UGA Rivalry Review: Florida Gators traditions, rituals and more

Oct 6, 2012; Gainesville, FL, USA; Florida Gators fans do the gator chomp during the fourth quarter against the LSU Tigers at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Traditions

Like all colleges, Florida has no shortage of traditions. Many are not unique to the Gator Nation – tailgating, the (your team mascot) Walk, pre-game band entertainment and post game songs, often including the Alma Mater. The Gators are blessed with many unique traditions. Most have a distinct old-fashioned charm that garners the wrath of opponents.

The Swamp:

In 1991, head coach Steve Spurrier tagged Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field The Swamp.

“The Swamp is where Gators live. We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous.” Since then the Gators have won nearly 90% of their games in the Swamp, known formally as Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field.

Florida Field was constructed in 1930 with an original capacity of just over 21,000. The Stadium was later named Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in honor of a University benefactor Ben Hill Griffin, Jr, while retaining the Florida Field name for the playing surface. The Stadium, renovated and expanded several times, is state of the art. Seating capacity is 88,548 but regularly host’s over 90,000 fans.

Is The Swamp special, a place that devours opponents…or are the Florida teams that call it home special? Like the chicken and the egg, it doesn’t really matter. The name fits – The Swamp has indeed been a dangerous place for visitors.

Mr. Two Bits:

In 1948, Mr. George Edmondson tired of fans booing the Gators and took it upon himself to start a cheer supporting his team. The result was a tradition now approaching  its seventh decade. Edmondson – “Mr. Two Bits” – recited the cheer before every home game until 2008. The cheer has not changed over the years and has a distinctive throw back quality that makes it sound, well, goofy, to outsiders.

Two Bits
Four Bits
Six Bits
A Dollar
All for the Gators, stand up and holler.
And indeed, they do stand up and holler.

Gator Growl:

If Mr. Two Bits is goofy, the Gator Growl is just plain cool. In 1932, the  University  set aside a day for dad’s to come and visit their sons on campus. (Florida was an all boys school until 1947.) That day has grown into the final event of homecoming week – the largest student led pep rally in the country featuring not just cheers, team recognition and student performers, but marquee guest performers.

Guest performers at The Gator Growl have included Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby, and Bob Hope. You have to give the Gators credit. It’s hard to imagine a student body anywhere else organizing such an event, filling a stadium, and participating together cooperatively.

The Gator Chomp:

Everyone except the Gators hates the Gator Chomp – and you can’t tell me that’s not why the Gators love it.

Nick Zaccardi in CBS Collge Sports.com describes the Gator Chomp: “Palms flat, extend one arm over the other and move them like an alligator’s mouth.”

Where two or more Gators gather, the Gator Chomp appears. Also, put politely, it is an occasional taunt.

The Gator Chomp is the most frequent in-game cheer employed by Florida – or so it seems to the opposing fans enduring it. During games, the band generally leads the Gator Chomp with the Jaws theme – music from a movie about a big fish.

A boomerang tradition is gator chomping by opponents. When the opposing team scores and after victories over the Gators, the opponent and its fans will sarcastically chomp. When an opposing player chomps,  a 15-yard penalty is assessed. When a Gator player chomps, there is never an assessed penalty. No Gator has questioned this logic and so hate for the cheer grows among the non-elect.

We are the boys from old Florida:

Between the third and fourth quarters of home football games, the Florida fans stand, lock arms around each other’s shoulders, and sing, “We are the boys from old Florida.” Employing a tune probably popular with singing clubs and barbershop quartets in the 1920s or 1930s, the words of the song are distinctive to the University of Florida.

The tradition dates at least to the 1930s and apparently remains unchanged. The song is a remnant of the Male Only days of the University of Florida and gosh darn it all, kudos to the Gators for resisting temptations to contempor-ize the text, for fearing not offending lady students, and for maintaining the old-fashioned musical the arrangement.

The practice is quaint – if 90,000 people can be quaint. It is another throwback tradition and the appearance to outsiders is, again, goofy. But the tradition has bound together the Gator Nation for all but twenty years of its existence.

We are the boys from old Florida
F – L – O – R – I – D – A
Where the girls are the fairest,
the boys are the squarest
of any old state down our way. (Hey!)
We are all strong for old Florida,
down where the old Gators play. (Go Gators!)
In all kinds of weather,
we’ll all stick together, for
F – L – O – R – I – D – A

Go Gators:

The Florida greeting is “Go Gators” and it’s pretty typical. However, the Go Gator Chant is another thing all together.

The Go Gator Chant – led by the band – opens with “Go Gators” and ends with “Go Gators, come on Gators, get up and go.” This is another old cheer that has remained unchanged and to contemporary non-Gator ears sounds, yes, again, goofy. But again, it is another example of Florida’s old and unique traditions, traditions the Gators have wisely kept the same throughout the decades.