gators has been recognized as one of the premier athletic programs 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 o ...

(SEC) and one of the best in the nation. The SEC has awarded an All-Sports Trophy to the best overall sports program in the conference since 1984, and Florida has won the award 27 times as of 2017. Florida is the only school in the SEC and one of four schools nationally to have won a national championship in the football, men's basketball, and baseball. Every year since 1993, the

National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) is a professional organization for college and university athletic directors in the United States. NACDA boasts a membership of more than 6,100 individuals and more than 1,600 ins ...

(NACDA) has recognized the Gators athletic program as one of the ten best overall Division I athletic programs in the country in its annual

NACDA Directors' Cup The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and univers ...

standings, including as runners-up on four occasions.NACDA.com
Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Previous Scoring
. Retrieved July 11, 2009. The men's athletic program was also the winner of the 2010–11 and 2011–12

Capital One Cup The Capital One Cup is a multi-sport award given to a school to acknowledge athletic success across all sports. Several sports programs from Higher education in the United States, higher-education institutions across the United States are pitted ...

; the women's athletic program won the Capital One Cup in 2013–14, and both programs have placed in the top five in the standings on several other occasions. Florida Gators script logo

Among the Gators' recent national championships, the

Florida Gators men's basketball The Florida Gators men's basketball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of basketball. The Gators compete in NCAA Division I's Southeastern Conference (SEC). Home games are played in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Con ...

team won the 2006 and

2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2006–07 basketball sea ...

s, and the

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 o ...

team won

2007 BCS National Championship Game The 2007 Tostitos BCS National Championship Game was an American football game played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on January 8, 2007, and featured the top-ranked Big Ten champion Ohio State Buckeyes against the 2nd-r ...

in football, all in the span of 366 days.''See'' NCAA.com, NCAA History
Division I Football
Retrieved March 12, 2015. ''See also'' NCAA.com, NCAA History
Division I Men's basketball
Retrieved March 12, 2015. Florida is the only school in NCAA Division I history to hold the outright men's basketball and football championships during the same school year. In January 2009, the Gators football team won the

2009 BCS National Championship Game The 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game was an American football game played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 8, 2009. It was the national championship game for the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and fea ...

with a 24–14 victory over the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Ru ...

. The Florida Gators baseball team took home its first championship at the 2017 NCAA championship, defeating rival SEC foe the LSU Tigers in two games. The Gators won the NCAA men's indoor track and field championship in three consecutive seasons in 2010, 2011 and 2012, the NCAA women's swimming and diving team national championship in 2010,Gator men repeat as indoor track national champs
", ''The Gainesville Sun'' (March 12, 2011). Retrieved May 25, 2011. the NCAA women's tennis championship in 2011, 2012 and 2017,Associated Press,
Florida women's tennis wins national championship
", ''The Gainesville Sun'' (May 24, 2011). Retrieved May 25, 2011. the NCAA men's outdoor track and field championship in 2012, 2013 and 2016, the NCAA women's gymnastics championship in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and the NCAA softball championships in 2014 and 2015. Individual Gator athletes have won 279 individual NCAA championships in boxing, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field. In 2017, Florida won the baseball national championship for the first time. The Gators swept LSU in the best of three national title series. This earned the university a total of 39 national team championships. Additionally, this put the University of Florida in exclusive company. With the 2017 baseball national championship, Florida became only the fourth school in history to win national championships in football, men's basketball, and baseball. Florida, along with Michigan, Ohio State, and UCLA are the only schools to ever achieve triple crown status. This also put Florida in a category by itself. Florida is the only Southeastern Conference school to accomplish this feat, as well, Florida is the only school in history to have achieved triple crown status in such a short span of time. Florida's first national championships in each of the big three sports (football, men's basketball, and baseball) were won in the span of just 21 years.GatorZone.com, Athletic Department
Overview & History
. Retrieved June 29, 2015.

NCAA all-sports rankings

The University of Florida has been ranked among the nation's top ten NCAA Division I athletic programs every year since 1983–84, an overall ranking that includes both men's and women's sports – the only college sports program ranked in the top ten in the United States for the last thirty-two consecutive years. The

National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) is a professional organization for college and university athletic directors in the United States. NACDA boasts a membership of more than 6,100 individuals and more than 1,600 ins ...

(NACDA) has recognized the University of Florida as ranking among the top seven Division I programs in its

NACDA Directors' Cup The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and univers ...

standings every year since the NACDA and ''USA Today'' began awarding the cup in 1993–94. The 2014–15 academic year marked the Gators' thirty-second consecutive year ranked among the nation's top ten best overall collegiate athletic programs, and the twenty-second consecutive year ranked among the top seven Division I programs in the NACDA Directors' Cup standings. Only one other Division I athletic program has matched that feat, and Florida has achieved this record while fielding fewer sports teams than many of the other perennially top-ranked collegiate athletic programs. In the twenty-two years of the NACDA Directors' Cup, the Gators have finished fifth or better in fifteen years, and have never finished lower than seventh; the only other program ranked among the top ten Division I programs every year since 1993–94 is the Stanford Cardinal sports program of Stanford University. NCAA Division I all-sports rankings

SEC All-Sports Trophy

Through the end of the 2017–18 school year, the Florida Gators have won 240

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 o ...

(SEC) team championships, the most in conference history. The SEC All-Sports Trophy began in 1973 as the Bernie Moore Trophy and tabulated the league's best men's sports program. In 1983, the SEC also began recognizing the best women's sports program in the conference, as well as the best overall SEC sports program. In 1994, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Regional Newspaper Group assumed responsibility for awarding the trophies.Pat Dooley,
Florida wins another SEC All-Sports award
", ''The Gainesville Sun'' (May 22, 2011). Retrieved May, 2011. In the 39-year history of the awards, Florida has won nineteen Women's Trophies, sixteen Men's Trophies, and twenty-five Overall SEC All-Sports Trophies (including twenty-five of the last twenty-seven). SEC rival Georgia won the overall 2005–06 All-Sports Trophy to snap Florida's record streak at fourteen straight (1990–91 through 2004–05). Florida reclaimed the SEC All-Sports Trophy for the 2006–07 school year, and the Gators again swept the overall, men's, and women's all-sports trophies in every year since. The Gators are the only SEC sports program to earn all three SEC all-sports trophies in a single year, and have swept all three trophies twelve times.

Championships

NCAA team championships

In their history of intercollegiate competition, the University of Florida's varsity athletic teams have won 45 national championships (including 40 sponsored by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA), two by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), two by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), and one by the

Bowl Alliance The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games (specifically the Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls) for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship game and to provide quality bowl game match ...

). Florida is one of only two Division I schools to hold both major men's championships (football and men's basketball) at the same time (as the 2006 BCS football champions and the 2006 and 2007 NCAA men's basketball champions), and was the first to do so.NCAA.com, NCAA History
Division I Men's Basketball
Retrieved July 10, 2009. Men's national championships (23) *Baseball (1): 2017 *Basketball (2): 2006 • 2007 *Football (3): 1996 • 2006 • 2008 *Golf (4): 1968 • 1973 • 1993 • 2001 *Indoor track and field (5): 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2018 • 2019 *Outdoor track and field (5): 2012 • 2013 • 2016 • 2017 • 2022 *Swimming and diving (2): 1983 • 1984 *Tennis (1): 2021 Women's national championships (22) *Golf (2): 1985 • 1986 *Gymnastics (4): 1982 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 *Indoor track and field (2): 1992 • 2022 *Outdoor track and field (1): 2022 *Soccer (1): 1998 *Softball (2): 2014 • 2015 *Swimming and diving (3): 1979 • 1982 • 2010 *Tennis (7): 1992 • 1996 • 1998 • 2003 • 2011 • 2012 • 2017 All of the national championships listed above were sponsored by the NCAA other than football in 1996 (Bowl Alliance), football in 2006 and 2008 (BCS), women's gymnastics in 1982 (AIAW), and women's swimming and diving in 1979 (AIAW).

