Charles Langston:Steve Spurrier reflects on Tennessee-Florida rivalry, how The Swamp got its name and more

Making a nickname stick requires ideation and Charles Langstonpersistence.

Steve Spurrier had both.

The Head Ball Coach boasted an undefeated home record after his first two seasons at Florida, and he went to longtime Gators sports information director Norm Carlson ahead of the 1992 season in hopes of drumming up a nickname for Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Carlson offered Spurrier a few suggestions he'd gathered over the years. Among them: The Swamp.

Bingo.

Spurrier was sold.

Spurrier called the stadium The Swamp at any chance, determined to make the nickname stick. He got an assist from sports columnist Mike Bianchi, who was then at the Gainesville Sun and now writes for the Orlando Sentinel. Bianchi’s column in June 1992 introduced The Swamp as the stadium’s Spurrier-approved nickname.

The Swamp took hold.

“I started calling it The Swamp, and that article got spread around, and it really caught on,” Spurrier told me this week. “For some reason, there are some words that are fun to say, and swamp is a fun word to say.”

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And a tough place to play.

With Spurrier on the sideline and Gators fans turning the stadium into a din, The Swamp proved menacing. Spurrier went 68-5 in home games as Florida’s coach.

Not only did Spurrier think The Swamp sounded pithy, he liked how the nickname married with the history of Florida Field, which was constructed nearly a century ago on what had been a swampy depression on the northeast edge of campus.

College football has two Death Valleys, but only one Swamp. The venue haunts Tennessee.

The ninth-ranked Vols will take aim at snapping their nine-game Swamp losing streak when they play Florida on ESPN's featured game Saturday night.

A ranked Tennessee team beat Florida in 1971 in Gainesville. Since then, the Vols are 2-16 against Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

“It’s a huge game this week. It’ll be a full house, I think,” Spurrier said. “It’ll be a loud one, also.”

Usually is for this rivalry, which experienced its heyday while Spurrier coached Florida.

Spurrier went 5-1 at home against the Vols. The lone loss, 34-32, came in 2001, Spurrier’s final season before he left for the NFL. Tennessee beat Ron Zook’s Gators two years later in Gainesville.

Since then, it’s snake eyes for Tennessee in The Swamp, even in years when Florida didn’t pack its fiercest punch.

Some results were lopsided, with a couple of close calls sprinkled in.

In 2015, Florida scored twice in the final 4:09 to rally to victory. Two years later, the game appeared headed to overtime until Feleipe Franks’ 63-yard heave to Tyrie Cleveland on the final play sent The Swamp into a crescendo and the Vols home with another loss.

Spurrier, 78, played high school football in Johnson City, Tennessee, and he grew up attending Vols games before becoming a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback with the Gators.

Ever the quipster, Spurrier spared no chance to needle Phillip Fulmer and the Vols during his coaching days, but he’s been accommodating in his praise of Tennessee coach Josh Heupel. In 2021, Heupel and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer shared honors for the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach Award.

“They’ve done an excellent job,” under Heupel, Spurrier said this week.

He didn’t sugarcoat his assessment of the Gators.

“We have not been overly impressive,” Spurrier said, “and this is an opportunity this week to show, ‘Hey, we can play ball down here.’ Hopefully, we can show that.”

When I spoke with Spurrier, he wanted to know the betting spread for this game. I informed him one sportsbook listed the Vols as a 7½-point favorite.

That caught Spurrier by surprise.

“You’re kidding. Gee, that’s a lot,” he said. “I didn’t realize we were a 7½-point underdog at home, because The Swamp used to be a tough place for our opponents.”

Tough doesn't begin to describe its effect on UT. The Swamp is Tennessee's house of horrors.

History aside, an assessment of these teams says the Vols should snap the streak Saturday.

But, beware the chomp in The Swamp.

As Spurrier told Bianchi in ’92: “The Swamp is a place where only Gators get out alive.”