by Barbara Drake (MFA ’04)

They are the University of Florida’s beloved ambassadors: two jovial alligators dressed in orange and blue who whip up the crowds at athletic events and pose with adoring fans on the sidelines.

Known as Albert E. and Alberta Gator, they were crowned Best College Mascots by Sports Illustrated in 2007. They’ve gotten rowdy on the TODAY Show, stalked Heisman Trophy-winner Charlie Ward in a Nissan Altima TV spot. wrestled with Steve Irwin for ESPN and taught Lyle the Crocodile how to do the Chomp (see below).

But despite the pair’s outsized fame, little is known about the real-life students who anonymously serve as Friends of the Gator, as they refer to themselves—or about their experiences inside the plush green suits.

To get the scoop, we tracked down former student-mascots through vintage newspapers and UF yearbooks. We also poked around on Albert and Alberta’s official UAA page.

Here are five facts every Gator should know about being Albert and Alberta (Check back next month for facts 6-10.)

1. UF Has Multiple Mascots

Don’t tell the kids, but UF has more than one Albert and Alberta.

Between six and 10 students serve concurrently as mascots each year, and the University Athletic Association deploys them at more than 400 events annually. These include football and basketball games, appearances at local schools, hospitals and businesses, and yearly trips to Tallahassee for Gator Day. Plus, mascots can be hired for weddings, parties and tailgates. (Fees help fund UAA scholarships.)

With team workouts, these events add up to about 15 to 20 hours of “mascoting” per student, per week.

Charlie Newton in 2015.

“It’s easily as much commitment as a part-time job,” said Charlie Newton (BSMSE ’16), who served as Albert from 2013 to 2016.

Mascots must always be “on” in public and engaging with fans. (The last thing anyone wants to see is a tired-looking Albert slumped on a chair or scrolling on his phone.)

In return, student-mascots receive partial scholarships, access to the student-athlete gym and, after they graduate, membership in the Gator F Club, exclusively for UF letter-winners.

2. They Swelter in Those Suits

If it’s game day on Florida Field, Albert and Alberta are definitely sweating.

Plush-costumed Albert and Alberta in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, 1988. The character of Alberta was created in 1986 to cheer on women’s athletics. Courtesy UF Digital Archives

Each mascot suit weighs around 25 pounds and includes a foam head cooled by a battery-powered fan, said Newton. The costumes were redesigned in 2015 with lighter, washable fabric, but even so, temperatures inside register 20 to 30 degrees higher than the ambient environment.

“Most appearances were miserably hot, especially football games with a noon kickoff,” remembered Newton. “I was always sweaty at the end of an appearance, save for a handful of cold outdoor events.”

Sabrina Saucier (BSPR ’00) performed as Alberta from 1997 to 2000 in a heavier suit she describes as “stifling hot.” She and her fellow mascots sought comfort wherever they could find it.

“During my time, the EMTs kept the ambulances running during the games, so they would let us go in and cool down,” she said. “We’d also go in the breezeways, under the stadium.”

The first plush Albert, aka “Fat Albert,” in the early 1990s. Courtesy Independent Florida Alligator

The first plush Albert (circa 1984) suit had a single ventilation hole in the head and three metal rings that formed the gator’s ample belly; inside; hence its nickname, “Fat Albert.”

“Fat Albert” was so hot, wearer Jimmy Jay (BA ‘87) reportedly sweated off 6 pounds during a football game against Miami, he told the 1983 yearbook. Steve Rogers (BA ’91), who wore the suit from 1987 to 1991, tried to compensate by having large pockets sewn on a T-shirt and stuffing them with frozen gel ice packs; however, the packs quickly heated up and just weighed him down, so he eventually discarded them, he said.

“Creepy Gator,” the second Albert costume. Courtesy Independent Florida Alligator

Even more stifling was “Creepy Gator” (1978-1983), a menacing costume made of vinyl and leather. It reportedly registered inside temps of 120 degrees.

3. They Get Triggered by Febreze

Soaked in sweat and body odor, mascot suits can end up smelling pretty ripe, wearers say.

