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As if beating the Georgia football team 15 times in the last 17 tries weren't enough.

College rivalry
License plates will tag Gator boosters in Georgia
Monday, August 20, 2007 3:32 AM
By Joseph Goodman

McClatchy Newspapers
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Deep in enemy territory.

That's the tag line for the Atlanta Gator Club, the University of Florida alumni outpost that operates in the largest city of the Gators' most bitter rival.

But it's another Florida tag line that is causing a controversy in Georgia. Spearheaded by the Atlanta Gator Club, an initiative to create a Florida Gators specialty license plate tag is in its final stages. Jeffrey Hester, an Atlanta lawyer and Florida alum, said the tags could be available by next year.

As if beating the Georgia football team 15 times in the last 17 tries weren't enough.

"It has been met with some opposition," said Hester, who helped get the specialty tag approved by the state. "A group of Georgia fans are trying to put together a petition to protest it."

Georgia fans are stuck, though. The state already has approved the tags. Production will begin after 1,000 applicants offer $25 apiece to fund the project.

In July, Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, the president pro tem of the Georgia Senate, expressed his displeasure in the Gators tags by sending a playful letter to state Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham.

"A Gator tag will cause accidents," Johnson wrote. "Gator fans cannot drive or read traffic signs. A car up on blocks cannot move. And it will lower our quality of life. In fact, my children used to have nightmares because we lived dangerously close to the state of Florida."

Hester said the submitted design for the tag was created by the University of Florida. It features the Gators' logo surrounded by the words "National Champions." The bottom of the tag reads "University of Florida."

Are there any concerns that rankled Georgia fans might vandalize automobiles trumpeting the Florida Gators?

"I think there's always that element you worry about when you're the minority," Hester said. "So there's definitely that feeling."

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