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Is Love. We

0:58

met in middle school, and we were both in band together. And

1:13

so we met technically then.

1:16

I don't remember you in middle school. No.

1:21

Courtney, when do you first remember

1:23

him? It was

1:25

high school, so we were both in jazz band

1:27

together. He played the

1:29

bass, and I played saxophone. Courtney

1:33

and Brian LaPlante grew up in Englewood, Florida.

1:36

And we did a musical, which

1:39

was Greece, for our high school

1:41

musical, and he sat right behind me. And

1:44

that's kind of where I guess

1:46

everything got started. Do

1:50

you remember anything about Courtney from middle school,

1:52

Brian? Be

1:55

nice. She

1:57

had a mullet. Do

2:00

you remember it? I mean, shoe

2:02

is. she was more into sports

2:04

and doing that kind of stuff.

2:07

Our our friend circle didn't quite

2:09

a line. It wasn't until high

2:11

school that that we've kind of

2:13

aligned and. Where

2:15

it active in similar act

2:18

activities and things like that

2:20

Micah band primarily. I was

2:22

playing football at the time

2:24

and doing jazz band mostly

2:26

but then I ended up

2:28

stopping football to. Turn.

2:31

That and join band and

2:33

my high school football. Player:

2:35

Boyfriend: quit playing Enjoy! It's it's

2:37

it's. And it's costs twenty

2:39

one. Wouldn't put it since without

2:41

Brian when. You when you first met

2:44

him in that assumes gonna hurt practice.

2:46

So I love you with all of

2:48

my heart. I love you with all

2:51

my heart lung at So the Brian

2:53

as a habit of talking. he's very

2:55

verbose which is one of the things

2:57

that I love about him. but when

3:00

they ran the pit for as an

3:02

easy call he sat. Behind. Me and

3:04

he just would not stop talking to me. I'm.

3:06

Over and over and over and over again.

3:09

I might have had to have. Big.

3:11

The band director to make sure that

3:13

the saxophone section was in front of

3:15

the strings. But

3:18

it is very sweet. He I kept trying to

3:20

flirt with. Me: I'm. And.

3:22

Just continuously talk to me. in between any

3:25

break we had he was asked me questions.

3:27

He wouldn't leave me alone. It

3:29

was something after something. After something

3:32

and now he eventually wore me

3:34

down as I would discuss his.

3:37

Way that's romantic. Blindness.

3:40

Courtney to go to the Valentine's Day dance

3:43

with him. But. She was a

3:45

great older in the same grade as Brian's

3:47

older brother. So.

3:50

I did would every good. Sophomore

3:53

in high school would do

3:55

and I wrote a very

3:57

powerful moving note. We

4:00

will check boxes I think. Some.

4:02

Not mistaken. The news. I don't think of

4:05

me as math little brother I did. I

4:07

still have that know it's one of my

4:09

prized possessions. I'm C

4:11

B Church and this is the. So.

4:25

Corny accepted the opportunity to be

4:27

my day that the Valentine's Day

4:30

dance justin enough time to then

4:32

cancel and say no I can't

4:35

go but yet she was still

4:37

on the planning committee so when

4:39

I got to the dance she

4:42

was there and then she must

4:44

coordinate since she kind of got

4:47

called seat. That a

4:49

little while later, Brian tried again

4:51

yes, Courtney to go to a

4:53

movie with him. She agreed and

4:55

this time she didn't cancel. Obviously

4:58

he couldn't drive, so he asked his

5:00

brother. It was a double date with

5:02

his brother and his brother's girlfriend at

5:05

the time. In a blue

5:07

Pravia player Pravia Mini van.

5:10

So we were in style

5:12

headed to the movie theater

5:14

this until he before after.

5:17

I don't remember but I know he

5:19

went to stay can shake and the

5:21

drive through address at stake in safe

5:23

and or less it was saying nothing

5:25

but the best. That.

5:28

Was their first state. Is

5:30

a sigh. Still

5:33

his fights. he was very very nervous.

5:35

Ah I could tell he was very

5:37

nervous So he sat. Not with

5:39

his brother and his brothers date.

5:41

So he sat by ourselves and

5:44

then I saints. When. You

5:46

drop me off. I. Don't think

5:48

there was no no has no kiss

5:50

know nothing it was see later by.

