Miami Memories, And ‘The Rest Of The Story” About The Florida Flop

 And there was this play years later that may have been the most misunderstood and misinterpreted maneuver in Gator history

The 'Rest of the Story' About This Controversial Florida-Miami Play

You want Miami stories? I got Miami stories, a plethora of tales garnered along the dusty trail of A Sportswriter’s Life In Black & White, which happens to be the working title of my new book due out in a year. And it will include a verifiable correction of the misnomer of what really happened on that night of the infamous “Florida Flop” in Miami.

There are some remarkable anecdotes strewn across my nearly 70 years of press-boxing for about 30 of those games, plus tidbits from observers in the stands.

First, though, some interesting historical info about the so-called “Biggest Opening Game in History.”

From the Miami website CanesWarning.com:

  --Florida has not lost a home opener since a 24-19 win by Mississippi at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 1989. The Gators have won 33 consecutive home openers since 1990. After a three-hour lightning delay, Florida had its 2014 home opener versus Idaho canceled because of unsafe field conditions. Florida and ----Miami have played eight times during the Gators' home-opening winning streak. None of those games were in week one.

--Florida and Miami played season openers from 1983 through 1985 and again in 1987. Florida beat Miami 28-3 in the 1983 season opener in Gainesville. That was Miami's only loss in a national championship season. The wins by Florida during its 33-game season home opening winning streak were primarily versus FCS and Group of Five opponents. Florida defeated McNeese State 49-7 in its 2023 home opener. Florida had an impressive 29-26 win over number seven Utah in its 2022 home opener.

--Miami is 22-12 in road openers since 1990, during Florida's 33 game-home opening winning streak. Miami is 1-1 in their first road game of the season during that time at Florida. The Hurricanes won their 2022 road opener 41-16 in Gainesville and lost 26-3 in 2008.

--Miami leads the all-time series with Florida 29-27. Miami leads the series with Florida 12-9 in Gainesville. The 2008 game was the last time Miami played at Florida. Florida has won two of the last three versus Miami. Miami won 21-16 at Hard Rock Stadium in 2013. Florida beat Miami 24-20 in Orlando in 2019 in the last meeting.

In November 1963, only a few days removed from the assassination of President John F Kennedy, I took a train ride with friends (Dr. Gene Peek and wife Buggy) and Gator fans from Ocala to Miami for the Miami-Florida game. I will never forget a Miami coach coming on the field 15 minutes before the kickoff, taking the microphone and leading cheers about beating Florida. Which I guess is not against the rules — I just never saw that before or since.

My late friend Bob Whitfield, a maniacal Gator fan from Blountstown, recalls sitting in front of a loving couple at Florida Field in 1966 as Steve Spurrier was trying to find a way to pull out the game against Miami, the week after he’d just won the Heisman (yes they voted before the regular season ended). Bob said they were “lovey dovey” all game — she from Miami and he a Gator fan from nearby — until the final minutes when Spurrier was attempting to mount a comeback drive, which would fall short. Excessive cheering about his quarterback’s failure did not set well with the Gator fan, who vociferously responded in her face. The enraged woman from Miami turned on her boyfriend, who countered her violent reaction by placing his hands around her neck as if he was going to choke her.  I guess they survived that, but I never found out if the wedding was called off. Spurrier did not pull out the win and, ironically, lost his last game at Florida field as a player.

Nothing ever approached this next incident for weirdness, however. There was this play years later that may have been the most misunderstood and misinterpreted maneuver in Gator history: The so-called Florida Flop. Everybody talks about it like it was an egregious example of poor judgment. With apologies to Paul Harvey — here’s the “Rest of the Story.”

I know a lot about it because I was standing right there on the Orange Bowl sideline, talking in real time to the players as Miami was attempting to run out the clock -- the only reason being they didn’t want John Reaves to set the NCAA passing record -- which is what Fran Curci was doing on the final game of the season. Otherwise, why do you keep handing the ball off to Chuck Foreman when you’re down by nearly three touchdowns in the fourth quarter?

I liked Curci, but that was cheap, and I remember talking to Harvin Clark and some other players and saying, “why don’t you let them score and get the ball back?”

Embattled John Reaves

Somebody must have carried that idea to the ultra-conservative Doug Dickey, who had endured somewhat of an embattled year with his one-time “SuperSophs” in their senior season. And surprisingly, that’s exactly what they did, although nobody intended for them to totally collapse on the grass on the snap as 10 of them did. (There is a New York Times photo of it.)

Miami was keeping the ball away from Florida not to win the game but to prohibit Reaves from getting the record – albeit perhaps a little too ostentatious, I’ll admit.  

To set the record straight here, it was Curci who pulled the first cheap shot before Dickey decided to let his defense allow the Hurricanes to score. Ironically, it was one of the really most generous, decent acts Dickey did on behalf half of his graduating quarterback, who had been through a difficult last two seasons. PS Reaves got the record anyway on his final pass ever to the great Carlos Alvarez.

I could give you a lot more Miami stories, but something tells me there’s going to be another one for my book after Saturday.