Friends of the Gator are responsible for cleaning their own suits and swabbing down the inside of the gator’s head with isopropyl alcohol. Today’s mascots can throw their suits in the washing machine, but prior models needed to be dry cleaned.

Smell control is a perennial concern.

“I used Lysol to help with the smell of Albert’s head,” noted Rogers.

Sabrina Saucier chomps in her Alberta costume (minus the head) outside the Swamp in the late 1990s. Courtesy Sabrina Saucier

But according to one former Alberta, not all Alberts from the 1997-2000 era passed the smell test.

“The boys were not really great about getting Albert cleaned; he always smelled bad,” recalled Saucier. “I have a pretty sensitive nose, and I had my Alberta cleaned all the time.”

Since its debut in 1998, Febreze has been a nose-saver for mascots, as touted in the brand’s 2009 commercials. (“Got mascot-sized odors in your house? Try Febreze.”)

Newton remembers using the odor-eliminator religiously on his Albert suit, along with Tide Sport detergent. Unfortunately, those products now trigger negative associations for him.

“To this day, I associate scented laundry detergent and Febreze with the smell of body odor,” he admitted. “I use unscented detergent on my laundry now.”

4. They Take a Vow of Secrecy

Student-mascots are sworn to secrecy about their identities while enrolled at the university.

They cannot tell friends or fellow students. They must enter the stadium with their suit and head stashed in unmarked bags. No brag-posting on their personal Instagram when athletes high-five them on the court. Instead, those moments get logged on Albert’s and Alberta’s social media pages, which have tens of thousands of followers.

A graduating Albert sports his green feet at the May 2022 commencement. Courtesy UF Twitter feed

Businesses and individuals wanting to hire Albert or Alberta for an event must provide a private dressing room, not a bathroom, for changing, so prying eyes never glimpse the human-to-gator transformation. (It’s in the contract.)

Only at commencement do graduating mascots come out of the gator closet, striding across the O’Connell Center stage in their bright green feet.

One of the most celebrated mascot “reveals” of recent years took place at the May 2022 commencement for the new Doctor of Dental Medicine class.

When Carson Smith (BSA ’18, DMD ’22) chomped onstage with his furry gator hands, fellow graduates realized that, in addition to being their own highly respected class president, Smith was one of the fun-loving Alberts who had rocked the Swamp.

5. They Love Living Large

Despite the heat, sweat and Swampy odors, being a UF mascot is extremely rewarding, alumni told us.

“It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” said Newton, who loved crowd surfing as Albert.

Brian and Kourtney LaPlant, by Emerson Alumni Hall, January 2023. Photo by Aaron Daye

“Every smile Albert brought to someone’s face was a highlight, especially when it was a small child,” he added.

“Doing the Two-Bits cheer in the stadium is a whole lot of fun when the rowdies get going,” reminisced Brian LaPlant (BA ’04, MED ’05, EDS ‘16), an Albert from 2002 to 2005.

“We got to celebrate and feel the energy that the Gator Nation brings,” said his wife, Kourtney LaPlant (DPH ’06), who played Alberta from 2001 to 2005. “The fans create the atmosphere that pumps everybody up.”

Judge Steven Rogers in 1991 and today.

Then there are the moments every sports fan dreams of: Rubbing elbows with the players and the Head Ball Coach. Friends of the Gator can have many such VIP memories, which they recall vividly years, and even decades, later.

An indelible memory for Rogers stems from the Gators’ 16-13 victory over the LSU Tigers, in Baton Rouge, on Oct. 7, 1989. During the game, Rogers taunted the rival team by carrying around a stuffed tiger on a leash.

“After we won, Emmitt Smith [BSR ‘96] took my tiger and threw it in the stands to the cheering Gator fans,” he says. “I saw Emmitt on campus the following week and told him that he owed me a new stuffed animal tiger. He responded with, ‘We just beat LSU, why do you still need the tiger?’ I countered: ‘Because we still have to play Auburn.’”

Check back next month for part 2 of “Gator Confidential.”