Florida football: ‘The Swamp’ is the most intimidating in college football
By Thomas Brady
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, affectionately known as ‘The Swamp’ for obvious reasons, has been home to Florida football for nearly 90 years.
Ben Hill Griffin was a Florida native and university alumnus, going on to be a successful businessman and politician. The Florida football stadium named in his honor started with a max capacity of just 21,000 when it was built in 1930.
It’s been expanded again and again to reach the 91,000 capacity it has today and is now the 12th largest stadium in college ball and the 18th largest stadium in the world.
Most teams would struggle to create an atmosphere in a stadium that big, but it’s never been a problem for the Gators. So is the Swamp the most intimidating place to play football in the country?
Well, combine the thousands of die-hard Gator fans with the average Florida temperature of 80 to 90 degrees and it’s not a place opposing teams will enjoy playing at.
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Many will argue that places like Kyle Field (Texas A&M), the Razorback Stadium (Arkansas) and Arrowhead Stadium (KC Chiefs) are just as loud, if not louder. Which is true.
But as for being intimidated, the Gators have been able to combine a loud atmosphere, crazy fans AND formidable teams on the field for years which for me, makes the Swamp the most intimidating.
Names like Danny Wuerffel, Steve Spurrier and Emmitt Smith to more recently Tim Tebow, Lorenzo Spikes, Percy Harvin and Joe Haden have all graced the hallowed turf at Ben Hill Griffin in the blue and orange.
The list of incredible Florida football players contributing to the history of the stadium is never-ending and nowhere creates a football player quite like UF.
Here’s an example. Florida football faithful have taken Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” and made it a 91,000-strong anthem every home game:
It’s well known that most teams raise their game when coming to play at The Swamp but Florida football fans create an atmosphere like no other and back their team to the very last second.
And it shows – Florida has won 113 and lost just 13 games at the Ben Hill since 1990 with a win percentage of .894. Now if that doesn’t show how hard it is to play the Gators in Gainesville, I don’t know what does!
Next. Gator underclassmen who have made the biggest impact thus far. dark
Is your team’s stadium more intimidating than the Swamp? Let us know!