Whether or not you’re a diehard Tom Petty fan, you may know his song “I Won't Back Down.” Most famously sung under the swamp’s football stadium lights at the end of the third quarter, it’s also spread to other Gator events, sometimes playing in sports from basketball to gymnastics.
The tradition was born at the UF vs. LSU homecoming game five days after Petty’s death in October 2017. In a press release before the game, the University Athletic Association announced it would blast the song over the stadium and encouraged fans to sing along — hinting “maybe a new tradition will be born.”
That prediction would come true. Now, at every home football game, students and fans sing along to Petty’s song, waving phone flashlights to its beat.
Eight years after Petty’s death, UF alumni, gator fans, and his family are still reinforcing his memory. Austin DiVito, a 30-year-old UF alumnus, played trombone for UF’s marching band and performed during that game when “I Won’t Back Down” filled the stadium for the first time.
Once the song started playing, everyone sang along, seemingly just knowing what to do, he said.
“It was as unforced a tradition as it could have been,” DiVito said.
To DiVito personally, the tradition represents a way to further integrate UF and Gainesville. DiVito said the university can feel isolated from the rest of Gainesville, and the tradition serves as a way to watch “those walls break down.”
The third quarter serenade is also a meaningful, chill-producing tradition to Petty’s family, wrote Petty’s daughter, Adria Petty, in an email to The Alligator.
“The song has incredible power,” she wrote. “My dad always felt that way about it. It gives you strength.”
The UF student community was an important factor for her father and his band’s growth, Adria said. Students were among his first Gainesville audiences.
“We will always feel strong ties to UF and Gainesville," Adria said, “it is a wonderful thing to see so many people still singing our dad’s song.”
Tom Petty was born and raised in Gainesville and worked as a UF groundskeeper until his rock ‘n’ roll career took off.
Petty later became the lead singer in the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1976, shortly after the ending of his previous band Mudcruth. He was also a member of Traveling Wilburys in 1988. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Petty sold over 80 million album records during his career, with best sellers like “American Girl,” “Don’t Do Me Like That” and, most importantly to Gator nation, “I Won’t Back Down”.
He played on UF’s campus twice after his success, last appearing in 2006, when he celebrated his band’s 30th anniversary.
Daniel Wood, a 59-year-old UF alumnus, saw Petty play at the O’Connell Center in 1991. Seeing Petty live was an “electric” experience, filled with a crazy crowd and positive energy, he said.
Wood would later go to a UF football game and experience the third-quarter tradition. He said it interworks music and sports, engaging the audience and bringing everyone together. It’s a tradition and song representing Gator attitude and Petty’s music, he said.
“It’s a UF tradition that is tied into his Gainesville upbringing that no other place could have,” he said.
Joseph Hartley, a 58-year-old UF alumnus, Gainesville native and Petty fan, said he remembers witnessing the tradition firsthand when he brought his son to a UF football game in 2019.
At the time, Hartley said he was looking forward to having his 11-year-old son see what Petty meant to UF.
Like Wood, Hartley also watched Petty perform at the O’Connell Center in the ’90s. Experiencing the concert, he said, was when he started to consider himself a fan.
He said he felt a strong loss by Petty’s sudden passing, and the tradition strengthens his connections to Gainesville and the rock ‘n’ roll star.
“Part of that connection is the connection with Tom Petty,” Hartley said, “to see the university, that’s obviously such an integral part about the city, taking part and furthering that is something I enjoy and I’m proud of.”
Contact Alabama Weninegar at aweninegar@alligator.org. Follow her on X at @AlabamaW40513.
Alabama Weninegar is a first-year journalism major and The Alligator's Spring 2026 University General Assignment Reporter. She also works a part-time job at Wyatt's Coffee downtown. In her free time, she enjoys watching her favorite shows on a rainy day or re-reading the Twilight series.
