Florida Gators History

In Search of the Gator Nickname

Ask most Gator history buffs how the University of Florida athletic teams acquired the Gator nickname and they will relate the story of Phillip Miller and his Gator pennants. The story, as told by Austin Miller, first appeared in the Florida Times-Union on August 19, 1948. His father owned Miller's, a Gainesville novelties store and soda fountain popular with Florida students in the early 1900s. According to Austin Miller, alligator pennants were first sold at the store in the fall of 1908 after Austin suggested the mascot when he and his father visited the Michie Company in 1907. It was a spur of the moment decision. "I had no idea it would stick, or even be popular with the student body," Miller said.

However, 20 years before Austin Miller offered his explanation, UF's first football team captain, Roy Corbett, gave another. In a letter to The Gainesville Sun congratulating Florida's successful 1928 football squad, Corbett wrote, "Incidentally 'Gators' came from a nickname given substitute center [Neal] Bo-Gator Storter. This boy, who had his first train ride coming to Gainesville -- didn't know what a football was - finished school as captain of the varsity."

Corbett's explanation resurfaced in 1962 when Storter, Class of '12, was inducted in the Grand Guard (a club for UF alumni who graduated 50 or more years ago.) Thomas Bryant, the 1912 senior class president, delivered the induction speech and recounted Bo Gator's exploits on the gridiron. "Bo Gator was a Florida legend," Bryant said, "and not too many years later the varsity teams became known as the Gators. His is the greatest contribution to University of Florida football that has ever been made. He gave them his name."

Bo Gator's story was forgotten after 1962. Miller's story became Gator gospel. Was the right story selected? Bo Gator's story begins in the fall of 1907, at the same time that Austin and Phillip Miller were buying pennants. It ends with the victorious (5-0-1) football season of 1911.

Bo Gator

Neal Sommers Storter arrived at the University of Florida in the fall of 1907, and he could not have come from a more remote spot in turn-of-the-century Florida. His grandfather migrated to the Naples area in 1881 from Eutaw, Ala. His father purchased large tracts of land further south along Chokoloskee Bay and founded the town of Everglade, later to become Everglades City, in 1893. From there the family shipped buttonwood, cane syrup, and grapefruits to Tampa. They also operated a trading post where Seminoles came to barter or sell deer hides and alligator skins.

Neal Storter received what education he could in Everglade and then Ft. Myers before making the long trip to Gainesville in 1907 at the age of sixteen. Still lacking the necessary credits for college admission, he enrolled as a sub-freshman for one year. He joined a scant 100 schoolmates in the second year that the Gainesville campus was open. In a school as small as UF, few students escaped the attention of the campus press. The Florida Pennant, predecessor to the Florida Alligator, unleashed a battery of quips and one-liners on the deeds and exploits of individual students. Every student acquired a nickname. Storter's Gladian origins and mannerisms earned him the sobriquet of "Brother Gator" or "Bo Gator," and "Bo Gator" became a fixture in the "locals" section of the Pennant.

Within weeks of his arrival, Storter gathered together a small group of fellow first year students to form a club. In its inaugural issue, the Florida Pennant announced its creation. "We are all glad to see a new club in school the 'Bo Gator Club. . . . Motto: 'I seed you;' colors: pea-green and shrimp pink." Storter was the "Chief Bo Gator" and Bernard "Beauty" Langston was the club's secretary. As its motto and colors suggest, the Bo Gator Club was a less than serious organization. Articles about the Bo Gators written by Langston for the Pennant and the student yearbook, the Seminole, suggest that the club was more fictional than real.

The Bo Gators, however, were actual students and were clearly not the type of students who took their studies too seriously. Instead, the articles reveal a high-spirited group resistant to the curriculum and campus rules and regulations. Some, like Storter, were athletes. Naiveté and lack of sophistication were other Bo Gator characteristics.

In its love of things extra-curricular, the Bo Gator Club resembled other fugitive student organizations that flourished in the early 1900s. Groups such as the Turkey Trotters, I Tappa Keg, the Krooks Klub, and the Funnel Gang poked fun at different aspects of college life. The Bo Gators, though, had a mythical quality that others lacked. And, unlike the other clubs, the Bo Gators' antics are chronicled in the Pennant and the Seminole.

A meeting of the Bo Gator Club is recounted in a 1910 Pennant article. The meeting took place in Bo Gator Hall, an imaginary site, on a Sunday afternoon while the YMCA held its meeting in the chapel. The dichotomy would have been obvious to students in 1910. While the YMCA engaged in "practical discussions of the difficulties beset[ting] the student trying to lead a Christian life" the Bo Gators told fables of students who defied college rules and decorum.