NCAA individual and relay championships

Athletes at UF have won 341 individual and relay NCAA national championships. Men's individual and relay championships (150) * Boxing: 1 * Golf: 2 * Swimming and diving: 61 * Tennis: 5 * Track and field: 81 Women's individual and relay championships (191) * Golf: 1 * Gymnastics: 27 * Swimming and diving: 104 * Tennis: 9 * Track and field: 50

Conference championships

The University of Florida is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), one of the nation's premier intercollegiate sports conferences, and 20 of the 21 Gators sports teams compete in the SEC. Since the SEC began play in 1933, Florida's varsity athletic teams have won 255 SEC team championships, more than any other conference member.SECSports.com
2008–09 SEC Championships
. Retrieved July 7, 2009.SEC Record Book
SEC Championships (through 2007–08)
Retrieved July 7, 2009. The women's lacrosse team played its first four seasons in the now-defunct

American Lacrosse Conference The American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) was a women's lacrosse-only college athletic conference whose members competed at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). All of the ALC's members throughout its histor ...

(ALC), followed by four seasons in the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

, and joined the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

for the 2019 season (2018–19 school year) and beyond. All of Florida's conference championships are from the SEC unless otherwise stated. Men's conference championships *Baseball (15): 1952 • 1956 • 1962 • 1981 • 1982 • 1984 • 1988 • 1996 • 1998 • 2005 • 2010 • 2011 • 2014 • 2017 • 2018 • Tournament (7): 1981 • 1982 • 1984 • 1988 • 1991 • 2011 • 2015 *Basketball (7): 1989 • 2000 • 2001 • 2007 • 2011 • 2013 • 2014 • Tournament (4): 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2014 *Cross country (3) 1955 • 1986 • 1987 *Football (8): 1991 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 2000 • 2006 • 2008 *Golf (15): 1955 • 1956 • 1968 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1985 • 1989 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1999 • 2003 • 2011 *Swimming and diving (43): 1937 • 1938 • 1939 • 1940 • 1941 • 1953 • 1954 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1970 • 1971 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 *Tennis (12): 1950 • 1961 • 1968 • 1969 • 1975 • 1994 • 2000 • 2003 • 2005 • 2019 • 2021 • 2022 • Tournament (6): 1994 • 2000 • 2005 • 2011 • 2016 • 2022 *Indoor track and field (8): 1975 • 1976 • 1987 • 1988 • 2004 • 2011 • 2015 • 2019 *Outdoor track and field (6): 1953 • 1956 • 1987 • 2010 • 2015 • 2018 *Wrestling† (1): 1975 Women's conference championships *Cross country (6) 1984 • 1996 • 1997 • 2009 • 2010 • 2012 *Golf (9): 1981 • 1982 • 1984 • 1986 • 1987 • 1991 • 1995 • 2008 • 2017 *Gymnastics (14): 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1989 • 2007 • 2010 • 2012 • 2013 • 2016 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 *Lacrosse (11): 2011 (ALC) • 2012 (ALC) • 2013 (ALC) • 2014 (ALC) • 2015 (Big East) • 2016 (Big East) • 2017 (Big East) • 2018 (Big East) • 2019 (American) • 2021 (American) • 2022 (American) • Tournament (9): 2012 (ALC) • 2014 (ALC) • 2015 (Big East) • 2016 (Big East) • 2017 (Big East) • 2018 (Big East) • 2019 (American) • 2021 (American) • 2022 (American) *Soccer (14): 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2012 • 2013 • 2015 • Tournament (12): 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2004 • 2007 • 2010 • 2012 • 2015 • 2016 *Softball (9): 1998 • 2008 • 2009 • 2013 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2021 • Tournament (5): 2008 • 2009 • 2013 • 2018 • 2019 *Swimming and diving (17): 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 2002 • 2009 *Tennis (29): 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2001 • 2003 • 2004 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2015 • 2016 • Tournament (20): 1982 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 2000 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2016 *Indoor track and field (8): 1990 • 1992 • 1997 • 2002 • 2004 • 2010 • 2012 • 2014 *Outdoor track and field (7): 1992 • 1997 • 1998 • 2003 • 2009 • 2018 • 2022 *Volleyball (24): 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2010 • 2012 • 2014 • 2016 • 2017 • 2019 • Tournament (12): 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2005 † Wrestling is no longer offered at the varsity level at UF since 1979. For purposes of counting "official" SEC team championships in baseball, men's and women's basketball, soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, and volleyball, the SEC currently only includes regular season team championships, not tournament championships. The Gators have won an additional 66 SEC tournament titles in these sports which are not included in Florida's total of 255 SEC team championships.

Baseball

Coach

Andy Lopez Andrew Lopez (born November 30, 1953) is a retired American college baseball coach. He was most recently the head baseball coach at University of Arizona, and has served as the head baseball coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Pepperdine, and ...

took over the Gators baseball program in 1994, one season after leading the

Pepperdine Waves The Pepperdine Waves are the athletics teams of Pepperdine University, located outside the city of Malibu, California. They compete at the Division I level of the NCAA. The school is a member of the West Coast Conference for the majority of its ...

to their first

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

championship. In 1996, he coached the Gators to a fifty-win season and a College World Series bid. By 2000, the program had seemingly hit a plateau and Lopez was replaced. Pat McMahon became the Gators' head coach in 2001 after coaching the

Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State Bulldogs is the name given to the athletic teams of Mississippi State University, in Mississippi State, Mississippi. The university is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I. Sports sp ...

. The Gators' 2005 baseball season was the most successful to date, with the team winning the SEC title, and earning a place in the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

for the fifth time in school history. The team advanced to the championship round against the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

, ultimately losing two games to none. Following their 2005 College World Series run, the Gators opened the 2006 season ranked number one in the polls, but struggled to finish 28–28 record (10–20 SEC), and failed to qualify for the NCAA Regionals. After missing the NCAA Regionals again in 2007, McMahon was dismissed. Former

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) s ...

associate head coach Kevin O'Sullivan became the Gators' new head baseball coach on June 13, 2007. O'Sullivan's Gator teams showed immediate improvement and the Gators finished the 2008 regular season with a 30–24 record (17–13 SEC), and received an invitation to the NCAA Regional in Tallahassee. The 2009 squad finished the regular season with a 38–18 record (19–11 SEC), won the NCAA Regional in Gainesville, and advanced to the Super Regional before losing to the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. O'Sullivan's 2010 and 2011 Gators finished their SEC regular season play with identical 22–8 records, won the program's eleventh and twelfth SEC championships, earned a berth in the College World Series in both years, and advanced to the College World Series final in 2011 before getting swept by SEC foe South Carolina in two games. The Gators returned to the College World Series in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. In June 2017, Florida won their first College World Series championship, sweeping fellow SEC rival LSU in two games in the best-of-three finals. Since 2021, the Gators baseball team plays its home games at Condron Ballpark at Alfred A. McKethan Field.

Men's basketball

Florida enjoyed limited success in men's basketball before the mid-1980s. Coach

Norm Sloan Norman Leslie Sloan Jr. (June 25, 1926 – December 9, 2003) was an American college basketball player and coach. Sloan was a native of Indiana and played college basketball and football at North Carolina State University. He began a long career a ...

