In 1989, the Gators played on a newly christened “Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.” The change came after a donation from UF graduate and booster, Ben Hill Griffin Jr., who died the next year.

Little did he know, the contribution that put his name on the stadium before his death, that was made just months before a legend came to earn his namesake and breath life into the Gators’, and Gainesville’s, ground zero.

On Thursday, the University of Florida announced the full name would be “Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.”

It’s only appropriate to stamp “The Swamp” with the man who coined its nickname while using it as a playground to revolutionize the game on a local and national scale.

I spoke with the Head Ball Coach on a number of occasions, and his love for the Gators was always reciprocated by the orange and blue faithful and media alike.

In 2012, during a campaign in which his South Carolina program would post its second of three straight 11-win seasons, I was preparing to ask him a Florida-related question. That was right before Spurrier chuckled and told the media, “Boy, I’m gettin’ more Florida questions than South Carolina ones.”

With me being next in line to ask a question, I had to switch it up and ask him about his Gamecocks, lest I become the butt of one of Spurrier’s all-time zingers that would’ve rolled off his tongue just as freely as a pass in his Fun ‘n’ Gun offense.

Speaking of which, it was incredible to find that the Gators produced a 1,000-yard receiver in eight straight seasons from 1995 to 2002, the year following Spurrier’s departure from UF. The SEC school with the next-most receivers to hit that mark is Tennessee, which has eight total in its history.

If that doesn’t epitomize the Fun ‘n’ Gun, I don’t know what does.

The impact of the aerial assault contrived between that iconic visor, an offense that was so against the ground-heavy grain in the SEC at the time, could be seen with six SEC championships, seven SEC East titles and the Gators’ first ever national championship in 1996 led by the first Heisman Trophy winner not named Steve Spurrier.

Florida’s success came on the back of an unfathomable advantage in a place that fed a hungry program with all the momentum it needed to become an elite program.

Spurrier’s Swamp took on a persona of its own, and when he donned it with that name in 1992 and said “only Gators get out alive,” that almost turned out to be a literal statement.

During his 12 seasons there, Florida only lost five home games. All of those defeats came to ranked teams, and all but one came to a team ranked No. 6 or higher in the Associated Press Poll (two times to a No. 1 Florida State and once to a No. 5 Tennessee, No. 6 Auburn and No. 21 Alabama).

Here’s a look at Florida’s success at home under Spurrier compared to every other school in the nation that played Division I football over that entire span (1990-2001).

BEST HOME WIN PCT IN D-I FOOTBALL (1990-2001)

Only the Cornhuskers (.961) and Seminoles (.950) posted a higher winning percentage at home than the Gators did (.932) over that 12-season window.

Florida took down 18 ranked teams at The Swamp in that stretch, including nine ranked in the AP top 10. Overall, the Gators feasted on their opponents there, outscoring them by an average of 26.9 points per game.

Its transformation into one of the biggest death traps in the country was a product of a bigger change in identity.

Here’s a look at the Gators’ remarkable turnaround under the HBC.

FLORIDA PRE-SPURRIER AND DURING SPURRIER

A lot is made of Florida’s ascension to earn ultimate prizes in the form of SEC and national titles, but the Gators’ overall consistency under Spurrier is what put them on the map.

Almost instantly, Spurrier took a program that had never enjoyed a 10-win season into one that made it routine, doing so in nine of his 12 seasons.

Meanwhile, the Gators placed in the final AP Poll rankings in every one of those seasons during his time on the sidelines, which is two more than the school had enjoyed. And his six bowl victories nearly matched Florida’s prior total.

For Spurrier, who will debut on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot in 2017, his impact has been felt beyond those years and beyond Gainesville’s mecca.

But solidifying the legend’s place on that structure, in which he laid the foundation for one of the elite programs in the country, is the least the city could do.

Talal Elmasry

Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.