Here is a link to the WTSP-Channel 10 feature "Why Do They Call It That?" on the Tampa Bay Bandits. I offer my own two cents throughout the segment.
http://www.wtsp.com/callitthat/article/268406/260/Why-do-they-call-it-that-Tampa-Bays-favorite-football-team
Friday, August 24, 2012
Monday, February 28, 2011
Bulls and Spartans Meet on Hardwood, 2/24/86
Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the first-ever meeting between the University of Tampa and University of South Florida’s men’s basketball teams. Although their campuses are just a little over 10 miles apart, athletically the gap is much larger.As members of the Big East Conference, the USF Bulls typically play other large NCAA Division I schools in every sport. The UT Spartans, as members of the NCAA Division II Sunshine State Conference, generally play other similarly-sized schools, while occasionally meeting up with Division I competition in certain sports. These contests – however rare -- are beneficial to programs like the Spartans, who can use them as measuring sticks against better competition.
There is less incentive, however, for the Bulls, or other schools from large conferences, to seek out contests against Division II competition. Athletic directors and coaches alike feel there is nothing to be gained, but everything to be lost. It is not unusual, for example, for the top Division II teams to be better than some lower-level Division I teams.
One need only look at USF’s reluctance to make the University of Central Florida an annual match-up on the football field to realize the level of paranoia that goes into scheduling opponents. UCF is a Division I, Conference-USA team, yet they are viewed as a smaller-conference foe. The risk-reward of playing the Knights on an annual basis just does not add up for the decision makers at USF, no matter how exciting such games would be for the fan bases of both schools.
On September 30, 1985, USF and UT both agreed that their two schools would meet on the hardwood for the first time during the upcoming season. The game became a possibility when Ohio State dropped USF from their schedule, creating an open date at the SunDome. The teams previously had no plans of playing each other, but with the chance to create some buzz for basketball in Tampa, administrators from both schools agreed to make it happen on February 24, 1986.
For the Spartans, this game presented an excellent opportunity to showcase their basketball program. The sport had made a comeback at UT in 1983 after being dormant since the end of the 1971 season. The Spartans were immediately competitive, going 20-11 in their first season back on the courts, and then went 23-8 and won the Sunshine State Conference during the 1984-85 campaign.
The Spartans played their share of Division I competition each year, matching up against teams such as Purdue, Florida State, Tulane, Iowa, Oregon and Kansas State. The Spartans beat the Oregon Ducks during the Far West Classic in Tampa, and fell to Kansas State by just one point in an overtime loss. Clearly, the Spartans were no punching bag.
USF head coach Lee Rose knew this, which may have in part explained his lack of enthusiasm for the game.
“He felt there was everything to lose, and nothing to gain,” explains Mick Elliott, who covered the game for the Tampa Tribune. “He also felt it was an insult to his program to have to schedule a Division II, cross-town rival.”
While the Spartans were 21-5 and on a roll heading into the contest, the Bulls were 13-13 and in need of a victory to guarantee at least a .500 season.
The 1985-86 campaign for USF – which would be Rose’s last in Tampa – proved utterly disappointing for a team that had earned three NIT appearances between 1980 and 1985. Rose had a commendable 105-68 mark over his six seasons at USF, but the program just could not get over the hump. Now, the Bulls had to play one of the top teams in Division II basketball in an emotional, special-event atmosphere where anything could happen. To lose on their home court would simply be the final insult.
On paper, the Bulls fielded a taller, heavier, deeper, and stronger team than the Spartans. In order to avoid an upset, the Bulls would have to play with a sense of urgency and match the motivation that the Spartans would bring to the game.
In the end, the game proved to be a mismatch. In front of a season-high crowd of 5,507 at the SunDome, the Bulls applied early defensive pressure and created 11 first half turnovers.
“They came out with a lot of emotion,” USF guard Tommy Tonelli said, “but we forced them into turnovers and made out defense work for us.”
Nerves clearly got the better of the Spartans in the early going. Either rattled by the crowd, the stakes of the game, or just a tenacious South Florida defense, the Spartans were out of their comfort zone from the opening tip-off.
“South Florida did what all Division I schools do to us by coming out with a lot of defensive pressure, and we did what we always do which is rush things and make mistakes,” said UT head coach Richard Schmidt.
After the Spartans scored the first points of the game on a free throw, USF soon jumped out a 19-5 advantage with 12:32 left in the first half and never looked back, taking a 40-24 lead into halftime.
The Spartans made a game of it in the second half, eventually narrowing the USF lead to eight points, but were unable to overcome the Bulls, losing 69-57.
“Every time we play a Division I team,” Schmidt said, “it usually takes us 10 to 15 minutes to get used to it. Once we got over that, I think we probably outplayed them, or at least played as well as they did.”
This would not be the last time these teams crossed paths. The all-around success of the first meeting prompted the two schools to schedule more games in the future.
“There was some real sizzle to it,” Elliott recalls. “The Tribune promoted the heck out of the game, and it was probably the best atmosphere that season for a USF home game.”
In their next meeting on December 3, 1986, the Bulls – led by first-year coach Bobby Paschal – were throttled by the Spartans 82-75 in a game that was never as close as the final score indicated. The Spartans led by 18 at halftime, and by as many as 20 in the second half, proving that they were not just a good Division II team, but a very good basketball team.
“The Spartans owned that game,” Elliott says. “They absolutely embarrassed South Florida. It was humbling for the Bulls, and especially for Paschal right out of the gate.”
The two schools played again two more times – the last coming in 1989 – with each team winning once to leave the all-time series at 2-2.
From all indications, this is one record that will stand the test of time. Even though Elliott says that college basketball in this area benefited from this brief rivalry, he would caution against fans of either team hoping for a fifth game to break the tie.
“I’ll go out on a limb,” he says, “and predict that they’ll never play again.”
Monday, January 24, 2011
Catching Up With Larry Hirsch
Larry Hirsch, whose voice is familiar to anyone who followed the Lightning in the 1990s, handled radio broadcast duties for the team from 1993-1999. His signature "Yes, sir!" calls for goals captured the imagination of Lightning fans during the team's playoff run during the 1995-96 season. Hirsch recently took some time to reflect on his years with the club and set the record straight on the circumstances of his dismissal from the Lightning.
Q. One of the reasons Lighting fans connected with you was because of your enthusiasm, particularly in your description of fights. Can you talk about why those calls became so memorable?
A. The fighting element has always been part of the game of hockey. Where some people frown upon that, I've never looked at fighting in the game as something that was bad. I thought it was something that was part of the game because of the way it is played.
I'll give you a great example with the Lightning. The Lightning had a player by the name of Rudy Poeschek. Rudy was their first folk hero. He was a tough guy, but he was a great guy, too. Rudy took it upon himself to stand up for his teammates. He would take on all comers, and he won most, if not all of his fights.
Well, his fights became -- and I guess my calls of his fights became so popular -- that his agent called me up one day and asked if I could send him a montage of his fights. No problem. The great ending to that story is the three of us met after an exhibition game after I had sent him the tapes. I looked at Rudy and said, "Well Rudy, I guess I made you popular, huh?" He looked at me and said, "No, Larry, I think it worked the other way!"
I think what really turned it here was a fight one night in 1993 against the Florida Panthers. Rudy was involved in that against a guy named Paul Laus. I did my best Howard Cosell, "And down goes Laus!" People loved it.
The calls of the fights were always part of a promise that I made to the fans before every game that I'm going to put you in Row A, Seat 1, just like you were there. The wonderful thing about radio is that you can't see what's going on, but you can visualize it if it is laid out that way for you. I tried to let you know everything that was going on, so that when two guys squared off, I'd say, "The gloves are off, Poeschek is on your left, Laus is on your right," and everything that happened, I would just tell you like you were there.
