Colleges

Yet more spoils land in town

It was a great day to be a Gator.

By MELANIE AVE
Published April 4, 2007

GAINESVILLE - It was a great day to be a Gator.

As America's newly crowned back-to-back national championship Florida basketball team arrived home from its 84-75 triumph over Ohio State in Atlanta, the thrill - and exhaustion - of being No. 1 stretched from crowded coffee shops to campus lawns, where students napped from late-night celebrations.

Call it the hangover highs.

"I had a Diet Coke as soon as I woke up," groaned freshman Lauren McKinney, 18, at a campus Starbucks on Tuesday morning. "I'm so tired. Excited, but tired."

Teaching assistant Vinodh Venkatesh, 24, dozed on a bench outside Smathers Libraries before an afternoon Spanish class. More than 80 percent of his 25 students told him they were skipping.

"I planned accordingly," he said. "My bus ride to campus was pretty interesting. People were asleep."

After the game, some over-zealous partiers threw up in the bushes, yanked down tree branches or climbed greased light poles until police coaxed them down.

At least one student shimmied up on the roof of a sandwich shop. One teen suffered minor head injuries after he fell about 10 feet from a palm tree near the popular Swamp restaurant.

Officials extinguished nine minor street fires of old furniture and garbage. Police arrested four people for disorderly conduct, including one woman who slapped an officer.

The team's win reverberated throughout the day Tuesday.

Workers at Gators Plus near campus unloaded boxes all day to keep the racks filled with at least 10 types of championship shirts.

"This is like Christmastime," store owner Bill Olander said. "It's fantastic for business."

About 1,500 fans greeted the team at the city's airport. Some waited in the blaring sun for about three hours, waving pompoms and copies of the Gainesville Sun's souvenir edition, "Team Terrific."

As the plane touched down, the band started playing, three members of the Dazzlers dance team boogied.

Television cameras and photographers surrounded the team as players signed autographs, high-fived the fans and showed off the championship trophy. Two helicopters circled overhead.

"Dan! Dan!" yelled UF sophomore Lewis Curtwright, 20, as forward Dan Werner approached.

"I love you," he said, ruffling the player's hair. "You rock. Sign my shirt. That's my man. Dan the man."

[Last modified April 3, 2007, 23:21:47]