SAN ANTONIO — Drink up, Gator Nation.
Gobble this up and gorge yourself on what you just experienced.
It’s been a long time, baby!
You deserve it.
For years, University of Florida faithful have been stranded on a deserted island of fandom, surviving on the bitter berries and hard-shelled nuts disguised as second-tier bowl games and early exits from the NCAA Tournament.
It had been nearly two decades since the Gators last played for — and won — a national title in either football or basketball.
Until now.
Until this manic Monday night, when the Florida Gators – Coach Todd Golden’s amazing, hair-raising, reach-for-the-sky, never-say-die Florida Gators – somehow, some way rallied once again to defeat the Houston Cougars 65-63 to win it all in the Alamodome.
You heard me, the Gators are National Chompions once again!
“The Gator Boys are back!” exclaimed star player Walter Clayton Jr. as orange-and-blue confetti rained down from the rafters.
And Gator Nation – after all these years, all these tears and all these crying-in-their-beers – is back, too.
Gator fans didn’t just celebrate this title — they devoured it. They relished every rebound, every three-pointer, every defensive stand in this magical March Madness run. Let’s face it — when you’ve been a castaway for years, eating bugs and collecting rainwater just to survive, that first bite of warm bread and cold beer back in civilization hits you differently.
When you’ve endured hunger and heartbreak, you don’t take a national championship feast for granted.
As someone wise once said: “Without adversity, how would we really know what joy feels like?”
“You can just tell how hungry our fans are and how much they’ve loved this ride,” UF forward Thomas Haugh said. “Honestly, I think they have enjoyed it even more than we have.”
Mike McGinnis, a former Gator from the 1960s and a longtime booster, said it best before the game even started: “No doubt about it, when you’ve suffered a little bit, the success tastes all that much sweeter.”
And oh, how sweet this one was.
Golden’s Gators, down by 12, pulled off one of the biggest second-half comebacks in championship game history while Golden, at age 39, became the youngest head coach to win the title since Jim Valvano in 1983. Valvano, 37, also beat Houston and the famous Clyde Drexler-Hakeem Olajuwon “Phi Slamma Jamma” Cougars.
This Houston team came in as the top defensive unit in the country and wanted to turn this game into a barroom brawl. The Gators gladly obliged them and then proceeded to outslug and outmug the battle-hardened Cougars. Until Monday night, Houston had been 33-0 when holding opponents under 70 points.
And who would have ever thought the Gators could win when Clayton, the team’s star who accounted for 64 points in the previous two games, didn’t score his first point Monday night until the 14:57 mark of the second half and didn’t make his first field goal until there was 7:54 left in the game?
Didn’t matter.
Will Richard kept the Gators within striking distance by hitting four threes in the first half and held down the fort until Clayton got going later in the game. And how ironic that it was Florida’s ...
