Where I Come From: How I Became A Florida Gators Fan

I grew up in Costa Rica and didn’t follow American sports until the early 90’s when I changed schools and my new friends all did. I picked my teams based on TV exposure, for the most part. I chose the Braves thanks to their being on TBS always, and the fact that we got the Mountain Timezone CBS feed guaranteed me plenty of Broncos games. With those two teams in tow, I began to develop a franchise archtype: strong leadership (ownership and coaches), humble and historic headline stars, and rising dominance. Lucky for me, I found all of that in the Florida Gators! I can tell you that the moment I knew I was a true fan is not your usual one: the Fiesta Bowl loss against Nebraska in ‘96. That loss hurt so bad, I knew I was hooked and I haven’t regreted it since. I now attend the University and proudly call myself a Florida Gator. So cheers, my friend, and go Gators!

My father is an FSU grad, and both of my younger siblings went to Florida State.

I decided to go to UF partly because it’s more prestigious and mostly because I watched Urban Meyer’s Utah team and figured he’d be my best shot at football happiness for four years.

My first year, Florida went 9–3 with an Outback Bowl win. FSU went 8–5 including losses to UF and Penn State (Orange Bowl). My family liked to play the “Enjoy the Outback Bowl!” card. I countered with “34–7”, which was damn close to being a shutout.

2006 proved me right, 2008 proved it again. All told, UF lost 9 games and won 2 national championships over my four years there. Florida State lost 21 games during the same span.

There were also two national championships in basketball we watched and a national championship in wakeboarding, which I competed in.

In August, the Gator nation will be in Tallahassee. I’ve come full circle and will be attending FSU law. Am I excited for FSU’s season? You know it. Do I hope they’re very successful? Without a doubt. I have a dual fanship that absolutely conflicts, but my heart is with the Gators.

To this day, I don’t really know why. I grew up in the Panhandle, where everyone was either an FSU or Auburn fan (though things have diversified in recent years); maybe the alligator was the more appealing mascot.

Like ejruiz, my fandom was solidified during the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. My father is a Nebraska alum, and I had spent the week running my seven-year-old mouth about how UF would win. I went to bed crying that night, knowing, knowing, that Danny and Spurrier had somehow been cheated.

The Sugar Bowl win over FSU the next year is one of my happiest memories. Fred Taylor became my favorite player, and I became (for awhile) a Jaguar fan just to root for him.

I will admit to losing my zeal in middle school and, briefly, falling to the peer pressure of Miami bandwagon fans. But come high school my inner Gator was rekindled, and in 2007 I left to attend UF. The last three years have been good ones, and the next one should be no less memorable.

When, at three years old, I watched my first college football game with my dad, who attended UF in the sixties (he left after his freshman year to join the military and serve in Vietnam). Once we moved to Tennessee in 1994, my love of UF grew even stronger, because of having to endure the only fans more annoying than FSU fans…UT fans.

When I applied to colleges at the end of high school, UF was high on my list, but UNC, Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell, UC-Berkley, Miami, Michigan, Missouri, and Georgia were all on my list as well. Between rejection letters (UNC, Duke, Michigan) and too-expensive for our family colleges (Cornell, Vanderbilt, Duke), the process was narrowed down to UF, UGA, Miami, and Mizzou. I’d end up at Miami, and later transfer to Mizzou, but all the while, still rooting for the Gators more than the teams of either school I attended.

This fall, I’ll finally be going to Gainesville to attend UF’s Levin School of Law, and I’ll finally be able to join the Gator Nation in full.

I fell in love with Florida

I grew up a UGA fan in Atlanta. Back in the late 80s, it was not too difficult to get into UGA, so a ton of Atlanta seniors ended up there. I wanted to get away from home a little bit, but still wanted to go to a large university in the south that wasn’t too far from home. I ended up choosing UF.

I accepted without even visiting the campus. When Preview rolled around, I drove down with my parents and as we hit campus, they were in the middle of high school cheerleading camp, so about 1000 high school cheerleaders were parading down Museum Road right as we entered campus. I realized what a fine decision I had made and my dad gave me a nod of approval as if to say “nice work, son.”

I had a great 4 years in Gainesville and have been a die hard Gator ever since – even though I returned to Georgia after graduation and married a UGA girl whom I met while I was in law school at UGA. I was in school in Athens when Spurrier hung 50 on the Dogs between the hedges. For the record, when we are lucky enough to make it to Jax for the game, my wife and I still sit separately!