‘Gator Bait’ cheer returns to UF soccer video games after 6 years

When the tubas and trombones of the UF Fightin’ Gator Marching Band performed throughout the first quarter at UF’s Sept. 5 recreation in opposition to Florida Atlantic, a crowd of keen Gator followers loudly welcomed the return of the notorious “Gator Bait” cheer.

After being retired six years in the past for its attainable connection to racist imagery, the “Gator Bait” cheer was revived this season to combined reactions when UF introduced its origin was unrelated.

The cheer, throughout which followers Gator Chomp whereas yelling “Gator Bait,” was a Gator soccer custom for twenty-four years. It was coined in 1996 from a comment by former participant Lawrence Wright, who yelled, “If you ain’t a Gator, you must be Gator Bait,” after the Gators received their first nationwide championship.

But after the rise of the Black Lives Matter motion in 2020, former UF President Kent Fuchs retired the mantra as a part of a wider effort to finish racist practices at UF, which additionally included taking down or renaming monuments devoted to Confederate leaders. He cited the cheer’s “horrific historic racist imagery” as the explanation for ending it.

The cheer has since been likened to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artwork depicting Black youngsters being fed to alligators as bait, and the phrase advanced right into a slur in opposition to African Americans, according to ESPN.

At the time, former participant Wright denounced the cheer’s discontinuation, saying it had nothing to do with the racist caricatures related to the phrase and was solely associated to soccer.

“I created something for us,” Wright said. “It’s not a racist thing. It’s about us, the Gator Nation.”

Steve Orlando, the UF interim vice chairman for communications and advertising and marketing, wrote in an electronic mail to The Alligator the cheer returned after the college concluded it was, in its context as a sports activities name, not racist. 

It’s unclear which member of UF’s administration reinstated the mantra.

The cheer returned once more throughout the residence recreation in opposition to the Campbell University Fighting Camels on Sept. 12.

Its authentic retirement got here out of respect for the circumstances and elevated scrutiny over exterior origins, Orlando stated, but it surely has a particular place in Florida athletics, so it’s again to remain.

“We were pleased to hear this longstanding tradition return to The Swamp and look forward to hearing it at Gator games for years to come,” he wrote.

Kevin Winstead, a UF assistant African American research professor who teaches about vital media and synthetic intelligence, stated meanings behind traditions naturally shift over time.

If UF consulted constituents and specialists and got here to its conclusion by means of analysis, he stated, then he feels its choice to reinstate the cheer is sound.

“We have to return collectively and be very intentional in deciding what sort of neighborhood we wish to be in,”  he stated.

In a June interview with 1010XL radio, UF President Stuart Bell said he was interested in the rise in discourse over the cheer. “Traditions matter,” he stated, and the talk offers followers the possibility to grasp its significance in The Swamp.

“It’s meaningful to the Gator family, and I hope we can have some really great conversations around that,” Bell stated.

Bell, who turned president in July, acknowledged as a candidate he wouldn’t push “woke” efforts, reminiscent of variety, fairness and inclusion insurance policies, at UF.

Jordan Costagliola, a 2025 UF journalism alumnus and former drum main for the Gator marching band, supported the ban. 

Its return, Costagliola stated, is disrespectful to those that trusted UF to make progressive change, and he discovered its revival distasteful as a result of it didn’t include a public assertion from UF.

“That was supposed to be indicative of progress,” Costagliola stated. ”[The ban] was one thing that perhaps confused individuals, however we didn’t simply try this for no cause.”

But different Gator followers share extra optimistic reactions to the mantra’s return. Matt Smith, a Gainesville native and lifelong Gator soccer fan, stated the cheer itself has no connection to racism. 

He pointed to the big proportion of Black gamers and the cheer’s creator, Wright. It could be hypocritical to make use of the cheer to assist a majority-Black group if it was meant to be racist, he stated.

“It has no racial divide,” Smith stated. “We’re literally just doing [it] because we’re Gator. You’re gator bait: You’re [an] opposing team.”

UF’s Black Student Union and the UF Fightin’ Gator Marching Band declined to remark.

Contact Sofia Garcia at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @sconsuelogarcia.

The Independent Florida Alligator has been unbiased of the college since 1971, your donation immediately may assist #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please take into account giving immediately.

---

Sofia Garcia

Sofia Garcia is a first-year journalism and political science double main at UF and serving as the scholar authorities reporter for Fall 2026. This is her first semester at The Alligator. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, enjoying video video games, or connecting along with her family and friends again residence in Miami.