Q. The 1996 playoffs were really when your calls started to take on a life of their own. Talk about what made that series so memorable.
A. What made that series so intense was that the Philadelphia Flyers were one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup, or to at least come out of the East. The Lightning turned things around after getting clobbered in Game 1, 7-3. In Game 2, the Lightning beat the Flyers 2-1 in sudden death. They scored a goal late in the game, and actually, that was the game Darren Puppa hurt his back. The Flyers had a power play early in overtime, and Puppa just stood on his ear. There were scrambles, you know the way the Flyers would go to the net to upset the goaltender, pound him and so forth. I think that's where Darren suffered his eventual debilitating back injury. Well, the Lightning were able to survive the power play, and then Brian Bellows went up the ice and scored the winner. That shocked everybody. The Flyers were more or less expected to sweep the Lightning.
Q. Talk about the role your wife played in making predictions during that series. That started in Game 2, right?
A. Well, my wife would call me to ask if I was doing alright. She'd say, "Larry, you're just going crazy tonight, are you okay?" This was before overtime started, and she said "Don't worry about it, I have a really strong feeling the Lightning are going to win this game." So, sure enough they win the game. We go back to the ThunderDome for the next one. If you remember that game, the Lightning were down a couple of goals in the 3rd period. Rob Zamuner got one, and then with a few minutes left the Lightning were pressing, and Brian Bellows got one in off a rebound to tie things up with under two minutes left. The crowd's going bananas, I'm going bananas, the "Chief" Bobby Taylor is going bananas. I mean, I'm really huffing and puffing. There's like 200 pounds of adrenaline going through my body.
During the overtime break, "Chief" is doing an interview and I go to sit down. I'm sweating, I'm breathing hard, drinking some water, and my wife sees me and asks if I'm alright. I say, "Yeah, I'm just trying to calm down here." She says, "Larry, just between you and me I've got that strange feeling again." I looked at her and said, "No, Susan, let's just quit while we're ahead here."
She said, "No, Larry I'm telling you right now the Lightning are winning this game. Not only that, but Selivanov is scoring the goal."
I get back on the air, and I related the story to "Chief." I said that she told me the other night when I spoke to her before overtime that the Lightning were going to win the game. So I said to him, "Chief, she's part Gypsy, so I have to listen to her. Not only did she say the Lightning are going to win, she even gave me the goal scorer: Alex Selivanov."
Well the "Chief" says, "Larry, if that comes true you ought to take her to Vegas."
Sure enough, overtime begins, and Bill Houlder -- I'll never forget it -- he held the puck above the right circle, he let a shot go, there was a save, and there's Alexander Selivanov. He just ripped the rebound in and I went nuts. "Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir! Selivanov, Selivanov!" Then I ended the call by saying, "I'm taking my wife to Vegas!" We replayed the scenario after the game, after everything had calmed down, and the press here picked up on it. News stations literally came down to our house, but they didn't want to interview me, they wanted to interview my wife! The wanted lottery numbers, whatever. I'll tell you, here is the great ending to that story.
Everyone wanted to know what was going to happen in the next game. So I said, "Susan, we've played this out. Let's not do this anymore, let's quit while we're ahead. No predictions, no nothing, we'll just keep it amongst ourselves."
She said that she had a feeling, and what she would do is write a player's name on a piece of paper, put it in a bag, and place it inside my jacket pocket for that game. Anyway, the next game was a bummer, the Lightning lost, it was terrible. The Lightning scored only one goal in that game, a 4-1 loss. The next morning at home, I'm cleaning out the jacket I had worn the night before and I took out the bag. I opened up the piece of paper, and I like I said the Lightning only scored one goal that night. The goal scorer was Petr Klima. The name on the paper? Peter Klima. I've sort of been marching two steps behind my wife ever since.
Q. So did you eventually take your wife to Las Vegas?
A. Yes, and we won!
Q. How far do you think that Lightning team could have gone if Puppa hadn't gotten hurt?
A. I agree with Phil Esposito, who said that it would have gone to seven games. In a seventh game, you never know. The way Puppa was playing, when you have a hot goaltender, you can go a long way. Even though he got whacked in that first game, the way he played in Game 2 was just incredible. Absolutely incredible. I think if he would have remained in net, the series would have gone to seven games. I think the Lightning had a great chance of advancing with a healthy Darren Puppa.
Q. To what do you attribute the drop-off that followed in the next few seasons?
A. What you can say in general is that the team entered a period of instability and unrest. Number one, the Japanese owners wanted to sell the team and were actively pursuing a buyer. Number two, Terry Crisp was fired. Instability. When Crisp left, here comes Jacques Demers and a whole new scenario. It took time for Demers to do what he wanted to do, and that's when they got Vinny Lecavalier, and then Art Williams came along and called him the "Michael Jordan of hockey."
Art didn't know anything about hockey, the guy who was the team president (Billy McGehee) didn't know anything about hockey, it became a very, very tough situation. There was such instability. There were new players coming in and out, and when Art came in, that first year was horrendous. Absolutely, positively horrendous. It was a combination of those perfect storms unfortunately that led to the downfall of those years.
Q. The stories about Art Williams are legendary, but could you have ever imagined that his season as owner would be so disruptive?
A. The problem with Art was that he wanted to be part of the process, sort of hands-on, but he had a guy at president whose experience running clubs basically came down to his experience in Arena Football and didn't know anything about hockey. We sort of had to sit on the side here, and that was the time when they fired me. McGee said he wanted to renew my contract, and the next thing I know, he calls me up after speaking to my lawyer and says they're not re-hiring me. This was before the 1998-99 season started, and literally, the town of Tampa saved my job. It was four days of hell. I never went to sleep, I was left out in the cold. I had a family to support, everything like that. Fortunately,after talking to a number of people in the community during that time, Art listened and we had a meeting. Not only did he bring me back, he gave me a big raise, and knew that I would be an integral part of the organization in terms of what I had to do. But really, when Art came in and bought the club from the Japanese, that's when the real trouble there started for me.
Q. What was the turning point during Art Williams' tenure as owner of the Lightning where you began to wonder about your place in the organization?
A. During that year, there was a thing that happened with me. The Lightning were on a losing-streak, had lost 11 of 14 games. It was depressing. There were rumors about Art becoming disenchanted and so forth. We went to play a game up in Washington. Billy McGehee was with us for that trip and he ended up in my broadcast booth that night. The Lightning scored the first goal in that game. The Capitals scored eight goals in the second period and won 10-1. If it wasn't the low, it was one of the lowest times of that year. I went back to my hotel room and I said to myself, "We've got to do something here." I went to bed, and then I woke up very early in the morning with a great idea.
We would be playing Philadelphia in a couple of weeks. I went to Billy McGehee and told him I had an idea. The season was really bad, I said, we're not getting any better, we have a lot of injuries, it was just horrible, and morale around the office was terrible. Why don't we take the next two weeks, I told him, and use the next several games as a lead up to the game against Philadelphia at the Ice Palace. Let's recreate that playoff feeling, and have one game where we can sell out the place. Really build up the Flyer game, and for once, show Art what this thing can be.
Billy said, "Terrific, Larry. That's a great idea. We're having a staff meeting when we get back. Why don't you present this?"
I told him, "Wait a minute. Hold on, Billy. I'm giving you the idea. You're the public relations guy. You come up with all these great ideas. You do it. You're the team president, you delegate it. I'll help you in any way I possibly can radio-wise, promotion-wise and everything like that."
