Florida State University
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50 free Florida State University trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Florida State University packs a lot of story into one Tallahassee campus. It has reinvented itself more than once since the nineteenth century, and its football Saturdays come with some of the most recognizable pageantry in college sports. This quiz covers the whole picture: Heisman winners and national title games, pre-game rituals and rivalry lore, campus landmarks and student traditions, the labs and professors behind major discoveries, and the actors, athletes and entrepreneurs who once walked the same sidewalks. It is written for Seminoles fans, students and alumni who want to test what they know, and for anyone hosting an FSU trivia night who needs questions with reliable answers.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Florida State is one of only two U.S. colleges whose students stage which kind of show?
A circus
A circus has run at Florida State since 1947: the Flying High Circus has no animal acts, and student performers rig the equipment, raise the tent and sew the costumes.
Q 02Which Florida State cornerback is the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series?
Deion Sanders
Deion Sanders won the Jim Thorpe Award at Florida State in 1988. A year later he hit a major-league home run and scored an NFL touchdown in the same week.
Q 03Which 1970s Hollywood leading man played halfback at Florida State before injuries ended his football career?
Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds earned his first start at right halfback in 1954. After he died in 2018, the team wore helmet decals styled like the Trans Am plate from Smokey and the Bandit.
Q 04Which Florida State quarterback won the 1993 Heisman Trophy but chose the NBA over the NFL?
Charlie Ward
Charlie Ward joined the basketball team just 15 days after winning the Heisman, then played 11 NBA seasons, mostly with the New York Knicks.
Q 05Which Seminole leader does a student rider portray before every Florida State home football game?
Osceola
Osceola's regalia is designed and approved by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and each student rider serves a two-year apprenticeship and must keep a 3.0 grade average.
Q 06Which 1970s campus craze is said to have first been spotted on Landis Green at Florida State University?
Streaking
Streaking is said to have begun on Landis Green, the lawn beside the main library, in years when student protest made the campus a hotbed of activism.
Q 07For 42 years, from 1905 until 1947, Florida State operated as what kind of institution?
A women's college
A women's college from 1905, the Florida State College for Women grew into the third-largest in the United States by 1933; men returned after World War II.
Q 08Which Major League Baseball team's fans adopted the tomahawk chop first seen at Florida State football games in 1984?
Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Braves fans took up the chop in 1991, when the team started winning; its organist had already been playing the tune before at-bats for a few seasons.
Q 09Which Florida State quarterback won the 2000 Heisman Trophy at age 28 after seven years in minor-league baseball?
Chris Weinke
Chris Weinke is the oldest Heisman winner; a Toronto Blue Jays draft pick, he returned to football and led the 1999 team to an unbeaten national title.
Q 10Police handcuffed which rival mascot in 1989 for trying to put out Florida State's flaming spear?
Sebastian the Ibis
Sebastian the Ibis, wearing a fireman's helmet and a yellow raincoat, sprayed an officer with a fire extinguisher before four policemen cuffed him; he was soon released.
Q 11What is the name of the Appaloosa horse that carries a spear-throwing rider onto Florida State's football field?
Renegade
Renegade is ridden bareback and made his debut in 1978 against Oklahoma State; the university calls horse and rider symbols, not mascots.
Q 12Which coach led Florida State football for 34 seasons and won national titles in 1993 and 1999?
Bobby Bowden
Bobby Bowden arrived from West Virginia in 1976 and, fittingly, beat West Virginia in his final game on New Year's Day 2010.
Q 13Which two colors, named in the title of Florida State's hymn, do Seminoles teams wear?
Garnet and gold
Garnet and gold are the official colors; the school's first football team, known as The Eleven and fielded from 1902 to 1904, wore gold uniforms.
Q 21Which Florida State redshirt freshman won the 2013 Heisman Trophy and later went first overall in the NFL draft?
Jameis Winston
Jameis Winston chose Florida State partly because he could also play for its baseball team; the Texas Rangers drafted him out of high school that same year.
