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Sec rivalries!!
- Thread starter dtspecial
- Start date
Lately it has been Florida-Alabama. Florida-LSU has been pretty hot. Taking in all of football history, I would say that Auburn-Alabama is the hottest SEC rivalry.
If by "hottest" you mean "most acrimonious", that's probably the case...the business with the trees pretty well captures the general level of dark hostility, albeit at the psychotic end of the spectrum.
While Gators/'Noles has always had a certain level of reliably mutual contempt, it has waxed and waned in both intra-state intensity AND national importance...it looks to possibly be headed back into the high-profile side of the cycle, and while we don't think much of each other, we generally come from the same towns, schools, streets, even families in some cases (they just couldn't make the grade at UF is all--Heh heh).
Now, it's interesting that "dtspecial" above throws Gators-'Canes out there; he's completely wrong, of course, since UM is not an SEC team and never SHOULD be (I won't go into the plethora of good and sound reasons for that here). However, the nature of that rivalry, when it was regularly renewed each season (it used to be each squad's first game of the season, back when I was an underclassman, and had been for some years), had become similar to the Iron Bowl at least in the violent intensity it produced in a certain fan contingent, mainly among the 'Canes. In fact, it was the "acting out" in near-psychotic proportions of roving gangs of young male UM fans, smashing cars with Gator-stickers and attacking Gators cornered alone or in couples in the parking lots and darkened portions under the Orange Bowl stands that finally led to the Regents canceling and long refusing to renew the series.
From what I hear, the UF-UM rivalry was downright dirty, and often transcended football fan chivalry. Unfortunately I have only heard the Gator side of the story with the smashed windows, muggings, and threats. All I can say is that with any intrastate rivalry, the intensity tends to be higher when it involves a private school.
They didn't have those problems with OUR fans when they came up to G-ville (though back then they didn't travel the way our fans did--there was actually a "Gator-Section" created by the Orange Bowl, a field-to-top-row "bite" out of the stands down at one corner of the stadium...not surprisingly, they were NOT great seats). You have to remember when this was, the late-70's to early-80's, when a combination of factors having to do with the transition to a new 'Cane regime (Schnellenburger's LACK of oversight, then JJ's seeing the surly "chip on the shoulder"-attitude and USING it in building a winner, "us against the world"), that whole camo-image, a timely "cultural-identification" among the depressed, ignored and nearly lawless neighborhoods around the Orange Bowl and spreading north to the Broward Cty. line--an "identification" that would eventually spread nation-wide, in fact. For a time in the 80's (and into the 90's, when it FINALLY began to wane) those colors and that insipid bird were everywhere, it seemed, eventually replaced somewhat in the sporting goods stores and on the backs of young American males by the FSU shirts and paraphenalia--Gaaaa!!!--"Will the nightmare ever end?!!" was our private lament...I don't have to recount all that came after that, so that now we ARE what we always KNEW we should be (but could only DREAM would ONE DAY be the case back then):
THE ONE TRUE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA--and everyone (as in "America-at-large") knows it.
You have to consider what satisfaction those of us who suffered through that time, "Oh, Ten & One", fighting our way out of the O.B. only to find our tires slashed, and so on, take in seeing this accomplished--and REALLY take its protection seriously.
One of the biggest ironies of that violence we had to deal with was that it WASN'T with non-students, "young toughs from the hood".
No, let me be clear on this: these were roving clots of guys in open-necked, garish polyester shirts (the fashion on campus then) with gold neck-chains, drunken "frat boys" (apologies to my friends and other decent folk who were/are in fraternities, but that's what they were, and that's what we called 'em--a couple of them even wore t-shirts with their frat-insignia), usually 2 or 3 weight-lifter types backed up by another half-dozen or so weasels...they'd go looking for folks wearing Gator gear, alone or in pairs. These "brave heroes" would bully, bump and push their quarry, looking for any kind of physical resistance as an excuse to pummel them--by post game, they often didn't NEED an "excuse". Lots of unwitting Gators, young and old, found themselves battered and running for their lives.
Now, I can tell you that I personally witnessed quite a bit of this first-hand. I'm not whining about it, either. Right or wrong, I was FAR from intimidated by these idiots. I went to UF AFTER an extended stint in the Army which included not just training but its practical use. I sure as hell wasn't LOOKING for trouble, but I wasn't going to ignore it anymore. In fact, by the last time I went to "the road game down South" (it was either '80 or '81), I was pretty sick of what I'd seen and heard. Let's just say I and a Gator comrade (also ex-Airborne) meted out a certain amount of "rough justice" under the stands that day, and leave it at that. In every case but one, we let them come to us--we mildly asked them to "move on", then didn't hesitate the moment they started physically pushing us. In the one case where WE actively stepped in, we had come upon 5 large, tanned goons in Hurricane team-shirts pushing around an elderly couple in full-on Gator gear (you know--HE had on the shorts with the little "Alberts" all over them, his wife an actual Gator Bonnet, and so on). We were actually leaving the stadium after the game, and as we turned the corner coming down the last ramp there they were; one of the 'Cane goons had just slapped the large drink from the old-guy's hand and another pushed the woman out of the way as the rest moved around her husband--we just broke into a run and were ON 'em. Neither one of us were "big fellows", believe me--they were ALL large young men, but this time it made even less difference than that normally does. We were like that Tazmanium Devil in the Bugs Bunny cartoons. They never knew what hit 'em, as the saying goes...I don't think they could have described us accurately later if they tried. I swear within two minutes they were all on the pavement, we were dusting off the old couple and escorting them quickly out of there. Old guy kept pumping our hands and muttering, "Hate those damn 'Canes...not fit to be Americans!"