He said, "No, Larry. You do it. I can't do it with the enthusiasm you do."
I said, "Billy, I'd rather not do it because I'm just the radio guy."
The last thing he said was "don't worry about it." Reluctantly, I agreed. I walked into that meeting. Billy sees me in the back of the room and introduces me. I go up and I made a terrible mistake. I said, "Look. Times are tough here, the team is struggling, and we're having a hard time selling tickets. It's kind of like having four flat tires stuck in the mud. We're not going anywhere."
Then I started to talk about the Flyer game. Jacques Demers became very distressed, very upset. The entire coaching staff was there and then they walked out. From there, the whole meeting blew up. It was then that I realized maybe Billy was making me the scapegoat here. I went up to Billy later that day and handed him my resignation. I told him, "This is the last time you're going to **** with me. You're not going to do this to me. I'm insulted, I feel bad, and I really tried to do something here to bring light to a very bad season here. I hear Art may be selling the club, and what did you do? You made a fool out of me."
The players, the coaches would not talk to me because the coaches were so-called "insulted." I could not do any interviews with players. All of a sudden I went from being a really nice guy that you'd go up to and laugh with to being the Devil. I felt really bad. I went on the air to apologize. Not that anybody told me to, but I did it because it came out in the papers. It was horrible.
To make a long story short, they sold out that Flyer game because they did what I told them. They sold it out and the Lightning won that night. It was an unbelievable night, as if the 1996 playoffs were being recreated. The Lightning had a horrible team. The Flyers should have killed them. I went nuts that night on the radio, and after the game, the players heard some of it. I went down to the locker room, the goalkeeper for the Lightning, Corey Schwab, calls me over. He says to me, "Larry, I heard what happened. There was nothing between the players and you. We were told by management, blah, blah blah. I know you went through a tough time." What do you think he did?
Q. He gave you the puck?
A. He gave me the game puck. That's exactly right. He couldn't have done anything better. It's one of the greatest stories of my times here and I'll never forget it. I still have the puck, which he signed. Schwaby played a great game that night. It became worth it all. It was their way of saying thank you for trying to create a night where they could shine during a terrible season.
Q. What was Jacques' objection to it?
A. I never really knew, but Jacques was a very emotional guy. This hurt me because I knew Jacques when he was coaching the Indianapolis Racers of the old World Hockey Association. When he came to Tampa, I was telling everybody what kind of a person he was: very enthusiastic, a great guy to talk to, a motivator.
When that happened, I kind of believe -- I want to believe -- that when Art Williams brought me back after Billy McGehee tried to fire me, that it embarrassed him. I told Art during our meeting that I'm not trying to embarrass Billy. But Billy said some unkind things about me, and I always believed that the meeting was a set up for me. I think it was Billy's chance to get back at me for that particular embarrassment. Now, I can't prove that. But if you look at Jacques, he felt that the four flat tires comment was an insult to his hockey team. It wasn't. It was my analysis of the situation. We're stuck in the mud here and we gotta get out. Jacques took that as an insult. Rick Paterson was one of the coaches, and I'd know him for a long time, and he wouldn't talk to me. I couldn't understand it. It went from being one of the worst times to one of the best things that ever happened to me here because of that puck and what Schwaby and the players did that night. The players liked me. How could they not like me? I had their back all the time. But, if you think that episode was bad, what happened with Palace Sports and Entertainment made that look like a day in the country.
Q. What happened when they took over?
A. This is exactly what happened. You're hearing it from the horse's mouth. Palace Sports and Entertainment buys the team from Art Williams in 1999. I only had a one-year contract at the time. I signed my first multi-year contract when the Lightning brought me down here because I wanted it for my family. I talked to Art about doing another multi-year contract. He said to me, "Larry, let's wait until this thing settles down. I'm going to have this team for at least three years. Let me settle things down and we'll do a multi-year next year." I always take a man for his word, and after coming off of those terrible four days at the beginning, I was just happy to have my job. Well, p.s., he sells the team! At the time of the Flyer game, the rumors had come out that he was selling the Lightning. I wanted him to see for one night how great this thing can be, because he really did like having the team.
So he sells the team to Palace Sports & Entertainment. They come in here and have a press conference announcing their intention to buy the club. Bill Davidson and Tom Wilson. The one thing I noticed in Tom Wilson's bio when I read it was that he had a career as a B-actor. There's nothing more lethal than having the president of a sports organization who is a B-actor, because on one-hand he could talk very gracefully, and on the other hand he could B.S. you to death.
So they have the press conference, but it took quite a few months to finalize that deal. Now I had a new owner to deal with. All that Art told me went down the drain. There were three clubs in the NHL that were interested in my services. I told them I was under contract with the Lightning until August. Legally I couldn't do anything, but we had new management so I was going to find out very quickly their intentions.
I called up Ron Campbell and we set up a meeting. He said we're putting the finishing touches on everything and when we're done we'll get back in touch. Two weeks go by and I hadn't heard anything. I'm getting nervous. This is in June, and I've got three teams after me.
On Sunday June 20, I get a call from the Vice President of Sales & Marketing, a man who is now the president of the Florida Panthers: Michael Yormark. This was on Father's Day. Yormark says to me, "Congratulations Larry, I'm sorry it took this long. We're going to bring you in for orientation. Everything is fine. Ron told me to give you a call." So great. With that, on Monday I called the other teams to tell them I'd be staying with the Lightning.
Two weeks later, I hear about a season-ticket holders meeting at the Ice Palace with the new management. I did not know about this. That's when I said, "Uh-oh." Rick Peckham knew about it, Bobby Taylor knew about, but I didn't know about it. Are you kidding me? So I went that night with my wife. There's about 7,000 people there. After Tom Wilson gives his b.s. speech, there's a question-and-answer session. The second question was, "Is Larry Hirsch coming back?" In front of thousands of people, Tom Wilson said, "You want him back, of course we're bringing him back." Then everybody cheered.
A few days later they introduced Steve Ludzik as head coach, and after that they told that I was not being retained, that they'd be bringing in their own broadcaster from Detroit. That turned into a very contentious 10-days between me and PS&E. I wanted to hold my own press conference to explain why I wasn't coming back. They used Steve Duemig as a poison dart on me. It was terrible.
I couldn't sue them, because my contract was up. But the one thing that this very ruthless organization didn't want was bad publicity. What they ended up doing was giving me compensation, but I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The compensation wasn't what I wanted, but I had to have it for my family. Then that was it.
It hurts, but I still live here in Tampa. I still have my home here. A lot of that is due to the testimonial of the people here and the way they've treated me. People still come up to me and say "we miss you." I just want to say that I genuinely and humbly thank all the fans here for how they have treated me and my family, and continue to do so. That's why we are proud members of this community, and why we'll never forget them.
Q. One of the reasons Lighting fans connected with you was because of your enthusiasm, particularly in your description of fights. Can you talk about why those calls became so memorable?
A. The fighting element has always been part of the game of hockey. Where some people frown upon that, I've never looked at fighting in the game as something that was bad. I thought it was something that was part of the game because of the way it is played.
I'll give you a great example with the Lightning. The Lightning had a player by the name of Rudy Poeschek. Rudy was their first folk hero. He was a tough guy, but he was a great guy, too. Rudy took it upon himself to stand up for his teammates. He would take on all comers, and he won most, if not all of his fights.
