Written by Chris Kirschner
Gainesville has recently become synonymous with winning national championships, both in basketball and football. Winning has become a pastime for Gators, and football takes over everything in the fall. Even if you come here knowing nothing about it, you will be very familiar with football by the time you leave. Definitely go to a game to experience what it feels like to bop out of the stadium after a home victory, with you and 90,000 of your closest friends all chanting, “It’s great to be a Florida Gator!” so loudly your ears buzz. If you’re not converted after that, well, you can always head for the hills on game day and come back when the smoke clears.
For those of you who don’t just like to watch sports, UF makes it easy to get involved. You can get an intramural team together yourself or sign up as a “free agent” on a men’s team, women’s team, coed team, or graduate/faculty/staff team, depending of course on your wishes and your University classification. Despite the fact that they often require members to help pay for traveling and so on, club sports are also extremely popular here—sponsors try hard to keep fees low, and anyway, how else are you gonna get involved with badminton on a competitive basis? However, as cool as IM/club sports are, they will always be a little overshadowed by the varsity sports.