The Georgia-Florida football game is set to revive its “Cocktail” nickname.

There was a press conference in Jacksonville this week to discuss the Georgia-Florida football game.

Or is it Florida-Georgia?

In any case, it was interesting that the mayor and other city officials never used the game’s most popular and permanent name.

Can you say “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party?”

Not without the gaze of the people who manage the extravaganza on the banks of the St. Johns River. Like liquor during Prohibition, authorities banned the name, which is synonymous with the Georgia-Florida football game.

They believed it conjured visions of drunkenness, debauchery and Ron Zook in a beer helmet.

And so it was, although there is no evidence that Zucker ever hit pre-game Bud Lights at the Palatka Gator Club party.

They drank a lot and drank. So in order to clean up the image and avoid the implication that they condone any kind of mayhem, in 1988 the city of Jacksonville stopped using the alcohol-infused name.

Schools dropped the title in 2006. They settled with the SEC and asked CBS to do the same. No longer will Vern Lundqvist greet viewers with the words, “Welcome to the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party.”

It’s time to welcome him back.

A lot has changed in the last 20 years. Namely, Jacksonville and two universities are now involved in drinking.

Basically, they’re wagging their finger with one hand while serving you a $9 Dos Equis with the other.

Florida began selling alcohol during games in 2016. All SEC schools eventually followed, though Auburn and Georgia initially sold alcohol only in premium lounges.

They are both joined the party this year Beer is now available to every fan old enough to drink at Sanford Stadium.

The last shred of high morality was lost. Or, more precisely, sold.

According to forecasts, this year Georgia will earn about 1.4 million dollars from the sale of alcohol. That will pay for about two high quality receivers and a decent halfback these days.

Between the NIL, the transfer portal, and the Atlantic Coast Conference expanding to California, college traditions are dying out like $3 pitchers of beer. “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” has been around since an Army kid (Pete Dawkins) won the Heisman.

Bill Castelz, sports editor of the Florida Times-Union, was walking through the Gator Bowl parking lot in 1958 and saw a drunk offering a drink to a policeman. He wrote a description of five words, and it quickly became the name of the brand.

And why not? Good rivalry names are hard to come by. This one was spot on, concise and so on point.

Many others were offered as replacements. Showdown River City. Gunfight in Saint John. War for oars.

The latter is named after the cup that the winning school receives. It’s a 12-foot paddle carved from a 1,000-year-old oak tree in the Okefenokee Swamp.

I doubt anyone outside the swamp knows it exists, while every football fan knows about the world’s biggest outdoor cocktail party.

It’s a nickname, not an endorsement of debauchery. No one thinks that the “Holy War” between Utah and BYU inspires fans to pick up their swords and go on a crusade against the infidels.

However, I am concerned about promoting the party’s image. This is not 1958. If The Andy Griffith Show were filmed today, town drunk Otis would be cut from the script.

Real cases broke out in the mid-80s. Fans stormed the field two years in a row to celebrate.

Drunk student of UF died in a garage in 2004. A year later, he was a student beaten to death after leaving a bar downtown.

As tragic as these incidents were, would the name of the game “The St. John’s Shootout”?

If the authorities really want to curb such dangers, here is a proposal:

Stop selling alcohol to fans.

Since that won’t happen, here’s another suggestion. After decades on CBS, this is the first year ABC has televised the game.

Let Rece Davis welcome America back to “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.” Let the fans say it without looking at it officially.

Otherwise, it looks like you’re throwing the world’s biggest hypocrisy party.

David Whitley is a sports columnist for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @DavidEWhitley