's Gators were invited to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT)—only the second time the team had been invited to a post-season tournament. They returned to the NIT in 1985 and 1986, and made their first appearance in the NCAA basketball tournament in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, when

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

Vernon Maxwell Vernon Maxwell (born September 12, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who was a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for thirteen seasons during the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. Maxwell play ...

led the team to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. The Gators received invitations to the NCAA tournament in 1988 and 1989, but Sloan was forced to resign at the outset of the 1989–90 season as a result of NCAA infractions. Coach

Lon Kruger Lonnie Duane Kruger (born August 19, 1952) is a retired American college and professional basketball coach who was most recently the men's basketball head coach of the University of Oklahoma. Kruger played college basketball for Kansas State Uni ...

brought renewed success, and his Gators reached the NIT final four in 1991–92. During the 1993–94 season, Andrew DeClercq and

Dametri Hill Dametri Antonio Hill (born January 8, 1974) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-foot-7, 290-pound center/power forward, he played high school basketball at Dixie Hollins High School in his native St. Petersburg, Florida and ...

led the Gators to their first NCAA Tournament Final Four following a dramatic overtime victory over the

Connecticut Huskies The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, located in Storrs. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big East Conference. The university's foo ...

in the NCAA regional semifinal, and a 74-66 win over Boston College in the NCAA Regional Final. Florida Gators 2006 championship team

Athletic Director

Jeremy Foley Jeremy N. Foley (born December 1, 1952) is an American university sports administrator and former college athlete. Foley was an award-winning athletic director for the Florida Gators Division I sports program of the University of Florida locat ...

hired Billy Donovan as Kruger's replacement in 1996. Donovan's recruiting prowess was evident early, as he landed recruiting classes with future NBA players Mike Miller,

Udonis Haslem Udonis Johneal Haslem ( born June 9, 1980) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Florida Gators, where he was a key member of four N ...

and

Matt Bonner Matthew Robert Bonner (born April 5, 1980), also known as the Red Rocket or Red Mamba, is an American former professional basketball player. Bonner played college basketball for the University of Florida before being selected by the Chicago Bu ...

. Donovan's Gators advanced to the NCAA tournament final before losing to the

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the school colors are green and wh ...

in 2000, and demonstrated a consistency previously unknown to the program as they received invitations to the NCAA tournament every year from 1999 through 2007, a team-record eight-year streak. Under Donovan, Florida won its first

SEC men's basketball tournament The SEC men's basketball tournament is the conference tournament in basketball for the Southeastern Conference (SEC). It is a single-elimination tournament that involves all league schools (currently 14). Its seeding is based on regular season re ...

in 2005, when they beat the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

in the SEC title game. The 2005–06 team's 17–0 start was the best in team history, surprising many with a young, selfless squad led by four sophomores. The team began the season unranked, but won its second consecutive SEC Tournament championship. On April 3, 2006, the Gators defeated the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

73–57 in the NCAA tournament championship game to win Florida's first men's national basketball championship. Within days, all five starters announced they would return for another season to try to win back-to-back championships. At the outset of the 2006–07 season, the Gators were ranked No. 1 in both major polls for the first time. The Gators won their second consecutive NCAA national men's basketball championship on April 2, 2007, defeating the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

84–75. They became the first team since Duke in 1991–92 to win back-to-back tournaments and the first in NCAA history to do so with the same starting line-up. Afterward, Florida's four star juniors announced they would enter the NBA draft. Scottie Wilbekin

Donovan's Gators returned to championship form in 2010–11, winning the program's fifth regular season SEC championship and fighting their way to the NCAA regional semifinals (the "Elite Eight") before losing 74–71 to the

Butler Bulldogs The Butler Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent Butler University, located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Bulldogs participate in 20 NCAA Division I intercollegiate sports. After leaving the Horizon League following the 2011–12 seas ...

in overtime. In 2011–12, the Gators received a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament, exceeded expectations, and advanced to the Elite Eight, headlined by the play of star freshman Bradley Beal and point guard Erving Walker, before falling to Louisville. During the 2013–14 season, the Gators were ranked No. 1 in the nation, won the SEC championship with 36 straight wins during the regular season and tournament games, went on a school-record 30 game winning streak, and advanced to the NCAA Final Four, headlined by the play of four senior veterans: Patric Young,

Scottie Wilbekin Scottie Jordan Wilbekin (born April 5, 1993) is an American-born naturalized Turkish professional basketball player for Fenerbahçe Beko of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the Flori ...

, Will Yeguete and Casey Prather. The Gators men's basketball team is currently led by coach

Todd Golden Todd Raymond Golden ( he, טוד ריימונד גולדן; born July 7, 1985) is an American-Israeli former basketball player and current head coach of the Florida Gators men's basketball team. Early life and education Golden grew up in Phoenix ...

and plays its home games in the

O'Connell Center The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O' ...

.

Women's basketball

Women's basketball was approved as a new women's varsity sport by Florida in March 1972, but began play in 1973 as a club team. In 1975, the Lady Gators debuted as a varsity program under head coach Dr. Paula Welch. The Gators made local headlines in 1976 by winning the "state championship", beating the other three women's college teams located in the state at that time. While traditionally being overshadowed by conference and national basketball powers Tennessee and Georgia, the Lady Gators have made several NCAA tournament appearances and sent players to the WNBA, including

DeLisha Milton-Jones DeLisha Lachell Milton-Jones (born September 11, 1974) is an American retired professional basketball player and head coach of Old Dominion. Milton-Jones played college basketball for the University of Florida. She was a first-team All-American ...

. Carol Ross compiled more wins than any other women's basketball coach in Florida's history, and guided the team for twelve seasons from 1991 to 2003, but left to accept the head coaching job at her alma mater, Ole Miss. From 2002 through 2006, the women's basketball team was coached by

Carolyn Peck Carolyn Arlene Peck (born January 22, 1966) is an American television sportscaster and former college basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's basketball teams of Purdue University and the University of Florida, and also the first ...

, a former WNBA coach who won a national title with Purdue. Peck was fired midway through the 2006 season (though allowed to finish the season) after enduring the worst losing streak of any Gator sport. Former Gator player and previous

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

coach

Amanda Butler Amanda Kay Butler (born March 6, 1972) is an American college basketball coach and former player. In 2018, Butler was hired as the head coach of the Clemson Tigers women's basketball team. Prior to that, she was the head coach for the Florida Gat ...

was named the new women's basketball coach on April 13, 2007. During the 2008–09 season, the Lady Gators received an NCAA tournament bid, and won a first-round game before being defeated by eventual tournament champion

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

in the second round. Butler resigned after the 2016–17 season. The Gators women's basketball team is currently coached by Kelly Rae Finley, and plays its home games in the

O'Connell Center The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O' ...

.

Cross country

The Florida Gators men's cross country team has won three Southeastern Conference championships (SEC), and has competed in eight National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournaments. The women's cross country team has also won five SEC Championships (including the most recent), and competed in ten NCAA tournaments. In 2009, the Lady Gators placed seventh at the NCAA cross country championship; in 2010, they won the SEC championship for the second consecutive year. Coach Mike Holloway is the head coach of the men's and women's cross country teams.

Football

The University of Florida fielded an official varsity football team for the first time in 1906, defeating the Gainesville Athletic Club 6–0 in its first game. Since then, the Gators have played in thirty-seven bowl games, won three national championships (1996, 2006, 2008) and eight

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 o ...

championships, and produced 138 All-Americans, forty-two

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) first-round draft choices and three Heisman Trophy winners. The Gators' most prominent current football rivals are SEC Eastern Division foes

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, annual SEC Western Division opponent

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

, and in-state rival

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Florida has historically shared rivalries with Auburn and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, too, but those games are no longer played annually and have lessened in intensity. The Gator football team has obtained more victories than any other program in the NCAA's

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

(FBS) since 1990, the year Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier returned to his alma mater as head coach. The 1996 team, coached by Spurrier and led by another Gator Heisman-winner, Danny Wuerffel, finished with a 12–1 record and won the national championship in the Sugar Bowl, beating rival Florida State 52–20. This win was not without controversy from FSU fans who thought they should not have had to play Florida again. FSU won in the regular season match up 24–21. Swamp-panoramic

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fro ...

became Florida's head football coach in December 2004, and his six teams had great success from 2005 to 2010. The 2006 team won the school's second national championship on January 8, 2007, defeating the number one-ranked

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

41–14. Quarterback Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy in 2007, and Florida's Tebow-led 2008 team won the

2009 BCS National Championship Game The 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game was an American football game played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 8, 2009. It was the national championship game for the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and fea ...

on January 8, 2009, beating the top-ranked

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Ru ...

24–14, for the Gators' third national championship. The Gators have won the

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. The championship game pits the SEC East Division regular season champion against the West Division regula ...

seven times in eleven appearances since the SEC instituted the championship game in 1992. The Gators won their first official conference title in 1991, the year before the first SEC conference championship game was played, for a total of eight SEC championships in the last twenty-four seasons. The Gators football team plays its home games in

Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (in full Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium),

Billy Napier William Hall Napier (born July 21, 1979) is an American football coach currently serving as head coach at the University of Florida. From 2017 until 2021, he served as head coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, amassing a 40–12 rec ...

is the current head coach of the Florida Gators football.

