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 Mar fullback Rick Casares (20) goes around end for a sizeable gain in the Gator Bowl.
 through two and a half seasons and were champions of the Orange Bowl two
 years ago and titlists in the Sugar Bowl last year.
 THE FIGHTING GATORS
 A member of the strong 12-team Southeastern Conference loop, Florida's
 Fighting Gators turned in the finest overall athletic record of any team in the
 loop during 1952-53 and captured two Southeastern Conference championships
 en route. In SEC competition-in all sports-Florida won 40 contests and lost
 only 14 last year for an amazing Conference winning percentage of .741.
 Louisianna State University, with a .689 percentage, was well back in second
 place.
 Last year was the finest year of overall athletic competition in the Gators'
 sports history. In eight intercollegiate sports, Florida won 69, lost 23 and
 tied two games for a .750 percentage.
 It was a year of championships and near championships. The Gators won
the Gator Bowl basketball championship and the Gator Bowl football title;
they captured the Southeastern Conference swimming pennant and the South-
eastern Conference track and field championship; they won the Florida Inter-
collegiate Golf title and the Florida AAU golf and swimming titles; the
golfers finished second in the Southeastern Conference links tournament; the
basketball, baseball, cross country, and tennis teams all won thirds in SEC
standings.
 In short, the one-time doormat of the Southeastern Conference has been
moved into the living room trophy case. The Gator coaches have given much
of the credit to a fine University of Florida student body spirit.
 "The student body," says Athletic Director and Head Coach Bob Wood-
ruff, "is the twelfth man on our football team, the sixth man on the
basketball court and the tenth man on the baseball diamond. Both individually
and as a group, their spirit has helped our teams far more than any one member
of the student body realizes."
 Football still is the big interest-getter at Florida as at other institutions
throughout the land, but last year saw a remarkable surge of student interest
in the total athletic program. This fall as the Gators enter their fourth season
under ringmaster Woodruff, they face a colorful array of outstanding oppon-
ents that will send them against American collegiate football at its best.
 The season opens with three successive gridiron backbreakers against Rice,
Georgia Tech and Kentucky. Then the Gators are at home in Gainesville
against Stetson and in Jacksonville against Citadel before they plunge into
the homestretch grind that takes them against L. S. U. (at a colorful Home-