Jenni Carlson, Sports columnist
Gator fans serious
BCS title game Florida faithful loud and rowdy
By Jenni Carlson
Comments 
241
Published: December 23, 2008
In this April 2, 2007 picture provided by the University of Florida, a student attempts to climb a greased light pole among a crowd of fans in the streets of Gainesville, Fla. moments after the men's UF basketball team won its second consecutive championship win. The University of Florida can raise a glass to another national title - best party school in the country. The Gators, known for wild celebrations following national championships in football and basketball, wrested the party title away from West Virginia University this year. AP Photo/University of Florida, Kristen Bartlett Grace
NORMAN — Bob Stoops was once loved by Florida fans.
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Soon, the lauding will change to loathing.
The Oklahoma coach, after all, is on the opposite sideline now. He will be the enemy in the BCS national championship game. He will be in hostile territory in
Miami, the Gators’ backyard.
He will hear it.
Everyone in crimson and cream will.
Prepare yourself,
Sooner Nation. Gator fans are serious about their team.
Their natural habitat, The Swamp, was once dubbed "the loudest, most obnoxious and notorious piece of real estate in all of college football. Mardi Gras with a mean streak.
Woodstock on bad acid.”
Yikes.
Despite OU’s storied football tradition, it has never played Florida. That means the fans of both programs have never interacted. Sooners and Gators have never mingled on South Beach. Never mixed in the
French Quarter. Never gathered in Old
Scottsdale.
Sooner fans will see Gator fans up close and personal for the first time next month in Miami.
They might not like the view.
Mark Bradley, who writes sports for the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, did a fun ranking before the season. He rated
SEC football fans on their level of obnoxiousness.
He ranked LSU fans at a demure No. 8.
(Sooner fans who strolled the streets of
New Orleans a few years back might dispute that number. If you want to fire up the Sooner Nation, just mention LSU fans and their "Tiger bait” chants.)
At the top of Bradley’s list: Florida.
His assessment: "Gator fans didn’t become obnoxious when
Steve Spurrier started beating everybody. They were obnoxious when their team couldn’t win the SEC to save its life.”
Ouch.
In the SEC, Florida football fans are a hated bunch. That’s saying something considering the passion of the fans in that conference.
Thing is, Gator fans were long the annoying little brothers of the league. They chirped. They chided. They crowed.
But they talked a better game than their team played.
Florida was long a conference cellar dweller. Between 1933 and 1979, the Gators won only 54 percent of their games. They couldn’t even win a conference title, much less a national title.
The past couple decades have been a different story. Since 1980, Florida has won two national titles, seven SEC titles and become one of the nation’s elite programs.
Still, the fact that Florida fans cheer a program that needed 50-plus years to win its first conference crown is a sore spot for fans around the SEC.
Then there is the atmosphere at The Swamp.
More than 88,000 have packed the place for 123 consecutive games, and with its steep-seat configuration, all the noise they create has less chance to escape.
Playing there in 1991, Florida State drove inside the Gator 10-yard line late in the game. With the crowd roaring, the Seminoles jumped offside twice, killed the drive and secured victory for the Gators.
ABC had a field-level decibel-reading devise that said the noise during that drive was equal to that of a jet engine.
The Swamp isn’t just loud. It’s rowdy, too.
Gator fans have been known to pee in cups, then throw them at folks not wearing orange and blue.
Vicki Fulmer was physically assaulted at The Swamp when her husband, Phil, and his
Tennessee team played there in 1993.
There’s even a story floating around that a press scribe wore a "Gator” cap from the parking lot to the press box to blend in with the masses.
To hear Stoops talk, you’d think
Gainesville is nirvana.
"I have got great feelings and memories,” he said of Florida earlier this month during a press conference in suburban Miami.
Those feelings and memories might change after this. Stoops, after all, isn’t guiding the Florida defense or wearing a Gator visor anymore.
If you’re not for Florida, Gator fans are against you.
And as Stoops and the entire Sooner Nation are soon to find out, they’re not shy about letting you know it.
Jenni Carlson: 475-3314.
Jenni Carlson can be heard Monday-Friday from 3-6 p.m. on KEBC-AM 1340.
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Dana, Tacoma - . . . . . . .
Just wondering if around Tacoma you're known as Delusional Dana because if you'd look at a map you'll clearly see that even at it's lowest point, Oklahoma is at least 400 feet above Forida. And on January 8th you'll see that Superior and Sooners are 1 and the same. Cheers!
