Gators in Georgia … who let ’em in?
(Jacksonville.com)
When a lot of people think of Florida Gators fans, images of guys sporting mullets and wearing jorts and women with skin like leather come to mind, and I know there are folks who fit that stereotype.
But that’s not how I’d describe the many, many University of Florida grads I’ve had to work with and have come to know over the years.
It certainly doesn’t describe my next door neighbor, whom my family fondly refers to as “Gator.” He’s a really nice guy with a lovely wife and a cute baby boy who I teasingly threaten to teach to say “Go Dogs!” Surprisingly, my neighbor just laughs and says if his son can attend UGA for free on the HOPE scholarship, then a Bulldog he’ll be.
Quite a statement for a guy who flies his orange and blue UF flag all year round.
Actually, many Florida grads I’ve known aren’t that different from UGA grads on the surface. They’re intelligent and hardworking enough to have gotten into a big state university. And they love SEC football.
The main difference between my neighbor and most Florida grads is the casual arrogance with which they view the world, as if matriculation in Gainesville puts them on a level above folks who’ve gone to school in, say, Athens, Tuscaloosa or Knoxville.
The funny thing is, they’ve always had this arrogance, even during the years when they really didn’t really have anything to be arrogant about. Let’s face it, before Steve Spurrier went back home to rescue the program, the most notable thing to come out of Gainesville involving college football was Gatorade. Despite all the talent that a campus in the Sunshine State could draw, they never quite got it done. The ability of great Gator teams to choke became something of an SEC joke.
That didn’t make the Florida grads I had to deal with any less arrogant. It just made them prime suckers for gridiron bets. Most years after I came to work at the AJC in 1974 I’d be approached by various Gators in the office who wanted to show their Gator pride by betting a six-pack of Heineken or something along those lines on the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville. With Vince Dooley as coach at Georgia, it was more often than not a safe bet. The Dogs were 13-3 against the Gators in those years, including winning six straight from 1978 through ’83.
I remember 1980 was the year I really did well. One Gator wanted to double the bet and a couple of others got in on it, too. I wound up with several six-packs (and then won a fifth of Black Jack off an Auburn grad the next week). Since I don’t drink much, the chief beneficiaries were the folks attending the Christmas party my wife and I threw.
And yet, still there was that arrogance, that attitude that somehow Florida was better than the rest of the conference, even if the record book didn’t reflect it. After all, the Gators didn’t win an SEC championship in football until 1984, and that was almost immediately vacated by the conference because of all the Charley Pell infractions that got the school on probation. That also made them ineligible for the SEC title again in 1985. Ditto 1990, when Spurrier’s first team still faced the Galen Hall probation problem.
Finally, in 1991 came the school’s first real SEC championship.
I thought I knew Gator arrogance before, but in the Spurrier era it grew exponentially. It was as if SEC football had not existed prior to 1990. It reminded me of the nouveau riche putting on airs. As if alligator wasn’t derived from the Spanish word for “lizard.”
And while that attitude tapered off just a tad during the Zook years, when Gator fans were apt to make bitter jokes about their own coach, it shot into the stratosphere with the arrival of Urban Meyer and the two BCS championships Tim Tebow has won him.
I have a confession to make. In a moment of delusion, I actually rooted for Florida in January 2007 when they played Ohio State for the BCS championship. I had grown tired of all the Big 10 hype I was hearing from ESPN and the rest of the national sports media and decided I really wanted an SEC team to show up the Buckeyes, even if it was the Gators.
My son tried to warn me. “You know how arrogant Gator fans are,” he said. “Imagine how they’ll be if they win the BCS. There’ll be no living with them.”
And he was right. They were worse then ever after that, especially when their basketball team also won a national title. Then came a second BCS title last year, and now they act like it’s a birthright or something.
But what it all boils down to is that in the long and illustrious history of SEC football, the Gators are still johnny-come-latelies.
In jorts, no less.
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137 comments Add your comment
Stats Man born and raised in Ga.
October 30th, 2009
3:48 pm
My experience with sportswriters is that they don’t have to know english either.
JG29
October 30th, 2009
3:48 pm
Hey, is david pollack single?
BILL QUEEN @AJC
October 30th, 2009
3:48 pm
Damn that Lame Kiffin…his wife is a hottie too
Stats Man born and raised in Ga.
October 30th, 2009
3:52 pm
Oh well…guess I can’t pick a fight today. Gators 27 Dawgs 13. GO GATORS!!!