Men's golf

The men's golf team has won four

NCAA Championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

(1968, 1973, 1993, 2001), and has produced two individual NCAA champions,

Bob Murphy Robert, Rob, Bob or Bobby Murphy may refer to: Sports Ice hockey *Robert Ronald Murphy or Ron Murphy (1933–2014), Canadian ice hockey player * Bob Murphy (ice hockey) (born 1951), Canadian retired professional ice hockey player * Rob Murphy (ice ...

in 1966 and Nick Gilliam in 2001. The men's golf team has also won fifteen Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships: 1955–56, 1968, 1973–75, 1985, 1989, 1991–94, 1999, 2003, 2011. Numerous former Gator golfers have represented the University of Florida on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

, and the program has produced over thirty male athletes who have competed professionally.

Buddy Alexander Stewart Murray Alexander (born February 20, 1953), nicknamed Buddy Alexander, is an American former college golf coach and amateur golfer. Alexander is the former head coach of the Florida Gators men's golf team. He is best known for coaching th ...

, the long-time head coach for the men's golf team, retired after the 2013–14 season. J. C. Deacon was hired in June 2014, and the 2014–15 season will be his first. The Gators men's golf team plays its home matches at the

Mark Bostick Golf Course The Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, is the home course of the Florida Gators men's golf and Florida Gators women's golf teams. The course is owned by the university and operated by the Uni ...

(formerly known as the "University Golf Course").

Women's golf

The women's golf team has won two NCAA team championships (1985, 1986), and has produced one individual NCAA champion, Page Dunlap. The women's golf team has also won eight Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships. Former Lady Gator golfers have regularly represented the University of Florida on the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of week ...

, and the program has produced over twenty female athletes who have competed in the professional ranks. Emily Glaser is the head coach for the women's team. The Gators women's golf team plays its home matches at the

Mark Bostick Golf Course The Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, is the home course of the Florida Gators men's golf and Florida Gators women's golf teams. The course is owned by the university and operated by the Uni ...

(formerly known as the "University Golf Course").

Women's gymnastics

Gymnastics was one of the first women's sports added at the University of Florida and achieved early success by winning the 1982

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

national championship. Since the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

assumed sponsorship of the national gymnastics championships in 1982, Florida has typically earned invitations to the NCAA national championships (top twelve teams nationally), and advanced to the NCAA "Super Six" eighteen times. Florida won the 2013, 2014 and 2015 NCAA national championships, finished in second-place in 1998 and 2012, and the team has only failed to qualify for the NCAA championships once in the past thirty-three seasons. The Gators have won a total of nine SEC gymnastics championships since 1982. The team's biggest SEC rivals are

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, both of which are also perennial national contenders. Coach

Rhonda Faehn Rhonda Faehn (born April 28, 1971) is an American college gymnastics coach and former college and elite gymnast. Faehn was the head coach of the Florida Gators women's gymnastics team of the University ...

's Gator gymnasts were the SEC champions in both 2012 and 2013, and won the NCAA national team championships in 2013, 2014 and 2015 (the 2014 was as co-champions with Oklahoma). Faehn coached the Gators gymnastics team from 2003 to 2015. Under Faehn, the Gator gymnasts have been nationally competitive and remarkably consistent—finishing in the top seven every year and winning three NCAA national championships. The Gators gymnastics team is now coached by Jenny Rowland. The Gators hold their home meets at the

O'Connell Center The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O' ...

.

Women's lacrosse

In June 2006, the University Athletic Association announced the creation of the new Gators

women's lacrosse Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a sport with twelve players on the field at a time (including the goalkeeper). Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduce ...

program, citing the growth of high school

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

across the country and the increased availability of Division I competition. Florida became the second Southeastern Conference member university to offer lacrosse as a varsity sport, following

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, and played its inaugural 2010 season in the

American Lacrosse Conference The American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) was a women's lacrosse-only college athletic conference whose members competed at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). All of the ALC's members throughout its histor ...

(ALC) together with the Commodores. The Gators and Commodores continued to play in the ALC until conference realignment led to the demise of the ALC following the 2014 season, after which both programs became single-sport members of the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

. The Gators and Commodores played in the Big East through the 2018 season, after which they became charter members of the new women's lacrosse league of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

(The American). The lacrosse team is the only Gators team that does not compete in the SEC. The Gators lacrosse team has had success over its first nine seasons, including four ALC regular-season championships (2011–2014); two ALC tournament titles (2012, 2014); both regular-season and tournament titles in all of its four Big East seasons (2015–2018); the regular-season and tournament championships in three of its first four seasons as a member of the AAC (2019, 2021, 2022); seven appearances in the NCAA tournament national quarterfinals ("Elite Eight"); and one appearance in the NCAA tournament national semifinals ("Final Four") in 2012. The Gators have been ranked among the top ten women's lacrosse teams in the country each of the last five seasons, and have been ranked as high as No. 1. Amanda O'Leary is the Gators' head coach. Before she was named to jump-start Florida's new program, O'Leary was the head coach at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

for 14 seasons, and was honored as a two-time All-American midfielder at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

, where she led her team to an NCAA championship in 1988. In only the second season of the Gators lacrosse program, the mostly-sophomores team defeated the defending ALC champion

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...

to win their first regular season conference championship. The Gators completed a perfect 5–0 season three days later by defeating the

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's teams), 14 of which compete at the National ...

in Nashville. The Gators women's lacrosse team plays its home games in the 1,500-seat

Donald R. Dizney Stadium The Florida Gators women's lacrosse team represents the University of Florida in the sport of college lacrosse. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and are single-sport members of the American ...

.

Women's soccer

Becky Burleigh was hired to be the first head coach since the women's soccer team began play a varsity sport in 1995. Under Burleigh's leadership, the team quickly became a national contender. In 1998, in the program's fourth season, the Gators won the NCAA national championship by defeating the defending national champion North Carolina Tar Heels 1–0 in the national finals of the NCAA tournament. The women's soccer team has also won thirteen Southeastern Conference regular season championships and ten SEC tournament titles in its eighteen seasons of play. In 2021, Burleigh retired as women's soccer coach. Notable former Gator soccer players include Abby Wambach, who was a member of the U.S. women's national team and scored the game-winning goal in the final game of the

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

in Athens, Greece;

Heather Mitts Heather Mitts Feeley (born Heather Blaine Mitts; June 9, 1978) is an American former professional soccer defender. Mitts played college soccer for the University of Florida, and thereafter, she played professionally in the Women's Professional ...

, who played for the gold medal U.S. national team in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China;

Melanie Booth Melanie Lynn Booth (born August 24, 1984) is a Canadian retired soccer player. She last played for Sky Blue FC in the National Women's Soccer League and for the Canada women's national soccer team. Early life Booth was born in Burlington, O ...

, who currently plays for the

Canadian women's national soccer team The Canada women's national soccer team (french: Équipe du Canada féminine de soccer) represents Canada in international soccer competitions. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association, the governing body for soccer in Canada. The ...

; and

Danielle Fotopoulos Danielle Ruth Fotopoulos (; born March 24, 1976) is an American soccer coach and former player. Fotopoulos holds the all-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I records for goals and points, and was a member of the Univer ...

, who played professionally with the

Carolina Courage Carolina Courage was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Fetzer Field on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in 2001, and then at the soccer-specific SAS Stadium in Cary, North Carolina i ...

.

Savannah Jordan Savannah Brooke Jordan (born January 24, 1995) is an American retired soccer forward who last played for the Houston Dash in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She also played for Glasgow City in the Scottish Women's Premier League ...

plays for the Portland Thorns and ranks second in Gators history behind Wambach for goals scored. The Gators women's soccer team is coached by

Samantha Bohon Samantha Baggett Bohon (born Samantha Lea Baggett; born June 7, 1976) is an American soccer head coach for the Florida Gators women's soccer team and retired player who was a member of the United States women's national soccer team. Personal lif ...

and rotates most of its home games between James G. Pressly Stadium and Donald R. Dizney Stadium.

