Gator Growl (At Homecoming)?

I dressed up as a "Devo"

 

I was at the one with Chapelle, too. Carlos Mencia opened for Chapelle and Romano. I remember Mencia being the best of the three.

 

Sad. Gator Growl was originally a totally student led pep rally and homecoming celebration to honor the homecoming queen and football team. All of the skits when I hit UF in '73 were done by students, mostly frats and sororities. Players were introduced, and so was the homecoming queen; when she was introduced, everyone lit matches or lighters. With 60k people in attendance, it was magical.

The student skits, even then, were not totally family oriented, and some were bad, but the crowds were still there. The fact that it was all student produced made it even funnier. When they went to hired entertainment in the late '70's it started to lose the same feel. Your friends and fellow students weren't producing or participating in it. Even though some of the student skits were a bit raunchy, they were nothing like what the big name entertainers brought.

The event got big, and Blue Key and Student Government that ran it didn't know what to do; not being professionals in this venture, they farmed the entertainment out to professional comedians. They ruined it.

But.. I ushered at Growl in '73 and '74, before the professional entertainers, and I don't remember seating many people with children. I do not think it was ever intended to be an event for children.

 

That was my first Growl. It wasn’t terribly memorable haha.

 

Used to love Growl and went for most of the 90s even after I graduated. Loved Anthony Clark and Sinbad. I missed the raunchier shows, but I can understand Florida Blue Key trying to appease what they thought was the masses. I guess looking at it now, it probably is better it cater to the 20,000 students as I’m not sure you can get 20,000 alums and their family on a yearly basis.

 

I remember a packed stadium, the FAMU band, skits and spectacular fireworks.

 

And that was just the part we saw before she got booed off the stage.

 

Dane Cook. So unfunny that he killed an eighty year tradition.

 

Does not compute