5:53

Yeah, it sucks I survived

5:55

the date. That was impressive.

5:57

I didn't pass out, I

5:59

didn't suit. milk out of my nose. After

6:02

that, they kept talking and band practice. And

6:05

Courtney says he started to win her over.

6:09

Eventually, she was the one who asked Brian

6:11

to go with her to prom. You

6:14

did ask me to prom, right? Yeah, I had to

6:16

because you weren't allowed to go to prom. That's

6:18

true. She's

6:20

the reason I didn't get my driver's license until I

6:23

was almost 17. Why? Was

6:25

she because she was just driving you around? She

6:28

drove me around and her truck had air conditioning in

6:30

mind, didn't it? This

6:33

was in the late 90s. Brian

6:35

says that Courtney wore cargo pants, Doc

6:38

Martin sandals, and clothes from the

6:40

Gap. Do you want me

6:42

to describe you or you describe you? Me?

6:45

No, I let you go for it. Okay. So

6:48

Brian tried to pull off the skater

6:50

boy. I will call

6:52

it looks. It was the long

6:55

corduroy shorts complete

6:57

with a chain wallet

6:59

belt thing. Wallet

7:02

chain. Wallet chain. Yeah. Vans,

7:05

shoes or some sort of skater

7:07

type tennis shoe. He

7:09

wore the long sleeve t-shirt covered

7:12

with a short sleeve t-shirt. All the

7:14

time. All the time. Did

7:17

not matter. Hot, cold. That's what

7:19

he wore. He had short

7:21

hair, but the front of it,

7:24

he would flip up. So he

7:26

combed it forward. And then the very

7:29

front, like where his bangs are, would stick straight up

7:31

or straight out. By

7:34

the time they started dating, Courtney was

7:36

starting to think about college. I

7:39

had wanted to go to UF since

7:41

I knew anything about college.

7:44

I have a picture from I think it's

7:46

kindergarten of me in like a

7:49

denim overall outfit with a little gator

7:51

patch that I stuck on the

7:53

overalls right before the picture was taken. So

7:56

I had always grown up to

7:58

be everything gator. So

8:00

there was no other option for me.

8:04

Courtney got in. The

8:06

University of Florida is in Gainesville, about

8:08

three hours away from Englewood. I

8:11

think we tried to avoid the conversation as much

8:13

as possible. I was going to say, we didn't

8:15

have that note. We didn't talk about it. I

8:18

don't know. I figured it

8:20

would do like it would just

8:22

either do what it was going

8:24

to do. Either Courtney would still come

8:26

and hang out with me or she wouldn't. On

8:30

Courtney's last weekend at home, Brian

8:32

helped her pack. She remembers

8:34

they both cried a little. Once

8:37

Courtney got to college, they talked

8:39

on the phone every night for hours.

8:42

Which got us both in trouble. Pre-paid phone

8:44

cards at that point. Yeah, that was a

8:46

lot of prepaid phone cards. Because

8:48

it was long distance. Even on cell

8:50

phones. Even on cell phones, it costs money.

8:54

So we would constantly re-up

8:56

our prepaid phone cards.

8:59

Call long distance and

9:01

talk for hours. In the dorms, it caused

9:04

a problem because if you were on the

9:06

phone, you couldn't be on what Internet we

9:08

had in the room. It would

9:10

kick you off. So we

9:12

had to work out a

9:15

situation where we could still

9:17

use the Internet when we needed to, or

9:20

be on the phone. Being

9:26

in high school and being so involved

9:28

with band, I wanted to do something

9:30

similar at UF, but I

9:32

didn't continue with band just

9:35

because I had closed that chapter of my life.

9:38

But I wanted to do something that

9:40

I could remember and leave my mark,

9:43

so to say, with the university. I didn't really

9:45

know what that was. I

9:47

was sitting in, I forget which class

9:50

it was, but reading the alligator. There

9:52

was this little tiny ad in the

9:54

paper about, hey,

9:56

we're looking for new mascots. Why

10:00

not? Well,

10:04

wait a second. If someone showed me

10:06

the ad for the mascot, I would

10:08

say not for

10:10

a thousand dollars would I ever even

10:13

try. There's nothing about me that could do

10:15

this job. What what

10:17

was it that you thought? Okay,

10:20

I think I think I could do this. It

10:23

just looked fun. It looked

10:25

like there was something that I could

10:27

do where people didn't know it was me

10:30

and I could have fun. I could go to

10:33

the sporting events that I like to go to.

