All Hail Gator Nation: How the University of Florida Made History

It was indeed the Year of the Gator.

 

The University of Florida was everywhere in the last twelve months: football, baseball, basketball—give them time and they might run golf and hockey too. Or tennis, since Joakim Noah's dad Yannick knows his way around a court.

 

In any event, here's the story...more like a trip down memory lane...of how the University of Florida made sports history in 2006-2007.

 

It all started in the spring of '06, when the Gators beat UCLA for the NCAA basketball championship. That win started a chain reaction of epic proportions, and turned Gator Nation into the sort of strong-armed empire unseen since the days of Al Capone.

Take the 2006 NBA Finals. With the help of two former Florida players, Jason Williams and Udonis Haslem, the Miami Heat upset the Dallas Mavericks—and left Mark Cuban to stew in his adult diaper for another year.

In the 2006 World Series, most baseball experts had the St. Louis Cardinals pegged to get mauled by the Detroit Tigers. The sports gods, though, had other things in mind, and the Cards took the title four games to one. The MVP of the series? Surprise, surprise: Florida alumnus David Eckstein. 

And then came January 2007. At the end of 2006, Michigan and Florida were neck and neck in the race to face Ohio State for the BCS National Championship. The Gators earned the nod by decimating Florida State and Arkansas for the SEC title...then did their Nation proud by dominating the Ohio State Buckeyes 41-14 en route to their first championship in the post-Steve Spurrier era.

Gators basketball coach Billy Donovan was at the game. So was Ohio State coach Thad Matta. Little did they know they'd see each other again in April.

After beating Arkansas in the SEC tournament, Joakim Noah and the Gators danced their way into America's living room. It didn't matter who tried to stop them Florida was determined to run the table. And they did...by beating Ohio State (again!) to become the NCAA's first back-to-back champions since Duke turned the trick in 1991-92.

Even better: Florida also became the first school in history to win football and basketball championships in the same academic year. Pretty impressive, eh?

 

And don't go thinking the show's over. Sure, it's been a good ride, and the Gators have chomped on trophies faster than the sports world could deliver them...but don't be surprised if Florida keeps its dominant run going through the summer. And Gator Nation will need it, too, because Florida's got a major showdown scheduled with Kentucky in the coming months.

 

The prize?

 

Billy Donovan's coaching services.