I'M A GATOR!

I entered the University of Florida as a freshman in the Fall of 1965 as a Freshman member of the Class of '69. I never had any desire to attend college anywhere else. I applied ONLY to UF, and I thank God I was accepted. I love the University of Florida. My four years there are among the happiest of my life. I made life-long friends there. My memories of those days is fresh in my mind.

I don't know when I became a Gator football fan, but I have been watching, listening or reading about the Gator games ever since, for 41 years of their 100 years of playing. I witnessed my first games from the Pressbox at (then) Florida Field, as a stringer for the Clearwater Sun, and for the next three years in the Student Section with my fellow Tekes. For many years it was the radio or only newspaper accounts, and it was always wait 'til next year. It was shear heaven during the Spurrier Years and shear hell under the former coach. Now we're back in the Heaven years, and on TV every week.

I watched the Gators lose a national Championship game and win one under the old Ball Coach. When he left us, we wished him well. When he came back and took a coaching job in the SEC, eschuing the open Gator job, our jaws dropped to the earth. Go to the Big Ten Steve, anywhere, but where you have to be our enemy. His choice.

Gator fans learn to live with heartbreak. We live with close defeats, we live with getting trounced, but gosh, boys, last week was so freaking heartbreaking it was unreal. One person, and one person alone dashed our championship hopes with two critical turnovers, turnovers that will live in infamy forever in the annals of Gator history. We maybe can forgive the young man, but NEVER forget... It just hurts too much.

It just hurts too much. Too much.