Softball

The University Athletic Association decided to create the women's varsity softball program in 1995, and the Florida Gators softball team officially started competing in the Southeastern Conference in 1997 under former head coach Larry Ray. Since the beginning of the program, the Florida Gators have had several notable successes, including four SEC championships, eight appearances in the

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

(2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, & 2017), and back-to-back WCWS national championships (2014 & 2015). The Gators won nine SEC regular season championships (1998, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2021), as well as five SEC tournament titles (2008, 2009, 2013, 2018, and 2019). In 2009, they played for the NCAA softball championship in the Women's College World Series, losing to the

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-1 ...

in the final round. The Gators again advanced to the finals of the 2011 Women's College World Series before falling to the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member ...

. In 2014, the Gators defeated the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a me ...

in the first two games of the three-game Women's College World Series to win their first NCAA national championship. In 2015, the Gators repeated as national champions by defeating the Michigan Wolverines in the full three games. The Gators would return to the WCWS finals in 2017 before losing to the Oklahoma Sooners in two games. The current head coach is Tim Walton; the 2015–2016 season will be his tenth as the Gators' coach.GatorZone.com, Softball, Roster/Bios
Tim Walton
. Retrieved August 15, 2009. He was previously the head coach at

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

and he played baseball for the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

and a minor league team affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies. Through the end of the 2018 season, Tim Walton has acquired a 722–149 record, while at Florida. Following the conclusion of the 2018 season, Tim Walton was given a 10-year contract extension. The Gators softball team plays its home games at the

Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium The Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium is the home field of the Florida Gators softball team of the University of Florida. The stadium is located at the corner of Hull Road and Museum Road, on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus. Hi ...

.

Swimming and diving

The Florida Gators men's

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

teams have won NCAA national championships in 1983 and 1984, and has also won 41 Southeastern Conference team championships – including a stretch of 13 straight from 1956 to 1968.
Florida Swimming & Diving 2013–14 Media Supplement
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida (2013). Retrieved July 26, 2014. The women's swimming and diving team has won AIAW and NCAA national championships in 1979, 1982 and 2010, and has also won seventeen SEC team championships. The Florida Gators' notable female swimmers include three-time Olympic gold medalist

Tracy Caulkins Tracy Anne Stockwell, OAM, (born January 11, 1963), née Tracy Anne Caulkins, is an American former competition swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time world champion, and former world record-holder in three events. Caulkins was ...

, three-time Olympic gold medalist

Nicole Haislett Nicole may refer to: People * Nicole (name) * Nicole (American singer) (born 1958), a contestant in season 3 of the American ''The X Factor'' * Nicole (Chilean singer) (born 1977) * Nicole (German singer) (born 1964), winner of the 1982 Eurovi ...

, and four-time Olympic gold medalist

Dara Torres Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Gam ...

, who is also the first American swimmer to compete in five

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. The Gators' notable male swimmers include Olympic gold medalists Matt Cetlinski,

Mike Heath Michael Thomas Heath (born February 5, 1955) is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Yankees (1978), Oakland Athletics (1979–1985), St. Louis Cardinals (1986 ...

,

David Larson David Erwin Larson (born June 25, 1959) is an American former competition swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and former world record-holder. Larson is a Georgia native who became an All-American college swimmer for the University of Flori ...

, Ryan Lochte,

Caeleb Dressel Caeleb Remel Dressel (born August 16, 1996) is an American professional swimmer who specializes in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events. He swims representing the Cali Condors as part of the International Swimming League. He won ...

,

Anthony Nesty Anthony Conrad Nesty (born November 25, 1967) is a former competition swimmer from Suriname who was an Olympic gold medallist in the 100-metre butterfly event in 1988. He is currently the head coach of the Florida Gators men's and women's swim ...

and Martin Zubero. The Gators have had an international flavor since the 1980s, when the Olympic success of Gator swimmers began to attract Canadian, European and Latin American swimmers to train under coach

Randy Reese Randy Reese (born 1946) is an American college and Olympic swimming coach. Reese is best known for coaching the Florida Gators swimming and diving teams of the University of Florida to four national championships, and coaching the winners of ei ...

. That tradition continues in the present day under

Gregg Troy Gregg Troy (born December 19, 1950) is an American professional and Olympic swimming coach. As of April 2021, he is the head coach for the Cali Condors, which is part of the International Swimming League. Until 2018, he was the head coach of the ...

, the head coach of the Gators men's and women's swimming teams. Troy served as the head coach of the U.S. Olympic men's swim team in 2012. Dale Schultz is the new head coach of the men's and women's diving teams, succeeding long-time coach Donnie Craine in 2014. The Gators swimming and diving teams hold their home meets at the

O'Connell Center The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O' ...

Natatorium and train in the Carse Swimming Complex.

Tennis

The Florida Gators have one of the strongest and most storied women's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

programs in NCAA history, and the women's tennis team has won seven NCAA team championships (1992, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2011, 2012, 2017).
Florida Women's Tennis 2013–14 Media Supplement
', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida (2013). Retrieved July 26, 2014. The team has also produced three individual Gators who have won four NCAA singles championships:

Shaun Stafford Shaun Stafford Beckish (born December 13, 1968), née Shaun Stafford, is an American former college and professional tennis player who played on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour from 1989 to 1996. As a collegiate tennis player, Stafford ...

(1988),

Lisa Raymond Lisa Raymond (born August 10, 1973) is an American retired professional tennis player who has achieved notable success in doubles tennis. Raymond has eleven Grand Slam titles to her name: six in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. On J ...

(1992, 1993), and

Jill Craybas Jill N. Craybas (born July 4, 1974) is an American former professional tennis player. From the 2000 US Open to the 2011 US Open, Craybas competed in 45 consecutive Grand Slam main draws; her best result coming in the 2005 Wimbledon Championships ...

(1996). In NCAA championship doubles play, four Gators doubles pairs have won five NCAA doubles championships:

Jillian Alexander Jillian Alexander-Brower (2 April 1968 - 25 October 2004) was a Canadian professional tennis player. Alexander was Jamaican by birth, but raised in Oakville, Ontario from the age of nine. She played college tennis for the University of Florida a ...

and

Nicole Arendt Nicole J. Arendt (born August 26, 1969) is an American retired professional tennis player. Arendt won sixteen doubles titles in her career. The left-hander reached her highest singles ranking on the WTA Tour on June 16, 1997, when she was ranked ...

(1991);

Dawn Buth Dawn Alexis Buth (born May 29, 1976) is an American former college and professional tennis player. As a collegiate player, she played for the University of Florida and won two national doubles championships. As a professional, she played on the I ...

and Stephanie Nickitas (1996, 1997);

Whitney Laiho Whitney Laiho-Biles (born May 8, 1980) is an American former tennis player. Biography A right-handed player from Rhode Island, Laiho attended Middletown High School and was a top 50 ranked ITF junior. She made the girls' singles quarter-finals o ...

and

Jessica Lehnhoff Jessica Lehnhoff (born 15 March 1980) is a Guatemalan born former professional tennis player from the United States. Biography Lehnhoff grew up in Guatemala City, the youngest in a family of four siblings, who moved to Florida when she was aged ...

(2001); and Brooke Austin and

Kourtney Keegan Kourtney Jean Keegan (born 7 September 1994) is an Americans, American former tennis player. Kourtney was born in Chicago, Illinois. She spent some of her youth in Jacksonville, FL before moving back to Chicago, before finally settling down in R ...

(2016). The Gator women have also won seven

Intercollegiate Tennis Association The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the governing body and coaches association of college tennis, both an advocate and authority, overseeing men’s and women’s varsity tennis at all levels – NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NC ...