Well, his fights became -- and I guess my calls of his fights became so popular -- that his agent called me up one day and asked if I could send him a montage of his fights. No problem. The great ending to that story is the three of us met after an exhibition game after I had sent him the tapes. I looked at Rudy and said, "Well Rudy, I guess I made you popular, huh?" He looked at me and said, "No, Larry, I think it worked the other way!"
I think what really turned it here was a fight one night in 1993 against the Florida Panthers. Rudy was involved in that against a guy named Paul Laus. I did my best Howard Cosell, "And down goes Laus!" People loved it.
The calls of the fights were always part of a promise that I made to the fans before every game that I'm going to put you in Row A, Seat 1, just like you were there. The wonderful thing about radio is that you can't see what's going on, but you can visualize it if it is laid out that way for you. I tried to let you know everything that was going on, so that when two guys squared off, I'd say, "The gloves are off, Poeschek is on your left, Laus is on your right," and everything that happened, I would just tell you like you were there.
Q. The 1996 playoffs were really when your calls started to take on a life of their own. Talk about what made that series so memorable.
A. What made that series so intense was that the Philadelphia Flyers were one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup, or to at least come out of the East. The Lightning turned things around after getting clobbered in Game 1, 7-3. In Game 2, the Lightning beat the Flyers 2-1 in sudden death. They scored a goal late in the game, and actually, that was the game Darren Puppa hurt his back. The Flyers had a power play early in overtime, and Puppa just stood on his ear. There were scrambles, you know the way the Flyers would go to the net to upset the goaltender, pound him and so forth. I think that's where Darren suffered his eventual debilitating back injury. Well, the Lightning were able to survive the power play, and then Brian Bellows went up the ice and scored the winner. That shocked everybody. The Flyers were more or less expected to sweep the Lightning.
Q. Talk about the role your wife played in making predictions during that series. That started in Game 2, right?
A. Well, my wife would call me to ask if I was doing alright. She'd say, "Larry, you're just going crazy tonight, are you okay?" This was before overtime started, and she said "Don't worry about it, I have a really strong feeling the Lightning are going to win this game." So, sure enough they win the game. We go back to the ThunderDome for the next one. If you remember that game, the Lightning were down a couple of goals in the 3rd period. Rob Zamuner got one, and then with a few minutes left the Lightning were pressing, and Brian Bellows got one in off a rebound to tie things up with under two minutes left. The crowd's going bananas, I'm going bananas, the "Chief" Bobby Taylor is going bananas. I mean, I'm really huffing and puffing. There's like 200 pounds of adrenaline going through my body.
During the overtime break, "Chief" is doing an interview and I go to sit down. I'm sweating, I'm breathing hard, drinking some water, and my wife sees me and asks if I'm alright. I say, "Yeah, I'm just trying to calm down here." She says, "Larry, just between you and me I've got that strange feeling again." I looked at her and said, "No, Susan, let's just quit while we're ahead here."
She said, "No, Larry I'm telling you right now the Lightning are winning this game. Not only that, but Selivanov is scoring the goal."
I get back on the air, and I related the story to "Chief." I said that she told me the other night when I spoke to her before overtime that the Lightning were going to win the game. So I said to him, "Chief, she's part Gypsy, so I have to listen to her. Not only did she say the Lightning are going to win, she even gave me the goal scorer: Alex Selivanov."
Well the "Chief" says, "Larry, if that comes true you ought to take her to Vegas."
Sure enough, overtime begins, and Bill Houlder -- I'll never forget it -- he held the puck above the right circle, he let a shot go, there was a save, and there's Alexander Selivanov. He just ripped the rebound in and I went nuts. "Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir! Selivanov, Selivanov!" Then I ended the call by saying, "I'm taking my wife to Vegas!" We replayed the scenario after the game, after everything had calmed down, and the press here picked up on it. News stations literally came down to our house, but they didn't want to interview me, they wanted to interview my wife! The wanted lottery numbers, whatever. I'll tell you, here is the great ending to that story.
Everyone wanted to know what was going to happen in the next game. So I said, "Susan, we've played this out. Let's not do this anymore, let's quit while we're ahead. No predictions, no nothing, we'll just keep it amongst ourselves."
She said that she had a feeling, and what she would do is write a player's name on a piece of paper, put it in a bag, and place it inside my jacket pocket for that game. Anyway, the next game was a bummer, the Lightning lost, it was terrible. The Lightning scored only one goal in that game, a 4-1 loss. The next morning at home, I'm cleaning out the jacket I had worn the night before and I took out the bag. I opened up the piece of paper, and I like I said the Lightning only scored one goal that night. The goal scorer was Petr Klima. The name on the paper? Peter Klima. I've sort of been marching two steps behind my wife ever since.
Q. So did you eventually take your wife to Las Vegas?
A. Yes, and we won!
Q. How far do you think that Lightning team could have gone if Puppa hadn't gotten hurt?
A. I agree with Phil Esposito, who said that it would have gone to seven games. In a seventh game, you never know. The way Puppa was playing, when you have a hot goaltender, you can go a long way. Even though he got whacked in that first game, the way he played in Game 2 was just incredible. Absolutely incredible. I think if he would have remained in net, the series would have gone to seven games. I think the Lightning had a great chance of advancing with a healthy Darren Puppa.
Q. To what do you attribute the drop-off that followed in the next few seasons?
A. What you can say in general is that the team entered a period of instability and unrest. Number one, the Japanese owners wanted to sell the team and were actively pursuing a buyer. Number two, Terry Crisp was fired. Instability. When Crisp left, here comes Jacques Demers and a whole new scenario. It took time for Demers to do what he wanted to do, and that's when they got Vinny Lecavalier, and then Art Williams came along and called him the "Michael Jordan of hockey."
Art didn't know anything about hockey, the guy who was the team president (Billy McGehee) didn't know anything about hockey, it became a very, very tough situation. There was such instability. There were new players coming in and out, and when Art came in, that first year was horrendous. Absolutely, positively horrendous. It was a combination of those perfect storms unfortunately that led to the downfall of those years.
Q. The stories about Art Williams are legendary, but could you have ever imagined that his season as owner would be so disruptive?
A. The problem with Art was that he wanted to be part of the process, sort of hands-on, but he had a guy at president whose experience running clubs basically came down to his experience in Arena Football and didn't know anything about hockey. We sort of had to sit on the side here, and that was the time when they fired me. McGee said he wanted to renew my contract, and the next thing I know, he calls me up after speaking to my lawyer and says they're not re-hiring me. This was before the 1998-99 season started, and literally, the town of Tampa saved my job. It was four days of hell. I never went to sleep, I was left out in the cold. I had a family to support, everything like that. Fortunately,after talking to a number of people in the community during that time, Art listened and we had a meeting. Not only did he bring me back, he gave me a big raise, and knew that I would be an integral part of the organization in terms of what I had to do. But really, when Art came in and bought the club from the Japanese, that's when the real trouble there started for me.
Q. What was the turning point during Art Williams' tenure as owner of the Lightning where you began to wonder about your place in the organization?
A. During that year, there was a thing that happened with me. The Lightning were on a losing-streak, had lost 11 of 14 games. It was depressing. There were rumors about Art becoming disenchanted and so forth. We went to play a game up in Washington. Billy McGehee was with us for that trip and he ended up in my broadcast booth that night. The Lightning scored the first goal in that game. The Capitals scored eight goals in the second period and won 10-1. If it wasn't the low, it was one of the lowest times of that year. I went back to my hotel room and I said to myself, "We've got to do something here." I went to bed, and then I woke up very early in the morning with a great idea.
