NEW ORLEANS (October 6, 2022) – Missouri and Florida will meet for the 12th time in their history when they clash in Gainesville this Saturday (11 a.m. Central, SEC Network). This will be the teams' 11th meeting as SEC members. The only other meeting came in the 32nd annual Sugar Bowl and thus the Allstate Sugar Bowl is "turning back the clock" to January 1, 1966 when Charlie Brown and Missouri held off a furious comeback by Steve Spurrier and the Gators.
 
Full History Story – 1966 Sugar Bowl
 
The 1966 Sugar Bowl almost included the Mother of All Comebacks. It didn't quite make it, but it was a rousing display – a two-minute drill that lasted 15 minutes.
 
Down 17-0 at the half, 20-0 in the third quarter, quarterback Steve Spurrier and the Gators made the fourth quarter a sparkler. Scrambling away from relentless Tiger pressure, the junior completed six passes in six attempts, culminating with a 22-yard touchdown to Jack Harper. Coach Ray Graves sent in instructions to go for two points, but the pass was off target.
 
Following a Missouri fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Spurrier ran it in from two yards out, but Harper threw an incomplete halfback pass on the attempted two-point conversion.
 
After forcing a Missouri punt, the Gators mounted another long drive. On third down, Charlie Casey made a miraculous catch in the end zone after Tiger defender Gary Grossnickle had deflected Spurrier's pass. For the third consecutive time Florida's two-point attempt went astray. Given up for dead at the start of the fourth quarter, the Gators trailed just 20-18. But there was just 2:08 remaining and the Tigers ran out the clock.


 
"We figured," Spurrier recalled of Florida's late strategy, "we could only score three times in the last quarter.  What we had to do was keep Missouri from getting a touchdown.  But they might have gotten close enough for (another) field goal, which would have given them 23 points.  So, to win, we would need 24 points."
 
In the last period, Spurrier delivered three touchdowns in barely 11 minutes of play. He completed 16-of-23 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns, and scored another himself. To put it in perspective, the Sugar Bowl completion record for an entire game had been 17, set by Davey O'Brien in 1939.
 
Brown, Missouri's running back, had 23 carries for 121 yards in the game to make a strong argument for MVP honors, but Spurrier's fourth-quarter effort trumped the Tiger star. The Gator quarterback was named the game's Most Outstanding Player, the first and only time a player from the losing team earned the honor.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 100 Hall of Fame players, 51 Hall of Fame coaches and 20 Heisman Trophy winners in its 88-year history. The 89th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will feature top teams from the SEC and the Big 12, is scheduled to be played on December 31, 2022. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.2 billion into the local economy in the last decade.