Although some of these articles do include urban legends, there is an air of truth in many of the comments. Gator fans have always displayed an arrogance in Florida, even when they were being crushed year in and year out by Miami and FSU. I guess you would actually have to live here for a period of time to realize that the Florida populous in general is not as cultured and sophisticated as some from the state of Washington might think. Not that there is anything wrong with Washington. I was stationed in Oregon for over two years in the early seventies and I found the Pacific Northwest a delightful place to be four to five months of the year. Of course, the dreary rainy winter months cause many people to go stir crazy. This could explain some of the rants I read from the Tacoma region.
The University of Oklahoma has one of the most storied programs over the past sixty years. Many are jealous and rightfully so. Many want to shout our failures and ignore our successes. Many want to belittle our fans. However, there have been sixteen slots for the BCS championship game since its inception. OU has filled four of them. Win or loose, that is quite an accomplishment. I would venture to guess there are over a hundred bowl division teams that would give just about anything to have filled just one of those slots.
Same for the six out of eight years we have appeared in BCS bowls. Let me see, seven point loss in a dome filled to capacity with a partisan LSU crowd. I guess they killed us there. A trick play with seven seconds left. You are right; we were crushed by Boise State. The thing I am proud of in our defeat are the articles I read by Boise players who applauded the OU fans for the fact they congratulated BSU players on their way off the field and in the tunnel. You don’t read that on these blogs.
So good luck to you and whoever is actually your chosen team. For me, I will stick with OU and likewise route for OSU, Texas and the rest of the Big XII, win or lose!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMER
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONER
GET USED TO IT!
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONER
Yeah, I'm just terrified of them gator fans, quaking in my boots. Oh please don't hurt me big bad gator fan! Hey fellow Sooners, if a gator fan gets in your face, just hit em right in the teeth. Be sure and bring the scrotum grabber with you too! He can have lots of fun in Miami.
Let me assure you, there are plenty of decent Florida Gator fans; Lil' miss Jenni makes it sound like Sooner fans will be dealing with a group of thugs from Chicago's Southside. We honestly hope you enjoy your time in Miami, but it is NOT the Gators' back yard. U of Miami and UF are hardly kissing cousins.
Let me assure you, there are plenty of decent Florida Gator fans; Lil' miss Jenni makes it sound like Sooner fans will be dealing with a group of thugs from Chicago's Southside. We honestly hope you enjoy your time in Miami, but it is NOT the Gators' back yard. U of Miami and UF are hardly kissing cousins.
Let me assure you, there are plenty of decent Florida Gator fans; Lil' miss Jenni makes it sound like Sooner fans will be dealing with a group of thugs from Chicago's Southside. We honestly hope you enjoy your time in Miami, but it is NOT the Gators' back yard. U of Miami and UF are hardly kissing cousins.
Gators 3
HE HE HE !!!!
Let me assure you, there are plenty of decent Florida Gator fans; Lil' miss Jenni makes it sound like Sooner fans will be dealing with a group of thugs from Chicago's Southside. We honestly hope you enjoy your time in Miami, but it is NOT the Gators' back yard. U of Miami and UF are hardly kissing cousins.
Let me assure you, there are plenty of decent Florida Gator fans; Lil' miss Jenni makes it sound like Sooner fans will be dealing with a group of thugs from Chicago's Southside. We honestly hope you enjoy your time in Miami, but it is NOT the Gators' back yard. U of Miami and UF are hardly kissing cousins.
of money to go see the Sooners play need to be ready to get off their hands and raise some *ell and
pray for a lot of interceptions and fumbles on Florida's part. That is the best defense OU has against
them.
1. OU (6)
2t. Nebraska and Texas (2)
4t. aTm, Colorado, K-State, and Kansas (1 each)
Now let's rank the number of BCS wins in the conference, shall we?
1t. OU and Texas with 2 each
3t. Nebraska and Kansas with 1 each
So, it's (a) not very easy to make it to the BCS, and (b) not very easy to win more than once.
Class dismissed.
They will finally play a football game against the greatest team in the world.
the reason we seem absent is defeat is because we never get beaten...
he he he
Also, that makes sense, Jampalbo. In all seriousness, Tebow can scramble. I get it. Tebow can run with the ball. OK. Let's give them three TDs running, and two passing. That's 35. Bradford will have that at halftime. It's nuts to think that the same team that I watched play against Alabama is going to come out and skewer the Sooners. Florida has a good team, no question. People are acting like they're USC from '03-'04, which is insane.
