Florida Gators
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50 free Florida Gators trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Few college programs pack as many stories into a Saturday as the Florida Gators. The football team has won national championships under more than one coach, produced Heisman-winning quarterbacks and sent a long line of players to the NFL, all in front of one of the loudest home crowds in the sport. This quiz covers UF sports from every angle: the title seasons and the bowl games that decided them, the coaches and star players, rivalry games with Georgia and LSU and the strange moments they produced, and the game-day traditions that fans in Gainesville know by heart. It also steps beyond football to the Gators' basketball champions, Olympic swimmers and track athletes, and standouts on the diamond, the course and the court. It is written for Gators fans, students and alumni, and it works for a tailgate, a watch party or a trivia night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play straight through or print the questions for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the foggy 2020 LSU–Florida game, Gators cornerback Marco Wilson drew a costly penalty for throwing what?
A shoe
A shoe that came off LSU tight end Kole Taylor was flung 20 yards downfield by Wilson after a third-down stop. The penalty kept the drive alive, and a 57-yard field goal beat Florida 37–34.
Q 02After Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow wrote Bible verses there, the NCAA banned messages on what in 2010?
Eye black
Eye black carried John 3:16 when Tebow played the January 2009 title game, and the verse became Google's top search over the next day. The 2010 ban was soon dubbed the Tebow Rule.
Q 03Which school lost national championship games to the Florida Gators in both football and men's basketball in 2007?
Ohio State
Ohio State fell 41–14 in football's title game in January 2007 and 84–75 in the basketball final that April. No other school has held both men's crowns at the same time.
Q 04Which future NFL MVP was a Florida Gators backup quarterback before winning the Heisman Trophy at Auburn?
Cam Newton
Cam Newton spent 2007 and 2008 in Gainesville as an understudy, left for a Texas junior college, then won the 2010 Heisman and a national title in his one season at Auburn.
Q 05Florida Gators football crowds sing a hit by which Gainesville-born rock star after the third quarter of home games?
Tom Petty
Tom Petty died in October 2017, and at the next home game the stadium played I Won't Back Down between the third and fourth quarters. It has followed the school song ever since.
Q 06Florida Gators fans often perform the Gator Chomp arm gesture while the band plays a theme from which film?
Jaws
Jaws supplies the menacing shark motif the band plays as fans clap their outstretched arms like an alligator's mouth. The university's band started the gesture in 1981.
Q 07Which nickname did head coach Steve Spurrier coin in 1992 for the Florida Gators' home football stadium?
The Swamp
The Swamp got its name because, Spurrier said, a swamp is where gators live: hot, sticky and dangerous. Officially the ground is Steve Spurrier–Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Q 08Which Florida Gators running back went on to become the NFL's all-time leading rusher with the Dallas Cowboys?
Emmitt Smith
Emmitt Smith ran for 224 yards in his first college start, breaking a Florida single-game record that had stood for 57 years. He retired with 18,355 NFL rushing yards.
Q 09Which city has hosted the Florida–Georgia football rivalry game in almost every season since 1933?
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a neutral site, and its giant tailgate scene earned the game the nickname World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, a label not used officially since 2006.
Q 10Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow became the first player from which class year to win the Heisman Trophy?
Sophomore
Sophomore Tim Tebow won in 2007 after becoming the first major-college player to both run and pass for at least 20 touchdowns in one season.
Q 11Which head coach led the Florida Gators to football national championships in the 2006 and 2008 seasons?
Urban Meyer
Urban Meyer came from Utah in 2005 and won it all in his second season. He had taken his first head coaching job, at Bowling Green, only in 2001.
Q 12Which coach led Florida Gators men's basketball to back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007?
Billy Donovan
Billy Donovan accepted the Orlando Magic job two months after the 2007 title, had second thoughts almost at once and talked his way out of the contract within a week. He stayed in Gainesville eight more seasons.
Q 13Which two colors do Florida Gators teams wear, a pairing fans shout back and forth across the stadium?
Orange and blue
Q 21Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow gave the 2008 speech known as The Promise after a home loss to which team?
Ole Miss
Ole Miss arrived unranked as a 22-point underdog and still beat the fourth-ranked Gators. Tebow apologized and vowed to play harder, and Florida did not lose again that season.
Q 22Which team beat the Florida Gators 28–21 in the first SEC Championship Game, played in December 1992?
