Florida Gator Gameday Traditions
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- This video shows the (American) football traditions at the University of Florida which includes the pregame Orange and Blue chant, Albert and Alberta the Aligator mascots as Mr Two Bits, the Gator Runout, as well as the We are the boys from Old Florida song at the end of the Third Quarter, an Alma Mater and fight song at the end of the game. I'll do my best to try and explain how most of our traditions were given to us.
First off, we've been playing football since 1906 and even earlier as a club sport. Florida Field wasn't built until the late 20's when Dr John Tygart, President of UF, formed the UAA (University Athletic Assn) which provided the funds through private donations to build the original stadium which comprised the lower sections of the east stands, north endzone, and west stands. Then came the west stands with a new press box, then the west stands, then the south endzone, then the north endzone, plus two more expansions and renovations of the sky boxes and press boxes. We tale pride in saying that not one federal, state, or local tax dollar was used in the building of this stadium.
Our colors and mascot:
they were given to us by a local General Store owner In the early part of the 20th century who wanted to sell college pennants. It's said that he visited the Michie Co when he visited his son at VMI in Virginia. He didn't want to sell what they already were making so they asked him if he wanted some custom made. He told them what our school name was but we had no colors or mascot at that time so his son suggested an aligator appear on the pennant. So he placed the order, and when the pennants came, the word Florida and the aligator were in orange and were on a blue pennant. That is the origin of our colors and mascot.
We are the Boys from Old Florida:
this song is traditionally sung at the end of the third quarter during (American) football games. The fans stand up and throw their arms over the shoulders of the person sitting on either side and sway from side to side while singing. Fans hold the word "togther" at the end for three seconds as well as holding their sway before continuing on with the rest of the song. According to our tradition, this song was written by two UF students, Robert Swanson and John Icenhour for their dance band in 1919. Unfortunately, other schools such as the University of Chicago, University of Nebraska, and the Public School System of Toledo, OH all have similar songs with similar lyrics. Regardless of who wrote it first, it's become part of our gameday tradition since the 1930's.
Mr Two Bits:
This was created by Professor George Edmunson in 1948. This was during the time that's known as the "Golden Error" at the University of Florida. Our teams were almost as bad if not worse than the University of Kentucky's football team is now, we just couldn't do anything right. So George said let's do the old two bits cheer everytime they screw something up and it grew from that point on. Professor George Edmunson, better known as Mr Two Bits, retired at the end of the 2008 season and handed down his now trademark yellow button up shirt, tan suit pants, and Gator neck tie to our mascot, Albert Aligator. George never got paid to do this and he always paid for his season tickets and parking pass. He never really sat in his seat as he would walk from section to section during the game doing his Two Bits cheer.
Florida Field's nickname, The Swamp:
That came in the early 90's when Florida coach and 1966 Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier had just started his career at Florida. It's said that he was looking for a nickname for the stadium. So someone in the athletic dept went digging through all the history of the stadium and school until they found a nite written by Dr John Tygart who was President of the school when the stadium was first being built. It said that the stadium will be built in a "swampy depression near the gym". He showed it to Steve and he liked it and added "Only GATORS get out alive" and that's where the nickname came from. The PA announcer has also been saying "Heeeeeerrrrrreee come the Gators!" when the team runs out of the locker room since the 30's or 40's as well.
Thank you. I miss it so much.
Awesome video. I graduated from Presbyterian and am a fan of theirs, but my first football memory was watching a Gator game around the mid 90s era where they just destroyed Tennessee and Spurrier kept pouring on points and they stuck with me all these years.
ur saving one freshman life at a time lol bless
What an absolutely incredible turn around from last season. We ended our regular season last year at 6-6 and this year we're 11-1 having beaten Texas A&M, South Carolina, LSU, and FSU. I think Will Muschamp deserves to be the NCAA coach of the year.
@Gators: The GatorNation Is Everywhere!
Greets from The Netherlands
@funchion15 it's ones of the best on campus stadiums in the nation. It's also been documented as one of, if not the, loudest college football stadiums in the US. I can't wait to see what we do next year with the recruiting class we have coming in.
Love it!
Coodles for knowing all of the lyrics. :') I thoroughly miss the Swamp.
@LilyPLil Absolutely, the UF marching band is called "The Pride of the Sunshine"
I was at the same game on the other side! Hope I get to go to another one this season!
@SirMichael141 We shure are. I think we need to start calling them the comeback kids or the second half team. I think this is the fourth game we've come from a halftime deficit to win.
we're certainly doing good so far this year :)
@SirMichael141 I just hope we're better than we were last season. Atleast we finished the season above five hundred by beating the Buckeyes in the Gator Bowl.
I live in nebraska and i get a lot of crap for liken the gators. CHOMP GO GATORS
I wouldn’t expect people in Nebraska to be big Gator Haters. Though I could see them giving you a hard time for the championship game they smeared us
@angelpearl2471 We're going to have to get along without Jeff Driskell for the rest of the year. He got a broken leg during last weeks Tennessee game. Fortunately, our back up seems to be doing pretty good. He'll have two games, at Kentucky and home for Arkansas, to get up to speed. After that, we head into "Death Valley" to play LSU.
Let's just hope he can tame driskell because what i saw at the game against toledo he's a little to big for his britches.. Muschamp isn't a bad coach though :)