Langston's last and longest Bo Gator article appeared in the 1910 Seminole. In a tale entitled "Bo Gators in the Wind," the Bo Gators are brought before a tribunal of the college faculty and each is charged with one or several silly offenses. President Albert Murphree and the faculty level accusations of lunacy, overwhelming beauty, and "raising rough-houses." One Bo Gator is charged with "having brains;" a charge that is easily refuted. Another is accused of being a "near sport" and several are tried for self-conceit. Throughout the trial, the Bo Gators display their characteristic wit and aplomb.

The 18 Bo Gators identified in "Bogators in the Wind" reveal a diverse and inclusive organization. The club included Greeks and non-Greeks, and every class and college was represented. Six of the 18 were lettermen. At a time when anti-Semitism was pervasive at southern colleges, the presence of a Jewish student, Joseph "Jakie" Jacobson, was perhaps the best indication of the club's inclusiveness.

As Storter advanced in the class ranks so did his leadership role. As an upper classman, though, Storter's activities shifted away from the freewheeling Bo Gators. He rose to the rank of first lieutenant in the student battalion and was active in several political groups. In his senior year, Storter served as presidents of the Kelvin Engineering Society and the F Club, manager of the baseball team, and on the executive committee of the athletic association. But nowhere was his leadership felt more than on the football field.

Storter played on the "scrub" team in his sub-freshman and freshman years. The "scrub" team served primarily as the varsity team's scrimmage partner and was the training ground for future varsity players. In his sophomore year, Storter was named the center for the varsity team. Like the rest of the starting 11, he played both offense and defense. For the next three years, Storter played in every Florida game without missing a minute of playing time. Even a bout with malaria failed to keep him out of a game. His doggedness won him the captaincy of the 1911 team.

A Legendary Squad

The 1911 football team was one of the best of the earliest Florida teams and the only squad in UF history to finish a season undefeated. But, as excellent a player as Captain "Bo Gator" Storter was, he was, by no means, the star of the team. That distinction went to the 1910 captain, Earle "Dummy" Taylor. Taylor's performance as right halfback in a career that spanned five varsity seasons (1908-1912) is the stuff from which football legends are made.

Taylor was an excellent ball carrier and could also throw the new "forward pass." It was his kicking abilities, though, that won him his laurels. He would score with a drop-kick at seemingly impossible angles and distances, and was nine for 12 in extra points in 1911. He also handled punts and kick-offs. At a time when a touchdown earned five points and the extra point was not automatic, Taylor's kicking abilities were essential to any would-be powerhouse. Of the 84 points scored by Florida in 1911, Taylor scored 49: 25 points on the ground and 24 on field goals and points-after. He also threw two touchdown passes.

Games in those days were low-scoring affairs fought "in the trenches" and the linesmen were often the true heroes of college football. Flanking Storter at center were two outstanding guards, "Bake" Baker and "Big Jim" Coarsey. Together, the linesmen terrorized opponents' offenses and "ran interference" for Florida's ball carriers. The team's success in 1911 resulted as much from its solid defense as it did its explosive offense. Incredibly, Florida limited its six opponents to a total of 14 points, the last three of which failed to score!

To prepare for the season, seven returning players and 12 candidates volunteered for pre-semester practice. This was the first year the team practiced early. Previously the team started practice at the beginning of the semester and sometimes less than two weeks before the first game. When the semester began more players and try-outs arrived until the roster grew to 40 with 20 on varsity and 20 in the scrub team. The size of both teams made for excellent scrimmages and more than 100 spectators would appear each afternoon to encourage the scrubs. School spirit was at an all-time high as the season approached.

The 1911 season began Oct. 7 with a match against the cadets of Citadel on Florida's home field. After two quick Florida touchdowns and a field goal in the first quarter, five Florida bench players were given the opportunity to play. The game ended with the score 15-3, Florida. "Now came the big trip of the season, the South Carolina trip, penetrating into new territory and with two hard games scheduled," wrote the Florida Pennant.

"Gators" stick

Precisely when and how the team was named is unclear, but the December 1911 Pennant identifies the South Carolina excursion as the beginning of the Florida Gators. "It was on the South Carolina trip that the Florida team was dubbed the 'Alligators,' and the battle that took place . . .between the Clemson Tigers and the Florida Alligators is one long to be remembered!"