We would be playing Philadelphia in a couple of weeks. I went to Billy McGehee and told him I had an idea. The season was really bad, I said, we're not getting any better, we have a lot of injuries, it was just horrible, and morale around the office was terrible. Why don't we take the next two weeks, I told him, and use the next several games as a lead up to the game against Philadelphia at the Ice Palace. Let's recreate that playoff feeling, and have one game where we can sell out the place. Really build up the Flyer game, and for once, show Art what this thing can be.
Billy said, "Terrific, Larry. That's a great idea. We're having a staff meeting when we get back. Why don't you present this?"
I told him, "Wait a minute. Hold on, Billy. I'm giving you the idea. You're the public relations guy. You come up with all these great ideas. You do it. You're the team president, you delegate it. I'll help you in any way I possibly can radio-wise, promotion-wise and everything like that."
He said, "No, Larry. You do it. I can't do it with the enthusiasm you do."
I said, "Billy, I'd rather not do it because I'm just the radio guy."
The last thing he said was "don't worry about it." Reluctantly, I agreed. I walked into that meeting. Billy sees me in the back of the room and introduces me. I go up and I made a terrible mistake. I said, "Look. Times are tough here, the team is struggling, and we're having a hard time selling tickets. It's kind of like having four flat tires stuck in the mud. We're not going anywhere."
Then I started to talk about the Flyer game. Jacques Demers became very distressed, very upset. The entire coaching staff was there and then they walked out. From there, the whole meeting blew up. It was then that I realized maybe Billy was making me the scapegoat here. I went up to Billy later that day and handed him my resignation. I told him, "This is the last time you're going to **** with me. You're not going to do this to me. I'm insulted, I feel bad, and I really tried to do something here to bring light to a very bad season here. I hear Art may be selling the club, and what did you do? You made a fool out of me."
The players, the coaches would not talk to me because the coaches were so-called "insulted." I could not do any interviews with players. All of a sudden I went from being a really nice guy that you'd go up to and laugh with to being the Devil. I felt really bad. I went on the air to apologize. Not that anybody told me to, but I did it because it came out in the papers. It was horrible.
To make a long story short, they sold out that Flyer game because they did what I told them. They sold it out and the Lightning won that night. It was an unbelievable night, as if the 1996 playoffs were being recreated. The Lightning had a horrible team. The Flyers should have killed them. I went nuts that night on the radio, and after the game, the players heard some of it. I went down to the locker room, the goalkeeper for the Lightning, Corey Schwab, calls me over. He says to me, "Larry, I heard what happened. There was nothing between the players and you. We were told by management, blah, blah blah. I know you went through a tough time." What do you think he did?
Q. He gave you the puck?
A. He gave me the game puck. That's exactly right. He couldn't have done anything better. It's one of the greatest stories of my times here and I'll never forget it. I still have the puck, which he signed. Schwaby played a great game that night. It became worth it all. It was their way of saying thank you for trying to create a night where they could shine during a terrible season.
Q. What was Jacques' objection to it?
A. I never really knew, but Jacques was a very emotional guy. This hurt me because I knew Jacques when he was coaching the Indianapolis Racers of the old World Hockey Association. When he came to Tampa, I was telling everybody what kind of a person he was: very enthusiastic, a great guy to talk to, a motivator.
When that happened, I kind of believe -- I want to believe -- that when Art Williams brought me back after Billy McGehee tried to fire me, that it embarrassed him. I told Art during our meeting that I'm not trying to embarrass Billy. But Billy said some unkind things about me, and I always believed that the meeting was a set up for me. I think it was Billy's chance to get back at me for that particular embarrassment. Now, I can't prove that. But if you look at Jacques, he felt that the four flat tires comment was an insult to his hockey team. It wasn't. It was my analysis of the situation. We're stuck in the mud here and we gotta get out. Jacques took that as an insult. Rick Paterson was one of the coaches, and I'd know him for a long time, and he wouldn't talk to me. I couldn't understand it. It went from being one of the worst times to one of the best things that ever happened to me here because of that puck and what Schwaby and the players did that night. The players liked me. How could they not like me? I had their back all the time. But, if you think that episode was bad, what happened with Palace Sports and Entertainment made that look like a day in the country.
Q. What happened when they took over?
A. This is exactly what happened. You're hearing it from the horse's mouth. Palace Sports and Entertainment buys the team from Art Williams in 1999. I only had a one-year contract at the time. I signed my first multi-year contract when the Lightning brought me down here because I wanted it for my family. I talked to Art about doing another multi-year contract. He said to me, "Larry, let's wait until this thing settles down. I'm going to have this team for at least three years. Let me settle things down and we'll do a multi-year next year." I always take a man for his word, and after coming off of those terrible four days at the beginning, I was just happy to have my job. Well, p.s., he sells the team! At the time of the Flyer game, the rumors had come out that he was selling the Lightning. I wanted him to see for one night how great this thing can be, because he really did like having the team.
So he sells the team to Palace Sports & Entertainment. They come in here and have a press conference announcing their intention to buy the club. Bill Davidson and Tom Wilson. The one thing I noticed in Tom Wilson's bio when I read it was that he had a career as a B-actor. There's nothing more lethal than having the president of a sports organization who is a B-actor, because on one-hand he could talk very gracefully, and on the other hand he could B.S. you to death.
So they have the press conference, but it took quite a few months to finalize that deal. Now I had a new owner to deal with. All that Art told me went down the drain. There were three clubs in the NHL that were interested in my services. I told them I was under contract with the Lightning until August. Legally I couldn't do anything, but we had new management so I was going to find out very quickly their intentions.
I called up Ron Campbell and we set up a meeting. He said we're putting the finishing touches on everything and when we're done we'll get back in touch. Two weeks go by and I hadn't heard anything. I'm getting nervous. This is in June, and I've got three teams after me.
On Sunday June 20, I get a call from the Vice President of Sales & Marketing, a man who is now the president of the Florida Panthers: Michael Yormark. This was on Father's Day. Yormark says to me, "Congratulations Larry, I'm sorry it took this long. We're going to bring you in for orientation. Everything is fine. Ron told me to give you a call." So great. With that, on Monday I called the other teams to tell them I'd be staying with the Lightning.
Two weeks later, I hear about a season-ticket holders meeting at the Ice Palace with the new management. I did not know about this. That's when I said, "Uh-oh." Rick Peckham knew about it, Bobby Taylor knew about, but I didn't know about it. Are you kidding me? So I went that night with my wife. There's about 7,000 people there. After Tom Wilson gives his b.s. speech, there's a question-and-answer session. The second question was, "Is Larry Hirsch coming back?" In front of thousands of people, Tom Wilson said, "You want him back, of course we're bringing him back." Then everybody cheered.
A few days later they introduced Steve Ludzik as head coach, and after that they told that I was not being retained, that they'd be bringing in their own broadcaster from Detroit. That turned into a very contentious 10-days between me and PS&E. I wanted to hold my own press conference to explain why I wasn't coming back. They used Steve Duemig as a poison dart on me. It was terrible.
I couldn't sue them, because my contract was up. But the one thing that this very ruthless organization didn't want was bad publicity. What they ended up doing was giving me compensation, but I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The compensation wasn't what I wanted, but I had to have it for my family. Then that was it.
It hurts, but I still live here in Tampa. I still have my home here. A lot of that is due to the testimonial of the people here and the way they've treated me. People still come up to me and say "we miss you." I just want to say that I genuinely and humbly thank all the fans here for how they have treated me and my family, and continue to do so. That's why we are proud members of this community, and why we'll never forget them.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Catching Up With Mark Champion
Mark Champion, the current radio play-by-play announcer for the Detroit Pistons, is fondly-remembered locally as the radio voice of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1979-1988. Since leaving Tampa in 1989, Champion has served in the same capacity for the Detroit Lions from 1989-2004, the Detroit Pistons from 1992-1996, then rejoined the Pistons in 2001. He recently took some time prior to a Pistons-Magic game in Orlando to reflect on his time in Tampa and the special relationship he formed with Buccaneer head coach John McKay.
