Hundreds of UF alumni, students and families flooded campus and its surrounding streets to celebrate the school’s 102nd annual Homecoming celebration Friday.
Daytime festivities included the 2-mile Gator Gallop race, the Homecoming Festival and the Homecoming Parade. In the evening, DJ Steve Aoki will take the stage at the Gator Growl pep rally.
Gator Gallop
Runners of all ages gathered at UF’s Plaza of the Americas as early as 8 a.m. Friday morning, stretching and warming up in anticipation of the Gator Gallop.
The 2-mile run across campus and 13th Street started at 10:30 a.m. It connected students, alumni and the Gainesville running community through one shared love: the Gators.
Tony Witts, an alumnus who graduated with a master’s degree in 1982, has been running the Gator Gallop periodically since 1976. He said he loved watching how UF’s Homecoming activities have evolved over time.
Witts is a Gator at heart and said he is “psychotic about this place.”
“I’m one of those Gators that people talk about in quiet corners, just, you know, bleeds orange and blue,” he said.
His favorite memories of UF Homecoming include watching Robin Williams and Jerry Seinfeld perform stand-up comedy routines and spending fun times at the stadium during his undergraduate years.
Madison Poe, a 21-year-old UF biology senior, said she took on the Gallop to get back into running. She has always loved the sport, and this weekend provided her with the opportunity to get back into it.
Throughout her four years at UF, Poe said her favorite Homecoming memories occurred at the football games.
“I think it’s just the atmosphere,” Poe said. “Like, going into the fourth quarter with Tom Petty, and just having all my friends, and my family always comes. Just being there with everybody just cheering, going crazy.”
Poe said she always tries to show her school spirit with her clothes; for the run, she sported a blue and orange athleisure set.
Also donning orange and blue was Regina Labardini, a 26-year-old UF political campaigning master’s student. She decided to participate in Gator Gallop for the community aspect and to prove to herself that she could complete the run without training.
Labardini said she loves anything having to do with Homecoming.
“I love Homecoming weekends,” she said. “I’m going to the game. I love the parade. I love everything Homecoming.”
The way the city of Gainesville joins together to celebrate the Florida Gators is Labardini’s favorite thing about Homecoming. To her, it translates into being part of a community.
She is excited for Saturday’s game against Mississippi State and tailgating the game, she said.
“The energy at The Swamp is just unbelievable,” she said. “There’s nothing like it. Happiest place on Earth for me.”
Homecoming Festival
Orange and blue balloons, shouts of children in the bounce house and upbeat music filled Plaza of the Americas on Friday morning for UF’s annual Homecoming festival.
A chilly fall breeze carried the school spirit of over 100 alumni, students and families attending the event. Children decked in orange and blue crowded the bounce house and gelato truck while parents and alumni explored rows of tables, spinning prize wheels for stickers, water bottles and other Gators merchandise.
The festival, which went from 9 a.m. to noon, featured over 20 tables hosted by student organizations, local businesses and food vendors.
Carla Geiger-Serrick, a UF alumna from South Carolina who graduated from UF in 1991 and 2005, enjoyed the festival before heading to the Gator Gallop. Returning to Gainesville for Homecoming and reuniting with her college friend groups was an annual tradition of hers, she said.
“I just love coming back and seeing all of my old friends,” she said.
Ashley Love, a 2015 graduate of UF’s physician assistant program, stood near the bounce house watching her daughters Aubrey and Avery play. Her family has been attending the Homecoming festivities since her oldest daughter was born, she said.
Her daughters’ favorite part of the festivities are the bounce house, prizes and parade, she said, while Love personally favors meeting the organizations and hearing about what new movements and opportunities have arrived on campus.
“It’s just a great outing for family,” she said, “It’s always beautiful. The people are all so kind, and the girls love it.”
Homecoming Parade
Leading up to the parade’s commencement, hundreds of students and families lined the sidewalks of West University Avenue and 13th Street to watch.
