Tiger Band Makes UF News
Tiger Band Makes UF News
Real UF Pride Missing From Home Games
Oct. 11 is a night that will live in Baton Rouge
legend, as unforgettable on the LSU campus as any since
the day New Orleans' drinking age reverted to 21 again.
Believe it. Beating UF on Saturday was bigger than
anything LSU has experienced in possibly forever.
Consecutive baseball national championships and NCAA
track and field titles amount to leftover squat when
placed next to a college football upset of a No.1 team .
And it started with the band.
Drumbeats thundered through an otherwise silent Death
Valley as the band, in straight columns, marched across
the field. When it pivoted and played the Tiger fight
song to a particular corner of the stadium, that portion
of fans erupted with spine-chilling cheers.
The fans were not only paying attention, they were
anticipating something. An upset? Not yet, just the
excitement of college football played at home.
And the band as a source of energy? How novel. Face
it. UF's Pride of the Sunshine couldn't excite its way
out of a wet paper bag. Instead of spelling "Gators" in
that absurd triangle font, the band should work on
choreographing the word "apathy" at midfield.
Not that
UF fans don't feed on extra portions of apathy pie
themselves. But perhaps they are not to blame. After
all, 82-6 thrashings and a band playing Kansas tunes
tends to spoil competitive tension.
Maybe that's what was great about
Saturday night- That's right, great. A college football
game with excitement. Nothing says boredom like Ben Hill
Griffin Stadium. The stadium dorm should be rededicated
"yawn" hall for all the anticlimaticism it endures.
Sure, Most gator fans
maintained moderate intensity against Tennessee last
month. Bo Carroll's game-opening kickoff return against
Arkansas sparked an unusually raucous crowd response as
well. But should it be so easy to spotlight the moments
when fans were enthusiastic watching the No. 1 team in
the nation?
When does Florida Field get really vocal? Booing UF
punter Robby Stevenson. A punter. Getting booed. In
20- plus point victories. Nice tradition.
It would be
ridiculous to say the crowd won the game for LSU, or
perhaps even affected the Gators much. But it certainly
fired the Tigers up.
And if the day began
with the band , it surely ended with the fans, thousands
of whom took to tearing up turf, wanting to take home a
tangible souvenir of the upset in which they very much
played a part.
They
deserved a piece of sod for their efforts. Even more,
they deserved the win. Strike up a victory for the 12th
man.
By: Alligator Columnist Trey Woodard
© 1999