"A Feast of Snakes" by Harry Crews is required reading. Rest his soul.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Oliver Barry Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 4:37 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [gatortalk] Gator chomp-now you know While you're there would you check on whether there are really alligators in the sewer? Oliver Barry CRS,GRI Real Estate Broker Bob Parks Realty 1517 Hunt Club Blvd Gallatin TN 37066 Phone: 615-826-4040 Fax: 615-822-2027 Mobile: 615-972-4239 ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jay Cicone Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 2:23 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [gatortalk] Gator chomp-now you know I'm checking Snopes. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of mail.bobparks.com Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 3:20 PM To: Gator Talk Subject: [gatortalk] Gator chomp-now you know Ormond's Monty Musgrave man behind 'Gator Chomp' tradition [http://www.news-journalonline.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=DN&Date=20120901&Category=SPORTS&ArtNo=120839966&Ref=AR&MaxW=445&border=0] Monty Musgrave created the legendary Gator Chomp some 30 years ago in 1981 when he was playing tuba in the UF band. David Massey/NEWS-JOURNAL By Brent Woronoff<http://www.news-journalonline.com/personalia/bworonoff> Staff Writer Published: Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 5:30 a.m. Last Modified: Friday, August 31, 2012 at 3:23 a.m. Page all of 3 Ormond Beach's Monty Musgrave was home in bed last Nov. 5, recovering from surgery for a herniated disk and drifting in and out of sleep as he tried to watch his beloved Gators play Vanderbilt on television. "I was all drugged up, but I thought I heard my name,'' he said. "Then, my wife called out from the kitchen, 'Did I just hear your name on national TV?' '' Sure enough, she did. In the third quarter of the Vanderbilt-Florida football game, CBS presented a feature spotlighting football traditions around the Southeastern Conference. On this day, the reporter traced the origin of the ubiquitous Gator chomp - crediting its birth in 1981 to a tuba player in the Florida band named Monty Musgrave. As soon as the reporter described Musgrave's role in creating the cheer, calls and emails rolled into his home from all over the country, Musgrave said. The next day, ESPN called him for an interview. Musgrave, a 52-year-old curriculum specialist for performing arts at Volusia County Schools, will probably blend into the Florida Field crowd at today's season opener against Bowling Green. Thirty-one years ago, the college senior played those iconic two notes of the "Jaws" theme on his sousaphone along with the other tuba players. Cheerleaders directed fans with their outstretched arms to simulate a gator's jaws snapping down, ending each "chomp'' in a clap, keeping in time with the music, plodding at first and then faster and faster and faster until the arms became a blur. Today, like every year since, Musgrave will have his hands free to chomp along with the rest of the crowd. "It was a spontaneous thing,'' said Norm Carlson, Florida's assistant athletic director/historian, in describing how the chomp took off. "People started picking up on it, then the media picked up on it. Then it just spread into a greeting among fans away from the athletic fields.'' In fact, Musgrave said he saw Gator athletes and fans "chomping'' at the Olympic Games in London. "How it evolved to what it is now is amazing,'' Musgrave said. And the story of its origin is equally amazing. You can say what you want about the chomp - and Florida and Florida State fans surely have differing opinions - but one thing you can't say about it is that it's original. BORROWING FROM THE BULLDOGS 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. Musgrave and Hyatt said the cheer was almost stopped in its tracks when representatives of "Jaws" composer John Williams sent a letter to the school asking that the band stop playing the music. "The university decided to change the name from 'Gator Jaws' to 'Gator Chomp' and claimed it came from the last movement of Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony,'' which features the same two notes, Musgrave said. Gerre Reynolds, the Gator band's public-address announcer who was a freshman in the band in 1981, said he relayed the Gator Chomp story to Carlson at last year's Vandy game. Carlson passed it on to the CBS broadcast crew. "In the past, ESPN and other outlets had incorrectly attributed (the chomp) to coach (Steve) Spurrier in the early 1990s,'' Reynolds said. "Of course, it started 10 years earlier.'' Musgrave turned out to be in the right place at the right time. He was picked to be in the pep band the week of the Mississippi State game and happened to be sitting next to Hyatt, giving him the opportunity to ask if he could write out all the parts for the tuba section. And he was actually a trumpet player who was playing tuba that season to protect his lips for his senior trumpet recital. But like Hyatt, Musgrave is proud of his contribution to a Gator tradition. "Over the years, I never thought much about it,'' Musgrave said. "But it's really cool to be a part of it.'' Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI Bob Parks Realty REO Department 1517 Hunt Club Blvd Gallatin TN 37066 Phone: 615-826-4040 Direct Line:615-265-4209 Fax: 615-822-2027 Mobile: 615-972-4239 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
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