User talk:Rgessner

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Welcome!

Hello, Rgessner, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! Aboutmovies (talk) 08:46, 14 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Auburn–Florida football rivalry

Hi, Rgessner. I just reverted your changes regarding the 1904 football game between API and East Florida Seminary. Why? Because it never happened. API did NOT play East Florida Seminary in 1904 or any other year. In 1904, API did play the old University of Florida at Lake City (previously known until 1903 as Florida Agricultural College), however. The 1904 game between API and FAC/UFLC was not a scrimmage or "practice game"; it was as real as games got in 1904, but it was not played between API and EFS or API and the modern University of Florida. (For background, please read the relevant sections of the Andrew Sledd article and its footnote 36.) The history is tortured, but let me give you the short version. Prior to 1903, the old Florida State College in Tallahassee was legally the "University of Florida," but rarely, if ever, used the title. Meanwhile, Florida Agricultural College was founded in Lake City in 1884 as the state's land-grant college. The 1903 legislature, in yet another oddly conceived move for the state's higher education "system," gave the "University of Florida" title to FAC, which FAC actively used until FAC/UFLC was legally abolished by the Buckman Act in 1905. And, yes, the Buckman Act actually uses the word "abolish."

The modern University of Florida was created by the Florida Legislature's passage of the Buckman Act in 1905. The Act did not just merge the four predecessor institutions (Florida Agricultural College/University of Florida at Lake City, East Florida Seminary, St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School, and the South Florida Military College), it legally disbanded them, their assets reverted to the state, and the legislature created an entirely new institution in their place: the "University of the State of Florida." The 1905 University of the State of Florida is the modern University of Florida, and not a predecessor institution. The new university opened its new campus in Gainesville in 1906, with a new name, a new governing body, mostly new students, a new alma mater, new school colors, and, for good measure, a different football coach. It used 1905 as its founding date until the 1930s, when a new university president petitioned the state attorney general to use EFS' 1853 founding date, as UF's oldest predecessor institution. Strangely, the first football coach of the new University of the State of Florida (Jack Forsythe) had been the last football coach of the old Florida State College.

Neither AU nor API recognizes the 1904 game—and with good reason. Notwithstanding the common name, the "University of Florida" in Lake City in 1904 is a legally and organizationally different entity from the "University of the State of Florida" founded in 1905, and whose name was shortened to the "University of Florida" in 1909. Yes, the history is confusing, and it gets even more so when the Buckman Act's creation of the Florida Female College (the 1905 name of the future Florida State University) is considered. But the historical fact is that EFS never played API in any sport, but weirdly, did play FAC on at least one occasion. The old Florida State College also played EFS and FAC/UFLC, and the modern Florida State University also does not recognize any of the pre-1905 athletic records of Florida State College, either. None of this can be adequately explained in less than a 1,000 words, and since neither AU nor UF recognize the 1904 game as having been played between AU and UF, it's really pointless to even raise the pre-1905 "pre-history." The fact that the AU athletic department does not claim the 1904 game as the first game in the series speaks volumes. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 22:57, 18 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Auburn football seasons

Rgessner, thanks for your recent work on the Auburn football season articles. Check out Wikipedia:WikiProject College football, where you'll find a lot of resources for working on college football topics and a place to discuss matters with other editors working on similar stuff. Also, I want to point out a few things about style and format in the season article pages.

The subject of the article should be clearly stated and bolded in the lead section.
All scores and records should be punctuated with endashes, not hyphens; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Dashes
If a relevant standings template (e.g. Template:1972 SEC football standings) exists, it should be included in the article.
Above the schedule tables, there's no need for a title like "Auburn Tigers - 1970 Season". It's superfluous.
In the schedule tables, make use of Template:Cfb link for linking to opponents. There's also no need to wikilink stadiums and sites after their first appearance in the table. Watch the formatting of the sites. They should link to full article name of the city, but display only the state code. Also, dates should be written out, not displayed in numeric/dash/slash format. See 1949 Michigan Wolverines football team for good an example on those items.
Watch capitalization in section headings (e.g. "Awards and honors", not "Awards and Honors"). Also section headings should generally not be wikilinked as you have in a few places in the 1970 article.
Go easy on the navboxes. An article like 1970 Auburn Tigers football team should be okay with just Template:Auburn Tigers football season navbox. The program summary and bowl game navboxes are overkill there.
Check to make sure you have the right categories. I've fixed these for the new Auburn articles you created.
New college football articles should have their talk page tagged with the WikiProject College football banner: Template:WikiProject College football.

Thanks again and let me know if you have any questions. And keep up the good work. Jweiss11 (talk) 17:28, 24 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]