Crosswalks were blocked by police, allowing spectators to sit on the streets with lawn chairs and coolers while other families tailgated on the backs of pickup trucks on the Piesano’s parking lot
With police motorcycles circling and people inching closer to the road, the Homecoming parade began.
The motorcycle show set an exciting tone for the Homecoming tradition — the police officers drove donuts in the middle of the intersection and created the illusion they were driving straight toward the crowd, diverging to the sides at the last second.
UF staff were among the beginning floats, with Interim President Donald Landry taking the lead in a red convertible. Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward appeared in a similar fashion, doing the famous gator chomp on the back of a convertible BMW.
Then, the Gator students were up. UF cheerleaders crowded atop a fire truck ahead of the Gator Band cheering to the tune of drum instrumentals.
Two Gator Band members had a fan in the audience — their mom. Tamelia Malcolm, a board member at the Child Advocacy Center, said she attended the parade in support of her children and coworkers, who later marched down in their own float.
Her favorite part of the parade was seeing the amount of support Gainesville has for local organizations, she said, and seeing her children is the “most enjoyable experience.”
“I love to see just the spirit of Gainesville,” she said.
Malcolm is a double UF graduate and has lived in Gainesville since 2000. Going to the parade is her favorite Homecoming tradition, she said, and she attends every year.
Other fire trucks carried UF mascots Albert and Alberta and the Homecoming court. Student Body President Blake Cox rode in a convertible, accompanied by Vice President Jade Gonzalez and Treasurer Johanna Moncy.
Float-to-crowd interactions were not lacking during the event. In one instance, a player from the Fightin’ Gator Touchdown Club playfully threw a football to a child in the crowd. In another, a police officer abandoned his golf cart to high-five child spectators.
Boats were abundant at the parade, with Dance Marathon’s truck dragging a yacht playing Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” Later on, Pi Beta Phi sorority and Kappa Alpha Order fraternity also rode down University Avenue aboard a car-dragged boat.
Stephanie Heinis, a Gainesville resident of 20 years, said the “Homecoming spirit” brought her to the parade. Heinis works at UF Health Shands Hospital, and said the parade is her favorite Homecoming event.
“We’re Gators through and through,” she said.
The enthusiasm was her favorite part of Friday’s parade, adding she was surprised by the number of dance teams in Gainesville.
Buchholz High School led the energy Heinis referenced, being the first non-UF entity to march through. The school’s cheerleaders took charge, changing “Go Bobcats” as the marching band followed.
Involvement was not limited to teenagers, though. Soon after Buchholz, a school bus filled with young children drove past, winning the crowd over and gaining claps to the beat of their chant. Later on, another group of children were applauded by spectators as they marched down doing handstands and cartwheels.
One standout float belonging to UF Surf and Skate Club featured a steaming volcano. The students aboard were dressed in beach attire and dancing to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Two students sat in the volcano as smoke blew past them, leaving a trail behind the truck.
Abigail Schuler, a 20-year-old UF nursing student, attended the event to see the floats and her firefighter friends who were in the parade, after running the Gator Gallop with her friend.
“I like to see creativity,” she said.
Hanging out with her mom and friends and being able to enjoy homecoming with them, Schuler said, was her favorite part of the parade. However, she added Gator Gallop takes the crown as her favorite homecoming tradition, and she runs it every year.
Gator Growl
Steve Aoki will take the stage at the O’Connell Center at 7 p.m. The cake-throwing, grammy nominated DJ will headline this year’s Gator Growl pep rally and concert.
The electronic dance music artists’ iconic hits include “Pursuit of Happiness” and “Cry Me a River,” and he has produced songs with musicians like Kid Cudi, Backstreet Boys and Louis Tomlinson.
The last time Aoki performed in Gainesville was in a parking lot in 2021, drawing a crowd of 2,500 people. This year, he will perform in front of thousands.
Angelique Rodriguez, Swasthi Maharaj and Maria Arruda contributed to this report.
