In 1996, Florida won its first national football championship with a 52-20 victory against Florida State. Lawrence Wright, a Black safety for the Gators at the time, said afterward, “If you ain’t a Gator, you must be Gator bait, baby.” Shortly after, the UF Fightin' Gator Marching Band would play the musical cue for fans to chant “Gator bait” at opposing offenses.
The “Gator Bait” chant was one of my defining memories growing up as a Gator fan. I used to place my hands over the opposing quarterback as I chomped to make it look like my hands were crushing him. But in 2020, the history of the term “gator bait” became the source of the chant’s removal. The chant wouldn’t be heard again until the 2026 season opener against Florida Atlantic six years later.
The “Gator Bait” chant shouldn’t have been banned, but we also shouldn’t sweep the history of the phrase under the rug. Words only have the power we give them, and the meanings associated with certain phrases can change. Removing the chant was an empty gesture by UF at the time, and it was the wrong way to address the history of the phrase.
There are many historical, firsthand accounts of Black slave babies being used as bait for alligators. While it doesn’t seem that the practice was common, “gator bait” nevertheless became a slur used against Black people.
This isn’t the first time UF has banned a chant due to racism. Until a 1973 discontinuation, students dressed in Confederate uniforms, a cannon was fired and the band played “Dixie” as students held up cards to create a giant Confederate flag.
This is an example of a “harmless chant” that actually perpetuated bigotry and needed to be banned. It glorified the traitorous and racist Confederates; it was directly linked to the institution of slavery. That is what separates the “Dixie” chant from the “Gator Bait” chant.
The “Gator Bait” chant has no racist undertones on its own. Former UF President Kent Fuchs, who banned the chant, admitted at the time he knew of no racist intention in creating the cheer, but that the phrase has been linked to “horrific historic racist imagery.” The chant was banned during a university-wide review of potentially racially offensive statements in 2020.
Banning the chant was an extremely visible way for UF to indicate it was serious about addressing racism in and around the university. However, I ask: How does banning a chant with no actual link to racism fight against it? This is the same university that would later gut diversity, equity and inclusion programs and remove classes focused on Black culture and history.
Providing those classes, funding DEI programs and promoting conversations about Black history is the actual way to counteract bigotry. I reject the idea that the “Gator Bait” chant would do any more harm — or even the same amount — as the anti-DEI witch hunt the state has held in recent years.
We shouldn’t take away things that unite people because of a loosely associated history to a racist past. Let’s be honest, there are so many things that have a racist past; it’s exhausting to learn how embedded it is in our culture. But I don’t see how banning the chant will do anything to help fix that.
I would argue that having the student union named after J. Wayne Reitz, a known segregationist and homophobe, causes more harm than “Gator Bait.” Reitz actively impeded the admission of Black students to UF and allowed students and professors to be interrogated and harassed if they were suspected of being gay.
There were protests and calls for the student union to be renamed in 2020, the same year UF banned “Gator Bait.” UF’s promise to combat racism doesn’t land when one of its campus’ central features is named after — and therefore memorializes — a man whose views contradict it.
The “Gator Bait” chant should be celebrated. Florida fans of all races have taken a phrase that could be used to terrorize, hurt and demean Black people and reclaimed it to strike fear into opposing offenses as they come onto the field.
Opponents of the “Gator Bait” chant should push for UF to implement policies that would actually help combat racism. I’d like to see UF promote Black history in the South or pay for a campus exhibit that discusses the phrase’s history. Until then, I don’t want to hear anything about a musical cue played a few times a game. I’ll choose to focus my time and energy on things that will create real change.
We should acknowledge and learn from the history of the phrase, but we shouldn’t let it define the future. As long as the term is used for opposing offenses during a football game, everyone should chant it with pride and joy.
Contact Evan Dressel at edressel@alligator.org. Follow him on X @EvanD_Alligator.
Evan Dressel is a senior studying Political Science and Criminology. He plans to go to law school. He loves Gator basketball and football as well as the Green Bay Packers. This is Evan's first semester writing for The Alligator.
