Florida Gators football, 1950–1959

The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the sport of American football. The University of Florida fielded its first official varsity football team in the fall of 1906, and has fielded a team every season since then, with the exception of 1943. During the 1950s, the Gators competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and played their home games at Florida Field on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus.

This article includes a game-by-game list of the Florida Gators' ten football seasons from 1950 to 1959. During the 1950s, the Gators were coached by G. Robert "Bob" Woodruff (1950–1959), who compiled an overall record of 53–42–6 (.555) during the decade.

Season overview
The 1950 college football season was Bob Woodruff's first of ten as the new head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Woodruff was a former college football player and assistant for coach Robert Neyland's Tennessee Volunteers, who made his name as an up-and-coming young head coach leading the Baylor Bears for three seasons in the late 1940s. Like Neyland, Woodruff emphasized stout defense, the kicking game and a ball control offense. The highlights of the season included two Southeastern Conference (SEC) victories over the Auburn Tigers (27–7) and the thirteenth-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores (31–27)&mdash;the first season since 1940 in which the Gators won two or more SEC games. The Gators' twentieth ranking after the Vanderbilt game marked their first-ever appearance in the top twenty of the weekly Associated Press Poll. Woodruff's 1950 Florida Gators finished 5–5 overall and 2–4 in the SEC, placing tenth among twelve conference teams.

Season overview
The 1951 college football season was Bob Woodruff's second as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The highlights of the season included two intersectional victories over the Wyoming Cowboys (13–0) and the Loyola Lions (40–7), and two Southeastern Conference (SEC) victories over the Vanderbilt Commodores (33–13) during Florida's Homecoming and the Alabama Crimson Tide (30–21) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. For the second year in a row, Woodruff's 1951 Florida Gators finished 5–5 overall and 2–4 in the SEC, placing ninth among twelve conference teams.

Season overview
The 1952 college football season was Bob Woodruff's third and most successful as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators were led by fullback Rick Casares, halfback J. "Pappa" Hall, alternating quarterbacks Doug Dickey and Fred Robinson, and All-American lineman Charlie LaPradd. The season's many highlights included a 54–13 blowout of the Clemson Tigers, conference victories over the Georgia Bulldogs (30–0), Auburn Tigers (31–21) and Kentucky Wildcats (27–0), and another blowout of the in-state rival Miami Hurricanes (43–6). Woodruff's 1952 Florida Gators finished with an overall record of 8–3 and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record of 3–3, placing sixth among twelve SEC teams. The season ended with the Gators' first appearance in a NCAA-sanctioned bowl game, a closely matched 14–13 Gator Bowl victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on January 1, 1953, in which star fullback Rick Casares kicked the winning extra points for the margin of victory.

Season overview
The 1953 college football season was the fourth for Bob Woodruff as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The 1953 season was a year of rebuilding and backsliding after the graduation of All-American Charlie LaPradd and the loss of fullback Rick Casares to the U.S. Army. The highlight of the season was the Gators' second consecutive victory over the Georgia Bulldogs, but the Gators began a pattern of agonizingly close losses to the Rice Owls (16–20), Auburn Tigers (7–16), Tennessee Volunteers (7–9) and Miami Hurricanes (10–14), as well as two ties with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (0–0) and LSU Tigers (21–21). Woodruff's 1953 Florida Gators finished with a 3–5–2 overall record and a 1–3–2 record in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), placing ninth of twelve SEC teams.

Season overview
The 1954 college football season was the fifth for Bob Woodruff as the Florida Gators football team's head coach. The Gators' standout players included running back Mal Hammack. The season was one of mixed results for the Gators: their best-ever Southeastern Conference (SEC) win-loss record, balanced by five overall losses. The highlights of the season were five SEC wins over the fifth-ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (13–12), Auburn Tigers (19–13), Kentucky Wildcats (21–7), Mississippi State Bulldogs (7–0) and Tennessee Volunteers (14–0). Woodruff's 1954 Florida Gators finished 5–5 overall and 5–2 in the SEC, placing third in the twelve-team conference &mdash;their best SEC showing to date.