Alabama
Alabama won that first title game with a late fourth-quarter touchdown. The two programs met for the SEC crown again the very next season, when Florida won 28–13.
Q 23Which SEC opponent did Florida Gators football beat in 31 consecutive seasons from 1987 through 2017?
Kentucky
Orange and blue probably blend the colors of two schools that merged into the university: one wore orange and black, the other blue and white.
Q 14Which name was given to the live alligator that began appearing at Florida Gators football games in 1957?
Albert
Albert the live alligator gave way in 1970 to a costumed mascot of the same name, who was later joined by a partner called Alberta.
Q 15Which quarterback won the 1996 Heisman Trophy while leading the Florida Gators to their first national championship?
Danny Wuerffel
Danny Wuerffel threw 39 touchdown passes that season, the most in the nation. A minister's son, he later led a ministry serving poor neighborhoods in New Orleans and beyond.
Q 16Which team did the Gators rout 52–20 in a Sugar Bowl rematch to win their first national football championship?
Florida State
Florida State had beaten the Gators 24–21 in Tallahassee barely a month earlier. In the rematch, the Gators scored the final 28 points of the game.
Q 17Which team did the Florida Gators beat 24–14 in January 2009 to win a second national title in three seasons?
Oklahoma
Oklahoma arrived as the highest-scoring team of college football's modern era, led by Heisman winner Sam Bradford, yet scored only twice. Florida's defense twice stopped drives inside the five-yard line.
Q 18Florida Gators great Tim Tebow threw an 80-yard overtime touchdown to win a playoff game for which NFL team?
Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos fans saw Tebow hit Demaryius Thomas on the first play of overtime to beat Pittsburgh 29–23 in January 2012. It was the franchise's first playoff win since 2005.
Q 19Which hurricane forced a Florida–LSU game out of Gainesville, setting up a Gators goal-line stand in Baton Rouge?
Matthew
Hurricane Matthew wiped out the October 2016 date, so the game moved to Baton Rouge in November. Florida won 16–10 by stopping LSU's Derrius Guice at the goal line on the final play.
Q 20Against LSU in 2006, Florida Gators freshman Tim Tebow threw his first touchdown using which unusual technique?
A jump pass
A jump pass to tight end Tate Casey gave Tebow his first career touchdown throw, one of three scores he accounted for that day. He was still the backup to Chris Leak at the time.
Kentucky lost every meeting for three decades, the longest such streak in SEC history. It ended in Gainesville in 2018, the Wildcats' first win there since 1979.
Q 24Which Florida Gators defensive end played Super Bowl XIV for the Los Angeles Rams with a fractured leg?
Jack Youngblood
Jack Youngblood broke his left fibula in the 1979 playoffs and kept playing, which earned him the label the John Wayne of football. He missed only one game in 14 NFL seasons.
Q 25Which nickname did SEC opponents give Florida Gators pass rusher Jevon Kearse for his mix of size and speed?
The Freak
The Freak carried the name into the NFL, where he set a rookie record with 14.5 sacks in 1999 and was named Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Q 26Which Florida Gators receiver returned the second-half kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLVIII?
Percy Harvin
Percy Harvin scored his only touchdown of an injury-hit season on that return, helping Seattle win its first Super Bowl title. He had missed the previous playoff game with a concussion.
Q 27Which Florida Gators tight end was drafted fourth overall in 2021, the highest any player at the position had gone?
Kyle Pitts
Kyle Pitts joined the Atlanta Falcons after a 2020 season in which he was a unanimous All-American and won the John Mackey Award as college football's best tight end.
Q 28Which nickname did George Edmondson earn by leading a famous pregame cheer at Florida Gators football games?
Mr. Two Bits
Mr. Two Bits was a Tampa insurance salesman who had attended The Citadel, not Florida. George Edmondson began the cheer in 1949 to lift a crowd that was booing its own team before kickoff.
Q 29The trophy awarded to the Florida–Georgia football winner since 2009 is a ten-foot carved wooden what?
Oar
An oar, the Okefenokee Oar, was carved from a 1,000-year-old cypress tree and donated anonymously in 2009. Each side bears one school's symbols, and the winners' student body president receives it.
Q 30Which Florida Gators center from the 2006–07 title teams won his first NBA championship with Boston in 2024?
Al Horford
Al Horford, a Dominican-born center, was the third pick of the 2007 NBA draft and needed 17 seasons to win that ring. He had lost the 2022 Finals with the Celtics.