University of Florida - Tower / Seminole Yearbook (Gainesville, FL)

Page 26 text:

Each year, Gator Growl is the premier showcase for U.F. pride and this year was no exception. The incredible efforts of our student athletes year after year cannot go unnoticed, and thus, we gthered to honor them at the 7 1 st annual Gator Growl. The Growl ' s esteemed tradition grew out of a simple pep rally in 1925, in which freshmen carried their weight in wood to a small bonfire. Seventy-one years later, Gator Growl has evolved into a multi-media extravaganza dubbed as the world ' s largest student-run pep rally. This year ' s Growl introduced a new gator to U.F., Star Gator. In a young Gator fan ' s bedroom, our animated friend, with the help of coach, Dr. Egghead, and commentator, Mr. Mick-rophone, took on the evil toys symbolic of inferior football programs. Even with the appearance of the new techno- logical animation this year, tradition was not forgotten. Appearances by Albert, Alberta, Mr. Two-Bits, the Gator Band, the cheerleaders, Dazzlers, and the senior football players kept the tradition alive. The crowning of the Homecoming Queen, Lori Spivey, the headlining comedians, and the offbeat student sketches made for one loud evening in the Swamp. A dedicated group of more than 500 student volun- teers, 19 student directors, three associate producers, a single student producer, nine months of hard work and lots of creative energy make Gator Growl enormously successful year after year. Star Gator ' s cry, to the National Championship and beyond! was answered this year, confirming the power of Gator pride across the nation, -portions reprinted from the Gator Growl program

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it ' s great...to be...a Florida Gator! Never has this chant been heard so loudly, with so much vigor through- out the University of Florida, throughout every opponents stadiums, and especially throughout New Orleans. This was definitely the year of the Gator. There ' s nothing that compares to Gator fans and we ' ve shown we meant business in 1997. The SEC titles rolled in from all directions, the conference championships poured in, and to top it all off, the first National Championship football team in U.F. history stomped their way into the spotlight. Gator fans everywhere bled orange and blue and added a little color to everywhere we conquered. Millions of Gator dollars poured throughout the nation by those die hard fans. If there was a word that could dramatize spirit , that word would describe the average Gator fan, and who knows what word could be used to describe the fanatics! There ' s no doubt that Gainesville wouldn ' t mean the same without the University of Florida, and the University wouldn ' t mean the same without the teams, and the teams just wouldn ' t be the same without the fans. So here ' s to those Gators everywhere. A well deserved salute to the heart, the support, the craziness, the enthusiasm, and the madness that makes the Gator.