Seems like you don't care for the Most Elite Program in the World... Not to mention the Very Reverent gentlemen and most beautiful women fans in the entire nation...
Rhett could not hang here...we allow only the very best.
Our players now have pass a difficult test just to be allowed to cross the State line....Only the Best Looking and most intelligent need apply...
It is just our policy...nothing personal.
Also, what is with this "gooner" crap? That isn't a word.
We've never been on one of them flying birds, but you will probably run into my cousins from Gainesville. I can't believe a well traveled person such as yourself didn't realize Gainesville is smack dab in Redneck country. You wannabe elitists are so cute.
Go Big 12 and Buckeyes
It is going to be a bad day to be a Gator.
Most of em can't post bail long enough to play.
OU 45, Florida 41
OU 45, Florida 41
not a Gator was stirring, not even the band.
Their Jockeys were hung by the locker with care,
in hopes that the Sooners soon would be there.
Tebow was nestled all snug in his bed,
while visions of glory danced in his head.
And Meyer in his kerchief full of Florida pride,
and Bob and the Sooners ready to ride.
When down in Miami there arose such a clatter,
Harvin sprang from his bed to see what was the matter.
He realized the Option was gone in a flash,
and Tebow's dreams of running had just been dashed.
The Gator running backs trembled as they watched the show,
A Crimson and Cream luster set the horizon aglow.
When what to their wondering eyes should they find,
but a miniature Schooner, seven National Titles behind.
With a wizened old driver, skilled in leading his troops,
they knew in a moment it must be Bob Stoops.
More rapid than Texas his players they came,
and he whistled and shouted and called them by name.
"On Bradford , on Gresham, now Madu and Murray!
On Chris Brown! On Iglesias! On Stevens and Curry!
To the top of the BCS! To the top of it all!
Now dash their hopes! Dash their dreams! Dash away all!"
And then in a twinkling, the Gators fought back a scream,
and Tim Tebow saw the last of his Heisman trophy dream.
The defense drew in their breath and looked all around,
and realized that their "savior Meyer" was nowhere to be
found.
Bob's eyes how they twinkled, his coaches how merry!
As they carried on the legacy left them by Bud and Barry.
Tim's sad little face and a fear in his belly,
he shook on the field as his knees turned to jelly.
He spoke not a word, and the ball they couldn't carry,
Stoops filled up the scoreboard and then turned to Barry.
And laying his hand on the shoulder of his friend,
he gave Switzer a nod and said, "Like Missouri again."
Bob sprang to the Schooner, to his team gave a shout,
to the BCS they flew and left Florida down and out.
And we heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
"Boomer Sooner to All and to All a Good Night!"
But they talked a better game than their team played."
sounds like the little pukes up north in stillwater except they will never win anything of importance
OU 45, Florida 41
OU 45, Florida 41
Probably the reason that Atlanta sportswriter ranked UF fans the most obnoxious is due to the fact Florida has owned Georgia over the years.
Last month, my brother and his friend, two professionally degreed individuals attended the OU-OSU game in Stillwater using tickets issued to corporate entities. The two were talking between themselves at the game, one of them mentioning that OSU's policy forbade selling individual game tickets to the game. A woman turned around and told them to "shut the ___ _____ up!" Later, the friend, who is a soft spoken dentist was talking solely to my brother, and a man turned around to him, and asked "Are you _____ing talking to my son?" Maybe that dad ought not be around his son for one thing, and his attitude meant that he ought not be around other people, either. Perhaps they should take the belligerent dad over to the Veterinary school and spay or neuter his head.
FWIW, the Athens GA newspaper did an experiment earlier this year. They sent a Bulldog fan dressed out to the max to Gainesville prior to the FL - GA game, and a Gator dressed fan to Athens. Both got some yells, a few gestures, even venturing into the main eating halls at both schools. More often than not, they were asked, "What bet did you lose?"
If you are going to the game, relax. You're more likely to have a problem with the locals than the fans.
Carlson has been known to pee in cups, then throw them at an effigy of her intellectual nemesis, Paris Hilton.
There’s even a story floating around that the press scribe has been fed fried chicken by her mother to blend in with the OSU football team.
Now that's fact-based journalism...