History

National History

The University of Florida Alumni Association was organized and chartered in 1906 by the first group of graduates from the Gainesville campus. Today, alumni on record total nearly 350,000. We have alumni in every state and in more than 100 foreign countries.

The Alumni Association is responsible for a network of nearly 100 Gator Clubs® in Florida, across the U.S. and internationally. These clubs are composed of alumni and friends who represent UF in their communities. They hold a wide variety of programs and events in support of the university. The Alumni Association is also actively involved with the recruitment of superior students to attend the University and with financial assistance programs in the form of scholarships sponsored by the Gator Clubs®. In addition, we host outreach programs that bring faculty and administrators on the road to carry the University's message to alumni and friends.

Reunion programs are organized and conducted by the Alumni Association and have been successful in bringing alumni back to Gainesville, with activities that are designed to involve returning graduates with campus life. We host the Grand Guard reunion, which honors 50 year graduates of UF, and the Silver Society, which recognizes 25 year grads. In addition to these reunions, several annual events are held each year including Back to College, Spring Weekend and our Gator Nation Tailgate party before each football game.

Specific groups have been organized to represent the needs of special interests on the campus, including the Association of Black Alumni and the Association of Hispanic Alumni. In addition, Student Membership in the Alumni Association was developed to create networking opportunities between current students and alumni. With more than 11,500 members, this group offers career networking, social events and special programming. The Florida Cicerones, who are UF’s campus ambassadors, are also members of this group. These students, specially selected to represent the University, lead tours and host events across UF’s campus.

Rocky Mountain Gator Club History

The story of how the Rocky Mountain Gator Club came to be!   

The Rocky Mountain Gator Club was founded by Fran Wasserman and Steve Crider (est. 1984).  Fran Wasserman and his wife Bev moved to Sugarloaf Mountain (above Boulder) directly from Gainesville in 1984.  They literally bled orange and blue and had never missed a home game for 8 years in Gainesville..now that's dedication.  Fran and Bev weren't able to get tv reception at their house on top of the mountain to watch any of the games so they ventured into Boulder to find a sports bar that might show the game.  They stumbled into JJ McCabe's which had a big screen TV and a completely empty bar (sorry to say that at that time the Colorado Buffs weren't the team that they are today).  So they asked the staff if they wouldn't mind changing the tv to the UF Gator football game in exchange for enjoying some drinks and food and a deal was made!  

For the next several Saturday's, they would show up at McCabe's and the staff would tune in the game for them.  Then in October about midway through the season, they were at McCabe's to watch the Florida/Kentucky game.  As usual the only gator fans there.  However, on this occasion another guy showed up and also watched the game alongside them (Fran called him a rabid gator fan).  His name was Steve Crider alongside his girlfriend Debbie (his wife later on).  They had a ball, just the 4 of them in this big room watching the game.  And this game was for the SEC title so it was a big deal.  

And so the story continues that the 4 of them met there every Saturday after that game.  Slowly other gator fans found the bar and joined them as well.  Then in 1985, the Florida Gators were placed on probation and were banned from appearing in bowl games and on TV.  Someone in the group came up with the crazy idea of getting together at someone's house and listening to the games on a long distance phone.  They called WRUF (the local radio station in Gainesville) and hooked up a radio shack speaker that Steve bought and listened to the entire game on long distance.  By then, there were about 8-10 gator fans coming to these gatherings to "listen" to the gators play football.  It was during this season they decided to formalize the club and they contacted the UFAA and became the official Rocky Mountain Gator Club that we all enjoy and love to this day.  

To this day, we always have to give thanks to those who came before us (Fran Wasserman and Steve Crider) that created a home away from home called the Rocky Mountain Gator Club.  Big thanks to you both for making the RMGC what it is today and how much the club has grown since it's inception back in 1984, it's nice to have a little piece of Gainesville right in the heart of the Rocky Mountains!