It's been an awkward 40 years, but UF is finally embracing the 1984 Florida football team

So you think things are a little crazy with Florida football as it heads into Saturday’s opener?

Three straight losing seasons. Miami is coming to town. Billy Napier’s future seemingly dangling with every play call.

That’s nothing compared to what was happening 40 years ago.

“There was so much hanging over that team,” Billy Hinson said. “The clouds.”

NCAA investigators were hovering. Sanctions were on the way. Charley Pell's future really was dangling with every freshly turned infraction.

It all led to Pell’s firing, a storybook season, the first SEC championship in school history, the first SEC championship to ever be vacated and a bitter taste that has never gone away.

But after 40 years, a big cloud is lifting. The 1984 team will get the red-carpet treatment at this year’s Homecoming game.

It will be the first official welcoming of the team that’s trudged through time with a scarlet “C” on its forehead.

Cheaters.

There’s so much more to the story than that. I’d venture that fans have spent about 2.8 billion hours debating the legacy of that team. But there were plenty of victims who did not deserve their fates.

"The kids got punished. We got punished," said Lomas Brown, who joined Hinson on the "Great Wall of Florida. "It wasn't fair. We went out there on the field and did everything we could to bring the first SEC championship to the University of Florida."

I’m not going to relitigate the NCAA vs. University of Florida. And yes, what went on then wouldn’t amount to a jaywalking ticket in today’s NIL world.

I’m just glad that the defrocked team will finally be able to take a belated victory lap. Those players deserve it. And I hope it helps close some old wounds.

“A lot of it was the NCAA,” Hinson said. “And frankly, it was a political situation with the UAA, because they kind of erased this team like it never happened. And you can’t do that, that’s history.”

To be fair, the University Athletic Association has been in an awkward spot. It knows the Biblical football achievement of 40 falls ago. How the lion laid down with the lamb and Florida won its first SEC crown.

Pell shook UF out of its “Wait ‘Till Next Year” rut and set the foundation for Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. The team at the center of it all deserved a lot of love, but there was no getting around those messy details.

UF put up “ First in the SEC ” signs for the 1984, 1985 and 1990 teams on the south end zone façade. All those teams were denied SEC titles they won on the field.

Those signs were removed about 15 years ago as Florida racked up championships nobody could take away. The old players were happy about the new success, but they felt they were getting airbrushed out of existence.

"We love the University of Florida," Brown said. "We just want the school to love us the way we love it."

There was one lovefest, at least. On the glide path home from Lexington after beating Kentucky to clinch the SEC title, the plane took two low passes over Florida Field.

The pilot wanted players seated on both sides of the aisle to see the 50,000 or so fans who’d gathered to celebrate. The team landed and took buses to the stadium to join the fun.

“It was probably the only recognition we ever had,” Hinson said.

Then came the probation news, the sanctions, the bowl ban, the SEC presidents voting to strip the title and the hypersensitivity at UF to avoid the slightest appearance of impropriety.

For instance, players were traditionally given their helmets after their senior seasons. It was technically against the rules, but nobody thought twice about doing it.

They did in 1984.

“That’s how silly it got,” Hinson said. “You add that to everything else, and it increased the bitterness. Some players just checked out.”

What changed?

Alonzo Johnson, a defensive dynamo on that team, died in January of an undisclosed medical condition. Almost nobody knew about it or what had become of Johnson.

On the drive back from the funeral in Panama City, Hinson decided it was past time to get the old gang reconnected. The death of teammate Jeff Zimmerman a few weeks later reinforced the urgency.

A core of former players started calling around. They got together with the UAA and found a lot of common ground. You can't erase the past, but you can make peace with it.

"The sad part is some of us are no longer here to get our roses," Brown said.

Forty is a nice, round number. So this year’s Homecoming Weekend will also be a 40th Anniversary Weekend.

The players will be introduced before the Kentucky game. According to the SEC, the 1984 team can’t be considered a champion.

The players hope the fans see it differently.

“Hey, what about us?” Hinson mused. “We were the first.”

Maybe they’ll even give him his old helmet to keep.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: It's been an awkward 40 years, but UF is finally embracing the 1984 Florida football team