University of Florida Career Resource Center - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

The University of Florida has been portrayed in several films, books, and television shows. In addition, the University of Florida campus has been the backdrop for a number of different movies, books, and even a song by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The University of Florida has been portrayed in a variety of television shows and motion pictures. Fictional UF alumni and faculty include Kevin Lomax and Mary Ann Lomax who were characters in the film The Devil's Advocate. In the film Days of Thunder, the character Harry Hogge can be seen wearing a University of Florida ballcap. In the film Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, a side character named Earl McManus is shown wearing a Florida Gators hat. The politician Robert Ritchie from the show The West Wing was a graduate of the university. Jim Morrison in the film The Doors was incorrectly portrayed as former University of Florida student. The film The Hawk is Dying is based on the professor Harry Crews, who served as a faculty member for the university. In the television show Miami Vice the protagonist Sonny Crockett had played for the football team.

Robert Cade, a professor at the university's College of Medicine, invented the ubiquitous sports drink Gatorade as a hydration supplement for the Florida Gators football team in 1965–66. A series of Gatorade television commercials, "The Legend of Gatorade," prominently featured the university and the Gators.