10:35

I could cheer for the team, kind of get

10:37

a little inside picture, but it just looks the

10:39

biggest part of me was that it looked

10:41

fun. You

10:45

know, I grew up in a place where

10:47

college sports, it

10:50

wasn't really a big deal. When

10:52

I grew up in Chicago, we

10:55

had all these professional sports teams. In college sports,

10:57

it just it just

10:59

wasn't a big deal, but that

11:01

isn't the case in a lot of parts

11:03

of this country and certainly

11:06

in Florida, can you kind of talk to me

11:08

about what a big deal college sports

11:10

is there? The

11:13

Gainesville town, we live and

11:16

breathe based on what happens

11:18

with the university sports teams. Gainesville

11:21

without the college students, it's probably

11:24

half of the population.

11:27

So on Christmas break and spring break

11:29

in the summer, it's a nice quiet

11:31

sleepy little town. But once all the

11:33

students come back, everything's rip roaring. Saturdays,

11:36

we have planned our children's birthday

11:38

parties around games. If you're a

11:40

Gator fan, you don't get married

11:43

on these certain dates because you

11:45

know, there's a football game. Yeah, I

11:47

like to... it often

11:49

feels like we're living in like

11:51

an ESPN commercial because you

11:54

know, it's not strange to drive down

11:56

the street and see people completely decked

11:58

out in Gator. stuff at

12:01

any time of the day, any time of

12:03

year. The

12:06

University of Florida is one of

12:08

a handful of schools in the

12:10

country that's won national championships in

12:12

football, men's basketball, and baseball.

12:16

They've been known as the Gators since the early

12:18

1900s. But

12:20

it wasn't until 1957 that they had

12:22

their first real mascot, a

12:25

real live alligator named Albert. It

12:28

didn't go very well. Once

12:31

Albert was kidnapped and taken to Tallahassee,

12:34

the home of one of U.S.'s big rivals, Florida

12:37

State. Another time,

12:39

FSU students snuck onto U.S.'s

12:41

campus and painted Albert their

12:44

school color, dark red. The

12:47

rivalry between U.S. and FSU has

12:49

been called, quote, probably,

12:52

the nastiest college football rivalry there

12:54

is. Albert

12:57

was shot and killed in 1965

13:00

by a former U.S. student who

13:02

dropped out because of bad grades. Eventually,

13:06

the university decided to stop having

13:08

a live mascot, and

13:10

they released the replacement Albert into the

13:13

lake on campus. At

13:15

one point, they tried having a robotic

13:18

alligator. In

13:20

the 60s, the first costumed mascots

13:22

started popping up across the country.

13:26

Mr. Met at the New York Mets and

13:28

Brutus the Buckeye at Ohio State University.

13:32

The first Brutus costume was a large

13:34

round ball made out of paper mache. There

13:37

were no armholes. It

13:39

only lasted two weeks before they had to

13:41

replace it with a fiberglass version. And

13:45

then in 1970, the

13:47

University of Florida unveiled their own

13:50

costumed mascot, a large

13:52

vinyl alligator, also named Albert.

13:55

And then Alberta came around with title IX,

13:58

I think in the 80s. Ah

14:00

so she. She showed up later and she

14:02

was hatched out of an eggs. At

14:05

the Jacksonville game. Albert,

14:08

an Alberta. Has been called the

14:10

quotes First couple of Florida sports.

14:13

Every year a small number of students

14:16

joined the mascot team and take turns

14:18

appearing as Albert and Alberta at games.

14:21

Courtney. Wanted to give it a shot. For.

14:24

Her addition she had to make up

14:26

been perform a small skyn. She

14:29

decided to make it about another. Us Rifle

14:31

The University of Georgia Bulldogs.

14:34

So. I had actually a stuffed bulldog

14:37

that Brian had given me for Valentine's

14:39

Day that I had with me and

14:41

I turned it into kind of a.

