I remember when GC had an "insider" that worked in the athletic department. Everyone tried to figure out who it was.
Wow! Thanks for uncovering a lost memory. I hadn't thought of Gator Bait magazine in years. David Stirt, right? Is he still around? Disregard the question if he's a GC competitor. As a bit of a hoarder, I bet I'll run across some old Gator Bait magazines as my wife forces me to look through boxes and throw stuff out. Always fun to look at old Gator mags like that. I too used to call the 800 number to get recruiting updates, and I believe that somehow led me into joining Gator Country near its beginnings - again, to keep up with recruiting. But, GC has provided so much more than just recruiting info over the years.
Ah yes, the 1-800 number for signing day. Marty Cohen would read out the signees as they sent in their paperwork. He would read slower and slower as the day went on. The intro would get longer and longer as the day went on and he would purposefully read the list, in chronological order, dragging out the announcement of the newest till the bitter end. The next year I just called the free Sentinel hotline of Bill Buchalter. That saved a ton of money. It was almost like paying $ to get the weather report. I think Marty works for the cable company now, helping them get their bills to grow every month. Just kidding. As everyone jumps on the THIS IS YOUR LIFE bandwagon, I am waiting for Gabby Hayes and other Gator faithful to tell us how they went over to the WESTERN UNION office in Yuma Arizona at the turn of the century, and waited for the next transmission, everyone throwing a few dollars into the pot. Very exciting. I think Gator Country was simply called THE DAILY BUGLE back then. Ray wasn’t even Solari either. We just called him Ole Ray. Exciting.
Started way back with gator bait and when swampy first came on not sure when but a long time ago saw my first game in 1951
Who was the radio personality on wruf 850 that came on after gator games back in the 80’s and 90’s and hosted the call in show? He also did some sideline reporting during games. He may have worked for David Stirt at Gatorbait.
I too was a loyal GatorBait subscriber and I was addicted to the call-in line. The line wasn’t the clearest and with the early updates Marty would speak fast and as the class filled he would slow down like Steve said. I learned to record the call so I could go back over the info to make sure I had everything right. There was Buchalter and a couple of National guys but no real access to information about who liked us or who we were recruiting, just some newspaper lists. I got a call in 1995 from a friend who said go check out this new website Gator Country and I’ve been here ever since. I remember the site used to load with “Awesome Gator Country Logo” and then the GC banner logo would appear. I added a few other websites over the years and ultimately dropped all those other sites but I never left Gator Country. I was originally “AFloridaMan” but had a problem years ago and reached out to Gator Growl who helped me out. We had to close my account and reopen it and the system wouldn’t let me keep my name so I became G8trSnapper.
He went north i think. I think he finally ended up in Rochester doing moose sightings. Just kidding. He is a sportscaster in NYC and does play by play for all the food riots.
My degrees are elsewhere but I fell in love with the Gators in the spring of 1964 while running in the Florida Relays as a collegian. I was so impressed with the campus. A teammate was so impressed that he visited the Chemistry Department and eventually obtained his Phd from UF. That gentlemen went on to become a Department Head at my alma mater.
Well, that is a bit of tid I didn't know. I used to attend some of his live broadcasts at Paul's place.
I joined in 1995 when I became the proud owner of my first PC, a Gateway 2000. Was on the GatorNet list serve as well. My original handle was either NYC Gator or NYC_Gator, cannot remember which. After one of the server switches, someone else took it, so I went with what I have now. During the SOS years, we even tailgated together on occasion. A fun group. Go Gators!!!!
This brings back many good memories. I first started following recruiting when the Gators signed Emmit Smith. Gus Garcia and I got together at the Circuit City in Brandon to buy GE Superradios to listen to Bill King. Did all the call-in stuff and followed Gus through list serve, Prodigy, GEnie, to Gator Country. Been here ever since. Still the best site on the net. Solari has done a great job, but I still think of Gus when the Gators win a big one, on the field and in recruiting. BTW, I still have my Superradio and it still works great. Go Gators!
True. One enterprising Gator pulled a fire alarm to empty the building. He figured the only person left..would still be in the building. Hence...the true insider. Erroneously, he later declared the “insiders” were all members of Fire Station 306.
