Mr. 2 Bits- A part of Gator History

This was the last time I will see Mr. 2 bits at a Gator game!


The shrill sound of the whistle alerts Gator football fans to what is coming next.
And it's not a train.
Mr. Two Bits is about to do his thing.
It is one of those college football moments that is not contrived. It's a tradition born from a more innocent time.
And it may seem corny by today's standards, but throughout the years Mr. Two Bits has added to what makes the college game experience special.
If seeing and hearing is believing, Florida fans have faith in Mr. Two Bits. Over the course of 60 years of football, they have seen and heard George Edmondson perform his shtick.
Once he has their attention, Mr. Two Bits, dressed in his trademark yellow shirt, seersucker blue slacks, orange and blue tie -- and those unforgettable black-and-white saddle shoes -- quiets the crowd by putting the palms of his hands to the ground. He then rises up with an orange colored sign that has 2-Bits written in large blue letters. He jumps and turns, and pumps his arms as he leads the old-time cheer.
Two bits! Four bits! Six bits! A dollar! All for the Gators ... staaaaaaaaaaaaand up and holler!
Some 90,000 fans follow his lead. It's part of the atmosphere of the Swamp.
Edmondson, who resides in Tampa, began the routine 60 years ago when he attended a Florida game to watch the Gators play his alma mater, The Citadel. He noticed that Florida fans were booing their home team and began the impromptu Two Bits cheer from where he sat in the stands.
He has been at it ever since, except for a short retirement a decade ago.
Today, at the school's 84th homecoming game, the University is honoring Mr. Two Bits in a special pre-game ceremony and fans are being asked to wear orange T-shirts to the game.
At the end of this season, Mr. Two Bits will retire at the age of 86.
A part of the color of football at Florida Field will go with him.
Yet, there will remain many more of the sights and sounds of what makes college football a memorable Saturday spectacle.
At Florida, there is the Gator Walk two hours before the game and the Gator Chomp anytime, any place. There is the tradition of the players touching the Gator head as they leave the locker room and head to the field shortly before kickoff. There is the crowd swaying to the sounds of "We are the Boys of Old Flor-i-da" when the fourth quarter arrives.
Where the NFL is all about the game and point spreads, college football weekends are about the entire experience. While often times the atmosphere surrounding NFL games seems manufactured, the color and pageantry of college football has been around for sometimes more than a century.
There are the songs, the mascots, the chants and the tailgating traditions.
It's a celebration, a time to lose oneself in the atmospheric symmetry of sight and sound.
In Tallahassee it is the Seminole tomahawk chop and Renegade running across the field. It is Chief Osceola throwing a flaming spear into the ground.
It's Raphie, a real buffalo, leading Colorado players onto the field, or Boomer Sooner, horses and stagecoach, doing the same thing in Oklahoma. It's War Eagle circling the stadium at Auburn and Roll Tide at Alabama.
It's the rising crescendo of the theme to 2001 -- A Space Odyssey at South Carolina, and Uga, between the hedges, at Georgia.
It's the Volunteer navy, orange and white checkerboard end zones, and even Rocky Top, ad nauseam, at Tennessee.
There's the rubbing of Howard's Rock at Clemson and Hook 'em Horns at Texas.
Then there is the tossing of hats at the Army-Navy game, along with the respectful solidarity the cadets show after the game is over.
It's fight songs that stay with you long after the hitting on the field is over.
Every college football fan should try to make it at least once to The Grove on the campus of Ole Miss. It is there that tailgating takes on a different feel. Students arrive for the Saturday festivities dressed in their Sunday best. There is china, crystal and silverware sitting on a tablecloth. There are chandeliers hanging from the tents. The Ole Miss football team strolls through on the way to the stadium.
Across the country, college football is filled with different traditions and each stadium provides its own particular memories.
Today, Florida honors one of its own. Later this season, Mr. Two Bits will lead a cheer at the Gators' final home game of the season.
Ironically, he will be back where it all began, The Gators' opponent that day will be The Citadel.

The Herald Tribune