Tag wars: UF second, FSU 10th from last

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

September/October 1995

John Lombardi is a sly old fox. I knew I liked him the moment I heard about the Naked Olympics.

It seems they have some sort of annual track relays at Florida which attract Olympic caliber athletes from all over. There evolved an informal practice on the part of some participants to spend the last night of the event running naked through the trees along the back edge of the Gainesville campus, to the merriment of all concerned.

Dubbed the Naked Relays, it was found out and some of the local finger-wagglers, after recovering from their shock, demanded to know what President Lombardi knew and when did he know it. Lombardi, who probably knew nothing about it till he read the papers (not sure if there were photos), defused the whole thing instantly by smiling and saying something to the effect that, well, no they hadn't sent him an invitation, but if they had, maybe he would have participated himself.

Like Sandy D'Alemberte, Bobby Bowden and other clever, high-IQ types, Lombardi knows that audacity is very often the best way to turn back an unexpected challenge. Soon after Foot Locker broke, for example, D'Alemberte shifted the whole public tenor of the issue away from erring, naive student athletes and toward predatory sports agents. Bewildered agents and their representatives, long used to operating any damn way they pleased, suddenly found themselves being fingerprinted and posting bail.

Of course, for this approach to work it was necessary for FSU to be certified eventually as a clean program with institutional control. After a half-million-dollar investigation, D'Alemberte's faith in his own people seems to have been borne out.

But you don't always have to have the facts on your side; sometimes an audacious preemptive strike serves to put your opponents on the defensive, even when they have no need to be. I say this because I have received, by fax, mail and special courier, untold dozens of copies of a letter put out in April by Florida's President Lombardi. As far as I can tell, this plea for the sale of University of Florida license plates was mailed to everyone who has ever attended Florida, or has ever lived in Gainesville, or has ever driven past Gainesville on I-75. More than a few of these have fallen into Seminole hands.

The tone of Lombardi's letter is appropriately lighthearted ("I am writing to urge you to purchase a UF license tag or two..."). FSU is never referred to by name, but Lombardi allows that with a national championship, "this other state university began to catch up."

Florida was even able to get the Tampa Tribune to run an article on July 2 touting UF and recounting the points in the letter. Here are the salient points in Lombardi's letter:

   "...for the past seven years, University of Florida license plates have sold at greater volume than any other university in the nation."

And this:

   "We have always sold more tags than this other state university located in Tallahassee."

Well... no. Actually, none of that is true. Here are the facts:

The last seven years (1988-1994), more FSU license tags than UF tags have been issued every year except 1992 (the year after UF's only football victory in the last nine tries). And in fiscal 1995, FSU again led UF in sales - by more than $31,000.

When this program began in October of 1987, Florida mounted a massive three-month campaign that sold about three times the number of tags that FSU did. The renewals from that initial rush of sales have pushed their total dollar amount ahead of ours for the nine-year span. But, beginning in 1988, FSU has decisively beaten the Gators. In the last seven-and- a-half-years, Seminoles have bought more than 90,000 tags; Gator fans have purchased something more than 83,000.

Beverly Spencer, FSU's vice president for university relations, is pretty savvy herself. She has mounted a counter-campaign touting "FSU LICENSE TAGS #1 SINCE 1988." There will be, I'm told, additional advertising and a new direction in FSU's tag promotions to counteract UF's approach.

Back during the days of the Cold War, there was an Olympic track event involving only two participants: America and the Soviet Union. We beat the Soviets, but the report of the race in Pravda read: "Soviet track team finishes second; United States finishes next to last." Technically correct, perhaps, but not accurate and not the truth.

Dr. Lombardi is a clever fellow, and he knows all about track meets and the Olympics, and propaganda. And he has fired off a round in our direction.

Seminoles, prepare to return fire.


This was originally printed in the September/October 1995 Florida State Times magazine. The author has given his permission to reprint this article.