Albert T. Alligator

Years ago, in what seems like another life now, I attended the University of Florida. I did a lot of things while I was there (for six long years), but without a doubt, the most incredible experience I had was the semester I played Albert The Alligator. Albert is the mascot for UF, and he goes to every football game, every basketball game, all sorts of pep rallies, fundraisers, barn raisings, sock hops and even state funerals. Well, maybe not state funerals, but just about everything else demanded my presence at one time or another. I once spent four hours dressed as Albert who was dressed as Santa Claus getting my picture taken with hundreds of students at the Reitz Union. I even made an appearance at the on-campus pre-school, Baby Gator, once. A friend of mine had a daughter there who to this day remembers how excited she was that Albert showed up to play with their class one day. It was during my reign as Albert that the school first started giving out photo IDs, so I made sure that Albert showed up at the kiosk one day to claim his own ID. It took over an hour to reconfigure the camera to get a decent picture (he came out blue on the first few tries), but I think the result was worth the trouble. At least for me. :)