Ridaught: The Gator Chomp a tradition for 45 years

The University of Florida has some of the best traditions in all of college football.

From Mr. Two Bits and “We are the Boys” to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” and the Orange and Blue Chant, Gator fans are passionate about their iconic chants, cheers, and songs.

The roots of the song, “We are the Boys,” started back in the early 1900s, but it evolved into an end of the third quarter tradition in the 1970s when fans would stand, sway with their arms around each other, and sing.

Then, in the early ’80s, the theme song from the movie “Jaws” would make its way to Gainesville and the Gator Chomp eventually became a Gator Nation heritage.

It all started on Sept. 26, 1981, when the Gators were playing Mississippi State at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Mississippi.

Rob Hyatt, then a graduate student with the Gator band, heard the Mississippi State tuba section play “Jaws” during the second half of a game the Gators were losing badly.

It was a good distraction.

“That was one of the biggest movies ever up to that point and so I think part of it may have been that it was such a god-awful game,” said Hyatt, a Gainesville native. “You had to think about something because you couldn’t be thinking about the game. It was too depressing.”

In an instant, a Gator tradition was born.

“I think the Mississippi State cheerleaders were probably joining in with some motions, but there was actually zero reaction,” Hyatt said. “It was nothing to anybody from Mississippi State, and so I turned to the person next to me and said, ‘The Gators should do this,’ and I think anybody who heard me agreed with me.”

That person was Monty Musgrave, who was a senior music education major.

“I was a trumpet major, but my senior year I switched over and started playing sousaphone for a couple of unimportant reasons,” said Musgrave, who lives in Virginia. “I just started playing sousaphone, had a great time, and was intrigued by what the Mississippi State Band was doing.”

Hyatt, former chair of the Alachua County School Board, presented the concept to the three band directors during the following Monday morning staff meeting and he told Musgrave it was approved.

Hyatt deserves credit for the original idea, but Musgrave arranged the music.

“When we got back from the shellacking, I went to my apartment and I wrote out all the parts, and it was a little bit more than E and F, I mean there were some other parts that other instruments played, so I made it a whole band arrangement, and I brought it to the band staff,” Musgrave said.

Hyatt said it “sort of gradually grew.”

“It wasn’t anything like it is now, where it’s symbolic of all things Gator, and that was just sort of the start of it,” he said. “I guess we were sort of in the right place at the right time, and it went on from there. I know the FSU game at the end of the year we threw this into the pregame as well.”

Mississippi State got the win that day, 28-7, but it was also a win for “The Pride of the Sunshine.”

“We can give an unwitting assist to the Mississippi State tuba section because they had no idea what they were releasing,” Hyatt said.

Back then, this trip to Jackson was just a one-bus pep band.

“Of all the pep band games I could have gone to, that was probably the least desirable of them,” Musgrave said. “That was the one and only time I’ve ever been to Jackson, Mississippi.”

Hyatt agreed with the surroundings.

“We were housed at the Sun and Sand Motel in downtown Jackson, and if you can somehow associate Jackson, Mississippi, with sun and sand, you know that’s a stretch,” he said.

“Jaws” was first played by the Gator band the following week, on Oct. 3, in Baton Rouge, a Gator win.

The cheerleaders were notified in advance by the band staff and joined the band in performing it during the next week’s game.

“When we first did it, we just started doing it, and then it kind of grew and grew and grew,” Musgrave said. “I mean, I really didn’t think that much of it.”

The Gator band played it first at home the following week against Maryland on Oct. 10, another UF victory.

The name was eventually changed from “Jaws” to “Gator Chomp” due to potential legal concerns regarding the film’s trademark.

In 2014, Hyatt and Musgrave were featured in an SEC Network production that highlighted the origin of the Gator Chomp.

“They called Rob and I, and we met in Gainesville, and they did this big feature on us in the stadium and all that stuff, and that’s when it really took off,” Musgrave said.

The Gator Chomp has evolved into more than just a football tradition.

“I mean, it’s really been so interesting to see how this has evolved, and it’s become the most iconic here in all sports,” Musgrave said. “Who knew back in 1981, two guys sitting around, and this happened, and anywhere you go in the world, everybody recognizes that.”