UF students suffering from championship-game nostalgia can look to a different UF football team for this year's national bragging rights - and they're not just pulling your flag.
Gator Escort Service, the fall champions of UF's intramural men's competitive flag football league, beat the University of Central Florida 20-18 to win the American Collegiate Intramural Sports tournament on New Year's Eve.
The University of New Orleans hosted the three-day event, which featured more than 70 teams playing games of seven-on-seven.
FOX College Sports is making a documentary about the tournament, which will be aired in February.
The Gators earned the win when UF graduate Adam Langston, 22, caught a fourth-down pass from quarterback John Cox, a UF journalism senior, for a touchdown. Cox was named one of five All-Americans on the UF team.
Langston was named the tournament's Most Valuable Defensive Player for catching five interceptions throughout the tournament.
"The craziest thing is, I'm not known to be a defensive player," he said, explaining that he usually plays offense.
Gary Palsis, a UF dentistry graduate student on the team, said Langston deserves the credit.
"Adam's being modest," Palsis said. "He's the fastest kid I've ever seen in my life."
The members of Gator Escort Service have a personal history as impressive as their record of 33 wins and only two losses for the spring and fall semesters combined.
The self-proclaimed "old fogeys" of the team, Cox and Palsis, met each other in summer 2003 at UF Preview.
The reign of the dynamic duo will soon come to an end. Cox has one more semester to play until he graduates in the spring.
The playing days of Langston and four other graduating players are already over, but that won't stop Palsis from aiming for excellence in seasons to come.
"I've still got three more years here," Palsis said. "I'm going to play until I can't play anymore."
