Everything.The town has forever revolved around the Florida Gators.Gainesville is a college town.
It's built around the university.As the program goes, so does the town.With all due respect to Miami and FSU, most would argue that Florida is a Gators state.
Yes, I know that'll ruffle some feathers.Let's not get caught up on that, please.
Just bear with me.My point? Very few things in life can actually take attention away from the Florida Gators during football season — especially with a legend like Steve Spurrier set to return home, this time as the program's head coach.August of 1990 did just that.HOW A PODCAST COMMUNITY HELPED RESTORE THE CONTROVERSIAL 'GATOR BAIT' CHANT FOR FLORIDA FOOTBALL TEAM"I remember at Walmart, the gun line was down the aisle," former UF student Erik Tallbacka told OutKick this week."When a hurricane's coming, and you're at Home Depot and preparing, there's that kind of electricity, like something's coming.
And it was that hurricane sensation."But it wasn't a hurricane's coming.It was people getting killed every night, for three nights in a row.
The whole campus, the whole town, just had that palpable feeling of 'everybody's in this together.'"Former Florida Gators head coach Steve Spurrier.(USA TODAY Sports)Earlier this week, I wrote about ESPN's recent 30 for 30 on Danny Rolling, also known as the "Gainesville Ripper." Rolling brutally murdered five students in August 1990 — days before Labor Day weekend and roughly two weeks before the start of a new football season.Rolling was eventually arrested, pled guilty to the murders — along with several in Shreveport, Louisiana — and was later sentenced to death.
He died via lethal injection in 2006.Rolling became known as the "Gainesville Ripper." His killing spree, which had no real motive, led to several books, and one movie.The horror franchise "Scream" is loosely based on the Gainesville Murders, according to the screenwriter Kevin Williamson.So, yes — 36 years later, that ...