Gator Bait

Welcome back everyone!  After my week long hiatus, I’m back and ready to share more stories.  A quick reminder that this Tuesday is Correspondence Tuesday.  Please send me any questions and comments you have to zacharywermers@creighton.edu and I’ll put them into Tuesday’s post. 

As many of you know, this weekend, I went to my first Florida Gators game in The Swamp.  It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. Between the tailgate set-ups and the game itself, I could not have been more impressed. To shake things up a bit, today’s post will be a photo essay…this might also help to keep AB’s attention as I know he likes stories with pictures.

This is me and RT at roughly 8:30 am with our first beers of the day.  Since this was my first SEC tailgate, I had to ask what the acceptable attire was…and as you can see jersey and backwards hat was the consensus (big thanks to RT for providing the jersey).  We posted up in an area that could only be described as a green in the middle of campus.  There were collegiate buildings all around us…this was not a parking lot…this was a park.  It was beautiful.

Where to begin… These fellas were absolutely hysterical.  First off, apparently the big joke in the SEC is that all Gator fans wear Jhorts…so in an effort to embrace the stigma, these guys went out and got themselves some of the most obnoxious jean shorts that money and dull scissors can produce.  The guy in the blue Tebow jersey bought his jhorts with an elastic band…I can’t begin to express how happy I was with this.  Second of all, in the top picture, these fine men are making a concoction known as Kaboobalies.  Kaboobalies are a mixture a handle of Gin, 2-2 Liters of Squirt (if you can still find it at your local grocer), 3 freshly squeezed limes, and 3 freshly squeezed lemons.  It impressed.  Third of all, notice the picture in the middle.  Apparently there was a pact several years ago that they would all get matching tattoos…apparently the two guys on the right went together and the guy on the left backed out.  After some heavy drinking, they goaded him into finally making good on their pact…the picture really speaks for itself.

I included these pictures to show you all that we were, indeed, in the middle of campus for this tailgate…you can see the bell tower in the background, in the pic on the left, along with a statue that is apparently new…and hideous.  Pictured in the straw hat was our amazing host for the weekend.  I slept on his couch, used his ID to pass as a UF student so I could use student section tickets, and he is the one who handed me a piece of duck wrapped in bacon…which quickly turned into my favorite moment ever.

(side story:  I didn’t get many pictures of the other tailgates, but they were absolutely ridiculous.  Everyone had a full pit bbq grill, satellite dish, and at least 3 TV’s that would have rivaled the 55” from 39^th and Cass!   I was told that these were all the “less rich” alumni and that there is an area near the stadium that is only for donors who donate $250,000+ to the University…apparently that’s where the “big” tailgates were happening…I cannot imagine how that section must have looked.)

  

A few hours into the festivities, and the shirts are off!  Despite what looks like perfect form in this picture, I was the weak link to team SD on the bags. We lost about $30 to the guys in jhorts from above And for those of you who are asking out loud: “Zach, tell me you didn’t lose to the Chinese exchange student standing next to you…has she even played before?!?!”  The answer is yes, we lost to the exchange student and no she had never played before.  Let it be known that this is my formal and public apology to RT for dropping the ball on this one.

 

Alright, enough ballyhoo.  THESE WERE OUR #$%#@#$ SEATS!!!  If you’ve ever watched a Gator game on TV and seen the orange wall that says “This is Gator Country”  I was right in front of that.  On top of that, The Swamp is absolutely awesome! It seats roughly 90,000 people and is known as one of the loudest stadiums in the nation.  The picture on the bottom is of Coach Muschamp aka Coach Boom coming over to acknowledge the student section after the big win against Tennessee…Go Gators!

After the game, RT and I decided to go up to the top of the stadium and get some pics.  As I’ve said repeatedly throughout this post, I was completely impressed with UF and the set-up of the whole day.  I can’t wait to go back in two weeks for the Florida vs Alabama game and do it all over again.

See you all back here Tuesday!!