Q 22The award for college football's best receiver is named for which Florida State star, later a Super Bowl MVP?
Fred Biletnikoff
Fred Biletnikoff was Florida State's first consensus All-American, then caught four passes for 79 yards to earn MVP honors as the Raiders won Super Bowl XI.
Q 23Florida State won its first football national title by beating which unbeaten team 18–16 in the Orange Bowl?
Nebraska
Q 14Florida State's football stadium, opened in 1950, is named for which man who was then university president?
Doak Campbell
Doak Campbell was president when the stadium opened with 15,000 seats at a cost of $250,000; later expansions lifted its capacity past 80,000.
Q 15Which conference did Florida State join in 1992 after four decades as a football independent?
ACC
The ACC won out even though the SEC also courted the Seminoles, who then took the league title in each of their first nine seasons.
Q 16Which longtime ESPN College GameDay analyst played football and baseball at Florida State in the 1950s?
Lee Corso
Lee Corso became famous for donning mascot heads on the show, making 431 headgear picks before he retired in 2025.
Q 17Florida State graduate Sara Blakely sold fax machines door-to-door before founding which apparel brand?
Spanx
Spanx grew out of two years of research funded with $5,000 of her savings, and she bought the trademark herself online for $150.
Q 18Which future rock frontman studied at Florida State in the early 1960s and was arrested at a Seminoles home game?
Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison was arrested in September 1963 for disturbing the peace and petty larceny while drunk at the stadium; he soon left for film school in California.
Q 19Florida State film school graduate Barry Jenkins directed which drama that won the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Moonlight
Moonlight was his first feature in eight years, and he made it with collaborators he met at Florida State, including his cinematographer, producer and editors.
Q 20Which Florida State women's team won national championships in 2014, 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2025?
Soccer
Soccer became a Florida State varsity sport only in 1995, and the team was playing in its first national final by 2007.
Nebraska got one last chance when a second was put back on the clock, but its 45-yard field goal try sailed wide left and the Seminoles survived.
Q 24Which future NFL star quarterbacked Virginia Tech against Florida State in the Sugar Bowl that decided the 1999 title?
Michael Vick
Michael Vick rallied the Hokies to a 29–28 lead after three quarters, but Florida State scored the last 18 points to win 46–29 and finish No. 1 from wire to wire.
Q 25Florida State's 2013 team rallied from 21–3 down to beat which SEC school in the last BCS title game?
Auburn
Auburn led 31–27 with 1:19 left, but Florida State needed only seven plays to score with 13 seconds to go, ending the SEC's run of seven straight titles.
Q 26Which coach guided Florida State to the 2013 national title before leaving for a $75 million deal at Texas A&M?
Jimbo Fisher
Jimbo Fisher had been the offensive coordinator and head coach-in-waiting, and his teams won 29 consecutive games from 2012 through 2014.
Q 27A run of last-second missed field goals known as Wide Right cost Florida State games against which rival?
Miami
Miami won five such games in 12 years, starting with a 34-yard miss in the final seconds of a No. 1 against No. 2 showdown in 1991.
Q 28Which name is given to LeRoy Butler's 1988 trick-play run that set up Florida State's late win at Clemson?
Puntrooskie
Puntrooskie was a fake punt on fourth down at Florida State's own 21 with the score tied: an up back took the snap and slipped the ball to Butler, who ran 78 yards.
Q 29After a big road win, Florida State football captains bring back what to bury in a campus cemetery?
A chunk of turf
A chunk of turf first came home in 1962, after a dean dared the team to bring back sod from between the hedges at Georgia; the Seminoles won 18–0.
Q 30Which Florida State linebacker became a Pro Football Hall of Famer after 14 seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
Derrick Brooks
Derrick Brooks was twice a consensus All-American, and his late interception sealed the Sugar Bowl rematch with Florida nicknamed the Fifth Quarter in the French Quarter.