Q. How did you end up getting the job with the Bucs?
A. For the first two years, they had the former announcer for the Green Bay Packers, a guy named Ray Scott, who was legendary. In 1978, Dick Crippen did it for half the season, and I don't know exactly what happened. The guy who owned the broadcast rights -- Jim Gallogly -- did the other half of the season. The next year, CBS got the rights and they hired me.
I had actually auditioned for the job in 1978, but did not get it. For my audition tape, I went up to a spare booth in Tampa Stadium during a pre-season game. A buddy of mine helped me out because I didn't have any football tapes at that point. So that's what I used to get the job. By 1979, they knew who I was and had a good relationship Bob Best and Rick Odioso in the media relations department. That's kind of how I got it.
Q. So you got the job just in time for the most exciting season in team history to that point.
A. Yeah, unbelievable. First season out I thought, "Wow. This is pretty good." Of course, Doug Williams was our quarterback. We knocked off Philadelphia to get to the NFC championship game. It was exciting and a lot of fun.
Q. Did you know early on that the Bucs were going to have a season like that?
A. No, I don't think going into the season anyone really knew. Doug came to us in 1978, and we knew he was a good athlete, but we didn't know if he could lead the team. If you look at his stats, he only completed about 47% of his passes, but he made big plays, huge plays to win games. And the defense, we had the number one defense in the league that year. I don't think anybody realized how good our defense was, and that's really how we got to the championship. That particular team was pretty awesome.
Q. What is your fondest memory from that season?
A. Well that Kansas City game was the one that was just a monsoon. I remember the rain cascading down the steps of the old Sombrero. We could have played eight quarters and nobody would have scored a touchdown in that game. I just remember big plays that Doug made that season.
There was one he made a few years later, though, that really stands out. We were playing the Chicago Bears at home during the last week of the '82 season. We had the ball around the Chicago 10-yard line. Doug got sacked and fumbled the ball. Steve McMichael, a defensive lineman for the Bears, picked it up and he had such a head start -- I swear it must have been a 50-yard head start -- and Doug Williams caught up with him and tackled him before he could score. They did not get a touchdown, had to settle for a field goal, and we ended up winning that game by three points. That kind of play stands out when I think about Doug's athleticism.
Q. What kind of relationship did you have with John McKay?
A. We got to be really close. In fact, my best buddy all the years I lived there was his son-in-law, a guy named Bob Florio. I did a TV show in 1979 with McKay, got to know the family, and it got to a point where my family would go over to his house there on Bayshore around Christmas time or for the Gasparilla parade. I loved John. I know he had a rough edge to him with the media, but if you really knew him he was one of the funniest guys. If you were loyal to him, he was loyal to you. We got along great. Now he's gone, his wife Corky is gone, and she was such a great person, and I remember when Richie was just a snotty-nosed high school quarterback at Jesuit. It's amazing how time flies.
Q. Is there a personal or professional story you'd like to relate about John McKay?
A. Off the top of my head, there was a period of time where he really got into it with Tom McEwen. I don't remember what the issue was, but I was over at his house one night after a game. He was talking about the whole thing with McEwen, and he came to me and said, "Marky, I need your help. Are you with me?"
I said, "Coach, I'm always with you, but you can't win that battle. He's always got the last word on you." That was the kind of open and honest relationship we had.
Q. Going back to Doug Williams for a minute, when you look back on how the team's fortunes changed after he left, do you think it all goes back to that move or where there other factors that contributed to the slide?
A. Well, I think it had a lot to do with it. He was our guy, and when he left, it was like cutting the heart out of the team. You know, back then the league was a little bit different. Today, teams spend their money and are all fairly competitive. Back then it was kind of different, plus you had the USFL coming along. Whatever the issue, I know Coach McKay definitely didn't want Doug to go, but it was a thing between Doug and Mr. Culverhouse that didn't work out. That just ruined the team.
Then after McKay left, Leeman Bennett came in and we had back-to-back 2-14 seasons that were just horrific. No question when Doug left it cut the heart out of the team, and Dougie was such a great guy, too.
Q. How was your relationship with McKay's successors, Bennett and Ray Perkins?
A. Good, good. Leeman was a terrific, really nice guy. He had been out of football running an RV dealership in Atlanta or something, and Mr. C. just kind of talked him back into coaching. You could just see it -- and I hate to say it -- but he had a terrible coaching staff. The team had no identity. It was just a bad situation, but it's kind of interesting because at quarterback we had Steve Young.
I felt bad for Steve. We went up and played Green Bay in 1985 and it was just awful. The worst weather I'd ever seen. In fact, it was that game where they ended up using footage for that Alka-Seltzer commercial. We had like 60 yards of offense that day, Steve got drilled play after play, and Lynn Dickey threw for over 300 yards in a blizzard for Green Bay.
I was only with Ray for two years. He could be ... his personality was a little different than Leeman's, let's put it that way. I got along with him fine for what I had to do though.
Q. What led to you leave Tampa in 1989 for a job with the Detroit Lions?
A. The Lions had been on WJR, which at the time was the top station in Detroit. They lost the rights to CBS, and the guy who had been doing the games did not want to leave WJR. He had a very good financial situation that they could not match at WWJ. So they were looking for somebody. I had moved over to Q105 for the 1987 and 1988 seasons, and prior to that I had been at WSUN, a CBS station. The general manager put in a good word for me up there.
They had just hired Wayne Fontes as the head coach, and we were close friends from the time he spent on John's staff. I'd gotten to know their media relations staff over the years as well, so it was a combination of all those things that led to a better job opportunity. Not just financially, but within a year or two I was also doing Pistons basketball.
Q. It so happened that 1989 was the rookie year for Barry Sanders.
A. Yeah, we came to Detroit at the same time. I was fortunate enough to call every run he ever made, which was just amazing. It's neat to know that you've done that with someone like Barry, a Hall-of-Famer, and I really feel the same way about Lee Roy Selmon. I didn't call all of his games, but I called a majority of them. It's kind of special to know you broadcast games for Hall of Fame players, and Lee Roy was such a great guy. Just a prince of a guy.
Q. You're also well-known for being the voice-over in the post-Super Bowl Disney World commercials. How did that role come about for you?
A. Phil Lengyel, who was the head of marketing for Disney in the mid-1980s, went to school with me at Ball State University. He called me up, said we have this marketing idea, and would I be interested in voicing it. I said, "Absolutely." That's how it started. The first one we did was with Phil Simms after Super Bowl XXI. In fact, I just talked to my guy at Disney because we have the 25th anniversary coming up, so they're going to be doing something special for it.
Q. How did you end up getting the job with the Bucs?
A. For the first two years, they had the former announcer for the Green Bay Packers, a guy named Ray Scott, who was legendary. In 1978, Dick Crippen did it for half the season, and I don't know exactly what happened. The guy who owned the broadcast rights -- Jim Gallogly -- did the other half of the season. The next year, CBS got the rights and they hired me.
I had actually auditioned for the job in 1978, but did not get it. For my audition tape, I went up to a spare booth in Tampa Stadium during a pre-season game. A buddy of mine helped me out because I didn't have any football tapes at that point. So that's what I used to get the job. By 1979, they knew who I was and had a good relationship Bob Best and Rick Odioso in the media relations department. That's kind of how I got it.
