To be sitting here during March Madness knowing that our Gators are actually in a serious hunt for the National Championship in basketball...???...

Those of us who have been around for more than a few years remember past Gators performance in basketball...yeah, there were some good moments...mainly though, we just made a few splashes in the tank while the real basketball guys eventually rolled over us...

I always believed in Gators football...held onto the words of Bear Bryant when he said that one day, if the University of Florida ever really woke up, they would be giants to deal with...oh but the years of suffering through so many games that we thought were close...seemed we were destined to forever be bridesmaids, never the bride...

How easy it is to remember the names of the football coaches...Graves, Dickey, Pell, Hall, all more or less 'recent' years...then I think of the basketball coaches...Kruger..........just not too many other names come to mind that carried the torch of hope and faith in basketball...and the thought that we might ever be champions in the two marquee sports at the same time...???...we Gators are dreamers, but I might have had difficulty choking that one down...

And look now...football and basketball...sheeze does that sound unreal...and then the successes of the "other sports" at UF...the overall pride that has been brought to UF is something else...once in a while I make it up to the campus and just stroll around...remembering the past, but mostly reveling in the present and how truly great it is to be a Florida Gator...these are definitely the best of times for Gators...

I had a very close friend that I worked with for a number of years; guy named Hank...and what a huge Gators fan he was...we went to so many games together and never grew tired of talking Gators sports...then one day he dropped dead of a massive heart attack while playing golf; he had just finished making one of the longest drives I have ever seen...

Everybody liked Hank; never knew anybody that didn't...and a couple of times I have gone to the place where his ashes were scattered and thought out loud how much I wished Hank could be here to share how great the Gators have really become...he never got the chance to see any of the titles won in football and basketball...how proud he would be, and how loud he would be...