Traditions

[FrozenGator]

I'll admit to having never been to see a game at the Swamp. I was there, though, but it was March, raining, and no one was around. It was still a thrill for me, being a Gators fan who lives nowhere near anywhere they might ever possibly play.

One day, I want to get to a game in the Swamp; call it a "bucket list" item.

I'm wondering: what are some of your favourite Game Day traditions? Could be something you and your friends do, your section does, the whole stadium participates in, favourite chants or songs...

Let's hear 'em!

 

[Escambia94]

My Game Day ritual includes most of the Gator traditions that I grew up with, or that were added years later.

• Walk around campus and say hello to all the tail-Gators!
• Show the kids the old engineering building and the lawn out front where I dozed off studying for many exams.
• Be sure to get to the stadium 2 hours early and watch the players walk in for the Gator Walk. Let the kids sit on the Gator, or on the little walls so they can see the players and maybe slap hands. (When I watched the Gator Walk last year, I could tell there was something "off", and we lost to Mississippi State.)
• I LOVE that buildup to the Jaws music and the Gators running onto the field.
• At one time I found it annoying when the two sides of the stadium competed to be the loudest shouting "orange" and "blue", but now I really miss it.
• Singing "We are the Boys from Old Florida" is so sweet, even if we are losing by the 3rd quarter.
• The fake Mr. 2 Bits is rather old, but it is all we get now that the original has retired.

 

[DRU2012]

The "original" Mr. Two Bits was INTO IT, man--the only glare/stare I ever saw like it 'til I saw Coach Boom's on the poster, and old Mr. Two Bits did it EVERY TIME HE POPPED UP IN A DIFFERENT PART OF THE SWAMP, every Saturday with his little signs and his INTENSE "this-is-SERIOUS" delivery.
ALL the things E- put , plus passing pretty girls over our heads all the way up from the lowest rows to the top of the student-section (and it's a wonder none ever got passed right over the upper wall at the top by drunken students who were ALSO watching the game and forgot exactly where their seats were!)...Oh, and the VERY FIRST TIME we did the GATOR CLAP/CHOP, at the FSU game (in 1981 I believe, the day after Thanksgiving), when we hadn't beaten them in a few years; the cheer-squad had made copies of a sheet with drawings and directions on exactly how to do it and gave them out at the gates as everyone came in, explaining how the band's drums would help us sync with the Jaws-theme, starting slow and doing it faster and faster, arms straight out and bringing hands stiffly together to clap...any way, they announced it about mid way into the 2nd qrtr. of a 'til-then close game, low-scoring, like 6-3 for us, and the whole student section stood up and solemnly DID it, like, PERFECTLY, it looked like the Nuremburg Rally or something, slow and ominous at first with a sea of arms rising and falling, silence except for the drums, the Jaws-horns and the claps-as-one, then building into a fast and wild whooping climax--the Seminole players were actually all turned around, looking at US instead of the action on the field, they were obviously rattled--and from that point on we HAD that game, and KNEW it. We beat them something like 34-3 that day.
Hey--and speaking of seeing the Gators, we're hearing in Austin that part of the whole realignment of the SEC and scheduling changes, with TAMU in the West and Auburn moving over to the East, in order to preserve certain rivallry games AND to eventually strike a new balance, every team will have a permanent home-and-home series going with a particular team from the other division--and word is that UF's new "rival" by this plan will be (wait for it--)Texas A & M University--meaning no matter WHAT else happens, I'll be seeing my Gators playing live AT LEAST every other year!
Please Let It Be So.

 

[Escambia94]

If the rumors of a home and home series with Florida are true, then I am annoyed. I will be moving to California next year. Crap!

 

[DRU2012]

If the rumors of a home and home series with Florida are true, then I am annoyed. I will be moving to California next year. Crap!

Oh, man...I thought this would be GREAT news for you too.
(Of course, depending on WHERE in CA, the net gains will no doubt outweigh this in most respects, right? Hell, who am I kidding? I've lived in both Southern and Northern California, and though I have my preferences, I am SO totally sick of Texas I too consider leaving it and moving west again--and I live in one of the more "cosmopolitan" parts of the Lone Star State...truth is, though, I'm sort of stuck here for now, for a number of reasons, and must make the best of it--and a Gator game 90 minutes away every now and then will help!)

 

[FrozenGator]

If the Gators ever wound up coming up to Minnesota or (even better) North Dakota, I... I don't really know what I would do, but my work wouldn't expect to see me for a week prior.

I've seen the Gator chomp with the Jaws music only once on TV. It looks amazing.

Totally n00b question here, but what's with the waggling fingers?

 

[InkedAdrenaline]

I'll admit to having never been to see a game at the Swamp. I was there, though, but it was March, raining, and no one was around. It was still a thrill for me, being a Gators fan who lives nowhere near anywhere they might ever possibly play.

One day, I want to get to a game in the Swamp; call it a "bucket list" item.

