The people who were cheered on Tuesday were unlike the pad-clad players of Sunday's Super Bowl and the bead-wearing revelers of Tuesday's Mardi Gras celebration.
These people, the recipients of so much yelling and clapping, were presidential candidates in business suits hoping for votes from the nationwide Super Tuesday primaries.
About 60 people - most of them students, and many of them from UF's College Democrats and College Republicans - filled the Orange and Brew Tuesday evening to watch the results pour in from primary elections held across the country.
The on-campus cafe's atmosphere, however, more closely resembled a football tailgate party than a special political affair.
It was an unquestionably huge day for the primary seasons of both parties. The results from more than 20 states across the country came in on the same day, each wielding powerful delegates who will go on to nominate a candidate for November's general election.
"This is a big deal," said Zach Moller, the president of the College Democrats. "Tsunami Tuesday is the closest thing we have to a national primary."
Though results from some states in the West came in later than press time, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both pulled in big wins.
Clinton's Northeast victories in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts and Obama's wins in Illinois, Georgia and Alabama assured the Democratic race would remain in a balanced standstill.
For the Republicans, John McCain seemed to be the big victor of the night, pulling in the popular vote of several winner-takes-all states. Mitt Romney, however, won primaries from Massachusetts, Utah and North Dakota, and Mike Huckabee won Arkansas and Alabama.
Those who attended Orange and Brew's party noshed on Student Government-funded food like pizza, chips and vegetables. Others watched CNN's coverage on a six-foot projection screen and listened to it through surround-sound speakers.
Attendees clapped and cheered to celebrate results and booed opponents. A political trivia game urged players to hold up paper portraits of the candidates and guess their quotes. A small group even rallied together to yell out a countdown right before Utah's polls closed.
College Democrats realized the importance of the event and came out to the party in droves, Moller said, and attended viewing parties like one thrown by the UF Students for Obama in an apartment clubhouse.
"It just goes to show you," he said, "Democrats dominate the University of Florida."
College Republicans chairman Ben Grove, however, said he and other group members were more focused on his party's campaign strategy.
"To be very honest, I hope the Republicans decide their candidate right now," he said, "so we can focus on defeating the Dems." Grove, like many of the students in attendance, had to yell over the noise of the television's talking heads. "Duh," yelled Grove as the anchors projected Clinton, a former first lady of Arkansas, would win most of the state's delegates. "Go figure."