(ITA) national indoor championships (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2017), and twenty-seven SEC team championships. The Gators have also claimed five SEC Tournament titles (1994, 2000, 2005, 2011, and 2016) in Men's Tennis and 20 in Women's Tennis (1982, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016). The Gators men's tennis team has a winning tradition and has won 11 Southeastern Conference team championships as of 2021.
Florida Men's Tennis 2013–14 Media Supplement
', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida (2013). Retrieved July 26, 2014. In 2021, the men's tennis program won its first-ever NCAA team championship. The Gator men have also produced four NCAA singles champions: Mark Merklein (1993),

Jeff Morrison Jeffrey Alan Morrison (born February 4, 1979) is a retired American professional tennis player. Morrison was the last American male left in the singles draw at Wimbledon in 2002, going on to defeat future World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero en r ...

(1999),

Sam Riffice Sam Riffice (born 1 March 1999) is an American tennis player. Early life and career His mother, Lori Riffice, is a national coach with USTA Player Development. The family relocated to Central Florida to be a part of the USTA National Campus staf ...

(2021), and Ben Shelton (2022). Merklein and partner David Blair combined to win an NCAA doubles championship (1994).

Bryan Shelton Bryan Shelton (born December 22, 1965) is an American college tennis coach and former professional tennis player. Shelton played collegiately for Georgia Tech from 1985 to 1988, and then played professionally from 1989 to 1997. He subsequently ...

is the head coach of the men's tennis team, and coach

Roland Thornqvist Roland Thornqvist (born March 3, 1970) is a Swedish-born American college tennis coach and former college tennis player. Thornqvist is the current head coach of the Florida Gators women's tennis team of the University of Florida. He is best kno ...

leads the women's tennis team. The Florida Gators tennis teams play their home matches at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex on the university's campus.

Track and field

The Florida Gators men's

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

team has won six Southeastern Conference indoor championships, and four SEC outdoor championships. After finishing as the runner-up in both the NCAA indoor and outdoor meets in 2009, the men's team went on to win three consecutive NCAA indoor titles (2010-2012) and its first NCAA outdoor title (2012) over the next three years. The women's track and field team won the NCAA indoor championships in 1992 and 2022. The women's team won its first NCAA outdoor title in 2022. In addition, the women's team has won six SEC indoor championships, and four SEC outdoor championships. The head coach for the track and field program is Mike Holloway, and he is responsible for both the men's and women's teams. The assistant coaches are Steve Lemke, Adrain Mann, Nic Petersen, Chris Solinsky, & Mellanee Welty. The Gators men's and women's track and field teams hold their outdoor home meets at Percy Beard Track, which is part of James G. Pressly Stadium.

Volleyball

The Gators began competing in women's volleyball in 1984 under coach Marilyn McReavy, but did not become nationally competitive until coach

Mary Wise Mary Wise (born August 8, 1959), née Mary Fischl, is an American college volleyball coach, former player and author. Wise is the current head coach of the Florida Gators women's volleyball team of the University of Florida. In Wise's career at F ...

assumed control of Florida's program in 1991. During her 30 seasons as Florida's head coach, Wise has compiled a 979–168 win–loss record (.854), and her Gators teams have won nineteen SEC regular season titles and twelve SEC Tournament titles in her twenty seasons. The Gators have made nineteen trips to the NCAA tournament, including eight NCAA Final Four appearances (1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2017). In 2003 and 2017, they advanced to the NCAA national championship final, where they lost to the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

and

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

, respectively. Florida landed the nation's top 2008 recruiting class, as ranked by Prepvolleyball.com and ''Volleyball Magazine'', and signed the nation's top recruit and

Gatorade National Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys' baseball, boys' and girls' basketball, boys' and girls' cross country, boys' football, boys' a ...

, Kelly Murphy, as well as four other recruits ranked among the top fifty. Murphy garnered First-Team All SEC and a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team with fellow Gators Colleen Ward and Kristy Jaeckel. Murphy would also gain the SEC Freshman of the Year, AVCA All-South Region Freshman of the Year, the AVCA National Freshman of the Year, and ''Volleyball Magazine'' Freshman of the Year. She was also honored as an AVCA Third-Team All-American and a ''Volleyball Magazine'' Second-Team All-American. The Gators volleyball team plays its home matches in the

O'Connell Center The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O' ...

.

Former varsity sports

In the past, the Florida Gators fielded varsity teams in men's boxing and men's

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

. Gator boxer John Joca, a "Gator Great" member of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, won the NCAA national boxing championship in the 135-pound weight class in 1940.E.C. Wallenfeldt,
The Six-Minute Fraternity:The Rise and Fall of NCAA Tournament Boxing, 1932–60
', Praeger Publishers, Westport, Connecticut, pp. 111–113 (1994). Retrieved July 30, 2010. The Gators boxing team, however, was discontinued in 1943 during World War II, and was never revived after the war. The Gators men's wrestling team was an SEC-sponsored sport from 1970 to 1979; the team won the 1975 SEC championship tournament and placed second during four other seasons. The wrestling team was eliminated as a result of cost-cutting and

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

compliance issues in 1979. The University Athletic Association, under athletic director

Ray Graves Samuel Ray Graves (December 31, 1918 – April 10, 2015) was an American college and professional football player and college football coach. He was a native of Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he was the starting ...

and associate director

Ruth Alexander Ruth Blaney Alexander (May 18, 1905 – September 18, 1930) was an early female pilot in the United States who established several records in altitude and distance during 1929 and 1930. Youth Ruth Blaney was raised in Irving, Kansas in Mars ...

, desired to take a proactive role in Title IX compliance by balancing the number of available men's and women's athletic scholarships, and the resulting tight athletic budgets ultimately resulted in the elimination of men's wrestling program.

Athletic facilities

The University of Florida has invested significant capital and effort in the construction, expansion and betterment of its major sports facilities, including the following outdoor stadiums, indoor arenas, and training and practice facilities: Condron Ballpark at Alfred A. McKethan Field *Completed in 2020, Condron Ballpark plays host to the Gators

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

team's home games. Seating 7,000 spectators (with an expandable capacity of 10,000), Condron Ballpark replaced McKethan Stadium at Perry Field.GatorZone.com, Baseball Facilities
McKethan Stadium at Perry Field
Retrieved July 12, 2009.

Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (in full Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium),football team plays its home games in Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The stadium was originally constructed in 1930, and was known simply as "Florida Field." In 1989, it was renamed in honor of Ben Hill Griffin, Jr., an alumnus and generous donor to the university and its athletic programs. Since the arrival of coach Steve Spurrier in 1990, the stadium has become nationally known as the "Swamp." The Swamp has been renovated and expanded several times, and has included a natural grass surface since 1990. With the latest expansions, the stadium has an official capacity of 88,548 people, but routinely accommodates more than 90,000 fans for the Gators' home football games. The Swamp is the 12th largest college football stadium in America as measured by official

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

. Carse Swimming Complex *Built in 1998 at a cost of $2 million, Carse Swimming Complex is a two-story, facility that includes locker rooms, offices, and direct access to the UAA training pool. The swimming complex is located adjacent to the

O'Connell Center The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O' ...

. Florida Basketball Practice Complex *Completed in 2001, the Basketball Practice Complex is a two-story, structure that includes multiple practice gyms, a training room, and a weight room.

Donald R. Dizney Stadium The Florida Gators women's lacrosse team represents the University of Florida in the sport of college lacrosse. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and are single-sport members of the American ...

*Completed during the summer of 2009, the Florida Lacrosse Facility began hosting the women's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

team with its first season in 2010. The 1,500-seat stadium runs the length of the game field, and the facility includes a second practice field. The facility also includes concessions, ticket offices, locker rooms and a training room. James G. Pressly Stadium and Percy Beard Track *Pressly Stadium is a combined soccer and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

facility that includes Percy Beard Track. The facility was renovated in 1995, when 2,500 bench seats were added to the existing 2,000-seat concrete grandstand, increasing the total

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

to more than 4,500 spectators. The stadium is located on campus, between the Heavener Complex and Linder Stadium, and was renamed in honor of James G. Pressly, Jr., a University of Florida alumnus and benefactor. The women's soccer team plays its home games in Pressly Stadium. *Percy Beard Track was renovated in 1995 at a cost of $750,000, and the

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

and

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

pits were moved from the infield to an area outside the track to accommodate the new soccer field. The men's and women's track and field teams host their home meets and the annual Florida Relays on Percy Beard Track during the outdoor track season.

Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium The Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium is the home field of the Florida Gators softball team of the University of Florida. The stadium is located at the corner of Hull Road and Museum Road, on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus. Hi ...

*Constructed in 1996 at a cost of $2.6 million, Pressly Softball Stadium is the home field of the Gators women's

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

team. The facility is located on campus, seats approximately 1,200 fans, includes a clay infield and a grass outfield, and complies with NCAA and Olympic specifications. The stadium is named for benefactor Katie Pressly. The Gators played their first game in the stadium against

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

on February 8, 1997. Lemerand Center *Built in 1995 and named in honor of donor Gale Lemerand, the Lemerand Center is a all-sports facility that includes locker rooms, storage, and training equipment, and is used by all varsity athletes at the University of Florida. Mark Bostick Golf Course and Guy Bostick Clubhouse *Designed by golf course architect Donald Ross and originally developed in 1963, the eighteen-hole Mark Bostick Golf Course is the official golf course of the University of Florida. The men's and women's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

teams play their home matches on the course, and the course also hosts the Gator and Lady Gator Golf Day Pro-Am. The course is 6,701 yards in length, and is rated as a par 70. In 2001, Bobby Weed renovated the course with a $4 million donation from benefactor Mark Bostick. *The Guy Bostick Clubhouse is equipped with numerous amenities and includes over of interior space. Steinbrenner Band Hall *Finished in 2008, Steinbrenner Band Hall is The Pride of the Sunshine's rehearsal hall, and also houses offices, instrument storage, the band library and an instrument issue room. Construction of the band hall was made possible by a generous gift from

George Steinbrenner George Michael Steinbrenner III (July 4, 1930July 13, 2010) was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees from 1973 until his death in 2010. He was the longest-serving own ...

and his wife Joan in 2002. Scott Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex *Originally constructed in 1987, Linder Stadium serves as the home court of the men's and women's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

teams. The facility was renovated at a cost of $1.7 million in 1999, when the building interior space was expanded to , and includes coaches' offices, a training room, locker rooms, and a exterior courtyard. The stadium includes a 1,000-seat grandstand overlooking the six lighted main courts, and also includes a second row of nine practice courts. The complex is located on campus, adjacent to the College of Law and James G. Pressly Stadium. Stephen C. O'Connell Center *Constructed from 1977 to 1980, the O'Connell Center is a multi-purpose arena that is home to the men's and women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, women's

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

, men's and women's indoor

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

, and women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

teams. It is commonly known as the "O'Dome." In its major interior space, the O'Connell Center can accommodate over 12,000 sports fans, and the university also uses the facility for graduation ceremonies and a variety of concerts, lectures and shows. The O'Dome also includes the Natatorium, where the Gators

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

teams compete. The O'Dome underwent a major renovation 2016 with upgraded luxury suites, concession stands, locker rooms, and a new main entrance facing Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, but the seating capacity was reduced to over 10,000 fans. File:Dsg UF Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Inside Stands 20050507.jpg,

Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (in full Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium),James G. Pressly Stadium File:Dsg UF O Dome 20050507.jpg,

O'Connell Center The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O' ...

File:University of Florida Golf Course.jpg,

Mark Bostick Golf Course The Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, is the home course of the Florida Gators men's golf and Florida Gators women's golf teams. The course is owned by the university and operated by the Uni ...

File:Gville UF basketball complex01.jpg, Basketball Complex File:UF LemerandCenter.jpg, Lemerand Center File:UF BandHall.jpg, Steinbrenner Band Hall File:UF-StadiumAndOdome.JPG, Aerial shot of The Swamp, O'Dome, and Perry Field.

Athletic program culture and traditions

Colors and mascot

The University of Florida began its sports program soon after it was established in Gainesville in 1906, and its teams adopted orange and blue as their official colors soon thereafter. These colors are a probably a combination of the colors of the two primary institutions that merged to form the university, as the East Florida Seminary used orange and black and the Florida Agricultural College used blue and white. As with the school colors, the exact origin of the

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

(almost always shortened to "gator") as the school mascot is not well documented. It likely originated in 1908, when Gainesville merchant Phillip Miller chose the animal to adorn pennants he designed for sale to students. The school did not yet have a mascot, and Miller chose the alligator because it is native to Florida and was not claimed by any other school. The football team subsequently adopted the "Gators" nickname in

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

.University of Florida, History
1906–1927: Early Gainesville
. Retrieved July 12, 2009. There are two theories as how the name become synonymous with the university's athletic programs. One theory is that the 1911 football squad began calling themselves the Gators in honor of team captain Neal "Bo Gator" Storter. Storter himself refuted this explanation, saying that it originated when a sportswriter in South Carolina described Florida's 1911 road upset of Clemson as an "invasion of alligators from Florida" and the players adopted the name. Whatever its origins, the nickname "Gators" (and for a time, "Lady Gators" for women's sports) has been used by the University of Florida's athletic program for over a century.

Albert and Alberta

Albert and Alberta are the official costumed mascots of the Florida Gators. Many variations of Albert have been present at sporting events over the decades, and a live alligator was used for many years. The current version of Albert was introduced in the early 1980s, and Alberta joined him in 1984. They are unique among the SEC's mascots as the only male-and-female pair, and are featured together in a life-sized statue outside of UF's Alumni Affairs Building.

Other traditions

The University of Florida's marching band is known as " The Pride of the Sunshine", and plays at every home football game, and also performs at various events such as Gator Growl and parades. Florida's fight song is ''

The Orange and Blue "The Orange and Blue" is the traditional fight song of the Florida Gators intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. History of the lyrics and score The author of the lyrics and original music of "The O ...

''. The

Gatorettes The University of Florida Fightin' Gator Marching Band, also known as The Pride of the Sunshine, is the official marching band for the University of Florida. The current era of the band is also referred to as The Sound of the Gator Nation. They pe ...

are the baton-twirlers, or majorettes, for the marching band. The University of Florida dance team that performs at home basketball games and other sports events is known as the Dazzlers. The "Gator Chomp" is a gesture made by Florida Gators fans and players to show their support of the Florida Gators sports teams. The UF band originated in 1981 and is performed by fully extending one's arms, one over the other, in front of the body with the palms facing each other, and then moved apart and together to symbolize an alligator's mouth. When performed by fans at home football or basketball games, the chomp is often accompanied by Florida's marching band or pep band playing the two-note shark motif from the film ''

Jaws Jaws or Jaw may refer to: Anatomy * Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth ** Mandible, the lower jaw Arts, entertainment, and media * Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'' * ...

''. Another football fan tradition, both for home and road games, is playing and singing of " We Are the Boys from Old Florida" at the end of every third quarter. Following the death of Gainesville native

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the la ...

in October 2017, his song "

I Won't Back Down "I Won't Back Down" is a song by American rock musician Tom Petty. It was released in April 1989 as the lead single from his first solo album, ''Full Moon Fever''. The song was co-written by Petty and Jeff Lynne, also his writing partner for the ...

" is also played right after "We Are the Boys" while the entire stadium sings along. "Orange and blue" is a fan cheer that is popular at home sports events, with alternate stadium sections yelling "Orange!", and answering back with their loudest "Blue!" This can go back and forth for several minutes, with both sections competing to be the louder. The football team had a long-time tradition of having George Edmondson Jr. — better known as "

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 — ...

"— wandering through the stands with a sign and a whistle to pump up the crowd to the "Two Bits" cheer. Edmondson officially retired in 2008, and was made an honorary alumnus in 2005. His final appearance as Mr. Two Bits was at the last home game of the 2008 season against

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one of six senior military colleges in the United States. ...