I'm wondering: what are some of your favourite Game Day traditions? Could be something you and your friends do, your section does, the whole stadium participates in, favourite chants or songs...

Let's hear 'em!

U def have to go to a game. There is nothing like it. I can't even put it in words... of wait yes I can 'CHOMP CHOMP'

 

[Escambia94]

If the Gators ever wound up coming up to Minnesota or (even better) North Dakota, I... I don't really know what I would do, but my work wouldn't expect to see me for a week prior.

I've seen the Gator chomp with the Jaws music only once on TV. It looks amazing.

Totally n00b question here, but what's with the waggling fingers?

We wag our fingers at a player who.commits a penalty.

 

[Escambia94]

At the game, just watch the elders in order to pick up on all the things to do in a game. You will pick up on the Jaws clap, Gator Bait, Urbane and Blue, 2 bits, We Are the Boys From Old Florida, etc.

 

[Escambia94]

Oh, man...I thought this would be GREAT news for you too.
(Of course, depending on WHERE in CA, the net gains will no doubt outweigh this in most respects, right? Hell, who am I kidding? I've lived in both Southern and Northern California, and though I have my preferences, I am SO totally sick of Texas I too consider leaving it and moving west again--and I live in one of the more "cosmopolitan" parts of the Lone Star State...truth is, though, I'm sort of stuck here for now, for a number of reasons, and must make the best of it--and a Gator game 90 minutes away every now and then will help!)

Los Angeles Air Force Base. Looking at renting in Manhattan Beach. I turned down a job teaching at UF so I can be promotable.

 

[DRU2012]

Manhattan, Hormosa or Seal--depends on what you're looking for in a Beach Town; Manhattan's got a great "wedge", if you're into boogie-board and body-surfing, and there are a lot of condo's down near the Beach that are probably renting now, since folks can't move 'em like a few years ago.
As for the Gators, I had no idea when I graduated and moved to LA in late '81 (went to grad-school at USC, believe-it-or-don't) that we were about to have a home-and-home with the Trojans themselves! That first year when they went to G-ville my fellow oh-so-entitled USC grad-students were so sure that it was an early-season "tune-up" (this was in the very early days of ESPN, before wide-spread national awareness of then-regional rivalries), they all just snickered and smirked to each other when this then drawling southern boy warned them, "Well, we play a pretty fair brand of FOOTball down there in the SEC..."--and in beating them handily (something like 28-13?) we announced our presence on the national scene in that one game...NEXT year, of course, I was in the Coliseum for the rematch in LA, and while disappointed in the eventual tie (the Trojans got a TD and 2-point conversion with no time left to pull even--and these arrogant twits couldn't understand why I wasn't proud and happy to have just played "such a strong team even", kept talking about "kissing my sister", apparently a new expression for these rubes even in a time when there was no overtime), I WAS glad to get a chance to see them play AND root for them in the Gator section there. So you never know how things will go...isn't there a Rose Bowl BCS National Championship Game coming again in the next 2 or 3 years?

 

[DRU2012]

...PS F-Gator: That picture is IA's seat at the Tennessee game, low-down on the 50 in the student-section. You could go to every home-game all 4 years there and not luck into THOSE seats--to get 'em for a major SEC Rivalry-Game is just plain awesome...However, no seats are terrible, and it's a blast no matter where you're sitting--though I personally prefer the student side--the hyper-crazed party-energy just feels like "home", the right place at the right time. Nothing like it.
..and, just as I said to E- above, you just never know--keep checking those future schedules and news of "discussions" among us and other schools--with our SEC schedule I don't know how many big time programs up that way we're likely to enter into a home-and-home arrangement with, but then again, with all the static we take from all the Haters regarding our non-conference games, I could see us hooking up with a mid-major or a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team down the road. Time comes, we get ya hooked up with the folks who are traveling and see about making sure you're in the Gator-section when ya go.

 

[Escambia94]

There really are no bad seats at BHG. I've been on the sun deck in the nose bleed seats. You actually see everything, no people blocking your view, and get a great tan. In the middle deck you see everything, but have to deal with people standing up in your field of view. Boutin deck you see less of the field, but you can see the players, hear the coaches, and feel the action. I know this describes just about any stadium. The difference is that BHG has such a steep slope and the seats are positioned such that you are closer to the field than you would be in most other stadiums. There literally are no bad seats. If you bring kids, they will need to stand in order to see. Kids may actually enjoy nosebleed seats better, or they will learn to look between the tall people. Also that place has great acoustics. That helps it get loud, and lets you become part of the equation in creating a hostile crowd for the opponent without having to be a jerk, as they do elsewhere.

 

[DRU2012]

That sound. It penetrates into every nook and cranny, flows right through you...one more sensory way you become a part of everything happening there. If anyone denies that there is a special, extra Swamp-advantage when that crowd is INTO it and the Gators on the field are FEELING it, they are fooling themselves. We'll need it today, beginning to end.
Sometimes it's the crowd that lifts the team, especially early, rather than the other way around. One more reason for a quick start.