The Florida Board of Control selected Tigert as the third president of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida in 1928. He assumed leadership of the university during an extended period of economic crisis in the state of Florida. When the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Florida was already suffering from the after-effects of the 1920s land boom and bust, as well the devastating aftermath of two major hurricanes in 1926 and 1928.