I was there.
It was glorious. The greatest day in Gator history.
The build-up was incredible. Starting with the Fiesta Bowl the year before, then the "echo of the whistle" loss to FSU (I was there for that too), then Texas pulling off the miracle on 4th down to beat Nebraska and get us a rematch, then tOSU and Orlando Pace beating undefeated Jake "the snake" Plummer and Arizona State to make our game the defacto national championship game, to stomping a mud hole in our arch-rivals.
Yeah. It was fcuking glorious.
After coming back to Gainesville, we celebrated my birthday in the Swamp with sixty thousand of my best friends, fireworks, the band, Lawrence Wright doing "if you ain't a Gator...", and the HBC telling everybody there to hold up one finger and chant "We're Number One" loud enough for all the Gators in heaven to hear us. It got pretty dusty in the Swamp right about then.
Alex.