“We're Gators … Not Just Gator Fans”: Serious Leisure and University of Florida Football

AbstractThe concept of serious leisure (Stebbins, 1979; 1992) was used to examine the meanings, rituals, and practices associated with being a University of Florida Football fan. We contend that Gator football fans typify the serious leisure category of the hobbyist. Face to face in-depth interviews were conducted with four female and sixteen male fans. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using constant comparison and grounded theory methods (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998 a & b). Themes emerging from the data confirmed Stebbins' six characteristics of serious leisure. The results suggest that being a Gator football fan provides both a source of identity for the fan as an individual and a sense of belonging in an increasingly fragmented postmodern society.KEYWORDS: Serious leisureidentityfootball fanssense of belonging