it claimed unofficial state championships in each of those years while playing a limited schedule against in-state private and public schools. With passage of the Buckman Act in 1905, the Florida Legislature completely reorganized the state's university system. Florida State College became Florida State College for Women, ending its football program. Four other state-supported schools (including the East Florida Seminary and Florida Agricultural College) were consolidated to establish the new University of Florida (UF), a school for men in Gainesville. Florida State College's last football coach, Jack Forsythe, was hired to lead the new school's football program, which began play in 1906. UF's sports teams took on the nickname "Gators" in 1911, and the school was a founding member of the Southeastern Conference when it was established in 1932. The Florida Legislature reorganized the state's university system again in 1947 to accommodate the post-World War II surge in college enrollment. Both the University of Florida and Florida State College for Women became coeducational, and the Tallahassee institution changed its name to "Florida State University" (FSU). FSU re-established its football program in 1947, and it soon became a founding member of the non-scholarship Dixie Conference. In 1951, FSU left the Dixie Conference, began offering football scholarships, and scheduled games against major college programs as an independent, at which point FSU officials and supporters began pushing for games against the Gators. Starting the series The University of Florida administration, however, was reluctant to treat Florida State University as an equal, less for reasons of intercollegiate sports rivalry than for reasons of limited state funding for higher education and the perception that Florida State's demands for a greater share of those funds might undercut the University of Florida's role as the state's historic flagship university. As the impasse dragged on, a bill was proposed in the Florida Legislature in 1955 which would have mandated that the two schools compete against each other in football and other sports. While the bill was voted down, Florida Governor LeRoy Collins personally requested to University of Florida president J. Wayne Reitz that he take the lead in starting a yearly football series between the two state universities. Reitz agreed, and the schools negotiated a contract that began their football series in 1958, the first available opening on the Gators' non-conference schedule. One of the stipulations in the first contract was that all games be played in the