Cocktail Party A Vestige Of A Bygone College Football Necessity

Georgia and Florida will renew their rivalry in Jacksonville for the 91st time this Saturday.

Why does Georgia go to Jacksonville every year to play the Florida Gators? 

That's a reasonable question for someone new to college football, SEC football. Maybe they're a child growing up in the fandom, or an adult looking to give the sport the old college try. Heck, even lifelong Georgia fans will ask the question every year. After all, the University of Florida is 271 miles closer to Jacksonville than the University of Georgia. Why would Georgia play arguably its biggest rival on the road every year?

Today, the answer to that question is tradition. Georgia and Florida have always played in Jacksonville, so perhaps they always should regardless of the benefits playing the game on campus will bring. In an ever-changing college football landscape, traditions like the "World's Largest Cocktail Party" are fading into memory. 

In old-school SEC country, the Georgia/Florida rivalry is the last of its kind. Because while it is a tradition today, the Cocktail Party and other home-away-from-home games were necessary for the small-town schools that made up the Southeastern Conference.

Kirby Smart celebrates with his players and fans after their victory over Florida. The annual Georgia vs Florida football rivalry was held at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, FL Saturday, October 29, 2022. The Bulldogs went in at halftime with a 28 to 3 lead over the Gators and won with a final score of 42 to 20. [Bob Self/Florida Times-Union] Jki 102822 Bs Georgia Vs Florida Football Game 2nd Half 06 / IMAGN

Home Away From Home

In a time before the interstate highway system, the rise of the hotel industry, and the Florida land boom, college football was a traveling show. While the SEC schools like Georgia were large and growing, the towns they inhabited were rather small. In 1990, Athens had a population of just under 46,000, and it didn't surpass 30,000 until the 1950s.

However, graduates of UGA and other SEC schools spread all over their respective states. Those grads became diehard fans while on campus and remained loyal even after returning home. The late Sonny Seiler exemplified that for Georgia, a Savannah native who returned to the Hostess City not long after graduation. 

What did you do in the early 1900s when many of your biggest fans were hundreds of miles away from campus? What do you do at a time when traveling back to campus is cumbersome and there are so few places to stay? You bring the game to them.

So to answer that initial question in the lede, Georgia goes to Jacksonville every year to service the UGA fans who reside in Savannah, Brunswick, Blackshear, Tifton and other south Georgia towns. To give them a game in a large, accessible city just a couple of hours away.

The "Cocktail Party" wasn't unique in the 20th century, it wasn't even Georgia's only such game. Georgia and Auburn played in Columbus almost every year from 1916-to-1958. If you can believe it, the Bulldogs regularly hosted other teams from out of state at Georgia Tech's Grant Field. Frank Sinkwich's finest game took place at Grant Field against Alabama in 1942 en route to him winning the Heisman Trophy.

Besides the Georgia/Florida rivalry, Alabama's home in Birmingham is the SEC's most famous home-away-from-home. Up until the late 1990s, the Crimson Tide were playing their biggest games at Legion Field, not Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Alabama hosted Auburn in Birmingham in 1998, and Tennessee in 1997. Its last home game in Birmingham took place in 2003 against South Florida.

"The Magic City" was far from Alabama's only home away from home. The Tide (and Auburn for that matter) went to Mobile and Montgomery regularly through the 1950s. Tennessee and Ole Miss would host games in Memphis; LSU would host teams in New Orleans. It's not an SEC original, but Arkansas hosted at least one game a year in Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium. In 2014, Georgia became the last team Arkansas hosted there.

Enduring Tradition, or Relic of the Past?

The Georgia/Florida rivalry's home in Jacksonville is under increasing fire today. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart isn't shy about his desire to see the game played on campus. He touts the advantages of having another electric home game environment to host recruits at, and getting rid of the disadvantage of losing a home game to the state of Florida every other year.

With TIAA Bank Stadium set to undergo a massive renovation in a few years, there are questions about where the rivalry game will be played. When the Gator Bowl was transformed into the new stadium for the NFL's Jaguars in the mid-1990s, Georgia and Florida got to host one another. The rivalry returned to Jacksonville in that instance, but will it return after another hiatus? That's looking more unlikely.

The advantages Jacksonville presented UGA are no longer relevant. Several major U.S. highways run through Athens, while Interstate 85 is just 30 minutes up the road in Jefferson and Commerce. Athens itself is home to dozens of hotels, and modern sites like Airbnb present even more lodging opportunities. A once clunky trip to UGA is now quite easy for Bulldog fans in each corner of the state.

If we are in the final chapters of the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," we must realize that it doesn't just end the story of the Georgia/Florida rivalry in Jacksonville. On the contrary, it will end a breed of game that helped define SEC football in the 20th century. 

How to Watch Georgia vs. Florida

• Gameday: Saturday, Oct. 28. 2023
• Game time: 3:30 pm ET
• TV: CBS
• Location: TIAA Bank Field (Jacksonville, Florida)
• Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!
• Stream on ESPN - HERE
• Broadcast Call: Brad Nessler (play-by-play) and Gary Danielson (Color) will be on the call

Other Georgia News:

• Georgia's Remaining Schedule - Who Could Be The Troublesome Game?
• Player Profile: How Can Oscar Delp Contribute to Georgia's Success?
• Reminder of What Georgia Has With Delp, Luckie, and Spurlin

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