Q. So you got the job just in time for the most exciting season in team history to that point.
A. Yeah, unbelievable. First season out I thought, "Wow. This is pretty good." Of course, Doug Williams was our quarterback. We knocked off Philadelphia to get to the NFC championship game. It was exciting and a lot of fun.
Q. Did you know early on that the Bucs were going to have a season like that?
A. No, I don't think going into the season anyone really knew. Doug came to us in 1978, and we knew he was a good athlete, but we didn't know if he could lead the team. If you look at his stats, he only completed about 47% of his passes, but he made big plays, huge plays to win games. And the defense, we had the number one defense in the league that year. I don't think anybody realized how good our defense was, and that's really how we got to the championship. That particular team was pretty awesome.
Q. What is your fondest memory from that season?
A. Well that Kansas City game was the one that was just a monsoon. I remember the rain cascading down the steps of the old Sombrero. We could have played eight quarters and nobody would have scored a touchdown in that game. I just remember big plays that Doug made that season.
There was one he made a few years later, though, that really stands out. We were playing the Chicago Bears at home during the last week of the '82 season. We had the ball around the Chicago 10-yard line. Doug got sacked and fumbled the ball. Steve McMichael, a defensive lineman for the Bears, picked it up and he had such a head start -- I swear it must have been a 50-yard head start -- and Doug Williams caught up with him and tackled him before he could score. They did not get a touchdown, had to settle for a field goal, and we ended up winning that game by three points. That kind of play stands out when I think about Doug's athleticism.
Q. What kind of relationship did you have with John McKay?
A. We got to be really close. In fact, my best buddy all the years I lived there was his son-in-law, a guy named Bob Florio. I did a TV show in 1979 with McKay, got to know the family, and it got to a point where my family would go over to his house there on Bayshore around Christmas time or for the Gasparilla parade. I loved John. I know he had a rough edge to him with the media, but if you really knew him he was one of the funniest guys. If you were loyal to him, he was loyal to you. We got along great. Now he's gone, his wife Corky is gone, and she was such a great person, and I remember when Richie was just a snotty-nosed high school quarterback at Jesuit. It's amazing how time flies.
Q. Is there a personal or professional story you'd like to relate about John McKay?
A. Off the top of my head, there was a period of time where he really got into it with Tom McEwen. I don't remember what the issue was, but I was over at his house one night after a game. He was talking about the whole thing with McEwen, and he came to me and said, "Marky, I need your help. Are you with me?"
I said, "Coach, I'm always with you, but you can't win that battle. He's always got the last word on you." That was the kind of open and honest relationship we had.
Q. Going back to Doug Williams for a minute, when you look back on how the team's fortunes changed after he left, do you think it all goes back to that move or where there other factors that contributed to the slide?
A. Well, I think it had a lot to do with it. He was our guy, and when he left, it was like cutting the heart out of the team. You know, back then the league was a little bit different. Today, teams spend their money and are all fairly competitive. Back then it was kind of different, plus you had the USFL coming along. Whatever the issue, I know Coach McKay definitely didn't want Doug to go, but it was a thing between Doug and Mr. Culverhouse that didn't work out. That just ruined the team.
Then after McKay left, Leeman Bennett came in and we had back-to-back 2-14 seasons that were just horrific. No question when Doug left it cut the heart out of the team, and Dougie was such a great guy, too.
Q. How was your relationship with McKay's successors, Bennett and Ray Perkins?
A. Good, good. Leeman was a terrific, really nice guy. He had been out of football running an RV dealership in Atlanta or something, and Mr. C. just kind of talked him back into coaching. You could just see it -- and I hate to say it -- but he had a terrible coaching staff. The team had no identity. It was just a bad situation, but it's kind of interesting because at quarterback we had Steve Young.
I felt bad for Steve. We went up and played Green Bay in 1985 and it was just awful. The worst weather I'd ever seen. In fact, it was that game where they ended up using footage for that Alka-Seltzer commercial. We had like 60 yards of offense that day, Steve got drilled play after play, and Lynn Dickey threw for over 300 yards in a blizzard for Green Bay.
I was only with Ray for two years. He could be ... his personality was a little different than Leeman's, let's put it that way. I got along with him fine for what I had to do though.
Q. What led to you leave Tampa in 1989 for a job with the Detroit Lions?
A. The Lions had been on WJR, which at the time was the top station in Detroit. They lost the rights to CBS, and the guy who had been doing the games did not want to leave WJR. He had a very good financial situation that they could not match at WWJ. So they were looking for somebody. I had moved over to Q105 for the 1987 and 1988 seasons, and prior to that I had been at WSUN, a CBS station. The general manager put in a good word for me up there.
They had just hired Wayne Fontes as the head coach, and we were close friends from the time he spent on John's staff. I'd gotten to know their media relations staff over the years as well, so it was a combination of all those things that led to a better job opportunity. Not just financially, but within a year or two I was also doing Pistons basketball.
Q. It so happened that 1989 was the rookie year for Barry Sanders.
A. Yeah, we came to Detroit at the same time. I was fortunate enough to call every run he ever made, which was just amazing. It's neat to know that you've done that with someone like Barry, a Hall-of-Famer, and I really feel the same way about Lee Roy Selmon. I didn't call all of his games, but I called a majority of them. It's kind of special to know you broadcast games for Hall of Fame players, and Lee Roy was such a great guy. Just a prince of a guy.
Q. You're also well-known for being the voice-over in the post-Super Bowl Disney World commercials. How did that role come about for you?
A. Phil Lengyel, who was the head of marketing for Disney in the mid-1980s, went to school with me at Ball State University. He called me up, said we have this marketing idea, and would I be interested in voicing it. I said, "Absolutely." That's how it started. The first one we did was with Phil Simms after Super Bowl XXI. In fact, I just talked to my guy at Disney because we have the 25th anniversary coming up, so they're going to be doing something special for it.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Bucs End 1985 at 2-14, 12/22/85
In 1985, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers seemed condemned to failure right from the very beginning. Few teams ever rebound from a 0-9 start, and the Bucs proved to be no exception.
Even their first victory – a 16-0 triumph at home over the St. Louis Cardinals, and only the second-ever shutout in team history – could not be enjoyed for more than a few days. The next week on the road in the Meadowlands, the Jets handed the Buccaneers one of the worst defeats in franchise history, a 62-28 spanking in which, remarkably, Tampa Bay at one point actually held a 14-0 lead.
Quarterback Steve Young provided a glimmer of hope by winning his first start the following week against the Detroit Lions, a 19-16 overtime victory. Unfortunately, the good times would not last and the Buccaneers dropped their next three games to fall to 2-12 on the season.
On December 15, the smallest crowd to ever see a Buccaneer home game – 25,577 – watched Tampa Bay fall to the almost equally dreadful Indianapolis Colts, 31-23. This set the stage for the season-finale at Tampa Stadium against the Green Bay Packers, in a game that had a considerable amount of importance for the future of the franchise.
By virtue of a league-worst 2-13 record, Tampa Bay had been guaranteed at least the second-overall pick in the 1986 draft. Their Buffalo Bills, with an identical 2-13 record, were out of the running because they had traded their first round pick in 1986 to Cleveland. Win or lose, the Buccaneers needed only a victory by the Atlanta Falcons to ensure the top pick. This meant having first-crack at the Heisman Trophy-winner from Auburn University, running back Bo Jackson.
Despite the big-picture prize that the team could earn with a loss, none of the players wearing orange and white looked at losing as an accomplishment. Jobs were at stake, after all, since few players on the team could consider their job safe going into the following season.
