Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame bigger, better

News

by Max Marbut

Staff Writer

If you haven’t visited the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame exhibit in the lobby of the Arena lately, the next time you do you’ll notice it has grown and includes many more items of memorabilia. When this year’s inductees are added there will be 66 bronze busts in the collection, 33 Gators and a like number of Bulldogs, plus more historical photographs and other artifacts detailing the history of the college football classic.

“We really hadn’t done any improvements since the Arena opened five years ago. It was time,” said Mike Bouda, sports manager for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.

All the items in the City’s collection are not currently on exhibit, he added. The display is divided with the University of Florida on one side of the display that stretches along the back wall of the lobby with the University of Georgia representatives and archives on the other side.

“We now have 14 historic helmets that were worn by the Gators over the years but Georgia only changed theirs twice. We’ll rotate the Florida helmets so we don’t inundate the display with the Gators,” said Bouda.

In addition to the new helmets, many historical photographs of the game and its players and coaches have been added. Some examples of very early college football equipment are also part of the new collection including leather helmets and the old “watermelon-style” pigskins. There are also three new flat-screen TVs that will be used to provide information about the exhibit and game week events as well as show video of each team’s season highlights.

“There is so much history and tradition that goes with this game after 87 years. It’s one of Jacksonville’s great annual events,” said Bouda. “We have to keep the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame up to date.”

The exhibit will open to the public from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on game day, Oct. 31, and it’s also open any time there’s an event at the Arena. That includes Thursday night’s Atlanta Hawks vs. Miami Heat NBA exhibition game, the “Star Wars in Concert” show Oct. 29 and the AC/DC concert Oct. 30.