One of the oldest and most storied rivalries in the history of college football has been played on a neutral site for nearly 30 years. However, former UF linebacker James Bates has experienced every rabid atmosphere that the two passionate fan bases offer when the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs meet on the gridiron.
Growing up in Texas, Bates wasn’t particularly well-versed regarding the Florida-Georgia matchup, he said. Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for Bates to realize just how much the decades-long rivalry meant during Florida’s run in the 1990s with former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier at the helm.
“You learn in a hurry where the rivalries are,” Bates said. “Especially with Coach Spurrier. I mean, Coach Spurrier, if he ever showed any little bit more of emotions during getting ready for a game, it was the Georgia game. He loved to beat the Bulldogs.”
Spurrier constructed perhaps the most illustrious coaching career in the history of UF’s program. His 122 victories over 12 years are the most in Florida history. Spurrier’s coaching resume also includes a dominant 11-1 record against Georgia.
Bates’ roots to UF stem deeper than his playing days. His father was Spurrier’s first ever defensive coordinator with the Gators, although he wasn’t coaching by the time Bates arrived on campus as a redshirt freshman.
Late in the third quarter of Florida’s matchup against Georgia at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 1994, Bates intercepted a pass thrown by former UGA quarterback Eric Zeier and returned it for a touchdown.
“It was pretty neat, because my dad, he was coaching in the NFL at that point, and he rarely got to see me play,” Bates said. “But whenever he came to our games, I always had an interception.”
Bates had the unique experience of being one of the only players in UF history to compete in the Florida-Georgia rivalry games in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Athens, Georgia.
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is Bates’ favorite place in the world, he said. He noted how some of his fondest memories in life have stemmed from his time under the lights there.
Along with his passion for playing in front of Florida fans, Bates was no stranger to kicking his skills and mindset into a different gear when taking on an opponent on the road.
“I used to love to load it up and get on the bus with my teammates and go into enemy territory,” Bates said. “It's kind of like that whole gladiator feel, where you've got 100,000 people around, wanting you to go down, but you and your boys are back to back.”
Bates helped lead Florida’s 1996 squad to a national championship against Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. He appeared in 34 of UF’s games from 1994-96, a span that saw the Gators tally a 34-4 record against their opponents.
However, as Bates takes a walk down memory lane, he fondly recalls traveling to Athens, where Georgia fans hoped to see the Gators crumble under brutal crowd conditions. Instead, the Bulldogs were on the receiving end of a 52-17 loss at the hands of Florida in 1995.
“Being how big the rivalry is, the fact that we could go between the hedges, such a storied place, such an incredible stadium in itself, and to go and not just to beat them, but to just put it on them, that was something that I'll never forget,” Bates said.
Today, you’ll find Bates roaming the halls of Weimer Hall at UF on his way to teach his play-by-play broadcasting class as an adjunct professor. However, just across the street from Weimer, he used to sack quarterbacks, tackle running backs and return interceptions for touchdowns, sending a then-packed Ben Hill Griffin Stadium into pandemonium.
Bates wants nothing more than for the program to return to its place of prominence that it was in during his playing career. He knows as well as anyone how special a place Gainesville can be when the Gators are playing at elite status.
“We're playing a little bit better [right now], and that's fun,” Bates said. “But I just, man, I teach a class at UF, and I tell them all the time, I just want them to be here when we're kicking butt, because it's so magical.”
Contact Max Tucker at mtucker@alligator.org. Follow him on X @Max_Tuckr1.
Max Tucker is a junior transfer student at UF. After obtaining his A.A. in Journalism from Santa Fe College in 2023, he chose further his education at Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. Max is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Journalism with a specialization in sports and media. He enjoys golfing and going to the beach with his friends in his free time.