So yeah, it was "down and dirty"--and given my background at that time, I wouldn't have been so offended if it had been about "fair matchups" between similar groups of "well-fueled and adrenalized young male fans". Back in the day, to blow off steam during R&R, clearing out a bar in a fight with a bunch of Marines was just the thing from time to time, but this wasn't the Army, and there was INTENTIONALLY nothing "fair" about these mo-fos' swaggering search for lone Gators to bully. As I said up top, no one did that to THEIR fans when they traveled to play us at (then just) Florida Field.
I HATE bullies. Always have. We moved a lot when I was growing up (military family), so I was always the "new kid" (a relatively small and wiry one) and had to learn to survive (eventually even thrive, after a fashion) that reality. One thing I learned quick was to fight the biggest, loudest jerk they had there--I might lose, but EVERYONE left me alone after that--often ESPECIALLY the big guy. Predators go after the weakest, the ones who can't or won't fight back. Those UM jerks (I won't call them "fans", at a certain behavior is "beyond the pale") were simply that, "bullies", and could only be properly dealt with in the fashion described.
THE ONE TRUE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA--and everyone (as in "America-at-large") knows it.
You have to consider what satisfaction those of us who suffered through that time, "Oh, Ten & One", fighting our way out of the O.B. only to find our tires slashed, and so on, take in seeing this accomplished--and REALLY take its protection seriously.
One of the biggest ironies of that violence we had to deal with was that it WASN'T with non-students, "young toughs from the hood".
No, let me be clear on this: these were roving clots of guys in open-necked, garish polyester shirts (the fashion on campus then) with gold neck-chains, drunken "frat boys" (apologies to my friends and other decent folk who were/are in fraternities, but that's what they were, and that's what we called 'em--a couple of them even wore t-shirts with their frat-insignia), usually 2 or 3 weight-lifter types backed up by another half-dozen or so weasels...they'd go looking for folks wearing Gator gear, alone or in pairs. These "brave heroes" would bully, bump and push their quarry, looking for any kind of physical resistance as an excuse to pummel them--by post game, they often didn't NEED an "excuse". Lots of unwitting Gators, young and old, found themselves battered and running for their lives.
Now, I can tell you that I personally witnessed quite a bit of this first-hand. I'm not whining about it, either. Right or wrong, I was FAR from intimidated by these idiots. I went to UF AFTER an extended stint in the Army which included not just training but its practical use. I sure as hell wasn't LOOKING for trouble, but I wasn't going to ignore it anymore. In fact, by the last time I went to "the road game down South" (it was either '80 or '81), I was pretty sick of what I'd seen and heard. Let's just say I and a Gator comrade (also ex-Airborne) meted out a certain amount of "rough justice" under the stands that day, and leave it at that. In every case but one, we let them come to us--we mildly asked them to "move on", then didn't hesitate the moment they started physically pushing us. In the one case where WE actively stepped in, we had come upon 5 large, tanned goons in Hurricane team-shirts pushing around an elderly couple in full-on Gator gear (you know--HE had on the shorts with the little "Alberts" all over them, his wife an actual Gator Bonnet, and so on). We were actually leaving the stadium after the game, and as we turned the corner coming down the last ramp there they were; one of the 'Cane goons had just slapped the large drink from the old-guy's hand and another pushed the woman out of the way as the rest moved around her husband--we just broke into a run and were ON 'em. Neither one of us were "big fellows", believe me--they were ALL large young men, but this time it made even less difference than that normally does. We were like that Tazmanium Devil in the Bugs Bunny cartoons. They never knew what hit 'em, as the saying goes...I don't think they could have described us accurately later if they tried. I swear within two minutes they were all on the pavement, we were dusting off the old couple and escorting them quickly out of there. Old guy kept pumping our hands and muttering, "Hate those damn 'Canes...not fit to be Americans!"
So yeah, it was "down and dirty"--and given my background at that time, I wouldn't have been so offended if it had been about "fair matchups" between similar groups of "well-fueled and adrenalized young male fans". Back in the day, to blow off steam during R&R, clearing out a bar in a fight with a bunch of Marines was just the thing from time to time, but this wasn't the Army, and there was INTENTIONALLY nothing "fair" about these mo-fos' swaggering search for lone Gators to bully. As I said up top, no one did that to THEIR fans when they traveled to play us at (then just) Florida Field.
I HATE bullies. Always have. We moved a lot when I was growing up (military family), so I was always the "new kid" (a relatively small and wiry one) and had to learn to survive (eventually even thrive, after a fashion) that reality. One thing I learned quick was to fight the biggest, loudest jerk they had there--I might lose, but EVERYONE left me alone after that--often ESPECIALLY the big guy. Predators go after the weakest, the ones who can't or won't fight back. Those UM jerks (I won't call them "fans", at a certain behavior is "beyond the pale") were simply that, "bullies", and could only be properly dealt with in the fashion described.