TGIF
October 30th, 2009
3:53 pm
Bill you or Mark going to do a live blog during UGA football game Saturday?
eg
October 30th, 2009
3:58 pm
I’ve got a cup of pea waiting for Mrs. Richt on saturday.
99NC
October 30th, 2009
4:10 pm
You know what’s awesome? Barking at other people! :rofls:
Brock
October 30th, 2009
4:15 pm
99NC- now that was funny!
Larry Williams
October 30th, 2009
5:45 pm
Give it a break! How can you compare fans. Florida Fans are not perfect, nor UGA or any other SEC SCHOOL (VANDY pretty good). Last time I check UGA has how many National Championship, but so so so much history… What a JOKE! Come up GEORGIA, then talk.
EZ1691
October 30th, 2009
6:05 pm
My best friend lives in Plantation FL. His mom was born in Americus, Ga. but married his dad, a UF grad. To this day, she can’t believe that “those black folk” can live in his gated community. “How can they afford it ?” she asks. Bless her heart…guess she’s stuck in 1950’s Jor-Jaw.
Gator Growl
October 30th, 2009
6:56 pm
And I guess middle aged men barking right in the faces of young girls is considered “classy”?? Look, every fan base has it bad element. And this thing about Gator fans being recent “Johnny come latelys”…I’ve been going to Gator games since 1965 and it’s always been a tough ticket!!!
SuperB
October 30th, 2009
7:00 pm
If you build a swamp…. they will come.
DamnGoodDawg
October 30th, 2009
7:01 pm
We Dawg fans don’t know what it is to experience back to back national championships or continually perched on top of the heap, so we are pissed at those who do and are. And of course they attract fair weather fans everywhere. Fact is that the Florida successful run against Georgia began with Spurrier and continues with Meyer. Both were and are superior coaches to Golf, Donnan and Richt. Both are a-holes but they are superior coaches.
stephenpe
October 30th, 2009
9:55 pm
what a bunch of bsh#t………..New money? How about dominance for two decades never seen before in this series. We know it hurts but payback is a bitch and that is what UGA is now to uf.
An entire generation of pups now think the gators own them and you know what? They are right, Arrogant? Maybe he is talking about all those dog fans when Dooley was laying the wood to UF.
Allapattah
October 30th, 2009
10:02 pm
I’m a 5th generation Florida Cracker and I do not give a rat’s arse that we have a man from Ohio coaching our team.
stephenpe
October 30th, 2009
10:12 pm
Allap is that you from the slocala forum? Funny how to PE guys end up here calling out the bitches. Im a fourth gen. flORIDIAN and love Urban and Billy (newYawk boy he is)
Note to Editor
October 30th, 2009
10:14 pm
Bill – you didn’t call Florida fans arrogant?? I read your blog – did you?
Chlidipper
October 30th, 2009
10:16 pm
Arrogance sometimes resembles radical pity. When I lived in GA., I was extremely concerned that many of the people there were deserving of empathy and tolerence. It is so sad when you see humans (I guess) living in another life-form, in which they seemed more comfortable in than their human form. Everywhere I went I heard human beings, young and old, barking like large, ugly dogs and hiking on fire hydrants. It was so pitiable, but evidently they must have found a cure for the large ugly dog imitation, but they have a way to go still. For the last twenty years it has been reduced to a copying of a Toy Poodle who got a boot up his butt, but, even that may be corrected in time.
swampem
October 30th, 2009
10:26 pm
Ho-hum.
DawgVoiceofReason
October 31st, 2009
12:07 am
Stats Man born and raised in Ga.,
Apparently you think you’re adding something with your comments; you’re not. It’s unfortunate that you claim to be from Georgia; you don’t do our state proud in any way.
DawgVoiceofReason
October 31st, 2009
12:15 am
Posted elsewhere, but particularly appropriate here with a seemingly new crop of Fla. fans:
There are few things more ironic than Gator fans coming on a Dawg blog lecturing UGA fans about a lack of class. Florida fans (with some exceptions) and it’s head coaches are the quintessential representation of lack of class. It seemed to have reached the nadir during the Spurrier years, when he single handledly became the most hated man in the entire SEC among ALL of the other teams. Until Urban Meyer set a new low last year with his two timeouts in victory over the Dawgs. Of course Mark Richt made a mistake the year before with the endzone celebration, but he never had any intention of insulting Florida and he both admitted his mistake and sincerely apologized to all that he had offended. Meyer DELIBERATELY CHOSE to rub it in Georgia’s face. He was not MAN enough or decent enough to win in style and let the victory speak for itself. But it was no surprise; he, like the University he represents, is TRASH and will NEVER have ANY CLASS. He could win more championships than any coach who ever lived but he will never have my respect with that approach. He may kiss Tebow’s rear but he obviously hasn’t learned anything about what Tebow promotes off the field.
bill
October 31st, 2009
12:42 am
I missed it. How many national titles in football and basketball does Georgia have?
