The Georgia-Florida game - played annually in Jacksonville, Fla. - was once famously known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
Georgia and 14th-ranked Florida will meet at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Jacksonville. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
On Monday, shirts dubbing the game the “River City Showdown” emerged on Twitter.
Fans did not embrace the change:
What the heck is this crap? River city showdown?? @RadiNabulsi @Ludakit pic.twitter.com/YCugUMe5as
— Eric Kittrell (@erickittrell) October 23, 2016
Stop trying to make this a thing, schools. The game already has an excellent name. It's OK to acknowledge that people enjoy a cocktail. https://t.co/Q0ZUdAIfo9
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) October 24, 2016
The "Cocktail Party" nickname was popularly used - including by the host city of Jacksonville - beginning in the 1950s. The city dropped the moniker in 1988, following a series of alcohol-fueled outbursts.
In 2006, the schools asked CBS to stop using the name in its broadcasts of the game. They largely still do. The game is generally called the "Florida–Georgia game," or "Georgia–Florida game," depending on the host year.
This isn’t the first time this year an iconic rivalry has attempted to rebrand. The 100-year-old Texas-Oklahoma game, known as the "Red River Shootout," rebranded as the "Red River Showdown."
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