FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
Alachua County · North Florida & First Coast
The largest stadium in Florida, seating 88,548, and the place Gatorade was invented.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium has stood on the University of Florida campus since 1930 and seats 88,548 people, which makes it the largest stadium in the state. It is home to Florida Gators football. The name everybody uses is The Swamp, and that came from coach Steve Spurrier in the early 1990s: a swamp is where gators live, he said, and his team felt comfortable there while he hoped opponents would feel tentative. The last major rebuilding was finished in 2003. Gatorade came out of this place. Dr. Robert Cade led a team at the University of Florida College of Medicine that studied what the heat was doing to players, found electrolyte depletion, low blood sugar and reduced blood volume, and mixed a drink to answer it. It was first used in a Gator win in October 1965. The county's own visitor guide suggests coming by on an ordinary day rather than only on a game day, walking the place and running the stairs, which is the honest way to see it if you are moving to Gainesville and want to understand what fall Saturdays do to this town
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