The earliest known printed references to the team as the Alligators occurred on Oct. 19 and 20, 1911 in both the South Carolina and Florida newspapers. "Gamecocks clash with Alligators" was the headline in The State, South Carolina's leading newspaper. In his daily sports column for the Florida Times-Union, Laurence "Kiddo" Woltz reported that the team had passed through Jacksonville during the night on its way to Columbia. "This is probably the 'biggest trip' ever taken by an 11 from any of the Florida colleges and thousands of people throughout the state will await the result of the games with the greatest of interest. May the 'Gators' win 'em both."

The game at Columbia on Oct. 21 resulted in a tie. Taylor scored for Florida in the first quarter on a 45-yard run and capped the score with the point-after. South Carolina matched Florida in the second quarter and the remainder of the game was a defensive battle. For the first time in Florida history, the Associated Press gave the results of a Florida football game and the new nickname was spread across the nation. "The Florida team's brilliant showing is creating considerable talk in local college circles and it is figured that the 'Alligators' must be reckoned with in future year," the AP declared.

Next, the Florida team traveled to Clemson where the Gators were predicted to lose by 15 points. Clemson scored a touchdown early in the game and it looked as though the predictions were accurate. But Clemson missed the extra point, and the Gator defense stymied numerous Clemson drives. With eight minutes left in the game, Taylor made a spectacular 35-yard run into the Tigers' end zone and kicked the point-after. The Pennant described the game's conclusion: "The remaining eight minutes of play was fierce, the Tigers trying to advance the ball, the Alligators holding them back, and credit to the Florida boys that when the referee's whistle blew for time up, the score still stood Florida 6, Clemson 5, and a great victory for the Alligators had been won! The stars of this game were - the entire team."

Two thousand people and the Gainesville Brass Band were on hand to greet the players when the train pulled into Gainesville on Oct. 26. After repeated calls for speeches, Captain Storter made a brief address to the crowd before the team was escorted to campus in an auto parade. The rest of the season was anti-climactic. After beating the South Carolina champions, Florida won the state championship with victories over Stetson and Columbia College, a Baptist college in Lake City. The last game was a 21-0 pasting of the College of Charleston on a rainy Thanksgiving Day in Jacksonville.

At the end of the season, Laurence Woltz praised Captain Storter and his leadership. "Popular with every member of the team, as well as the entire student body, Storter is a 'born leader' and one of the strongest points in his favor was that he could play the game as good, or better, than any man who performed for him."

Wrinkles in History

What then of the Miller tale, and do we now accept Corbett and Bryant's assertion that the team was named after Neal Storter? The team was named in 1911, the year that Storter was captain. Storter was a popular student and an acknowledged leader on and off the gridiron. He could easily be the source for the name. But was the team actually named after him?

Not according to the Bo Gator, himself. Corbett's comment in 1928 brought a quick denial from Storter. In a letter to the Florida Alumnus, he instead attributed the name to a Macon, Ga., reporter. On the morning of a 1910 game with Mercer College, the sports page carried the headline that Macon was being invaded by a bunch of Florida alligators. "From that date on our football team has been called the 'Gators," Storter claimed. At the 1962 Grand Guard induction, Storter issued no outright denial only commenting that Bryant's speech "border[ed] on the truth." But at home, according to his son, Storter stuck to a variation of his original story with South Carolina replacing Macon as the location. But to date no one has been able to produce an article referring to an "alligator invasion" in either a Macon or South Carolina newspaper. On the contrary, the morning edition of the November 22, 1910 Macon Telegraph refers to the Florida team as "the boys from the Everglades."

The existence of at least three explanations for the Gator nickname may indicate that a single reason for its adoption does not exist. It may simply be that Gators, along with Seminoles, Hurricanes, and Rattlers, are logical names for Florida teams. However, there is another obvious influence that should not be overlooked.

Prior to 1911, many references to Gators were made in the chronicles of the Bo Gator Club. So many, in fact, that the uninformed researcher perusing the pages of the 1907-1910 Pennants and Seminoles would reasonably assume that the Bo Gators were the original University of Florida Gators. In the context of what is documented in the UF Archives, Corbett and Bryant's explanation (and even Storter's retort that it bordered on the truth) seems plausible. In all probability, the team was not named after Storter, himself, but the whimsical and high-spirited group that he presided over. The fact that the Chief Bo Gator was also captain of the victorious 1911 Alligators makes the story all the more compelling.