Florida Gators football, 1960–1969

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 1960s, the Gators competed in the University Division of 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 1960 to 1969. During the 1960s, the Gators were coached by S. Ray Graves (1960–1969), who compiled an overall record of 70–31–4 (.686) during the decade, making Graves the winningest coach in the history of the Gators football program until that time.

Season overview
The 1960 college football season was Ray Graves' first of ten and one of his three most successful as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Graves was a former Tennessee Volunteers lineman and assistant under coach Robert Neyland, and became a long-time Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets defensive assistant for coach Bobby Dodd. Graves' arrival in Gainesville heralded a change in the Gators' football outlook: no longer would the Gators espouse Bob Woodruff's conservative, ball control, "go for the tie" philosophy. Among the 1960 season's many highlights was the Gators' 18–17 upset of Dodd's tenth-ranked Yellow Jackets, in which the Gators, led by option quarterback Larry Libertore, drop-back passer Bobby Dodd, Jr., and running back Lindy Infante, gambled on a successful two-point conversion for the last-minute win. The Gators' sole Southeastern Conference (SEC) loss was a 7–10 heartbreaker to the Auburn Tigers, which cost the Gators a share of their first-ever SEC football championship. Graves' 1960 Florida Gators finished with a 9–2 overall record a 5–1 record in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), placing second among the twelve SEC teams &mdash;their best-ever SEC finish to date. The Gators capped their first-ever nine-win season with a hard-fought 13–12 victory over the twelfth-ranked Baylor Bears in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Eve 1960.

Season overview
The 1961 college football season was Ray Graves' second as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team, and the Gators posted their only losing season in Graves' ten years as their coach. Graves' 1961 Florida Gators finished with a 4–5–1 overall record and a 3–3 record in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), placing sixth among the twelve SEC teams.

Season overview
The 1962 college football season was the third of Ray Graves' ten seasons as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Graves' 1962 Florida Gators posted a 7–4 overall record and a 4–2 record in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), placing fifth in twelve-team SEC.

Season overview
The 1963 college football season was Ray Graves' fourth as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators started their season 1–1–1, the Gators having eked out their single win over the Richmond Spiders (35–28). Before the fourth game against coach Bear Bryant's third-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, Gators defensive coordinator Gene Ellenson challenged his shaky team's manhood and they rose to the occasion. The highlight of the season followed: a 10–6 upset of the Joe Namath-quarterbacked Crimson Tide on their home field in Tuscaloosa, Alabama&mdash;one of only two home losses in Denny Stadium during Bryant's twenty-five years as the Crimson Tide's coach. Graves' 1963 Florida Gators won their last three games over the Georgia Bulldogs (21–14), Miami Hurricanes (27–21) and Florida State Seminoles (7–0) to finish 6–3–1 overall and 3–3–1 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), placing seventh of twelve SEC teams.

Season overview
The 1964 college football season was the fifth for Ray Graves as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Graves' 1964 Florida Gators posted an overall record of 7–3 and a 3–3 Southeastern Conference (SEC) record, tying for second among the eleven SEC teams. This season was also notable as the first in which the Florida State Seminoles defeated the Gators, and as future Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier's first season as quarterback.

Season overview
The 1965 college football season was Ray Graves's six year as the Florida Gators football team's head coach. The highlights of the season included an intersectional road victory over the Northwestern Wildcats of the Big Ten Conference, Southeastern Conference (SEC) wins over the Louisiana State (14–7), Ole Miss Rebels (17–0), Georgia Bulldogs (14–10) and Tulane Green Wave (51–13), and a sound thumping of the in-state rival Florida State Seminoles (30–17). The Gators also lost close matches against the Mississippi State Bulldogs (13–18) and the Miami Hurricanes (13–16). Graves' 1965 Florida Gators finished 7–4 overall and 4–2 in the SEC, placing third in the eleven-team conference. At the end of the season, the Gators played the Missouri Tigers in the Gators' first-ever major bowl game, the Sugar Bowl, on January 1, 1966. Despite a three-touchdown second-half effort from the Gators, they lost to the Tigers 18–20 after they failed to score on three consecutive two-point conversion attempts after each of their touchdowns. Following the game, Gators quarterback Steve Spurrier was recognized as the game's Most Valuable Player&mdash;the only MVP selected from the losing team in the history of the Sugar Bowl.

Season overview
The 1966 college football season was Ray Graves' seventh as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators were led by senior quarterback Steve Spurrier, who would take the Gators to new heights while winning the Heisman Trophy in December. Among the season's many highlights was the Gators' intersectional opener against the Northwestern Wildcats (43–7) of the Big Ten, followed by their Southeastern Conference (SEC) victories over the Mississippi State Bulldogs (28–7), Vanderbilt Commodores (13–0), LSU Tigers (28–7), Auburn Tigers (30–27) and Tulane Green Wave (31–10). The lowpoint was the Gators 10–27 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, which cost them a share of their first-ever SEC football championship. Spurrier sealed his Heisman bid with a 22–19 come-from-behind win over the rival Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee, Florida, and a last-minute field goal to defeat the Auburn Tigers at Florida's Homecoming. Graves' 1966 Florida Gators finished 9–2 overall and 5–1 in the SEC, placing third among the ten conference teams. The Gators capped their season with a New Year's victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the 1967 Orange Bowl, the Gators' first-ever major bowl victory, and a Number 11 ranking in the final UPI Coaches' Poll, their highest final poll ranking to date.

Season overview
The 1967 college football season was the eighth for Ray Graves as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Graves' 1967 Florida Gators posted a 6–4 overall record and a 4–2 record in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), tying for third among the ten SEC teams.

Season overview
The 1968 college football season was Ray Graves' ninth of ten years as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators offense was led by senior tailback Larry Smith, a first-team All-American. Among the season's highlights were the Gators' conference wins over the Mississippi State Bulldogs (31–14), Tulane Green Wave (24–7) and Kentucky Wildcats (16–14), and victories over the in-state rival Florida State Seminoles (9–3) and Miami Hurricanes (14–10). The Gators also suffered their worst loss since 1942&mdash;a 0–51 blowout by the Georgia Bulldogs. Graves' 1968 Florida Gators finished 6–3–1 overall and 3–2–1 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), tying for sixth among the ten teams of the SEC.

Season overview
The 1969 college football season was the tenth, last, and arguably most successful season for Ray Graves as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Graves' final Gators squad was led by a surprising group of second-year offensive players known as the "Super Sophs," that included quarterback John Reaves, wide receiver Carlos Alvarez and tailback Tommy Durrance. In the opening game against the seventh-ranked Houston Cougars, the unranked Gators debuted a new passing offense and upset the Cougars 59–34. The Houston game set the tone of success for the rest of the season, although a Southeastern Conference (SEC) loss to the Auburn Tigers and a tie with the rival Georgia Bulldogs cost the Gators a share of their elusive first SEC football championship. Graves' 1969 Florida Gators finished their regular season with an overall record of 8–1–1 and an SEC record of 3–1–1, placing fourth among the ten SEC teams. In a strange twist, the Gators were invited to play coach Doug Dickey's SEC champion Tennessee Volunteers in the December 1969 Gator Bowl. In a game dominated by a Gators defense led by linebacker Mike Kelley (the game's MVP), defensive back Steve Tannen and defensive end Jack Youngblood, the Gators upset the Volunteers 14–13 to cap their 9–1–1 season&mdash;the Gators' best ever single-season record to that time. After the Gator Bowl, Ray Graves resigned as the head coach of the Gators football team, but continued as the athletic director of the Florida Gators sports program until 1979.