The Florida State Seminoles football team represents
Florida State University (variously Florida State or FSU) in the sport of
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
. The
Seminoles
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and ...
compete in the
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
(NCAA) and the
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Seminoles previously competed as part of the
ACC Atlantic Division. The team is known for its storied history, distinctive helmet, fight song, colors, and many other traditions associated with the school.
Florida State has won three national championships, eighteen conference titles and six division titles along with a playoff appearance. The Seminoles have achieved three undefeated seasons, finished ranked in the top four of the
AP Poll for 14 straight years from 1987 through 2000 and completed 41 straight winning seasons from 1977 through 2017; from 2012 through 2014, the team won 29 consecutive games, tied for the
twelfth-longest winning streak in college football and tied for the longest winning streak in ACC history; from 1992 through 1995, the team also won 29 consecutive conference games, the longest winning streak in ACC history. The
1999 team received votes from
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
as one of the top teams in college football history.
The team has produced three
Heisman Trophy winners:
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
s
Charlie Ward
Charlie Ward Jr. (born October 12, 1970) is a former American professional basketball player. Ward was an exceptional football player as well, winning the Heisman Trophy, Davey O'Brien Award, and College Football National Championship while quart ...
in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
,
Chris Weinke
Christopher Jon Weinke (born July 31, 1972) is an American football coach, former professional football player, and former professional baseball player. After spending six years in the Toronto Blue Jays minor league baseball system, he enrolle ...
in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
and
Jameis Winston in
2013. The
Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the top receiver in college football, is named for Florida State hall of famer
Fred Biletnikoff. Other awards won by Florida State players include the
Walter Camp Award
The Walter Camp Player of the Year Award is given annually to the collegiate American football player of the year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I FBS head coaches and sports information directo ...
, the
Maxwell Award
The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best al ...
, the
Davey O'Brien Award, the
Lombardi Award
The Rotary Lombardi Award is an award for college football in the United States. Awarded by the Rotary Club of Houston, Texas annually to the college football player "who best embodies the values and spirit of NFL's legendary coach Vince Lomba ...
, the
Dick Butkus Award, the
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award is given annually in the United States to the nation's top upperclassmen quarterback in college football. Candidates are judged on accomplishments on the field as well as on their character, scholastic achievemen ...
, the
Lou Groza Award
The Lou Groza Award is presented annually to the top college football placekicker in the United States by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission. The award is named after former Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns player Lou Groza. It has be ...
, the
Dave Rimington Trophy
The Dave Rimington Trophy is awarded to the player considered to be the best American football center in college football. Dave Rimington was a center who played at the University of Nebraska from 1979 to 1982.
A member of the National College ...
and the
Bobby Bowden Award. Florida State coaches have been honored with the
Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award, the
Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award, the
Home Depot Coach of the Year Award, the
Broyles Award
The Broyles Award is an annual award given to honor the best assistant coach in college football. First awarded in 1996, it was named after former University of Arkansas men's athletic director Frank Broyles. The award is presented in Little R ...
, and the
Paul "Bear" Bryant Award. Many former Seminoles have gone on to have successful careers in the
NFL.
The program has produced 219
All-Americans
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
(45 consensus and 15 unanimous) and 250 professional players. Florida State has had six members inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame, three members inducted into the
College Football Coaches Hall of Fame and five members inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Seminoles have the tenth-highest winning percentage among all college football programs in Division I FBS history with over 500 victories. Florida State has appeared in 50 postseason bowl games and rank ninth nationally for bowl winning percentage and fourth for bowl wins. The Seminoles' archrivals are
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, whom they meet annually in the last game of the regular season, and
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
; both games are considered among the greatest rivalries in college football. A rivalry with
Clemson has developed and grown due to both teams competing yearly for the Atlantic division.
The team is coached by
Mike Norvell, and plays home games at
Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium, the
18th largest stadium in college football and the 2nd largest in the ACC, located on-campus in
Tallahassee, Florida.
History
Early history (1902–1975)
As early as the 1890s, Florida State had a football team. Florida State University traces the start of its athletic program to 1902, when Florida State College played the first of its three seasons.
