GatorMates
Talk about your long engagements
By Tim Lockette
For decades, a pair of portly, fuzzy alligators has been the most famous couple at the University of Florida. Everyone has seen Albert and Alberta on the sidelines, holding hands, bickering occasionally — but always united in their support of the team. It was no secret that they were seeing each other, but like so many college couples, they kept the status of their relationship pretty vague.
No longer. Albert has officially gotten down on bended knee to ask Alberta to be his wife.
LaPlant pops the question to Long at Florida Field. (Photos courtesy of Gainesville Sun)
CoE alumnus Brian LaPlant recently popped the question to his longtime girlfriend, UF alumnus Kourtney Long, in a picture-perfect proposal on the 50-yard line of Florida Field. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was familiar territory for the couple, who spent their college years playing UF’s male and female alligator mascots.
“I knew the time was right, and I wanted to do it at a place that was special for both of us,” said LaPlant, who now teaches social studies at Mebane Middle School in Alachua, just north of Gainesville.
The pair began dating in high school. When Long came to UF’s College of Pharmacy in 2000, she saw an ad for mascot tryouts in The Independent Florida Alligator and thought a stint as Alberta would be a hoot. Later, LaPlant transferred to UF from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and joined the school’s mascot team to stay close to his true love.
Soon they were seeing the world together, through tiny eyeholes.
With Brian and Kourtney, the affection Albert and Alberta shared was genuine.
“As a mascot, you get to see a side of UF that most students never see,” LaPlant said. “We’ve been in the press box, we’ve met the players, and we’ve traveled to some of the biggest games.”
They also learned how to communicate through bulky mascot suits.
“When you want to say something to another mascot, you have give them a hug and press your face up to theirs,” Long said. “If you’re getting tired or feeling faint, you grab the other mascot’s hand.”
Perhaps there’s a lesson there for married couples everywhere.
Becoming a Gator – literally – has opened a lot of doors for LaPlant. Not everyone gets to perform a wedding proposal at midfield at The Swamp, but the powers that be simply could not say no to the school’s own mascots. A chance encounter with Gainesville Sun photographer Mike Weimar – whom LaPlant first met while working as Albert – led to front-page coverage of the proposal, and a follow-up story in the St. Petersburg Times.
LaPlant’s students loved their teacher’s 15 minutes of fame even more than he did.
“After the story ran, students kept bringing me clippings and saying they saw me in the paper,” he said. “If you need a copy, I have about 75 of them.”
LaPlant now teaches middle-school social studies in Alachua.
LaPlant even got an offer to play Thrash, the musclebound bird of prey who represents the Atlanta Flames hockey team. Yes, the job pays substantially more than a starting teacher’s salary (though there’s no bonus for holders of a master’s degree). And no, LaPlant never seriously considered the offer. To him, the awed silence of the “teachable moment” is better than the roar from the bleachers.
“When you lead thousands of people in a cheer, you definitely get a rush,” he said. “But it doesn’t last. When you help a seventh grader understand something he’ll remember for the rest of his life, you know you’ve done something that truly matters.”
