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Tampa, Florida -- A "Sooner" is a person -- originally a thief. So a showdown between real "Sooners" and "Gators" would probably get messy.
Florida and Oklahoma each first used their team names the same year: 1908. That wasn't long after the word "Sooner" was invented.
The Sooners' story:
Back in 1889, much of the area we now call Oklahoma was just called the "Unassigned Lands". It was Indian territory that the U.S. Government opened up to white settlers on one day, at one moment -- high noon on April 22, 1889.
Guns went off, trumpets sounded, and settlers raced over the border into the territory to claim a free plot of land. That "Land Run" is re-created every gameday in Oklahoma.
Problem was, when those new settlers got to the best parcels of land, there were people already there. They were folks who had snuck in "sooner" than the law would allow.
Initially, calling someone a "Sooner" was an insult. They were thieves. Then a University of Oklahoma football booster club started using the name. Now it's a compliment. These days, Oklahomans often say the Sooners weren't crooks, they were simply "opportunists".
What about The Gators?
A drug store owner from Gainesville named Phillip Miller was ordering some pennants and banners from a sign shop in 1907, just one year after the University of Florida's first football season. The guy at the sign shop asked what the school's mascot was. Miller realized Florida didn't have one.
The two of them talked it over, along with Miller's son, and they settled on an alligator. The reasons were simple enough: no other schools in the country used it, and alligators show up just about everywhere in Florida. (These days, they show up at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, too -- we got to hang out with them live on Ten Connects News This Morning on Tuesday.)
Just in time for the next football season, in 1908, Phillip Miller hung up a big blue banner with an orange alligator on it inside his drug store in Gainesville.
For the video story, go to 10connects.com
