Introduction

 

     Where to begin, probably when I first started to become a Gators fan. At first became aware of college football in 1993 and where I first rooted for the ……… Florida State Seminoles. I know I know. I was a big Charlie Ward fan during that 1993 season a team that also had future Tampa Bay Buccaneer players in Mr. Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn. Also, you got to legendary coach Bobby Bowden.  I was sad when the Seminoles lost to Notre Dame but later on being happy when Charlie Ward won the Heisman and the Noles won the national title. Also, I was happy when the Noles beat the Gators that season in Ben Hill Griffin stadium. I remember as a nine-year getting into an argument with a couple of soccer players around my age over the rivalry before the game if I recalled in a McDonalds. I won that argument. However, I wasn’t that aware that players left school for the NFL, graduate, etc. was I was so hurt of Charlie Ward leaving that I become a Gator fan and for the most part whom I still with since the 1994 season. Then my sister undergrad at FSU before going to law school at Florida Still happy for her but I wished she picked Florida to undergrad so I could have seen a Gator game during the Tebow years. I wonder if I can get her buy me tickets to a Gators game? Love you sis. In fairness, I did apply at Florida along with several other schools including sadly to say FSU and I didn't get in any of them. I think if I took an extra math class I could've been accepted maybe. Oh well, maybe could try again, I get an associate degree from a Community College. 
 Also, could someone explain why Charlie Ward didn’t play in the NFL? He was the reigning Heisman Trophy Winner and didn’t even get drafted? Not even a look see? To be fair, he did play in the NBA for over a decade mostly with the New York Knicks. Though it hasn’t been easy especially since that the local university (University of South Florida) created a football team three years after I become a Gator fan in 1997 (ok around 1995, 1996 but the Bulls started playing games in 1997). Sad part, not the only time it happen with me. I started rooting for the New York Yankees and in 1998 The Tampa Bay Devil Rays started playing. It was a balancing act for a decade until 2008 when they became Rays and I’m fully committed to the Rays unless the Yankees and the Red Sox are fighting for the AL East titles then its ABB (anybody but Boston). However, unlike the Rays and The Yankees, The Gators and The Bulls don’t play each other in football yearly. They only played each other once in 2010 where the Gators won (and I rooted for the Bulls, hometown team).  Honestly, I should have started as a Gator fan because blue is my favorite color and like the passing game and Gators had both (especially during the Spurrier years), oh well. In Florida, you have the big three programs Florida, Florida State, and Miami who each has multiple championship under their belts and no I will not count University of Central Florida’s 2017 “National Championship” and not only because I root for a rival. Florida has a rich talent pool of high school recruits so one of the main reasons why those three teams have 11 championships total and people like to rub it in a relatives or friend’s face when their team won.

 My Gator cheering years had some good times and some bad times including when the Gators introduce Urban Meyer from the University of Utah as head coach in 2004 replacing Ron Zook. The Urban Meyer years which had some great years which included two SEC and national championship in 2006 and 2008, a Heisman  trophy winner in Tim Tebow (you think I was going to do a Gators book during that without mention Tim Tebow), and number of other great Gators players Meyer recruited, and was one game away from being a dynasty like the USC during the Pete Carroll, FSU from 1987-2000, and Bama multiple times including currently with Nick Saban and some times that were so good and stories that came out later that well was a black eye for the program and the school in general and also led the Gators from being a dynasty to a big fall from grace. The Urban Meyer years were general good if you were a Gators fan at the time, those were exciting years and I'm sure you enjoyed rubbing in the faces at FSU and Miami fans especially during those years as both those teams were struggling those years.
 but sorted after he left and also when he came back after a year to take the Ohio State job after he “retired”. The one nice thing I will say about Urban Meyer is he is a great coach and a great recruiter and like it or not he did lead the Gators to two national championships which is one more than well all the other Gators coaches have combined (though Spurrier has the edge on SEC titles 6 vs Meyer’s two and yes the Gators were first in the SEC in 1990 [Spurrier’s first year] but were ineligible to take what would have been their first SEC title because of NCAA violations during the Galen Hall years). Here’s to the Gators years under Meyer and since through the eyes of a Gator fan, me.