Six years after it was banned for its racist overtones, the "Gator Bait" cheer reutrned Saturday in Gainesville for Florida's 2026 college football opener.
The Universitty of Florida's marching band played the cheer in the first quarter of the Gators' Sept. 5 game against Florida Atlantic for the first time since then-president Ken Fuchs banned it at football games in 2020.
Former UF defensive star Lawrence Wright popularized the term in 1995 after a win over rival Florida State when he said, "If you ain't a Gator, ya Gator bait, baby." The phrase caught on with the Florida faithful during the team's run of success under coach Steve Spurrier.
Even though Fuchs acknowledged the cheer itself wasn't racist, he based his decision on the "historic racist imagery **** ociated with the phrase." The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University said that newspaper articles and imagery from the late 19th and early 20th century depicted African American babies as alligator bait, a term that was also used as a slur for Black people.
#bait
The Universitty of Florida's marching band played the cheer in the first quarter of the Gators' Sept. 5 game against Florida Atlantic for the first time since then-president Ken Fuchs banned it at football games in 2020.
Former UF defensive star Lawrence Wright popularized the term in 1995 after a win over rival Florida State when he said, "If you ain't a Gator, ya Gator bait, baby." The phrase caught on with the Florida faithful during the team's run of success under coach Steve Spurrier.
Even though Fuchs acknowledged the cheer itself wasn't racist, he based his decision on the "historic racist imagery **** ociated with the phrase." The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University said that newspaper articles and imagery from the late 19th and early 20th century depicted African American babies as alligator bait, a term that was also used as a slur for Black people.
#bait
2 months ago
