I have been a Florida Gator since I enrolled at the University of Florida back in 1965. Once you become a student, you become a lifelong member of the ‘Gator Nation’—- and proud of it, I might add!
Well, the last 12 years have been a real ‘high’ for this Gator, since the Gator Football team has won three national championships (1996, 2006, 2008) and is set to do it again this year! I never would have believed it possible, but screaming during today’s televised games instantly brings back those Saturday afternoons in Gainesville, when it was sweltering in the stands, but we didn’t care because we were screaming for our ‘boys’ led by then star quarterback Steve Spurrier (now Head Coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks).
Florida achieved its first consistent success in the 1960s, when Ray Graves coached the team to three nine-win seasons and a total of seventy victories, a Florida record that stood for twenty-seven years. Graves led his Gators to a series of “firsts,” including the Gators’ first 9-win season in 1960, and their first Sugar Bowl appearance on New Year’s Day 1966. Graves fielded one of his best teams in 1966 (my sophomore year!), led by the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Spurrier. That 1966 team finished 9–2 and defeated Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl, the team’s first major bowl win, and were named the de-facto #1 College Football Team of the year. It was thrilling!
Somehow it is even more exciting today. Maybe that’s because my daughter is a freshman there this year and she has caught the ‘bug’. I hear the excitement in her voice, and I get downright torqued when she calls me on her celphone from the stadium and I can hear everyone screaming over the phone!
I think that’s the beauty and thrill of college football. We all seem somehow more emotional and engaged than we do for NFL teams. The excitement and potential for game-changing plays seems ever present, and when they unfold, our reactions are hyperbolic!
Our Saturdays have become something of a ritual: we gather at my sister and brother-in-law’s house (their daughter is a Gator too), break out the chicken wings and beer and scream our heads off all during the game. My wife, who was never a Gator, seems more excited than me at times! I know that after Florida wins ( and they have done it now 18 times in a row without losing!) I feel like my weekend is complete, and I can relax and enjoy my Sunday!
So hurrah for Gator College Football, and those excruciating moments when all seems lost—which turn into moments of pure bliss and joy when a spectacular catch is made by Riley Cooper at the hands of Tim Tebow, or when Tebow plows his way over the goal line for his umpteenth time!
Go Gators!!! Gator Memorabilia Tebow jersey
Oklahoma stuff (what is a Sooner anyway?)
Other not as good teams memorabilia!
By Larry Lancit
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