re: Florida Fans -- Question About Gator Chomp

FL stole the Gator Chomp from State

Rob Hyatt, a graduate assistant and the director of the Gators' pep band at the time, witnessed the Mississippi State band's tuba section playing the "Jaws" theme and the Bulldogs' cheerleaders doing the rhythmic motion when UF played MSU in Jackson, Miss., on Sept. 26, 1981.

Hyatt said he leaned over to the band member next to him — Musgrave — and said, “We need to be doing this.'' Musgrave said he agreed.

“Rob went to a staff meeting the following Monday and asked if we could do it,'' Musgrave said.

Hyatt got the approval, and Musgrave, waiting outside, asked if he could arrange the music for the tuba section. Hyatt said he gave him the go-ahead.

“The first time ‘Gator Jaws' was ever performed was the next week at LSU,'' said Hyatt, who still lives in Gainesville. “In the meantime, we let the cheerleaders know what we were going to do.''

The band introduced the new cheer to the home fans on Oct. 10 in a game against Maryland. The cheerleaders had already been using the motion in their “Eat 'em up Gators'' cheer, but until the chomp was put to music, it never caught on among the fans.

“By the end of the last home game that year, everyone was doing it,'' Hyatt said.