Getting old and just kinda taking an inventory of the championships that were a part of my life. 1996 - UF football, the 52-20 curb stomping of fsu for our first Natty in football. Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel (Danny was very fun), Ike Hilliard, Reidel Anthony and others too numerous to mention. A revenge game. The greatest championship of all time, by any team, in any sport. A National Championship won not just by beating, but by drubbing, and at the same time preventing, our biggest rival (yes, bigger than GA), another in-State school from winning. HUGE! 2002 - UF women’s tennis! An extremely exciting 4-3 win over a favored #1 ranked Stanford club that had previously owned them/us. 2003 - Buccaneers win a Superbowl. I’m not a huge pro sports fan, but, it’s nice when your local team (I live in St. Pete) wins a championship. The Bucs went through years and years of being a laughing stock, it was nice to have them win it all. 2004 - The Lightning win a Stanley Cup, and I was there! The only championship I’ve ever seen in person. It was thrilling. Nose bleed seats with my oldest daughter, and we were hoarse from yelling/cheering. It was fun seeing players skate around the ring with the cup held high, then hand it off to a teammate to do the same. Nice tradition. 2006 - UF basketball, just incredible. Horford, Humphrey, Brewer, Noah and Green, with a bit of Chris Richard too. What a pleasure. What a surprise run, and pure joy. 2006 - UF football, shut the mouthy, disgusting, Ohio State fan base up. Tebow and Leak. 2007 - UF basketball, “we back baby”. The repeat! And f’n glorious too. I loved our basketball championships. 2008 - UF football, Tebow! And, while the end of the greatest, most gluttonous run in the history of college sports, it was a glorious time. 2011 - UF women’s tennis, again! Another 4-3 win over favored, and #1 ranked Stanford, this time on their home courts and in dramatic come-from-behind fashion. Very tense and wonderful. 2017 - UF Baseball! And the trilogy is complete! A HUGE championship. UF breaks through, while fsu never does! UF becomes the only school this century to win championships in the 3 major sports! 2020 - The Lightning. 2021 - And the Lightning again. 2021 - The Buccaneers win another Superbowl. Brady winning one away from New England made this fun. 2021 - UF’s Men’s Tennis wins it’s/their first ever Natty! 2023 - UF Men’s Golf gets past fsu and then goes on to win the National Championship. These were nail bitingly great matches. 15. May have missed a few, and yes enjoyed pretty much everything from afar, not in person, but I feel blessed to have had these championship pleasures in my life.
UF's 06-08 run in football and basketball is the best run in NCAA history. And that's not up for debate either. Never done before and I don't see it happening again anytime soon. We should do what the '72 Dolphins do and share a toast every time the football champion gets knocked out of (or doesn't make) March Madness.
A lot of good ones, the 2011 women’s tennis final is maybe the most underrated championship event in UF history, crazy exciting. It had an 11 page thread here I think. UF had been down 3-1, won two matches to tie it, so it came down to the final match, then a final set tiebreak, against Stanford, at Stanford, who had something like a 200 match home win streak. And even that tiebreak went beyond 7 points. Lauren Embree found a way against future WTA tour Mallory Burdette player to win that tiebreak 8-6. I would add the first softball and gymnastics titles too.
Forgot softball and gymnastics; my bad. I loved ‘em. And while not a big spectator sport, I do very much appreciate all of the Track and Field National Championships as well.
Oh yes, a HUGE championship. Against heavily favored UNC. A great win, for the ages. Haven’t come close since. A great championship.
I started undergrad in '88. Life didn't make me a fan as a child, so I didn't experience '78 or run Lindsey run and endure that level of futility/pain, but we had some tough times BS (before Spurrier): Losing to Memphis State at home (yes they were Mem St back then), losing first years to GA, getting blown out by FSU and seemingly never winning in Tally, no SEC championships, etc. After several years in my career, I returned to UF in 05 for a terminal degree. Being back on campus for those four championships was sublime.
Speaking to the football titles, I always considered the ‘06 team to be the weakest of the three. But after watching Swamp Kings a couple times, I’m not so sure. There were some absolute maniacs on that team, the biggest being Siler (and I mean that with the upmost respect and praise). They weren’t as explosive as ‘96 and ‘08, but they’d be the last team I’d want to pick a fight with.
I've had a weird sports journey. We had no Florida baseball teams when I was little so I was a Dodger's fan. Saw them win a couple in my youth. I converted to a Reds fan when we moved (temporarily) to my dads hometown of Cincinnati my Freshman year of HS. (We moved back to Florida just a year or so later) The Reds won the 1990 WS. I was a Bucs fan as a kid, but they were terrible and My dad kept scoring tickets to drive across Alligator Alley to watch some guy named Marino. I was at the famous Bears game and I was there the night Marino and Clayton both set the all time records in a Monday Night game vs Dallas....I was hooked...The Bucs have always remained a close 2nd, but I cant technically claim them though, I suppose. I was rooting hard in both cases when they won the Superbowl and they are still my dads lifelong team. So for me and my CURRENT teams (since Tampa Bay got the Rays and Bolts) it is Gators football (x3), Hoops (x2), baseball and Lightning (x3). With Rays winning two pennants. But pre Rays I did get to celebrate a couple of WS titles for my team. (Reds in 1990 in particular). As A dolphins fan, they did win 2 SB in my lifetime, but I was born in 72 so they were barely in my lifetime. Still waiting on the Rays and Magic to get 'chips so all my teams will have one.
That's what made the Bucs '02 SB so damn special though. For like 2 decades, they were lucky to win 5-6 games in a season, and got no respect. Then, after Hugh Culverhouse kicked the bucket and the Glazers bought the team, it was a steady climb to respectability, then the top. the '99 league champinship game where the might bucs' D held "the greatest show on turf" to a scant 10 points...then got ripped on that BS call... that shit hurt. And that hurt, is what let you know the bucs had arrived. That '02 SB win over the Raiduhs... was just awesome--completely against expectations, and a complete beat down. The precursor to the Defensive heavy Gators dismantling Ohio State in '06. Same set up, same result, same euphoric feeling. The problem with the Dolphins, was that they had already hit the pinnacle ('72-'73--including of course, 'the perfect season'), and the expectations were always there. Even had they won in '83 or '84, it couldn't come close to touching the Bucs' in '02--much like the Gators in '96 (after decades of...no nattys, while the canes were racking 'em up like they were no big deal...). jmho/fwiw.
^^^On that note--the next Gator natty is bound to feel like the first. ...been a long ass time... (Ditto for your fins. Gonna feel like the first time, I'm sure).
