Gator Bait Returns, But Not All Agree on Its Revival
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium saw 90,295 people cram the stands when Florida football won 66-21 in its season-opener against Florida Atlantic on Sept. 5. It also saw the return of the once-banned “Gator Bait” chant.
The chant was initially popularized by former Florida football player Lawrence Wright, who said, “If you ain’t a gator, you’re gator bait, baby” after a win against Florida State in 1995.
In a statement to the UF community on June 18, 2020, during a wake of unrest across the country after George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement, former Florida president Kent Fuchs said, “while I know of no evidence of racism associated with our ‘Gator Bait’ cheer at UF sporting events, there is horrific racist imagery associated with the phrase.”
Such imagery included art of alligator hunters using Black babies to lure alligators, which was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to The Associated Press.
UF President Stuart Bell said to 1010XL radio in June that he had been thinking about the “traditions that meant so much at Florida, and traditions matter.” Regarding the “Gator Bait” cheer, Bell said it was “meaningful to the Gator family, and I hope that we’re able to have some really great conversations around that.
Bell echoed the same sentiment in an interview with Steve Russell on WRUF.
“Traditions matter, and really bringing our Gator Nation back, lot of fans experience a lot of excitement,” Bell said. “The feedback has been positive.”
UF Interim Vice President for Communications and Marketing Steve Orlando wrote in an email that the university “found no evidence” in a review “that the tradition at the University of Florida originated from or was based on anything negative or inconsistent with the values of our university.”
The revival re-ignited debates across the University of Florida community that started when the tradition was originally banned.
“Totally ridiculous,” Florida booster Bert Bevis said of the chant being classified as a “racist remark.”
Bevis, who is in his 50th year as a booster, said “it (the chant) was never intended to be that, and I’m really happy the university brought the ‘Gator Bait’ cheer back to Gator land.”
Florida fan Lesa Kaleel, who has taught history for 35 years, found the 2020 ban disappointing because it’s “part of Gator history.”
“I’ve never in my mind ever associated ‘Gator Bait’ with Black babies, ever,” Kaleel said.
Not everyone in the community shares the same opinion, however.
UF student Isaac Cabiac said that the cheer “should probably be re-banned due to its racist undertones, especially if it has communal implications and people have recognized the existence of racist undertones.”
Mackenson Saintilus, a UF senior and member of the Progressive Black Men chapter, said he knows people who have “strong opinions” about the chant returning. He shared some of those opinions as well.
“Instituting it back, despite trying to follow traditions, it’s almost like a slap in the face, especially with recent DEI measures of that nature (specifically referring to DEI funds being removed at UF),” Saintilus said.
While Saintilus agreed with the sentiment that traditions matter, he also felt context matters too.
“You can’t look at things at face value,” Saintilus said. “For a big university like this that represents a very large scale of students, I think it’s probably best for them to play it safe, and something like that (the chant) should just be kind of just like history.”
UF fifth-generation student Jack Koch also found the context behind “Gator Bait” important, but saw it differently from Saintilus.
“I’ve never seen it in a racist context,” Koch said Monday. “I really think that we’re saying it to support our guys in no racist context. I really think that goes for a lot of things. And honestly, it should be brought back, and I’m glad it is.”
Florida two-time national champion Brandon Spikes found outrage over the chant to be overblown.
“I think people in today’s world are looking for a reason to be sensitive and complain about something,” Spikes said.
UF assistant African American studies professor Kevin Winstead did not share his opinion about the decision to bring back “Gator Bait.” He instead looked at the issue from another perspective.
“It’s not so much the question of whether or not it’s appropriate or not for any particular time, more so than it being a reflection of the value systems that we have at any particular time,” Winstead said.
Winstead also said he can “almost guarantee” that “we will have these conversations in the future. And we may be in the same place in the future, or we might change.”
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Football
