Fans with class

Let’s hear it for Gainesville, Fla., and the students and followers of Florida University. Last spring, the Gator basketball team won the national college championship and did it decisively and with flair. The people in and around Gainesville were delighted and behaved in a civilized manner.

Monday night, the Florida football team sprang a major upset of Ohio State and annexed another national title for the school. Never before has a major school held national titles in both high-profile male sports at one time. Again, the Gator fans showed great class in the way they responded. Would other college towns have handled such a double achievement as well?

Gainesville police said there were only three postgame arrests, two for disorderly conduct and one for arson – for setting a Christmas tree on fire, one the alleged offender said he had been saving for just such a “miracle victory,” by the way. The only serious injury occurred when a streaker ran into a moving car.

What a far, and welcome, cry from some of the demonstrations which have occurred in recent years in cities whose signature athletic teams, college and professional, posted significant victories. In Gainesville, no looting, no terrorizing and injuring of innocent people, no ripping apart the community infrastructure or damaging and destroying motor vehicles.

“I would grade the celebration at least a B-plus, even an A-minus,” said one police official. “Our fans are good fans. They’re pretty used to winning. They’ve seen it and they’ve done it.”

In other words, the followers operated with the delightful attitude that they’d “been there before.” Such deportment beats the daylights out of rushing football fields to down goal posts after arguably routine victories, as we’ve seen too often at Kansas University in recent times. Such foolishness risks lives and limbs and by no means glorifies the school and its followers.

Then there is the growing tendency for basketball fans to flood courts after their teams win games of note. That, too, is damaging and dangerous and we can only hope KU people continue their tendencies not to indulge themselves in such juvenile fashion.

But back to the Florida faithful, they showed how people should behave – jubilantly but not destructively – after big victories. We can only hope the virus of dignity and self-control they have displayed for the nation will spread rapidly to other venues.