- Jun 11, 2014
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Founding Member
You reminded be that I also read the encyclopedia constantly. We had a set at the house. I read through each volume several times. I wore the volume out that covered the space program!History, especially military history, especially WWII history. I was the kid that read all those books in the library, many more than once (Dad was a WWII vet).
The beach. Grew up right off of A1A. I lived in the sand and salt water.
Fell in love with football watching Spurrier's Tampa Bay Bandits and the Dan Marino era Dolphins. Being a student at UF during the Spurrier era turned me into college sports fan, especially college football. I have bled orange and blue since the first time I saw the Gators in person.
Beautiful women.
Cooking, good beer, and whiskey (especially bourbon) but those passions came later.
Alex.
The early Spurrier years were truly an amazing time to be a student at UF! Student football tickets were $6 a piece if I recall correctly. I sold one ticket to an alumni that paid $50 and was thrilled that my whole season was paid for plus some beer money.Steve Spurrier and John Lombardi arrived in 1990. From the first game of the 1990 season until the end of the 1996 season, we won our first (legal) SEC, another Heisman, our first National Championship, 5 total SECs (6 if you count the illegal one in 1990), and in those 7 seasons, I think we lost at home 2 times, both close games against top teams. The North endzone was enclosed and the stadium became the Swamp. It was widely accepted as the toughest and loudest place to play in America. For most of that time, we could leave the Swamp at halftime to slam some adult beverages and come back in. That's pretty awesome. We also went to our first Final Four in 1994. Our academic reputation was skyrocketing but the campus wasn't overrun with dorks who didn't like football or partying yet. The party scene may not have been as wild as the 80's when frats could throw 100 keg parties and everybody was invited because the legal drinking age was 18, but it was still a bigtime party school. Growl was still a big deal. Broward beach was dripping with talent. We won the Cold War and stopped worrying about dying in a nuclear holocaust. We felt good about the military after stomping Saddam in the Gulf War (early '91). There were awesome free concerts. The economy was (with one short hiccup) rocking. People felt good about their lives and the future. In the stadium, we watched the games, none of us had cell phones, selfies hadn't been invented, and there was no social media. You hung out with your friends and talked about their lives.
The blight on that era was the Gainesville student murders in 1990. The campus, the city, wasn't as friendly and open as it was before. It got better, but it wasn't like it was before the murders.
I went to all the games during the Tebow era too. It was great, but the passion in the stands wasn't the same as those first few years under Spurrier. We had done it before. Everybody remembered Wuerffel and our first National Championship and owning the Dawgs. When Spurrier arrived, we were losing regularly. Any SEC victory was a big victory. The fans weren't spoiled yet. They reveled in the beatdowns regularly administered to our rivals. That passion was even cooling off by '95 and '96 when dominating wins were expected.
I tell people that era, from Spurrier's first game to our first national championship, was probably the greatest time to be a UF student. The halcyon days of Urban and Billy with 2 football and 2 basketball championships is a solid second place era.
Alex.
and spreading out to Alachua, Archer, Newberry, anywhere in an hour radius just to see what's there
Last I saw or heard from Marsha was about the end of my 11th grade
That's creepy. I think a chance encounter bumping into one another while shopping of something would be the better, though more remote option... ;)certainly no reason why you can't start cyber-searching/stalking her today.
I'm sure she'd love to hear from an old "friend" - possibly even an unannounced visit
That's creepy. I think a chance encounter bumping into one another while shopping of something would be the better, though more remote option... ;)