This season's Birmingham Bowl will officially mark the 41st bowl appearance by the Florida Gators. Their opponents are the Pirates of East Carolina University. The institution that is now ECU was originally chartered in 1907 as the East Carolina Teachers Training School. The first class was held in 1909 in Greenville. The school became a four-year college in 1920 and was renamed the East Carolina Teachers College. The teacher's college gradually expanded its programs, eventually renaming itself East Carolina College in 1951 after becoming a comprehensive college. ECC separated from the state university system in 1967 and changed its name again, this time to its modern moniker. It rejoined the state system just five year later, but kept the new designation. Currently, almost 22,000 undergrads and over 27,000 total students are enrolled at East Carolina. Purple and gold are the official school colors (although they usually appear as violet and yellow).
ECU's Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium is named after Greenville
tobacco tycoon James Skinner Ficklen and controversial
Orlando businessman Ron Dowdy. Wikimedia Commons
East Carolina football began in 1932, less than a year after the first male graduated from the college. The modern nickname was adopted quickly – ECTC being located in a region notorious for its historical association with piracy. The Pirates joined the North State Conference after spending their first 14 years as independents. ECC won their first conference title in 1953 as members of that conference. The Pirates departed that conference after the 1961 season and became an independent again. East Carolina joined the Southern Conference in 1965 and remained there until 1976. The Pirates won four conference championship during their tenure in the SoCon. ECU became independent again after 1976; they remained so until joining Conference USA in 1997. The Pirates won two C-USA titles before leaving for the American Athletic Conference in 2014. ECU plays home games on-campus at Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium. The stadium is designed to accommodate 50,000 spectators, although over 51,000 showed up to watch the Pirates take down the North Carolina Tar Heels in 2014.
Although occasionally the best team in their conference or their state, the Pirates have never been a program that could sustain major success. Only three times has ECU ended the season ranked (1983, 1991, 1995) and only once have they finished ranked in both major polls. The 1991 squad started their season with a loss to Illinois, but followed that with 11 straight wins (including victories over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome and NC State in the Peach Bowl). That team finished ranked ninth in both the Coaches and AP poll.
The Florida Gators and the East Carolina Pirates have played only once. That game, played in 1983, featured what were, at the time, probably the most talented teams ever fielded by each program. The Gators were 5-0-1 and were hosting the Pirates for Homecoming. The Pirates themselves had an impressive 5-1 record, having lost just once (and by a single point to FSU in Tallahassee). In front of a record-capacity crowd, the Gators ultimately triumphed with a 24-17 victory in a defensive, interception-plagued battle. The Gators would end the season 9-2-1 and ranked sixth in the country. The Pirates would finish 8-3, having lost just three times; each loss was on the road to a Florida powerhouse (Florida State, Florida, and Miami) and by no more than seven points. Their loss to Miami (played in the Orange Bowl) was by just five points to the eventual national champions. The Pirates ended 1983 ranked twentieth by the AP. The Gators would not risk scheduling the Pirates again until 2015. The Hurricanes would play the Pirates many times again, famously being upset by ECU in 1996 and 1999.
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