Donovan Bailey looked relieved as he was told to walk down onto The Swamp.
Standing behind the yellow rope, Bailey pulled out his phone, braced himself to take a video of the sea of orange and blue jerseys that would soon run a mere few feet away from him.
Bailey, a 25-year-old UF landscape architecture junior, was one of the 50 UF students randomly chosen to participate in the UAA’s first student tunnel.
“It’s super special,” he said. “I didn’t know it was a thing.”
The randomly selected students and their chosen guest were invited by email to create a tunnel the Gator team would run through at the start of the game.
This is the first time the UAA selected students to partake in a student tunnel on the field, said Alicia Longworth, assistant athletics director.
“Nothing is more exciting than the team running out onto the field,” Longworth said. “We wanted students to feel that moment and have that memory.”
The tunnel was originally set for the first gameday against the University of Idaho on Aug. 30, but it was canceled due to unsafe weather conditions.
“I saw it coming,” Bailey said. “But there’s still the same energy.”
After getting rained out at the Idaho game, the same group of students came back together Saturday to stand on the field against Eastern Michigan University.
But some students weren’t able to attend the Saturday game.
Chemical engineering junior Brendan Dufresne, 20, grew up watching the Gators play with his parents, who are alumni. Dufresne only heard about the tunnel hours before the Idaho game.
Because he had to work Saturday, he gave his spot to his 18-year-old brother Nick, a UF music and computer science freshman.
Annaleigh Bonds, a 20-year-old UF public relations junior, said she has been going to Gator games since she was 3 years old. She and her sorority sister Haley Ponnock came to Gate 16 smiling just as wide as they were the week before.
“It’s really cool that of all the people here, I was selected because I’m a big Gator fan,” she said. “It’s a dream come true.”
Bonds didn’t question the validity of her email and contacted Ponnock, a 21-year-old UF public relations senior, right away.
After the Gators entered the field and students were shuffled off, Bailey and Warnet took a moment to collect themselves as fans cheered wildly around them.
Longworth said she hopes to have a student tunnel at one game each season.
“We want all students to feel more connected and have that special moment,” she said. “We appreciate the fans.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 9/8/2014 under the headline "Saturday’s game held first UAA student tunnel entrance"]