14:43

I'm a bulldog mascot sort of

14:46

stuff the animal and I proceeded

14:48

to pound on it a little

14:50

bit and then I got up

14:52

and kind of breast. Myself off

14:54

and did the Chrissy little straighten

14:57

my skirt and you know, smooth

14:59

skin. And then I walked off

15:01

in the fast the way that

15:03

I envision Alberta acted. Courtney

15:06

remembers a few days after the

15:08

Triads a list students who made

15:10

it was posted outside the basketball

15:12

arena. And her name

15:14

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Florida. I mean,

16:45

Brian, there's a lot of ways to be proud

16:47

of the woman you love. I

16:52

mean, I don't, to

16:54

be honest, I thought one of the coolest things

16:56

I was like, Oh, does this come with tickets?

17:00

Can we? And it did. But

17:03

you know, I think it was

17:05

just so cool. It was awesome.

17:07

It was definitely a proud moment. And

17:09

it was outside of her box. It was like outside of

17:12

what she does. So that was kind of cool. Courtney

17:15

started training. She practiced

17:17

cheers and skits, practiced how

17:19

to deal with rowdy fans and

17:22

spent a lot of time practicing walking.

17:26

Alberta is when I wore it was

17:28

a full think

17:30

shag carpet, that kind

17:33

of furry material and it was long

17:37

sleeves, long pants, a

17:40

hula hoop to make her a little more

17:42

stout, a tail

17:45

that went it was heavy,

17:47

and then a nose like the snout the

17:49

head was separate. So it was a separate

17:51

part. The hands were separate and

17:54

the feet were separate. They were like big bedroom

17:56

slippers. Brian's

17:58

laughing at me because the Alberta. is

18:00

female so there are some female

18:04

parts on the costume as well to

18:06

make sure she looks female. What

18:10

would those be? She's got alligator boobies.

18:13

What? Really?

18:17

Courtney do you remember the first time you put on

18:19

the suit your first game? The

18:22

first time from what I can remember

18:24

it was just like this is really

18:26

cool. Also this is really hot. It

18:31

was trying to figure out you know what am I

18:33

supposed to do if I feel like I'm going to

18:36

faint or you know if this is really hot am

18:38

I allowed to stand over here? Can I stand over here?

18:40

Am I in the way? What am I supposed to do?

18:42

So there were a lot of questions but

18:44

it was really fun. I'm like this is really

18:46

cool I can do all these things and people

18:49

don't know it's me and then I kind of

18:51

have to be a secret when I leave other

18:53

than carrying this giant big

18:55

blue bag everywhere like what's in the bag

18:57

I don't know. It

19:00

must have been rather freeing to know

19:03

that you could be as kind of

19:05

ridiculous as you wanted and no one

19:07

would know. It was it was

19:09

and I think that was part of the

19:11

the glamour of doing all of that is

19:13

you know like I could be a little

19:15

crazy and well I'm a little crazy now

19:17

anyway without the costume but I

19:20

could be a little crazy back then and people you know

19:22

it was what could I do to make the people laugh?

19:24

What could I do to make the people smile? And

19:26

then what could I do to have fun with the kids?

19:30

Now how hot is that suit? It's

19:33

very hot. So

19:36

we usually say it's about 40

19:38

degrees hotter than the outside temperature

19:40

and you have to be very

19:42

careful especially in the Florida heat to

19:45

not get overheated or get heat stroke or

19:47

anything like that and it

19:49

can happen very very quickly. I do

19:51

remember one Tennessee football game it was

19:54

a 330 game 330 kickoff

19:57

And it was hot because it was in September and. We

20:00

had done our part of the appearance

20:02

up in the sky boxes and I

20:04

just remember having to the i was

20:06

like i'm getting sills I do not

20:08

feel well So I remembered ducking into

20:10

some buddies box and I'm like I

20:12

need to go into the bathroom that

20:14

they just looked at me like what

20:16

is going to So I remember sitting

20:18

in their bathroom. Just trying to take all the

20:21

stuff off the cool downs. I could go back out,

20:23

but. Ah, the heat is a real

20:25

problem in Florida and is a real problem

20:27

when you're covered and like sixty pounds of

20:29

for. Selling a good dust

20:31

has. His. Brine was

20:33

in town visiting. He'd go to the games

20:36

with Courtney and try to be helpful. Picking.

