It was pretty cool. The night before the Florida Gator football team beat the Ohio State Buckeyes in Arizona for the NCAA National Football Championship.
As we flew into Gainesville Tuesday there were several "live" trucks from all the TV stations parked by the tarmac.
If you have not had the pleasure of visiting the Gainesville Regional Airport it a little smaller than your local Wal-Mart, it has one or two gates and only accommodates a few commuter planes at a time.
There was a large jet parked on the runway in front of our plane and my first thought was “cool, we are arriving with the football team,” my realization was the Florida alumni plane was returning from Arizona and the football team was a couple of hours behind them.
As we walked from our plane to the terminal we were greeted with “Gator Chomps” and other Florida related cheers. The TV guys who were waiting for the team must have been bored because they were filming people getting their luggage and interviewing anyone wearing orange and blue.
By tip-off at the basketball game the stands of the O’Connell Center were jam-packed. We knew the football team was coming to the game after they arrived in Gainesville and figured that was why the crowd was so big. Sure enough at halftime the entire football team along with the National Championship trophy piled onto the floor at half-court.
The place nearly exploded.
Coach Urban Meyer spoke and then let some of the players take the mike.
The energy in the arena was unbelievable and the whole scene was pretty cool. It was a mix of unbridled enthusiasm and total chaos.
Following Monday’s victory Florida became the first school in history to hold the national championships in both football and basketball. Some of the fans made their own trophies and brought them to the game.
Although we weren’t in Gainesville Monday for the “big” party the whole night was pretty cool.
By the way, Arkansas lost the basketball game to Florida 79-72.
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