Never forget.
The first 6 meetings between the Noles and that team farther east were all on the road for FSU. Under a new contract, the gators played in Tallahassee beginning in 1964. That was the first time in FSU history the Noles won.
On this day in 1966, the gators returned to Doak Campbell Stadium having never won on our field. It was on in this game, on this date, the Noles will never forget after being cheated out of another win by SEC field judge Doug Mosely ruling on the Lane Fenner catch.
Tallahassee Democrat reporter Bill McGrotha said, "It wasn't until two hours afterward, when I was back at the paper, when I saw the still photos did it sink in. Pete, Coach Bill Peterson didn't get worked up until the next day, then it just so happened he spoke to the Atlanta Touchdown Club on the next Monday, and he took those still photos with him. That really started the controversy, because you couldn't challenge the SEC officials in their citadel in those days."
"I was mad enough that I showed those pictures everywhere, and told the players that we had won," said Peterson, FSU's coach in 1966. "Some of that was psychology for my players. I wanted them to know that they had won. But I always believed Fenner caught the ball in bounds and rolled out of bounds."
It's a controversy with so much, there's a cryptic mark next to the score in the Seminole Media Guide. The 1967 yearbook lists the score as FSU winning 25-23. In 2003, FSU President T.K. Wetherell ordered 3 very large framed prints of the famous pictures to be mounted in and around the FSU's President's Box. Wetherell himself was on the field when Lane Fenner caught the touchdown pass which should have won the game for FSU. At the FSU President's House, the Event Room is complete with an enlarged photograph of Lane Fenner's foot inside the goal line. And here we are still talking about today, nearly 50 years later.
From the 1967 yearbook:
Left to Right: Lane Fenner & Gary Pajcic
Even a gator, The Gainesville Sun Sports Editor, Joe Halberstein admitted admitted he thought it was a touchdown. He started his column the next morning with, "It looked good to me. So help me." He then later ended the column with, "So help me, I thought it was good. And when a Gator writer says that..."
UF head coach Ray Graves said, "My impression was that maybe we got a break that day."
With the controversy that took place the year before, tightend Thurston Taylor said, "This makes two years in a row they've taken it away from us. I just hope the next year when we play them, I'll remember how I feel right now."
Thurston Taylor
With the win for FSU, it would mean Steve Spurrier has never won a game in Tallahassee either as a coach or a player. The "win" over FSU helped him secure his path to the Heisman which he would have more likely lost with an FSU victory that day.
What's more, with the loss in that game the gators possibly don't get an invitation to the Orange Bowl lose their allure of that season and Spurrier's Heisman campaign, hurts the built-in marketing for gatorade to help it explode.
Not that anyone cares what I think, but I count the game as a victory in my book so rather than the 23-34-2 record we are said to have, it's easily 24-33-2 in my book and Spurrier has still never won in Doak Campbell Statdium and never will.
The first 6 meetings between the Noles and that team farther east were all on the road for FSU. Under a new contract, the gators played in Tallahassee beginning in 1964. That was the first time in FSU history the Noles won.
On this day in 1966, the gators returned to Doak Campbell Stadium having never won on our field. It was on in this game, on this date, the Noles will never forget after being cheated out of another win by SEC field judge Doug Mosely ruling on the Lane Fenner catch.
Tallahassee Democrat reporter Bill McGrotha said, "It wasn't until two hours afterward, when I was back at the paper, when I saw the still photos did it sink in. Pete, Coach Bill Peterson didn't get worked up until the next day, then it just so happened he spoke to the Atlanta Touchdown Club on the next Monday, and he took those still photos with him. That really started the controversy, because you couldn't challenge the SEC officials in their citadel in those days."
"I was mad enough that I showed those pictures everywhere, and told the players that we had won," said Peterson, FSU's coach in 1966. "Some of that was psychology for my players. I wanted them to know that they had won. But I always believed Fenner caught the ball in bounds and rolled out of bounds."
It's a controversy with so much, there's a cryptic mark next to the score in the Seminole Media Guide. The 1967 yearbook lists the score as FSU winning 25-23. In 2003, FSU President T.K. Wetherell ordered 3 very large framed prints of the famous pictures to be mounted in and around the FSU's President's Box. Wetherell himself was on the field when Lane Fenner caught the touchdown pass which should have won the game for FSU. At the FSU President's House, the Event Room is complete with an enlarged photograph of Lane Fenner's foot inside the goal line. And here we are still talking about today, nearly 50 years later.
From the 1967 yearbook:
Left to Right: Lane Fenner & Gary Pajcic
Even a gator, The Gainesville Sun Sports Editor, Joe Halberstein admitted admitted he thought it was a touchdown. He started his column the next morning with, "It looked good to me. So help me." He then later ended the column with, "So help me, I thought it was good. And when a Gator writer says that..."
UF head coach Ray Graves said, "My impression was that maybe we got a break that day."
With the controversy that took place the year before, tightend Thurston Taylor said, "This makes two years in a row they've taken it away from us. I just hope the next year when we play them, I'll remember how I feel right now."
Thurston Taylor
With the win for FSU, it would mean Steve Spurrier has never won a game in Tallahassee either as a coach or a player. The "win" over FSU helped him secure his path to the Heisman which he would have more likely lost with an FSU victory that day.
What's more, with the loss in that game the gators possibly don't get an invitation to the Orange Bowl lose their allure of that season and Spurrier's Heisman campaign, hurts the built-in marketing for gatorade to help it explode.
Not that anyone cares what I think, but I count the game as a victory in my book so rather than the 23-34-2 record we are said to have, it's easily 24-33-2 in my book and Spurrier has still never won in Doak Campbell Statdium and never will.