No1g8r
October 31st, 2009
1:13 am
It’s interesting that fans of teams that were contenders at some point in the past (but not the present) always fall back on these two things:
1) Class
2) History
For some reason, these fans always consider their own teams to be “classy” and ones with deep roots in history, and the opponent as a “johnny-come-lately”.
As far as the 6 year span of successive wins (sometimes reported as 7 consecutive wins by UGA grads who block for their own entertainment), Florida had some pretty solid winning periods long before the 1990’s. In the period from 1952-1963, Florida won 10 out of 12 games (see, there was football at UF before Spurrier).
As far as “class” goes, there are plenty of wins that UGA has where the coach was anything but classy. In 1942, the USA was at war with Germany and Japan. Just about all able-bodied athletes had enlisted following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Florida had lost to UGA 19-3 and had gone 4-6 in 1941 but expectations were that 1942 would have been a great year for the Gators based on the way they finished the season with wins over Miami and Georgia Tech and a close loss to UCLA. WW2 changed all of that.
Those great UF athletes had left to serve their country in the first half of 1942. By the time football season arrived the Gators could barely field a team at all. Most of the team were either kids who couldn’t pass the military physical or they weren’t 18 years old yet, and couldn’t join the military. They were kids who’d have trouble making an intramural team at any other time.
Over at UGA, however, Coach Wally Butts found a means of keeping his team intact, knowing that the competition would be down in 1942 due to the war, and saw an opportunity to steal a national championship in those tough times. He simply signed up most of his team into ROTC, providing a means of deferring their entry into the military. During that 1942 season, with the rest of the conference and nation without normal athletic strength, UGA had All-Americans like Frankie Sinkwich (who won the Heisman that year), George Poschner and Charlie Trippi, who would become one of the best college football players ever. (Perhaps even better than Herschel?).
When the two teams met for their annual game, everyone knew the Gators had no chance with its enlistment-depleted squad (the Gators didn’t even field a team at all the following year, in 1943, the depletions were so bad). The game was quickly out of hand, if not over by the end of the first quarter, it was WAY out of hand by halftime.
So, given the definition of a “classy” coach that dog fans apply, surely the legendary Wally Butts called off the dogs after halftime, right? Wrong. Sinkwich and Trippi were still playing hard well into the fourth quarter, well into mop-up time. The game ended with UGA winning 75-0 on the play of this NC-winning team with the “classy” Wally Butts coaching.
So why don’t you hear stories of the lack of class of Bulldog coaches from Gator fans? Because the Gators are winning over the Bullpups, and have been winning big. The Gators don’t need to fall back on the cries of “classless” or “remember history”, because the present is sweet and provides warm recent memories, rather than stale memories from decades ago.
Go Gators!
georgiadawg70
October 31st, 2009
8:47 am
Dear Atlanta Gator,
The only place in Florida that remindes me of the South or America for that matter is in the Panhandle and they are mostly FSU fans.
georgiadawg70
October 31st, 2009
8:49 am
And this has nothing to do with winning or losing. You guys were arrogant when Doug Dickey was your coach and you couln’t beat anybody.
DawgVoiceofReason
October 31st, 2009
10:02 am
No1g8r,
That’s an awful long post just to try to explain away another Florida loss in the series, which UGA leads 47-38-2. But, interesting story nonetheless. Interesting, in that you had to go back 67 years and make quite a few unfounded allegations and misrepresentations just to cherry-pick one game. Just from my personal experience (and that of many SEC fans) UF coaches, players and fans have provided numerous examples up to the CURRENT time. To answer your question, which you apparently thought was rhetorical, “So why don’t you hear stories of the lack of class of Bulldog coaches from Gator fans?” Because the vast majority of examples are on YOUR side.
Go Dawgs!!!