20:39

Up from carrying bags and you

20:41

know, make sure nobody was getting

20:43

it, having any issues and making

20:45

sure everybody had water. After

20:48

Brine graduated from high school, he went

20:50

to the University of North Florida. But.

20:52

Eventually transferred to Us to be

20:55

with Courtney. And. It

20:57

was time for the next round

20:59

of tryouts, the next to the

21:01

next year and. You know

21:03

that the folks on the team kept saying hey,

21:06

listen, why don't you do it You're here anyways

21:08

are coming to all the appearances You should do

21:10

it. I mean I'm not gonna say I got

21:12

to put the suit on both civil war everybody

21:14

else and dumped him for the suit on. But

21:17

ads. But I knew what? how?

21:20

Albert Watts? I knew his mannerisms.

21:22

I knew the cheers. I knew

21:24

what. The basics should

21:26

be. So. Blind

21:29

Auditions endless to be

21:31

an elder. Best.

21:33

Tag along stories a synth

21:35

that. Was

21:39

the relationship. Between

21:41

Albert and Alberta. Is

21:43

it depends on who you ask? Ah,

21:46

I think the university says their friends,

21:48

their friends. they're not siblings. And they're

21:50

not sibling of Texas. And then

21:52

depending on who's in the costume I think they

21:55

can you know make it our of they won

21:57

a major but I think just a silly they

21:59

are spread. So

22:01

when you two were both appearing

22:04

together, we're Albert and Alberta. A

22:06

little more than friends. Definitely very

22:08

flirty. Ah, I tended to be.

22:10

More. Flirty as Alberta. Ah,

22:13

that was kind of part

22:15

of my character. Of

22:17

her. I mean, we all try to do

22:19

things very similar, but I tended to be

22:21

a little bit more flirty and it helped

22:23

that brain was Albert. We did a lot

22:25

of appearances together. I think we have great

22:27

chemistry, you know, both on and off the

22:29

field. As they say, Brian.

22:32

Has was courtney be a mascot for

22:34

awhile. But. There was still

22:37

a learning curve. There was a lot of

22:39

running into kids. I mean your vision is

22:41

is pretty limited at times. it's it's just

22:43

kind of depended. And so kids happened to

22:46

be. At least for Albert.

22:48

Kids are often under your line

22:50

of vision, so you kind of

22:52

learn to walk. In.

22:54

A slower way where you're not gonna bounce

22:56

kids very far off of you if you

22:58

hit em. Side.

23:01

Lock steps, Removed are.

23:04

All is a problem. I

23:06

ran over a parking no

23:08

a curb at the baseball

23:10

game. Here when I was running away from

23:12

Cub scouts. A What it

23:14

was Scout Day at the baseball stadium

23:16

and I was. Doing. The game

23:19

and they were unsupervised and.

23:21

The system is coming after me and running

23:23

after me as training get away from them

23:25

because it was more than I could handle

23:27

and I hit the curb and I went.

23:30

For like face plant. On.

23:33

The ground on the country. And then they finally

23:35

left me alone. Fine.

23:37

Learned this someone tried to hand them

23:40

something he had to try to accepted

23:42

without being able to see what it

23:44

was. There's nothing worse than

23:46

like having somebody hindu something and dropping

23:48

it because you just can't see what

23:51

their hand and you and then the

23:53

next person hands. You have babies and

23:55

you're like you just handed me a

23:58

baby, you watch me drunk Peter and

24:00

you're gonna hand me a baby. That

24:03

with that was the stressful part. They

24:07

both said the kids were sometimes scared to see

24:09

them. He has to be really

24:11

big and make your movements really bank but

24:13

when you have a kid that's a little

24:16

timid you make yourself a the small so

24:18

the first thing that we would do is

24:20

cracked down on the ground on to kind

24:22

of put them at eye level with us

24:25

and let them come to you because it's

24:27

a really scary. To have this giant furry

24:29

thing come after you if you're not ready.

24:31

For it So he was just gonna stay

24:33

still and let the kid walk over to

24:36

us and then let them final lead the

24:38

interaction self they wanted a hogs we would

24:40

have them as long as they wanted to

24:42

and then you know they always liked to

24:45

feel especially with our they like to seal

24:47

the teeth or the know so and we

24:49

wouldn't sometimes take their hands and like rubber

24:51

noses are let them see. Our hands or

24:54

seed or whatever. So but it when

24:56

they're. Really excited. You know we get

24:58

really excited to so long, run and

25:00

jump with them or do high fives.

