U.F. Gators Celebration

[marlfox_21]

Well, this wasn't much of a trip, considering that all that I did was drive across town, but on Saturday, me and a bunch of friends went to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to attend the University of Florida GATORS championship celebration in Gainesville Florida. It was a stadium just packed jam full of Gator Nation, and I kind of had a feeling of misplacement being from Ohio and all. But hey, I am also a U.F. Grad...So that makes it legal, right. RIGHT? I feel bad for Ohio State, but this celebration was great. We were seated right next to the field at about the 20 yard line, and they had all of the games stats and the final score on all of the scoreboards. I think that the neatest thing about it was the chanting with the crowds, with half of the stadium yelling BLUE! and then the other half ORANGE! And the chants of It's so great...To be a Gator! I also enjoyed the antics brought about by the teams mascots Albert the Alligator and Alberta the Alligator.

Coach Urban Meyer gave a speech, while showing off the trophy, and giving a briefing about his 1st trip to Gainesville years ago, in which he apparantly recieved a parking ticket. We also sat right next to the Cheerleaders and Marching band, so we were actually in several camera shots on the Sun Sports network. After they presented the team's seniors, and highlights, during which the crowd went nuts, they continued a tradition started in 1996, in which they read off the entire seasons schedule one city at a time so that the crowd could chant the words "GATOR BAIT!" following each name. Honestly, Ohio States name gave a huge long chant. Which agian, kinda made me feel bad. But then again, the chance to go to a celebration like this does not come around every day. And to end the celebration the tarps were dropped on the stadium unveiling the 2006 championship which is now painted below the main scoreboard.

m.f.

[Gordon Bombay]

Cool trip man, that must have been fun, dont feel sorry for Ohio State at all. The better team clearly won and I was very happy to see Florida completely pummel them.

[Jasper]

Go Gators! Even though i am not a big Gator fan i am not that much more of an Ohio State fan and i was happy to see Troy Smith get shut down and see Tim Tebow get some touchdowns and Bowl Game experience. He is definately going to be a star player next year. As for the celebration it sounds like it was a heck of a celebration. I think it is pretty cool how they yell out Gator Bait. A friend of mine that attends Florida and is on their football teams practice squad has X-Box live and his gamertag is respectively Gatorbait2k3. Another one of my friends is Gatornation. I have to give some big ups to Florida in their win;but i doubt there will be a repeat in basketball or football.