The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party
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"The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" is a common name for the annual college football game between the University of Florida Gators and the University of Georgia Bulldogs. Currently, the match is held at ALLTEL Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, usually on the first saturday in November. The designated "home" team alternates from year to year, with ticket distribution split 50/50 between the two schools.
The game was first held in Jacksonville in 1915 in the teams' second meeting (won by Georgia 39-0). The game has been held in Jacksonville every year since 1933, save for 1994 and '95 while Alltel Stadium was built. An interesting sidenote to the 1995 game was that Florida head coach Steve Spurrier tacked on an extra touchdown at the end of the game to set a new opponents' scoring record in Sanford Stadium, the home field of the Bulldogs. Spurrier was also known to needle Georgia at any opportunity, routinely referring to Bulldogs coach Ray Goff as "Ray Goof".
While Jacksonville is technically a neutral site, it is located only 73 miles from Gainesville, home of the Gators; Athens, on the other hand, is 342 miles to the north. While Georgia fans travel in droves to the game and sometimes seem to outnumber Florida fans in town on Friday night and in the parking lot, the crowd in the stadium is 50-50 as many Florida fans arrive the day of the game.
Currently, Georgia has a 45-35-2 advantage in the all-time series, however, Florida has gone 13-2 in the game since 1990 (Georgia won in 1997 and 2004, respectively).
Due to sensitivity about consumption of alcohol by college students, the match is officially known as the Georgia-Florida/Florida-Georgia game (depending on which team is the home team in a given year).
In 2000, the University of Georgia changed their fall break to coincide with the date of the game. Reportedly, this was intended to reduce absences and alarming traffic fatality trends related to students travelling to Jacksonville for the game. There have been two subsequent attempts, in 2003 and 2004, to change fall break to a different weekend. Both were withdrawn after overwhelming complaints from the student body.