When did you become a Gators fan?
- Thread starter saturdaysarebetter
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- Sep 13, 2016
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I’ve been a gator since birth, but my first memory was when I was 7. My dad took me to homecoming in 1990. We went to the parade on Friday and the game on Saturday (which was a monster win). Good times.
- Jul 18, 2018
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1995 I was 10...my entire family are still to this day diehard Bama fans...I got a tattoo for my papa and it’s the state of Alabama he was born close to Tuscaloosa so it’s definitely odd when real bama fana see it...but my family always wore crimson tide everything all my school pictures until ten had me in Bama gear...but I went to a game in the swamp at 10 and I’ve always lived close to Ocala so growing up ppl always asked are you a Gator or a Nole...so I picked after I went to my first game...my family is still distraught to be honest my dad said he’d rather me have came out as gay...but I still hate Auburn so there’s at least a mutual hatred
- Mar 9, 2017
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You beat me to it.
But if I had to pick a moment when I really became a die hard fan, it was my in senior year of high school. I was on a trip with my dad from out of state to look at all the colleges I was applying to. When I stepped foot on the UF campus in that fall of 1990, I couldn’t believe the buzz around the dorms... there were signs hanging from windows, sheets painted in preparation for game day, etc. all over a game versus Furman. I remember thinking that if the students get this worked up over a nobody opponent like that, then the games must really be amazing. And the following fall I found out how right I was.
Go Gators!
- Sep 15, 2014
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Growing up in Wisconsin I wasn't a Gator fan, but I remember watching 52 to 20 and cheering for them. Then I was cheering for Billy D in his first championship run. I didnt become a Gator until 2003 when I went to grad school. I have always been a big college basketball fan, so I was excited for Gator basketball. I remember going to the 2003 home bball game vs Maryland after they won the championship the previous year. I couldn't believe the atmosphere sitting in the rowdy reptiles. I was hooked instantly. I didn't miss many bball and football home games after that. My wife thinks my love of the Gators is a bit annoying at times, but I got my 2 oldest daughters loving the Gators now. I will likely be buried in gator attire.
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- Jun 18, 2014
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I hate to say this but my dad has always been a gator fan. I was born in Ocala and lived in Gainesville till I was about 2. But we moved to Alabama for his job and growing up I wanted to cheer for the team my friends did and that was Alabama. My dad took me to a Alabama vs Florida game in 87 at Alabama and a Alabama fan tried to fight my dad. My dad was just sitting enjoying the game. We went to a couple of Gator games that year and I noticed how the fan base acted civilized and decided. I wanted to be a fan of the team my dad went for. Then Spurrier took over and I was hooked.
- Jun 12, 2014
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I come from a fairly long line of Gators. My great uncle was a star FB/kicker on the 1938 team, my dad was an SAE who graduated in '56 my mom was a Tri-Delt around the same time. Two of my sisters and I went there. But I became a fan in 1972. I was living in Philadelphia at the time. Sunoco was running a special where you'd get NFL player stickers with every fill-up. As a kid you'd spend an unusual amount of time pasting these things in the book they gave you. At that time, there was a QB/punter on the 49ers who had a really cool name. One day I was pasting his sticker into my book and my dad noticed it. He said, "That guy won the Heisman trophy at Florida." He also pointed out John Reeves, who at the time was playing for the Eagles. Somehow we picked up the radio signal of a Gator game one night and I was hooked. Not long after we moved to Florida. It was all Otis Boggs and the Doug Dickey show for me after that.
- Jun 11, 2014
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- Jul 16, 2018
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- Aug 11, 2015
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Ive been a Gator for as long as I remember. But I had a buddy in junior high who was heavily into it and got me all wound up. I painted my skateboard orange & blue and started clipping and saving news stories about Gator games.
My dad took me to my first game for my 12th birthday in 1973, vs. So. Miss at the old Sombrero that was Tampa Stadium.
My grandfather (UF ‘31) took us to my first game at The Swamp in 1975 vs. SMU.
I went to UF 1980-83 and graduated, then returned 1985-87 to run through the accounting curriculum on a post-bacc basis to sit for the CPA exam. I bought season tickets 1990-2014 but had to give them up due to a move and the demands of my current job.
My favorite moment is Spurrier claiming that first N.C. for all the old Gators who waited so long. My grandfather was 86 and died 6 years later. So glad he saw that. So glad I saw that.
My dad took me to my first game for my 12th birthday in 1973, vs. So. Miss at the old Sombrero that was Tampa Stadium.
My grandfather (UF ‘31) took us to my first game at The Swamp in 1975 vs. SMU.
I went to UF 1980-83 and graduated, then returned 1985-87 to run through the accounting curriculum on a post-bacc basis to sit for the CPA exam. I bought season tickets 1990-2014 but had to give them up due to a move and the demands of my current job.
My favorite moment is Spurrier claiming that first N.C. for all the old Gators who waited so long. My grandfather was 86 and died 6 years later. So glad he saw that. So glad I saw that.
gatorkev85
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- Nov 24, 2015
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My dad would always listen to the games on the radio when I was still in the womb. Said it was his life mission to make sure my brother and I were gators. I was born in 85 and i remember a little bit when i was younger sitting and watching games with him but the memory that is still burned in my brain is the 95 national championship game. It was the 1st time I ever seen my dad cry, my brother was also crying he was 15 at the time. It was in that very moment i knew how serious Gator football was to him and my brother I knew it had to be that important to me as well. I remember the following year him putting me on his shoulders running around the house after winning it all. I shared that same moment with my nieces in 06 and 08 and I pray to one day share it with one of my own.
I was basically born a Gator and hope to meet God in Heaven wearing a Gator robe doing a Gator Chomp as he greets me at the gate. I know he'll be chomping right along with me. It's why he made the sun orange, the grass green, and the water blue.
I was basically born a Gator and hope to meet God in Heaven wearing a Gator robe doing a Gator Chomp as he greets me at the gate. I know he'll be chomping right along with me. It's why he made the sun orange, the grass green, and the water blue.
- Jun 9, 2014
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- Nov 18, 2015
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Both of my parents went to UF, and so we always had amounts of gator things around our home. They relocated Oklahoma where I was born and weren’t huge sports fans at the time, so a lot of my early years i wasn’t through and through orange and blue. But I remember seeing the gators on TV on a Saturday morning in 1995 when I was 11 years old. Danny and company were just carving through defenses up and down the field. It was amazing to my adolescent eyes. I remember looking at my parents like “we are gators? That’s amazing !!” I was hooked And have been obsessed ever since.
- Jun 5, 2014
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Family moved to Gainesville in the summer of '89 when I was 13. I was more into the NFL at that time than college football, although we had gone to a number of NAU Lumberjack games in 87 and 88. I quickly learned that Gator football was a way of life in Gainesville, and a friend of mine took me to the opening game of the 1989 season (loss to Ole Miss).
I went from being a fan to an obsessed nut at the 1995 UF/UT game. There was something about sitting up in the UT section being taunted by those jerks when we were down 30-14 that triggered something in me. Singing "It's Great to be a Florida Gator" on our way out of that game (completely drenched) sealed the deal.
I went from being a fan to an obsessed nut at the 1995 UF/UT game. There was something about sitting up in the UT section being taunted by those jerks when we were down 30-14 that triggered something in me. Singing "It's Great to be a Florida Gator" on our way out of that game (completely drenched) sealed the deal.
Porschegator
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- Sep 8, 2016
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10/1/60 I was a freshman. It was my first game at Florida Field and Gators beat Tech on a two point conversion.
- Jun 5, 2014
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