Florida Gators football, 1920–1929

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 1920s, the Gators competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) until 1921, and the Southern Conference after 1921. The Gators played their home games on University Field, later renamed Fleming Field, located on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus.

This article includes a game-by-game list of the Florida Gators' ten football seasons from 1920 to 1929. During the 1920s, the Gators were coached by William G. Kline (1920–1923), James Van Fleet (1923–1924), Harold L. "Tom" Sebring (1925–1927) and Charles W. "Charlie" Bachman (1928–1932). Kline, Van Fleet, Sebring and Bachman compiled an overall record of 64–25–14 (.689) during the decade.

Season overview
The 1920 college football season was law professor William G. Kline's first of three as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Kline was a former halfback for the Illinois Fighting Illini, and had previously coached the Nebraska Cornhuskers. While the Gators improved their series records against traditional in-state opponents like the Florida Southern Moccasins and the Stetson Hatters, they also suffered a shutout defeat by the Tulane Green Wave and lost their fourth consecutive game to the Georgia Bulldogs. Kline's 1920 Florida Gators compiled a marginally better 6–3 overall record than the 1919 Gators, but a lesser 1–3 conference record against Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) competition.

Season overview
The 1921 college football season was the second for William Kline as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators split a pair of games against football teams from two U.S. Army training bases, and improved their record against major collegiate competition by edging the Alabama Crimson Tide 9–2 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; the Gators' two losses against the Tennessee Volunteers (0–9) and the North Carolina Tar Heels (10–14) were competitive and close. Kline's 1921 Florida Gators produced a marginally improved 6–3–2 overall record compared to the 1920 Gators, and a much better 4–1–2 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) conference record.

Season overview
The 1922 college football season was law professor William Kline's third and last year as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Kline's 1922 Florida Gators finished 7–2 overall, and 2–0 in their first year as members of the new Southern Conference, placing fifth of twenty-one teams in the conference standings. After the 1922–1923 school year, Kline returned to the University of Nebraska, where he was the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers basketball and Cornuhuskers baseball teams, and later became a published author of books on coaching football, basketball and baseball.

Season overview
The 1923 college football season was Major James Van Fleet's first of two as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Van Fleet was a serving officer in the U.S. Army and a professor of military tactics in the university's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, and had been a standout fullback on the undefeated West Point Cadets team of 1914. Notably, Florida alumni and students celebrated their first-ever Homecoming with a 19–7 victory over the Mercer Bears. The highlight of the 1923 season was a 16–6 upset of coach Wallace Wade's previously undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide on a muddy, rain-soaked field in Birmingham, Alabama in the final game of the year. Van Fleet's 1923 Florida Gators finished 6–1–2 overall, and 1–0–2 in the Southern Conference, placing third of twenty-one teams in the conference standings.

Season overview
The 1924 college football season was Major James Van Fleet's second and final year as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators traveled further during the 1924 season than any other college football team in the country, and received national recognition for their ties against the powerhouse Texas Longhorns and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Van Fleet's 1924 Florida Gators finished 6–2–2 overall, and 2–0–1 in the Southern Conference, placing second of twenty-two teams in the conference standings. The U.S. Army transferred Van Fleet to the Panama Canal Zone after the 1924 season, and he would later become a regimental, divisional and corps commander during World War II and the commander of all United States and United Nations armed forces during the Korean War.

Season overview
The 1925 college football season was law student Harold L. "Tom" Sebring's first of three as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The Gators compiled their best win-loss record to date, losing only to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 7–23 in Atlanta, Georgia and coach Wallace Wade's undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide 0–34 in Montgomery, Alabama. The highlights of the season included conference victories over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Clemson Tigers, Mississippi State Bulldogs and Washington & Lee Generals. Sebring's 1925 Florida Gators finished 8–2 overall, and 3–2 in the Southern Conference, placing eighth of twenty-two teams in the conference standings.

Season overview
The 1926 college football season was Tom Sebring's second and least successful campaign as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The highlights of the season were the Gators' two victories home field over the Florida Southern Moccasins and Clemson Tigers, which were interspersed among four close losses to the Chicago Maroons (6–12), the Ole Miss Rebels (7–12), the Mercer Bears (3–7) and the Kentucky Wildcats (13–18), crushing defeats by the Georgia Bulldogs (9–32) and coach Wallace Wade's undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide (0–49), and two low-scoring ties with the Hampden-Sydney Tigers (0–0) and the Washington & Lee Generals. Sebring's 1926 Florida Gators finished 2–6–2 overall, and 1–4–1 in the Southern Conference, placing nineteenth of twenty-two teams in the conference standings.

Season overview
The 1927 college football season was Tom Sebring's third and last as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. After suffering an 0–12 upset loss at the hands of the Davidson College Wildcats, the Gators rallied to defeat the Auburn Tigers 33–6 in Auburn, Alabama (for the first time, ending a six-game losing streak) and to upset coach Wallace Wade's Alabama 13–6 in Montgomery, Alabama. Sebring's 1927 Florida Gators finished 7–3 overall, and 5–2 in the Southern Conference, placing sixth of twenty-two teams in the conference standings. Sebring graduated from the university's College of Law in 1928, and later became a circuit court judge and chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Many sports commentators believe that the team that Sebring recruited for 1928 would become the greatest Gators football squad until at least the 1960s.

Season overview
The 1928 college football season was future Hall-of-Famer Charles W. "Charlie" Bachman's first of five as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Among the many football highlights of 1928 was the Gators' 26–6 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs, which ended an eight-game losing streak versus the Bulldogs.

The Gators played their final game against coach Robert Neyland's 8–0–1 Tennessee Volunteers on their home field in Knoxville, Tennessee. The game was played after a hard rain, and both teams scored two touchdowns on the muddy field. The Volunteers missed one extra point conversion, but the Gators missed two and lost the game by a single point, 12–13. In what would become a trend in the series, controversy swirled around the contest. By all accounts, the playing surface had been a muddy mess. Some Gators claimed that the home team had watered down the field in an effort to slow down the speedy Gator stars, including halfbacks Leroy "Red" Bethea, Carl Brumbaugh and Royce Goodbread, fullback Rainey Cawthon, quarterback Clyde Crabtree, end Dutch Stanley, and Florida's first-ever first-team All-American, end Dale Van Sickel. The Vols protested that the sloppy conditions were simply the result of heavy rain the night before the game.

The Gators finished 8–1 overall, and 6–1 in the Southern Conference, placing third of twenty-three teams in the conference, behind the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (7–0) and the Volunteers (6–0–1). Bachman's 1928 Florida Gators scored more points than any other college football team in the country, and the 1928 Gators were remembered by many sports commentators as the best Florida football team until at least the 1960s.

Season overview
The 1929 college football season was Charlie Bachman's second as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The highlights of the year included Southern Conference victories over the Virginia Military Institute Keydets, Auburn Tigers, Georgia Bulldogs, Clemson Tigers, South Carolina Gamecocks and Washington & Lee Generals, and a 20–6 intersectional upset over coach John McEwan's Oregon Ducks in a neutral site game played in the old Madison Square Garden stadium in Miami, Florida. Bachman's 1929 Florida Gators finished with an overall record of 8–2, and a conference record of 6–1, placing fourth of twenty-three conference teams.