From 1902 to 1904, the institution then known as
Florida State College fielded a varsity football team called "The Eleven" that played other teams. The Florida State players wore gold uniforms with a large purple F on the front. Their pants were lightly padded, but their upper bodies were largely unprotected. Leather helmets with ear guards covered their heads, and shoehorn-shaped metal nose guards were strapped across their faces.
W. W. Hughes, professor of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and the head of men's sports at the school, served as the first coach. They played their first game against the Bainbridge Giants, a city team from
Bainbridge, Georgia
Bainbridge is a city in Decatur County, Georgia, United States. The city is the county seat of Decatur County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 14,468.
History
The first European settlement in what is today Bainbridge was a tra ...
, defeating them 5–0. The team then played back-to-back matches against
Florida Agricultural College (which later merged into what is now the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
) one week apart, winning the first 6–0 and losing the second 0–6. The following season student enthusiasm grew even more, and the Eleven arranged a full schedule of six games. They competed against teams such as the
University of Florida in Lake City (as Florida Agricultural College was then called),
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
, and the
East Florida Seminary (another school that merged into the University of Florida), and finished the season by competing against
Stetson College in
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
for ''
The Florida Times-Union
''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...
'' Championship Cup. The
following year Jack Forsythe
James Adger "Jack" Forsythe Jr. (August 4, 1882 – April 3, 1957), nicknamed "Pee Wee" Forsythe, was an American college football player and coach. Forsythe has an important place in the history of college athletics in the U.S. state of Florida ...
, later the first head coach of the
Florida Gators, replaced Hughes as coach, and the Eleven won the unofficial "state championship" by defeating
Stetson in Tallahassee.
Jock Hanvey assisted Forsythe.
This would be The Eleven's last season, however, as the
Florida State Legislature
The Florida Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Cons ...
passed the Buckman Act, which reorganized Florida's six colleges into three institutions segregated by gender and race: a school for white males, a school for white females, and a school for African Americans. Florida State College became Florida Female College until 1909, when it became Florida State College for Women.
Four other institutions (including the University of Florida in Lake City and the East Florida Seminary) were merged into the new white men's-only
University of the State of Florida in
Gainesville.
[Kabat, p. 36–37.] Males who formerly attended Florida State College were required to transfer to the Gainesville campus,
although several former FSC players transferred to
Grant University
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...
(now the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...
), with five joining Grant's football team. In 1909 several veterans of the FSC Eleven founded a city team named the Tallahassee Athletics, but this folded after one season. Except for this, until 1947, Tallahassee's only organized or collegiate football team were the team from the
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes (now
Florida A&M University
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the Un ...
).
/
The end of World War II brought enormous pressure on the university system in Florida, which saw an influx of veterans applying for college under the
GI Bill. The Florida Legislature responded by renaming the Florida State College for Women to Florida State University and allowing men to attend the university for the first time since 1905; football then returned to the university, beginning with the 1947 season. From 1948 through 1959, the Seminole football program achieved much success under coaches
Don Veller and
Tom Nugent.
Ed Williamson, who introduced football to the school, served as the first coach of the Florida State Seminoles. In his first and only season with Florida State, the Seminoles posted an 0–5 record. Williamson has the worst record out of all the head coaches at Florida State and the only coach to have a winless mark. As the second coach at Florida State,
Don Veller coached at Florida State for five years and compiled a record of 31–12–1. Veller was the first coach to find success coaching the Seminoles. In 1950, Veller led the Seminoles to an 8–0 record, the first unbeaten season in school history. Once Veller left the school,
Tom Nugent became the third coach at Florida State. He stayed at Florida State for six years and compiled a record of 34–28–1. In one of his most notable accomplishments, Nugent gave the Seminoles their first win over an SEC opponent with a 10–0 victory against Tennessee in 1958. The fourth coach at Florida State was
Perry Moss
Perry Lee Moss (August 4, 1926 – August 7, 2014) was an American football player, coach, and executive. Moss played tailback at the University of Tulsa and quarterback at Illinois during the 1940s. As a Tulsa tailback, he was on the Orange Bo ...
who coached the Seminoles for one year after compiling a 4–6 record. He became the second Florida State coach to leave the school with a losing record and the second to coach at the school for only one season after leaving to coach in the
CFL.
