The Chant Returns in Gainesville
The University of Florida brought back the “Gator Bait” cheer Saturday during the Gators’ game against the Florida Atlantic Owls at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. The cheer, long known for fans stretching out their arms and clapping them like an alligator’s jaws, had been shelved in June 2020. Video from the season opener circulated on X, showing the UF marching band performing the cheer and fans responding inside the stadium. For many Florida supporters, it was the return of a familiar game-day tradition that had been placed in storage during one of the more tense chapters in recent campus politics.
Why The Cheer Was Removed
In 2020, then-University of Florida President Kent Fuchs said the phrase carried concerns because of historic racist imagery from the late 1800s and early 1900s, including depictions tied to alligator hunting. At the same time, Fuchs also said he knew of no evidence that racism was connected to the “Gator Bait” cheer at UF sporting events. That was the central tension from the start: the school was not saying the actual stadium chant had racist intent or history on campus, but it still removed the cheer because the phrase had been used in ugly historic imagery elsewhere. Bureaucracies do enjoy making the simple complicated.
A New President Reopens The Door
Stuart Bell took over as university president in July and brought the cheer back, saying “traditions matter.” According to the source report, Bell had hinted months earlier that the cheer might return because it was meaningful to the Gator family. The move marks a clear shift from the decision made during the national upheaval after George Floyd’s death in May 2020, when schools, companies, and public institutions reevaluated symbols, phrases, and customs at high speed. In this case, Florida’s new leadership decided the evidence did not justify keeping a stadium tradition banned indefinitely.
The Videos From The Swamp
Several X posts captured the moment, including one noting that the UF marching band performed the cheer at the start of FAU’s second drive in the Gators’ season opener. Another post simply labeled the scene “Gator Bait,” while a third said the Florida band had brought the chant back after it had been banned for six years. The clips became the receipt for what fans in the stadium already knew: the chant was not just discussed in a memo or revived in theory, it was heard again in The Swamp.
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