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Gator collectibles
UF's 150th anniversary marked with mementos
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| Nhan Tran sets up a computer screen as part of the 150th anniversary celebration exhibit at Emerson Alumni Hall. This exhibit has traveled all over the state portraying several pictures, facts and a multimedia presentation about the University of Florida. |
By CARRIE MILLER
Sun staff writer
Along with burgers and fries, beginning Monday, Checkers customers will get their drinks in plastic cups commemorating the 150th anniversary of the University of Florida.
Around that same time, eight-ounce Coca-Cola bottles emblazoned with the orange-blue-and-white 150th anniversary logo will appear on store shelves in Alachua County.
The 300,000 commemorative Checkers cups - featuring both the logo and a sepia-toned old-time football player - and the 10,000 cases of Coke are just two of dozens of bits of memorabilia UF's public relations office developed to mark this year's 150th celebration.
Launched in early January with a solemn academic convocation, the sesquicentennial celebration is set to conclude in late December.
In the office of sesquicentennial coordinator Karen Willis are commemorative-labeled bottles of wine - made from a grape developed at UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - commemorative water bottles, note pads, rain ponchos and not one, but four books commemorating the 150 mark.
But the partnerships with Checkers and Coca-Cola will provide "increased visibility," said Terry Hynes, dean of the College of Journalism and Communications and co-chairwoman of the sesqui- centennial committee.
"It will give folks another nice memento as a reminder of the only time in the university's history when it's going to celebrate this anniversary," she said.
The next 150 event is Sept. 19's black-tie gala fund-raiser, with tickets going for $500 and up.
And two free public closing ceremonies are scheduled for December.
A "Sounds of the Season" pops performance and public reception will be held the evening of Dec. 7 at the Phillips Center for Performing Arts.
Then on Dec. 10, a campus closing celebration luncheon will be held for faculty, students and staff in the Reitz Union grand ballroom from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Incidentally, 2003 marks the 100th year since both UF and Florida State University were founded, but both universities have since changed their founding dates.
In the early part of the 20th century, UF bumped its inception back to 1853, the year the state-funded East Florida Seminary took over the Kingsbury Academy in Ocala.
The seminary moved to Gainesville in the 1860s and later was consolidated with the state's land-grant Florida Agricultural College.
In 2000, FSU decided to move its founding date back to 1851 - the year the Florida Legislature declared its intention to establish two state universities. That allowed FSU to hold its sesquicentennial celebration two years earlier than UF.
Willis has said the committee knows 150 is a fudge.
"We say we trace our roots to 1853," Willis said. "That's our verbiage."
Carrie Miller can be reached at 338-3103 or millerc@gvillesun.com.
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