The year is not easily found and proudly displayed at Doak Campbell Stadium. The head coach’s statue does not stand outside of the stadium although one of his assistant’s does. There were no national or conference championships to speak of. But this football season, marks the 50th anniversary of one of Florida State’s most important teams and the first squad to have football success on a national level.
Bill Peterson’s 1964 team hardly entered the year with large expectations. Florida State had finished just 4-5-1 the previous year and the Seminoles had not won more than four games in any season since 1958. In preseason polls, Florida State was nowhere to be found.
By season’s end however, Florida State had finished the season ranked for the first time. Among other firsts for FSU that season was defeating in-state rival Florida.
Florida State offensively in 1964 was led by the senior pass-catching combination of quarterback Steve Tensi and wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff. After failing to complete even half of his pass attempts in the prior two seasons, Tensi finished 1964 with a 60 percent rate, nearly 1,700 yards passing and 14 touchdowns.
Defensively, converted wide receiver Winfred Bailey had one of the better seasons ever for a Florida State defensive back at the time. Bailey recorded six interceptions which ranked in the top 10 nationally at season’s end.
Bailey and a potent Florida State defense opened the year with three consecutive shutouts over Miami, TCU and New Mexico State. After blowing past fifth-ranked Kentucky, FSU found itself in a dog fight on the road against Georgia.
The Bulldogs trailed for most of the game, but were able to take a 14-10 lead on a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. It didn’t take the Seminoles long to respond as Tensi found Biletnikoff for a 20-yard score with 6:21 remaining. The defense did the rest and Florida State left Athens with a 17-14 victory.
Florida State ascended into the top 10, but fell to Virginia Tech the following week, 20-11.
Florida State rebounded with its fourth shutout victory of the season, a 34-0 thrashing of Southern Mississippi before tying Houston 13-13. After an easy 28-6 victory over North Carolina State, the Seminoles would get the opportunity they had long sought — to defeat rival Florida.
The Gators had gotten the better of Florida State the previous year in Gainesville, shutting out the Seminoles 7-0. Florida State was 0-5-1 all-time against Florida.
With a 7-3 record, Florida came to Tallahassee ranked 14th in the nation. Florida State at 7-1-1 entered the day ranked 12th.
After a scoreless first quarter, Florida State drew first blood on a 55-yard pass from Tensi to Biletnikoff. A pair of Les Murdock field goals extended the lead to 13-0 as the Seminoles took a shutout into the fourth quarter.
Florida would draw to within six on its only score of the day with just over nine minutes to play, but Murdock’s third field goal proved to be more than enough to put the Gators away.
What used to be an all-girls school now reigned supreme in the state of Florida as the Seminoles disposed of the Gators, 16-7.
Florida State finished the regular season 8-1-1. After finishing with nearly 1,000 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns, Biletnikoff became just the second Seminole and first in 13 years to be named a consensus All-American.
In the 1965 Gator Bowl, Oklahoma proved to be no match for Florida State. Howard Ehler’s 69-yard interception return for a touchdown set the tone for Florida State while Tensi and the FSU passing attack did the rest.
Tensi finished the day with 303 yards passing and five touchdowns. Four of those scores went to Biletnikoff, who finished with 13 catches for 192 yards in his final game as a Seminole. Phil Spooner led the ground attack with 125 yards rushing as Florida State ran away from the Sooners, 36-19, for their second-ever bowl victory and first in 15 years.
With a school-record nine victories, Florida State finished 11th in the Coaches Poll.
Peterson would lead Florida State to five more winning seasons in the next six years before leaving Tallahassee. His 1964 team however, remains unquestionably his best.
As for Biletnikoff, the standout wide receiver would go on to have a Hall of Fame career in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders. Biletnikoff was named MVP of Super Bowl XI and today, the award annually given to college football’s best receiver is named in his honor.
Biletnikoff’s position coach that season was a man by the name of Bobby Bowden. Bowden would stay one more season at Florida State before spending 10 years as offensive coordinator and head coach at West Virginia.
Bowden would return to Tallahassee in 1976 where he spent the next 34 seasons as the head man at FSU, leading the Seminoles to 33 winning seasons, 14 consecutive top 5 finishes and two national championships.
While the 2014 season comes on the heels of Florida State’s third national championship and marks 15 years since the Seminoles went wire-to-wire to win the 1999 national title, it also represents the golden anniversary of one of the school’s most significant yet unheralded teams. Though Florida State has gone on to do bigger and better things over the last half century, it was Peterson’s 1964 squad that first put FSU football on the map.
