Homecoming ‘24

Used to be touted as largest student homecoming production in the country: or something like that. Bob Hope, Ray Romano, Larry the Cable Guy ( before he was famous) many more appeared at Gator Growl. I was there for Hope and a tad disappointed but Ray Romano was very good. Today Gator Growl seems like an afterthought.

 

Old people ruined GG.

 

Everyone is looking at their phone and/or gaming on their PC. With Netflix playing in the background.

 

Lol... the UAA has been accused of not liking football. Who knows what the deal is and why it's not as big a deal as it used to be. But I remember when it was a huge deal and famous people used to come to town for Gator Growl. A freaking concert would be nice.

 

Hopefully they still have the Halloween ball! Saw things there one could only see . . . well . . . there.

 

Don't forget Robin Williams and his friend, "Mr. Happy."

 

It used to be so much fun watching all the highlights from the football games. The skits were pretty good too.

 

It went from all student skits when I was there in the 70's, to some student skits with big name entertainers thereafter, to almost nothing now.

Not sure what happened exactly, but I do know the student skits could be pretty raunchy, so alumni with kids complained, then big name entertainers came and some of them were raunchy and the student skits still were too, so...

I'll never forget my first growl when they announced the Homecoming Queen, and an almost full stadium lit lighters.

 

Growl was an incredibly unique thing. Sad that it is basically gone, but I suspect money may have played a part. It used to be free, but then when big entertainment became a part, they needed to sell tickets, and maybe UF couldn't make it work. I dunno.

 

It’s still going on. I think it’s in the ODome instead of the Swamp now. Haven’t been to one since the early to mid 2000s, so…

 

I believe one issue was that when game starts were determined by tv. When some games had to start at noon there wasn’t time to clean the stadium and get the field ready

 

I was too young for Robin Williams, but my favorites were Sinbad and Anthony Clark.

 

True in part, the other being that when the field went to grass, it got pretty chewed up during growl.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever come back to its former glory. The fraternities and sororities (and Blue Key, but that's redundant) really drove the event. They can't even be bothered to build a float anymore or decorate their houses. Kinda sad.

 

I remember Ray Romano. He was terrible but I believe he was there for the older crowd so maybe they liked him. Dave Chappelle (pre Chappelle show popularity) opened up and he killed it. Some idiot in the crowd had a laser pointer and he handled it very well and got laughs out of it.

 

My first Growl was Robin Williams doing his early '80's standup - NOT family friendly material. Between him and the student skits, which were even raunchier, next year we got Bob Hope.

Seemed like it was all downhill from there.

 

This year is my 50 year graduation ceremony, but I’m out of state and won’t be able to enjoy the festivities.

I remember Walkin’ Lawton, lighting candles, seniors riding on the floats., Buddy Ebsen at Gator Growl.

 

I remember Bob Hope being unfunny for about five minutes, and then telling the audience he was going to leave the stage and come back on because he was filming it for something or other. He asked for a big, warm welcome. When he came back on, everyone booed.

As much as I loved the Robin Williams show, it was over the top raunchy. Alumni went apeshit.

 

Get off my lawn