There were sneered threats and promises of revenge. Something serious was about to unfold. So serious that the police had erected barricades and the news media had warned the public. The tension was palpable. The universities of Florida and Tennessee were going to play a ball game.
College football is taken seriously at Florida.
It controls the pulse and the soul of the university. It amuses some, bewilders to others, and becomes addictive to a frightening few. More studious types are disgusted at the hold it has over academic life. In the early 1800s, a small village called Boggy was settled in the panhandle of Florida. Approximately 1,140 miles away at a country home in small, sylvan Rockford, Ill., Tommy Latino paused behind his wooden garage door.