Bryan
October 31st, 2009
10:13 am
The SEC is the best conference in NCAA Football! Florida might be struggling right now in its bid for back-to-back National Championships, but look what it (and other SEC teams) have to go through to get there….Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, etc., etc., etc. USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Michigan would never be in the Top 10 if they comparable schedules. Good luck to both Georgia and Florida today and not matter the out come, I hope it is a great game.
GO GATORS!
No1g8r
October 31st, 2009
1:19 pm
DVOR, I didn’t just “cherry pick”, I selected the most lopsided game in the series to make the point.
I probably should have looked to see what I could find regarding “classlessness” by Vince Dooley, but Bulldog fans would tell you that Dooley was the epitome of class. They would be mistaken.
In 1968, Florida was a team with good players, a good head coach (Ray Graves), but questionable coordinators on both sides of the ball (sound familiar yet?). With seconds remaining in the fourth quarter in a 48-0 game, Dooley called a timeout so that his CENTER could kick a field goal. The game ended at 51-0.
If the shoe had been on the other foot, Georgia fans would still be crying about the “lack of class” of the Florida coaches, but since this was the legendary Vince Dooley, I’m sure that homers will accuse me of “cherry picking” again, rather than realizing that it’s part of the history of the game.
So, to recap, Mark Richt set off this latest salvo by instructing his players to commit a penalty by rushing the field, creating a situation that would have likely resulted in a brawl against less composed opponents Meyer retaliated by doing something fully within the rules, that was ALMOST EXACTLY the same as Vince Dooley did, yet Vince and Mark are “classy” and Meyer is “classless”. Only in your delusional world, Dog fans.
As I pointed out above. “History” and “Class” is the weary battle cry of the losing teams. “Scoreboard” is the retort of the winners. Guess which fans will be saying what THIS year?
Atlanta Gator
October 31st, 2009
2:10 pm
georgiadawg70—-Tampa doesn’t remind you of America? Orlando? Naples? Fort Myers? Palm Beach? Pensacola? Ocala? Jacksonville? Sarasota? Fort Walton Beach? St. Petersburg? Tallahassee? None of them remind you of America? Really? Yours must be a very different America from the one I experience every day living in Georgia.
As for Gator fans and their geographic distribution, it is well understood that most multi-generation Gator alumni and multi-generation Gator fans are concentrated in the most Southern parts of the state, including the Panhandle, Jacksonville and the many small towns north of Orlando. I have three degrees from the University of Florida, having attended the university for 8 years in a 12-year span, so I have some knowledge of what I speak. If you doubt me, I can provide you with the in-state geographic distribution statistics for enrolling freshmen.
Atlanta Gator
October 31st, 2009
2:14 pm
Rather than trading facts for insults, I will now retire to the Mr. College Football blog. If there are any serious college football fans lurking, Dawgs or Gatrors, please feel free to follow me. Perhaps we can actually discuss football over there, rather than rehashing the definition of “classy” and the supposed slights and insults that occurred before most of us attended our first college football game.
Kettle
November 1st, 2009
2:23 pm
“Hey Pot, this is Kettle…You’re BLACK” (like the helmets…HA HA HA HA HA!)
Wipersnapper
November 1st, 2009
5:11 pm
Bill once told me
You little wippersnappers, ……………Back in the day when when making Georgia women honorable by marring your sister or aunt………………………..AHHHHHHH HAAAAAAAAAAA.I’m not sure Georgia will EVER loose to Florida again…………and if we do……………..If you tell about at me at work…..I might fire you….How’s that for arrogance!!
Old School Gator
November 3rd, 2009
3:33 pm
The definition of classy was shown in the AJC paper after one of the football games earlier this year. Your classy fan base left a mess like I have never seen on thier own campus. Guess they thought it was one of the trailer parks that they live in.
Duck Dickey
November 4th, 2009
11:30 am
I dont appreciate being called arrogant one bit. I tried to beat Dooley but he was better prepared. At least the Florida fans have class.
BULLDAWG
March 27th, 2010
3:21 pm
Enter your comments here
BULLDAWG
March 27th, 2010
3:23 pm
LEMME TELL U GEORGIA H8@TERS SOMETHING MY DAD PLAYED 4 GERGIA SO WILL I AND THEY ACTUALLY WON @ NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS SO SHUT UR MOUTH CUZ U KNO NOTIN
BULLDAWG
March 27th, 2010
3:26 pm
OPE THEY WON TWO natioal championshps SO SHUT UR MOUTH