And Then There were 3

I first started rooting for the Gators in ‘69(yes, I know, I’m older than dirt) and we got off to a good start in football. We went 9-1-1 but started a troubling pattern. We beat neither Georgia nor Auburn and didn’t win the SEC. We could beat Georgia at times(but never in big games even when we had the better team) and Auburn(although never at Jordan-Hare Stadium(pronounced “jerdan” not “jordan”)) but still never won the SEC. We got close at times but it was always Richard Appleby or Fourth and Dumb or Lindsay Scott or something. We finally got over the Georgia hump in 1984(The Stand, The Bomb)(“he did NOT step out of bounds…..TOUCHDOWN!”) and got to keep our names in the record books as SEC champs after 1991 when Saint Steve came to town.
I had attended college there starting in ’76 and learned there were other teams besides football on campus. Eight of whom had already won SEC titles. I enjoyed broadening my horizons while there. The basketball teams winning percentage was 44% while I was there and they may have been playing in the smallest venue in the SEC. The Baseball team was pretty good but could never get out of the Atlantic Regional. Miami was always too good and won the Regional and moved on to the college World Series.
But times changed. Stormin’ Norman and Leaving Lon got us out of Egypt but never quite to the Promised Land. Baseball started adding Regional Championships(and World Series appearances) to their already impressive list of SEC titles. Football broke through with a National Championship(but still trailed Men’s Golf, Women’s Golf, Men’s Swimming, Women’s Swimming, Women’s Tennis)(but were tied with Gymnastics and Women’s Track.) Then came Saint Billy and we had the only Football/Basketball Double title AND the only starting five to ever win two championships in a row.
But there was still baseball. The Gators eventually got to the point of having #1 ranked teams in the World Series only to lose two in a row and be ousted. We’d bring 3 future Major League pitchers to Omaha but lose 2-1 and 3-2 and be going home.

…..but then….

Alex pitches 14 1/3 shutout innings, Brady strikes out 12, the freshman pitches like Logan Shore and Sullivan figures “I’ll go big or go home” and puts his last live arm in the game in a desperate attempt to keep Robertson from scoring….and it works….he was out by a good 4 inches.

So we beat our 2nd biggest rival for our first football title, beat the most storied program in college basketball for our first basketball title and then beat the most successful baseball program in the SEC for our first World Series Title.
It’s Great to be a Gator.