25:04

Albert like suffered kids' heads in their mouth. Yeah,

25:06

he likes to try to buy their hands off.

25:10

Especially Sir Albert. Straw has a hinge in

25:12

it so it's he said spread it wide

25:14

enough to get a kid's head in there

25:17

and then politico and it's it's not real

25:19

hard is not like a a scary like

25:21

snap or but the ones that are active

25:23

and play for you can kind of snap.

25:26

he said snap their heads and in alberta

25:28

mouth a little bit that was fun. With.

25:32

Ease do lead when you don't have a

25:34

big. Said. Podium and you get out.

25:37

As to the game, a me

25:39

wheezes disgusting Yes sir, Yes,

25:43

Absolutely disgusting is an

25:45

understatement. I mean Huge.

25:47

It's like already said

25:49

at one point. There.

25:52

were five at least some a

25:54

guy said there were five of

25:56

us and three suits and during

25:58

as a game two

26:01

of the suits you knew were going to be used for the game.

26:04

One of them was going to be somewhere

26:06

in town. Chances

26:08

are you're getting a suit from somebody that

26:10

you didn't wear that morning and therefore it

26:13

is wet, but it's not your

26:15

sweat in that suit. It is somebody else's.

26:17

And so it's gross.

26:20

It's your sweat and other people sweat.

26:23

And you put the head on and it just drips down

26:25

your face. So

26:28

nasty. And

26:30

that sounds like the worst thing I've ever heard. Oh,

26:33

it's amazing. You've become really close

26:35

with your teammates. So, love you

26:38

guys. But somebody else smelled. We

26:41

all smelled. We all smelled. And

26:43

you knew who had the suit before you by

26:45

what exactly it smelled like. You're like, oh, no.

26:49

And we all smelled like Febreze for years.

26:51

We could have been sponsored. I still

26:53

can't smell Febreze because that's what we use

26:55

because, you know, the suits are disgusting. We

26:58

can't wash them after every appearance or else they

27:00

fall apart. So you do your best to dry

27:02

it out and then you spray

27:04

it down with Febreze to try to get some

27:07

of the smell out. But it

27:09

is so gross. It is

27:11

disgusting. I can't

27:13

think of a worse place to

27:16

have to wear like a shag

27:18

carpet suit than Gainesville. I

27:21

don't know if there's a worse place. It

27:23

is swampy. That's why they call it the

27:25

swampy. We'll

27:33

be right back. I

27:50

think those three questions are going to be

27:52

great. when

28:00

answered thoughtfully and honestly give you a pretty

28:02

clear picture of who a person is and

28:04

we also have a lot of fun and

28:06

laughs on the way there. New

28:09

episodes every week with guests like Bill

28:11

Hader, Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Bell and more.

28:13

Listen wherever you get your podcast. That's

28:16

the three questions with Andy Richter. How

28:21

do you communicate when

28:23

you're not allowed to speak? So

28:27

gestures, very big gestures because

28:29

everything's big in mascot land.

28:32

Everything's big. And

28:35

so a lot of big gestures to kind

28:37

of show it's kind of

28:39

like charades. It's like living charade life. And

28:42

you can kind of help

28:44

people understand what you're trying to do by acting

28:46

things out. And then

28:49

for between us, we

28:51

held hands a lot. So if we needed

28:53

to go somewhere, we would do a couple

28:55

quick squeezes in our hands. Like, hey, let's

28:57

couple of squeezes. Like, hey, let's go. Or I

28:59

would just literally pull him around. Like, we

29:02

need to go this way. So I'd grab him and

29:04

pull him over or grab his tail and pull him

29:06

that way. So we need to go that way. And

29:08

he is very good. Well, sometimes. Sometimes. That's

29:11

how I've made it this long. And then

29:13

when it's really loud, especially on the football

29:15

field, if you see

29:17

them hugging a lot or hugging

29:20

somebody, they're usually talking to

29:22

whoever they're hugging. So

29:24

we would do that a lot. If we needed

29:26

to tell them something specific that we couldn't exactly

29:28

act out, we would do like a big hug

29:30

and sway back and forth and then tell him

29:32

what I need to do is like, hey, I need to go

29:34

get some water right now. I'm going to fall over. For

29:37

their last game, they appeared together

29:39

as Albert and Alberta at

29:42

U.S. Spring Football Game. U.S.

