page_title: 1928 Florida Gators football team
section_title: Backfield
hierarchical_section_title: 1928 Florida Gators football team / Personnel / Varsity players / Backfield
caption_attribution_description: Florida Gators backfield. Left to right: Goof Bowyer, Tommy Owens, Rainey Cawthon, Clyde Crabtree, Royce Goodbread, Carl Brumbaugh, Red Bethea, Wilbur James, Red McEwan, John Allen, Ed Sauls, and Broward McClellan.
context_page_description: The 1928 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida in the sport of American football during the 1928 Southern Conference football season. The season was future Hall-of-Famer Charlie Bachman's first of five as the team's head coach. The Gators finished 8–1 overall, and 6–1 in the Southern Conference, placing third of twenty-three teams in the conference, behind the national champion Georgia Tech Golden Tornado, and the Tennessee Volunteers.
  The Gators led the nation in scoring with 336 points, and were remembered by many sports commentators as the best Florida football team until at least the 1960s. The large scores were mostly due to its "Phantom Four" backfield which included: quarterback Clyde Crabtree, halfbacks Carl Brumbaugh and Royce Goodbread, and fullback Rainey Cawthon. Other backs who were key contributors included: captain Goof Bowyer, sophomore halfback Lee Roy "Red" Bethea, alternate-captain and halfback Tommy Owens, and fullback Ed Sauls. One account reads: "There were twelve backs on the squad. Six of them can do the hundred in 10.1 seconds. Eight of them are fine punters and ten of them are great passers.
caption: The Gator backfield.
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