. In June 2020, university president Kent Fuchs announced that the

University Athletic Association The University Athletic Association (UAA) is an American athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are highly selective universities located in Georgia, Illinois, M ...

and the Gator Band would cease the use of the "Gator Bait" cheer at UF sporting events. While the university found no direct link between its usage of the phrase at sporting events and historical depictions of black children being used as alligator bait, it decided to end the chant due to "horrific racist imagery" associated with the phrase. The decision was reached amid a growing demand for

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...

in the United States following the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's ...

by Minneapolis police and the ensuing protests.

Notable Gator athletes and benefactors

University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame

Over 250 notable former Gators athletes and coaches have been inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame inductees fall into three categories: "Gator Greats"; "Distinguished Letterwinners"; and "Honorary Letterwinners." Gator Greats are those former athletes who distinguished themselves during their undergraduate sports careers, and include former All-Americans, all-conference selections, winners of major national awards, individual national champions, and those who significantly contributed to national team championships. Distinguished Letterwinners are those former Gators athletes who achieved distinction after graduation, as athletic coaches or administrators, professional athletes, or in public service or other career activities. Honorary Letterwinners are those persons who are not University of Florida alumni and former undergraduate athletes, but have distinguished themselves by their significant contributions to the success of Florida Gators sports teams, including former championship Gators coaches. Gator Greats include Heisman Trophy winners Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, and Tim Tebow; Pro Football Hall of Fame members

Jack Youngblood Herbert Jackson Youngblood III (born January 26, 1950) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) for fourteen seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He ...

and Emmitt Smith; Olympic gold medal swimmers

Tracy Caulkins Tracy Anne Stockwell, OAM, (born January 11, 1963), née Tracy Anne Caulkins, is an American former competition swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time world champion, and former world record-holder in three events. Caulkins was ...

,

Nicole Haislett Nicole may refer to: People * Nicole (name) * Nicole (American singer) (born 1958), a contestant in season 3 of the American ''The X Factor'' * Nicole (Chilean singer) (born 1977) * Nicole (German singer) (born 1964), winner of the 1982 Eurovi ...

and

Dara Torres Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Gam ...

; individual NCAA golf champions Page Dunlap, Nick Gilliam and

Bob Murphy Robert, Rob, Bob or Bobby Murphy may refer to: Sports Ice hockey *Robert Ronald Murphy or Ron Murphy (1933–2014), Canadian ice hockey player * Bob Murphy (ice hockey) (born 1951), Canadian retired professional ice hockey player * Rob Murphy (ice ...

; Olympic gold medal soccer players

Heather Mitts Heather Mitts Feeley (born Heather Blaine Mitts; June 9, 1978) is an American former professional soccer defender. Mitts played college soccer for the University of Florida, and thereafter, she played professionally in the Women's Professional ...

and Abby Wambach; and individual NCAA tennis champions

Jill Craybas Jill N. Craybas (born July 4, 1974) is an American former professional tennis player. From the 2000 US Open to the 2011 US Open, Craybas competed in 45 consecutive Grand Slam main draws; her best result coming in the 2005 Wimbledon Championships ...

,

Jeff Morrison Jeffrey Alan Morrison (born February 4, 1979) is a retired American professional tennis player. Morrison was the last American male left in the singles draw at Wimbledon in 2002, going on to defeat future World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero en r ...

and

Lisa Raymond Lisa Raymond (born August 10, 1973) is an American retired professional tennis player who has achieved notable success in doubles tennis. Raymond has eleven Grand Slam titles to her name: six in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. On J ...

. Distinguished Letterwinners include head coaches

Doug Dickey Douglas Adair Dickey (born June 24, 1932) is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator. Dickey is a South Dakota native who was raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida, wher ...

,

Lindy Infante Gelindo "Lindy" Infante (March 27, 1940 – October 8, 2015) was an American football player and coach, who became an offensive coordinator and head coach in both the National Football League (NFL) and the United States Football League (USFL). ...

and

Dutch Stanley Dennis Keith Stanley Sr. (April 14, 1906 – May 29, 1983), nicknamed Dutch Stanley, was an American education professor, university administrator and intercollegiate sports coach. Stanley was a native of England, but graduated from high school i ...

, as well as U.S. Senator

George Smathers George Armistead Smathers (November 14, 1913 – January 20, 2007) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of Florida in the United States Senate from 1951 until 1969 and in the United States House from 1947 to 1951, as ...

. Honorary Letterwinners include former Gators national championship coaches

Buster Bishop Bernays Emery "Buster" Bishop (1920 – November 19, 2004) was an American college golf coach. Bishop was best known for leading the Florida Gators men's golf team of the University of Florida to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA ...

,

Andy Brandi Andres V. Brandi (born c. 1952) is an American college and professional tennis coach. He is currently co-head coach of the LSU Tigers tennis team with his son, Chris Brandi. Brandi was formerly the coach of the Florida Gators women's tennis te ...

,

Randy Reese Randy Reese (born 1946) is an American college and Olympic swimming coach. Reese is best known for coaching the Florida Gators swimming and diving teams of the University of Florida to four national championships, and coaching the winners of ei ...

and Mimi Ryan, former football coach and four-star general

James Van Fleet General James Alward Van Fleet (March 19, 1892 – September 23, 1992) was a United States Army officer who saw service during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Van Fleet was a native of New Jersey, who was raised in Florida and gradu ...

, as well as medical professor Robert Cade, who invented the sports drink Gatorade at UF in the mid-1960s as a rehydration aid to assist Gators athletes.

Gators in the Olympic Games

The University of Florida has a reputation and long history of producing athletes who compete in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. Over 160 university alumni, including Florida Gators athletes from over 35 countries, have competed in the Games, winning fifty Olympic

gold medals A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

, twenty-nine silver medals and thirty

bronze medals A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

(through the end of the 2012 Summer Olympics).GatorZone.com
Gators in the Olympics
Retrieved January 27, 2015. The list of notable Gator Olympians and gold medalists includes sprinters

Kerron Clement Kerron Stephon Clement (born October 31, 1985) is a Trinidadian-born American track and field athlete who competes in the 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter sprint. He held the indoor world record in the 400-meter sprint, having broken Michael John ...

,

Dennis Mitchell Dennis Allen Mitchell (born February 20, 1966) is an American former college and international track and field athlete, who was a member of the gold medal-winning team in the 4 x 100 meters relay race at ...

, and

Bernard Williams Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams, FBA (21 September 1929 – 10 June 2003) was an English moral philosopher. His publications include ''Problems of the Self'' (1973), ''Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy'' (1985), ''Shame and Necessity'' ...

; marathon runner

Frank Shorter Frank Charles Shorter (born October 31, 1947) is an American former long-distance runner who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. His Olympic success, along with the ac ...

; baseball outfielder

Brad Wilkerson Stephen Bradley Wilkerson (born June 1, 1977) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman in Major League Baseball for eight seasons. Wilkerson played college baseball for the University of Florida, and was selected ...

; basketball forward

DeLisha Milton-Jones DeLisha Lachell Milton-Jones (born September 11, 1974) is an American retired professional basketball player and head coach of Old Dominion. Milton-Jones played college basketball for the University of Florida. She was a first-team All-American ...

; soccer forward Abby Wambach; and swimmers

Tracy Caulkins Tracy Anne Stockwell, OAM, (born January 11, 1963), née Tracy Anne Caulkins, is an American former competition swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time world champion, and former world record-holder in three events. Caulkins was ...

,

Nicole Haislett Nicole may refer to: People * Nicole (name) * Nicole (American singer) (born 1958), a contestant in season 3 of the American ''The X Factor'' * Nicole (Chilean singer) (born 1977) * Nicole (German singer) (born 1964), winner of the 1982 Eurovi ...

and Ryan Lochte. Former Gator

Dara Torres Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Gam ...

is the only American swimmer to compete in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2008).USA Swimming
Dara Torres
Retrieved July 28, 2009. At the age of 41, Torres became the oldest swimmer to win an Olympic medal when she won a silver medal in her inclusion in three events in 2008, finishing her career with a total of twelve Olympic medals (including four gold).

Notes

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Florida Gators, color=white , list = {{Southeastern Conference navbox {{American Athletic Conference navbox {{Divison1floridacolleges {{Florida College Sports