Season overview
The 1955 college football season was Bob Woodruff's sixth as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators played their only eight-game Southeastern Conference schedule before the 1990s, and probably the most difficult of the 1950s. The standout Gator players included offensive and defensive tackle John Barrow, halfback and punter Don Chandler, two-way halfback Jackie Simpson and defensive back John Symank. The highlights of the 1955 season included three conference victories over the Mississippi State Bulldogs (20–14), LSU Tigers (18–14) and Georgia Bulldogs (19–13). The Gators closed out the season with a knife's edge 6–7 road loss to the Miami Hurricanes in their home stadium in Miami, Florida. Woodruff's 1955 Florida Gators finished 4–6 overall and 3–5 in the SEC, placing tenth of twelve teams in the conference.

Season overview
The 1956 college football season was the seventh for Bob Woodruff as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators were led by All-American tackle John Barrow, quarterback Jimmy Dunn, two-way halfbacks Joe Brodsky, Bernie Parrish, Jim Rountree and Jackie Simpson, and defensive back John Symank. The highlights of the season included conference road wins over the Mississippi State Bulldogs (26–0) in Starkville, Mississippi, the Vanderbilt Commodores 21–7 in Nashville, Tennessee, and the LSU Tigers 21–6 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a shutout Homecoming victory over the Auburn Tigers (20–0), and a second consecutive win over the Georgia Bulldogs (28–0). Woodruff's 1956 Florida Gators started a promising 6–1–1, but lost their final two games to finish 6–3–1 overall and 5–2 in the Southeastern Conference, placing third in the SEC among twelve teams.

Season overview
The 1957 college football season was Bob Woodruff's eighth as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The 1957 season was the last time the Gators would play only nine games in a season. Ten games were scheduled, but the season opener against the UCLA Bruins was canceled when most of the Gators team members were suffering from a serious bout of influenza. The Gators were led by quarterback Jimmy Dunn, two-way halfbacks Bernie Parrish and Jim Rountree. The highlights of the season included a home-opener victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (27–0), four conference wins over the Kentucky Wildcats (14–7), LSU Tigers (22–14), Georgia Bulldogs (22–0) and Vanderbilt Commodores (14–7), and a road win over the in-state rival Miami Hurricanes (14–0) in Miami, Florida. Of the Gators' two losses, one was a 0–13 shutout by coach Shug Jordan's national champion Auburn Tigers. Woodruff's 1957 Florida Gators finished their abbreviated season with an overall record of 6–2–1 and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record of 4–2–1, tying for third place among the twelve SEC teams.

Season overview
The 1958 college football season was the ninth of ten for Bob Woodruff as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators were led by quarterback Jimmy Dunn, defensive back Don Fleming, halfback and punter Bobby Joe Green and All-American tackle Vel Heckman. The season's highlights included an intersectional victory over the UCLA Bruins (21–14) on the road in Los Angeles, California, two conference wins over the Tulane Green Wave (34–14) and Georgia Bulldogs (7–6), a rivalry game upset over the Miami Hurricanes (12–9), and a first-time victory over the new in-state rival Florida State Seminoles (21–7). The six wins were balanced by a series of three close and disappointing losses to the eleventh-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs (7–14), the consensus national champion LSU Tigers (7–10), and the fourth-ranked Auburn Tigers (5–6), and a tie with the Vanderbilt Commodores (6–6). Woodruff's 1958 Florida Gators finished with an overall record of 6–4–1 and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record of 2–2–1, placing eighth in the twelve-member SEC. The Gators capped the year with a season-ending 3–7 loss to the eleventh-ranked Ole Miss Rebels in a defensive struggle in the December 1958 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida.

Season overview
The 1959 college football season was Bob Woodruff's tenth and last year as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators celebrated a close conference win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs (14–13), and suffered close conference defeats to the Vanderbilt Commodores (6–13), the top-ranked LSU Tigers (0–9) and the eighth-ranked Auburn Tigers (0–6). Woodruff finished his tenure on a high note, with the Gators' victories over the Florida State Seminoles (18–8) and the twelfth-ranked Miami Hurricanes (23–14), their primary in-state rivals. Woodruff's 1959 Florida Gators finished with an overall record of 5–4–1 and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record of 2–4, placing ninth among twelve SEC teams. Despite having returned the Gators to competitive respectability within the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in his ten seasons as the Gators' coach and athletic director, University of Florida president J. Wayne Reitz declined to renew Woodruff's contract in 1959 after two previous contract extensions. Woodruff returned to the University of Tennessee, his alma mater, in 1963, where he became the long-time athletic director of the Tennessee Volunteers sports program.