29:45

had just hired a new head coach. And

29:48

I remember

29:50

being very sad. Most

29:52

of that, like it was just such a

29:54

final feeling. It's funny, it

29:57

was such a, there

29:59

was so much hope. around the

30:01

team and around the new coach that they

30:03

had hired and so

30:05

there was like this weird super

30:07

positive feel but I just couldn't

30:10

shake just the sadness of it

30:12

being the last game. It was

30:14

solemn. Yeah so weird. Like having to let

30:16

it go. I wasn't ready to let

30:18

it go. It took

30:20

us a very long time to get off that

30:22

field that day. Yeah but we

30:24

walked off together. We did. I

30:28

could have kept going. I could still do it

30:31

right now. I mean. Yeah nobody wants to see

30:33

an old guy do it but oh my gosh

30:39

it was God I

30:41

was so much fun. You got to

30:43

do it an extra year that I

30:46

did because Courtney started a year before

30:48

me and and so I still have

30:50

a year of eligibility so you know

30:52

some point when I go back to

30:54

write my dissertation I should I should

30:56

take up my last year of eligibility.

30:58

In 2006 Brian proposed to Courtney.

31:03

He decided he'd take her to the football stadium

31:06

to do it and we Brian

31:10

had arranged for you know there

31:12

to be an letterman's blanket on the 50 candles

31:15

but it was very very windy. Super windy

31:17

that night. It was very windy. All the candles

31:19

were out and then he walked

31:21

me out there and I remember

31:25

so the stadium is always open

31:27

or it was it was at that

31:29

time the stadium was open so runners could

31:31

run the stairs and do laps around the

31:34

stadium so there was always people in there

31:37

and I remember like

31:39

cheering when they saw and figured out what was

31:41

kind of happening but we got to

31:43

the stadium he goes down to the 50 takes me out

31:45

there and then gets down on one knee I don't

31:48

remember anything you said. I don't remember anything

31:50

I said so that makes two of us Courtney

31:53

said yes. When

31:56

they got married their friend made them a

31:58

cake that looked just like the UF

32:00

football stadium. And at

32:03

the 50-yard line, she put the

32:05

cake topper, which was a little Albert

32:07

and Alberta clay, bright

32:09

and groomed, it was pretty awesome. It

32:17

definitely led us to be better

32:20

partners in

32:23

terms of looking out

32:25

for each other and making

32:27

sure that each other's taken care of.

32:30

And hydrating. And hydrating. And

32:32

just making sure that each

32:34

other's okay. You

32:37

can survive dehydration and heat stroke together.

32:39

I think you're pretty good. Agreed.

32:46

We asked them if their time as

32:48

mascots made them very good at charades.

32:51

Heck no. No. Horrible.

32:55

But see, that's the fun part

32:57

about it. Albert

33:00

and Alberta are both really good

33:02

at charades. But we

33:04

are horrible. We are not, no. It's

33:06

something about, it's not a

33:08

transformation. Maybe it's just

33:10

that you feel like you're not being watched

33:13

when you're trying to do something. Like

33:15

the whole thing, dance like nobody's watching. It

33:18

feels like you're hidden and it's not you

33:21

anymore. So you can really be

33:23

the giant goofball that you've always

33:25

wanted to be and not be embarrassed about it.

33:28

I have never done the cha-cha slide outside of

33:30

the suit, but I have done it a billion

33:33

times inside the suit. They

33:35

still love dressing up. We have

33:37

so many costumes. Listen,

33:40

dress up thing is real.

33:43

We have so many costumes, like bins

33:45

full of costumes. How many costumes did

33:47

you wear last Halloween? Four. Yes,

33:50

and you work from home. Courtney

33:54

and Brian have a 12-year-old son and

33:56

a nine-year-old daughter. You drop the kids

33:58

off in one costume do a different one.

34:01

Yeah, I love a good dress-up scenario. We can dress

34:03

up. This is us is created by Lauren

34:05

Spohr and me.

34:23

Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie

34:25

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35:16

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