Tim Tebow at Florida doing the Gator Chomp left over right

Left Hand on Game day

Title: Left Hand on Game day

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Sammy Beyer is 20 years old from New York City and is currently a sophomore at the University of Florida. His mother is from Jacksonville and most of his family went to UF, making him a lifelong Gators fan. He watches or attends every Florida Gators football game.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context:Tim Tebow attended the University of Florida from 2006-2009 and is one of the greatest college football quarterbacks ever. He is a lefty quarterback which is fairly uncommon. At UF, where the Gator is the mascot, fans do the gator chomp instead of clapping. This is typically done with both hands straight in front of you, with the right hand as the “upper jaw” and the left hand as the “lower jaw” moving like the jaws of an alligator. Tim Tebow would do left over right because he is a lefty.
Social Context: This folklore was collected over the phone while both quarantining. Sammy developed this tradition on his own from watching Tim Tebow play and is now something he and his family do together on game days.

Item:

Sammy and his family use their left-hands to do everything before and during a Florida Gators Football game, from the Gator Chomp to eating, drinking, scratching an itch, etc. They hope by doing this, Florida will play as well as they did when Tim Tebow was at Florida.

Transcript:

“Tim Tebow did the gator chomp left over right. So during games when I would watch Tebow and still I do small things like fist pump, drink water, or use my phone with only my left hand. I only do this for Florida football games. I will do everything with my left hand so hopefully that will give us a chance to win because when Tebow was at Florida we won two national championships

Collector’s Name: Matthew Kaufman

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive