Its Great to Be a Florida Gator¡¡¡¡¡¿¿¿¿¿¿ The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The "Lady Gators" is an alternative nickname sometimes used by the Gators women's teams. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as the "Gator Nation." The Florida Gators athletic program has been recognized as the best overall in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) over the past two decades, and consistently as one of the best in the nation. During the 2011--12 school year, the Gators men's and women's teams combined to win the Southeastern Conference All-Sports Trophy for the twenty-second time in the past twenty-five years.[1] Every year since 1983, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has recognized the Gators athletic program as one of the ten best overall Division I athletic programs in the country in its annual NACDA Directors' Cup standings.[2] The Florida Gators men's athletic program won the inaugural Capital One Cup in 2011, awarded annually based on the performances of all the teams in the program.[3] Among the Gators' recent national championships, the Florida Gators men's basketball team won the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournaments, and the Florida Gators football team won 2007 BCS National Championship Game in football, all in the space of 366 days.[4] Florida is the only school in NCAA history to hold the men's basketball and football championships during the same school year.[4] In January 2009, the Florida Gators football team won the 2009 BCS National Championship Game with a 24--14 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners.[5] The Gators won the NCAA men's indoor track and field championship in three consecutive seasons in 2010, 2011 and 2012,[6] the NCAA women's swimming and diving team national championship in 2010,[7][8] the NCAA women's tennis championship in 2011 and 2012,[9] the NCAA men's outdoor track and field championship in 2012 and 2013, and the NCAA women's gymnastics championship in 2013, earning the university a total of thirty-one national team championships.[10] Individual Gator athletes have won 249 individual NCAA championships in boxing, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field.[11] All Gators sports teams compete in NCAA Division I,[12] and twenty of the twenty-one Gators teams compete in the SEC.[13] The University of Florida was one of the thirteen charter members who joined together to form the new Southeastern Conference on December 8 and 9, 1932.[14] Previously, the university was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1912 to 1921,[15] and the Southern Conference from 1922 until the SEC began play in the fall of 1933.[16] The University of Florida sports teams adopted orange and blue as their official colors in 1910, purportedly representing a combination of the main colors of the two primary institutions that merged to form the university in 1905.[17] The alligator, or "gator," was incidentally chosen as Florida's mascot when a Gainesville merchant sold school pennants with an alligator emblem in 1911.[17][18] Albert and Alberta are the official costumed mascots of the Florida Gators.[19] Albert and Alberta are unique among the SEC's mascots as the only male-and-female pair. All Florida Gators sports teams have on-campus facilities, and most are located on Stadium Road, including Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for football,[20] the O'Connell Center for basketball,[21][22] gymnastics,[23] swimming and diving,[24] indoor track and field,[25] and volleyball,[26] Alfred A. McKethan Stadium for baseball,[27] and James G. Pressly Stadium for soccer[28] and outdoor track and field.[29] The Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium and the Florida Lacrosse Facility are located on Hull Road on the southwestern side of the campus.[30][31] The Mark Bostick Golf Course and Scott Linder Stadium for tennis are located on S.W. Second Avenue on the northwestern side of the campus.[32][33][34] The University of Florida fielded an official varsity football team for the first time in 1906, defeating the Gainesville Athletic Club 6--0 in its first game. Since then, the Gators have played in thirty-seven bowl games, won three National Championships (1996, 2006, 2008) and eight Southeastern Conference Championships, and produced 138 All-Americans, forty-two National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices and three Heisman Trophy winners. The Gators' most prominent current football rivals are SEC Eastern Division foes Georgia and Tennessee, annual SEC Western Division opponent LSU, and in-state rival Florida State from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Florida has historically shared rivalries with Auburn and Miami, too, but those games are no longer played annually and have lessened in intensity.

• published: 15 Jan 2014
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