page_title: History of the University of Florida
section_title: Murphree era
hierarchical_section_title: History of the University of Florida / Reorganization, reform, depression and war / Murphree era
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue of Albert A. Murphree in Peabody Courtyard, University of Florida campus, Gainesville, Florida, United States.
context_page_description: The history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida originated as several distinct institutions that were consolidated to create a single state-supported university by the Buckman Act of 1905. The earliest of these was the East Florida Seminary, one of two seminaries of higher learning established by the Florida Legislature. The East Florida Seminary opened in 1853, becoming the first state-supported institution of higher learning in the state of Florida; the University of Florida traces its founding date to that year.
  The East Florida Seminary operated in Ocala until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. It closed for the duration of the war, and reopened in Gainesville in 1866, absorbing the Gainesville Academy. The other primary predecessor to the University of Florida was the Florida Agricultural College, established at Lake City in 1884 by Jordan Probst. Florida Agricultural College became the first land-grant college in the state, and the small college emphasized the scientific training of agricultural and mechanical specialists.
context_section_description: The fledgling school's name was simplified to the University of Florida in 1909, the same year that Albert A. Murphree was appointed to be its second president. Murphree had previously served as the president of Florida State College and had led its transformation into the Florida State College for Women. During his 18 years as UF's president, Murphree oversaw the establishment of many of its constituent colleges and schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Law, the College of Agriculture, the College of Engineering, the College of Education, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Architecture, and the College of Commerce and Journalism along with the university's graduate program. Student enrollment increased from just under 200 when Murphree arrived in 1909 to over 2,000 when he unexpectedly died in 1927.
  The university's athletic teams did not initially have a mascot. This changed in 1911, when a local vendor designed and sold school pennants and other regalia featuring an alligator. The school colors of orange and blue, also chosen about the same time, are believed to be a combination of the blue and white school colors of the University of Florida at Lake City and the orange and black school colors of the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, the university's two primary predecessors.
  In 1924, the Florida Legislature permitted women of a "mature age" (at least 21 years old) who had completed sixty semester hours from a "reputable educational institution" would be allowed to enroll during regular semesters at the university in programs that were unavailable at Florida State College for Women.  Before this, only the summer semester was coeducational, to accommodate teachers.  Lassie Goodbread-Black from Lake City became the first woman to enroll at the University of Florida, at the College of Agriculture in 1925. However, the percentage of women students in Gainesville remained quite low until after World War II.
caption: Campus statue of Albert A. Murphree, the second president of the University of Florida (1909–1927).  Murphree organized many of the university's constituent colleges and schools.
exif: {}