With the arrival of head coach
Bill Peterson
William E. Peterson (May 15, 1920 – August 5, 1993) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. His career included head coaching stops at Florida State University, Rice University and with the Houston Oilers of ...
in 1960, the Seminoles began their move to national prominence. Under Peterson's direction, the Seminoles beat the Florida Gators for the first time in 1964 and earned their first major bowl bid. Peterson also led the Seminoles to their first ever top ten ranking. During his tenure as head coach, Peterson also gave a young assistant by the name of
Bobby Bowden
Robert Cleckler Bowden (; November 8, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was an American college football coach. Bowden coached the Florida State Seminoles of Florida State University (FSU) from 1976 to 2009 and is considered one of the greatest college ...
his first major college coaching opportunity. Although not widely known, the Seminoles achieved their first ever number one ranking during this period. In October 1964, the Dunkel College Football Index, a popular power index of that era, placed the Seminoles at the top of their poll after a stunning 48–6 win over highly ranked Kentucky (AP No. 5, Dunkel No. 3). Peterson would be named UPI national coach of the week after this program changing victory. In an era of very few bowl games, Peterson's innovative offensive system helped earn the Seminoles four bowl bids from 1964 through 1968. During this time, only Alabama and Mississippi appeared in more bowl games than did Peterson's Seminoles. Receiving a football scholarship, famed actor
Robert Urich
Robert Michael Urich (December 19, 1946 – April 16, 2002) was an American film, television, and stage actor, and television producer. Over the course of his 30-year career, he starred in a record 15 television series.
Urich began his ca ...
was a back up center on the Seminoles from 1964 to 1967. In 1968, Peterson's eighth year at the helm, the Seminoles claimed their third straight bowl bid as Florida State became the first major college in the state of Florida to earn such a distinction. The Seminoles would not repeat this feat again until the ninth season of the Bobby Bowden era. In the summer of 1967, Peterson also engineered another first for the Seminole program when he decided to begin the recruitment of
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
football players. Apparently, he did so without approval from either the school president or its athletic director. On December 16, 1967, the Seminoles signed Ernest Cook, a fullback from Daytona Beach. Several months later, the Seminoles would sign running back Calvin Patterson from Dade County. Ultimately, Cook decided to switch his allegiance to Minnesota where he would become an All-Big Ten running back. In the fall of 1968, Patterson would become the first African American student to play for the Seminoles as a starter for the Florida State freshmen football team. In the fall of 1970,
J. T. Thomas would become the first African American to play in a varsity game for the Seminoles.
Following Peterson's successful run, the next two coaches had disappointing tenures.
Larry Jones was appointed as the sixth head coach at Florida State. Jones coached for three years from 1971–1973 and compiled a record of 15–19, becoming the third Florida State coach to have a losing record.
Darrell Mudra was then hired to be the seventh coach of the Seminoles. Mudra lasted just two years from 1974–1975 and compiled a record of 4–18. He became the fourth head coach to have a losing record at Florida State.
Bobby Bowden era (1976–2009)
Under head coach
Bobby Bowden
Robert Cleckler Bowden (; November 8, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was an American college football coach. Bowden coached the Florida State Seminoles of Florida State University (FSU) from 1976 to 2009 and is considered one of the greatest college ...
, who came to Florida State from
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
, the Seminoles became one of the nation's most competitive programs, greatly expanding the tradition of football at Florida State. The Seminoles played in five national championship games between 1993 and 2000, and claimed the championship twice, in 1993 and 1999. The FSU football team was the most successful team in college football during the 1990s, boasting an 89% winning percentage. FSU also set an NCAA record for most consecutive Top 5 finishes in the AP football poll – receiving placement 14 years in a row, from 1987 to 2000. The Seminoles under Bowden were the first college football team in history to go wire-to-wire (ranked first place from preseason to postseason) since the AP began releasing preseason rankings in 1936.
In the Bowden era, prior to a 1989 game against long-standing rival
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
,
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
mascot
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