As I loaded stuff into a car for my first trip to Florida, courtesy of OU’s appearance in the national championship game, I thought I knew what to expect: a sprawling metro area, crowded with people, especially nasty Florida fans.
I was wrong. Instead of a metropolis packed with people, I found cities surrounded by deciduous forests and scattered wetlands. Instead of Gator fans with insults ready, I found friendly people who were happy to greet Oklahomans — if they even knew why we were there.
My first clue that my time in Miami would be very unlike ventures to Stillwater or Dallas for the Red River Rivalry came as my group got to Gainesville and someone decided to put some OU flags on the car.
However, the Gainesville natives didn’t seem too disturbed by our presence.
A few miles down the road, an accident brought traffic to a standstill on Highway 95. For 20 minutes, we walked around the while Florida fans threw a football around and had no problem tossing it to people in OU gear.
Once we reached Miami, I was surprised to find that many people were not as enthusiastic about the game as I expected. The manager of our hotel asked why we were in town. He didn’t understand why so many people from Oklahoma were staying at his hotel.
Once settled, we went out to tour the streets of the Miami and South beach areas. Two clubs down the street from one another were hosting pre-game parties, and in our single taste of typical college-football feeling, Florida fans yelled “Gator Bait!” at our passing car. We responded with a salvo of “Boomer Sooner!”
The Thursday of the big game I decided to grab lunch near the beach, and I dropped in at a quaint Mediterranean cafe. The man who found me a place to sit asked me a curious question.
“Did Oklahoma make the national championship? ” he said.
While enjoying some delicious shish kebabs and people watching, I realized that fans of both teams were pretty tame, and inhabitants of the Miami area were generally unconcerned with the game.
Even when we arrived to the stadium, we didn’t encounter problems from Gator fans. We didn’t receive a single threat while walking through the heart of Gator tailgating territory.
After the game, we exited quietly, accepting defeat. Many Florida fans said, “Hey, it was a good game,” and shook our hands.
I couldn’t claim to have anything but respect for Florida fans.
Of course, I couldn’t help but wonder how different my experience — and my level of respect for our opponents — would have been if OU had been playing not Florida, but Miami, for the national championship.
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saxman 3 years, 4 months ago
Glad you got that respect. We got everything but respect.