“You either play or you don’t have a job,” Tampa Bay head coach Leeman Bennett said prior to the game. “We want to look presentable. We are all professionals and certainly we want to play our best. It is a matter of pride to finish with a little sweeter taste than on a losing note. One win isn’t going to make everything right, but at least there will be a sweeter taste.”
More like a familiar taste. For the fourteenth time in 1986, the Buccaneers would go home a loser. As always, however, they made it interesting to the very end.
On December 22, a Tampa Stadium crowd of 33,992 came out to see the last chapter of the 1985 season. It started out well enough, with Donald Igwebuike kicking a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter to give Tampa Bay an early 3-0 lead.
The Packers went ahead later in the quarter on a 30-yard touchdown run by wide receiver Phillip Epps that came on a reverse. James Wilder got Tampa Bay back on top in the second quarter, however, scoring on a one-yard touchdown run to give the Bucs a 10-7 lead.
An Al Del Greco 24-yard field goal with just 16 seconds left in the second quarter tied the game 10-10 going into the half.
To their credit, however, the Buccaneers played hard on a day when many could understand if they’d rather be across the street doing their Christmas shopping at the Tampa Bay Center.
Trailing 13-10 going into the third quarter following another Del Greco field goal, the Buccaneers put together their best drive of the day. Quarterback Steve Young engineered a 10-play, 74-yard drive that culminated with a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jimmie Giles. Tampa Bay took 17-13 lead, but their defense would once again let them down when it mattered most.
Randy Wright, Green Bay’s third-string quarterback, answered Tampa Bay’s best offensive drive with their best of the day as well. Wright put together a 13-play, 73-yard drive that took 6:13 off the clock. The immortal Jessie Clark scored on a 6-yard run to regain the lead for Green Bay, 20-17.
Igwebuike, who on his second extra point of the game set Tampa Bay’s single-season scoring mark with 96 points, had a chance in the fourth quarter to even up the game. Instead, he pushed a 48-yard attempt wide right late in the fourth quarter – his second miss from 40+ yards on the day -- and the game would end with Tampa Bay three points short of taking the game to overtime.
On the bright side, Steve Young had his best statistical game of the season, completing 21 of 37 passes for 277 yards and one touchdown. Despite their record, Young felt optimistic about the team’s future.
“I want to be here,” Young said. “I want to have a career here. I want to help this team fill up this stadium again. James Wilder came up to me after the game and I talked to Jimmie Giles, too, and we are convinced we can do it.”
With Young at quarterback, Wilder at his familiar spot in the backfield, and Giles making big catches for Tampa Bay, Buccaneer fans could only wonder how much better the team might be with the addition of Bo Jackson through the upcoming draft. Yes, the future never looked so bright in Tampa Bay.
Even their first victory – a 16-0 triumph at home over the St. Louis Cardinals, and only the second-ever shutout in team history – could not be enjoyed for more than a few days. The next week on the road in the Meadowlands, the Jets handed the Buccaneers one of the worst defeats in franchise history, a 62-28 spanking in which, remarkably, Tampa Bay at one point actually held a 14-0 lead.
Quarterback Steve Young provided a glimmer of hope by winning his first start the following week against the Detroit Lions, a 19-16 overtime victory. Unfortunately, the good times would not last and the Buccaneers dropped their next three games to fall to 2-12 on the season.
On December 15, the smallest crowd to ever see a Buccaneer home game – 25,577 – watched Tampa Bay fall to the almost equally dreadful Indianapolis Colts, 31-23. This set the stage for the season-finale at Tampa Stadium against the Green Bay Packers, in a game that had a considerable amount of importance for the future of the franchise.
By virtue of a league-worst 2-13 record, Tampa Bay had been guaranteed at least the second-overall pick in the 1986 draft. Their Buffalo Bills, with an identical 2-13 record, were out of the running because they had traded their first round pick in 1986 to Cleveland. Win or lose, the Buccaneers needed only a victory by the Atlanta Falcons to ensure the top pick. This meant having first-crack at the Heisman Trophy-winner from Auburn University, running back Bo Jackson.
Despite the big-picture prize that the team could earn with a loss, none of the players wearing orange and white looked at losing as an accomplishment. Jobs were at stake, after all, since few players on the team could consider their job safe going into the following season.
“You either play or you don’t have a job,” Tampa Bay head coach Leeman Bennett said prior to the game. “We want to look presentable. We are all professionals and certainly we want to play our best. It is a matter of pride to finish with a little sweeter taste than on a losing note. One win isn’t going to make everything right, but at least there will be a sweeter taste.”
More like a familiar taste. For the fourteenth time in 1986, the Buccaneers would go home a loser. As always, however, they made it interesting to the very end.
On December 22, a Tampa Stadium crowd of 33,992 came out to see the last chapter of the 1985 season. It started out well enough, with Donald Igwebuike kicking a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter to give Tampa Bay an early 3-0 lead.
The Packers went ahead later in the quarter on a 30-yard touchdown run by wide receiver Phillip Epps that came on a reverse. James Wilder got Tampa Bay back on top in the second quarter, however, scoring on a one-yard touchdown run to give the Bucs a 10-7 lead.
An Al Del Greco 24-yard field goal with just 16 seconds left in the second quarter tied the game 10-10 going into the half.
To their credit, however, the Buccaneers played hard on a day when many could understand if they’d rather be across the street doing their Christmas shopping at the Tampa Bay Center.
Trailing 13-10 going into the third quarter following another Del Greco field goal, the Buccaneers put together their best drive of the day. Quarterback Steve Young engineered a 10-play, 74-yard drive that culminated with a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jimmie Giles. Tampa Bay took 17-13 lead, but their defense would once again let them down when it mattered most.
Randy Wright, Green Bay’s third-string quarterback, answered Tampa Bay’s best offensive drive with their best of the day as well. Wright put together a 13-play, 73-yard drive that took 6:13 off the clock. The immortal Jessie Clark scored on a 6-yard run to regain the lead for Green Bay, 20-17.
Igwebuike, who on his second extra point of the game set Tampa Bay’s single-season scoring mark with 96 points, had a chance in the fourth quarter to even up the game. Instead, he pushed a 48-yard attempt wide right late in the fourth quarter – his second miss from 40+ yards on the day -- and the game would end with Tampa Bay three points short of taking the game to overtime.
On the bright side, Steve Young had his best statistical game of the season, completing 21 of 37 passes for 277 yards and one touchdown. Despite their record, Young felt optimistic about the team’s future.
“I want to be here,” Young said. “I want to have a career here. I want to help this team fill up this stadium again. James Wilder came up to me after the game and I talked to Jimmie Giles, too, and we are convinced we can do it.”
With Young at quarterback, Wilder at his familiar spot in the backfield, and Giles making big catches for Tampa Bay, Buccaneer fans could only wonder how much better the team might be with the addition of Bo Jackson through the upcoming draft. Yes, the future never looked so bright in Tampa Bay.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Bucs Fall to Bears in Finale, 12/20/80
On November 2, 1980, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sported a record of 4-4-1 with seven games remaining. A season which had seen the Bucs sandwich a five-game winless streak between two separate two-game winning streaks could still be salvaged with a strong finish.
At the same point the previous season, the Buccaneers were 7-2 and on their way to winning the NFC Central Division. Although that team would endure a mini-slump en route to clinching the division, the 1980 edition of the Buccaneers shared few similarities with their previous edition.
The defense, which had been such a strength in 1979, failed to dominate opponents or even hold leads. Many wondered if these in fact were the real Buccaneers who had simply over-achieved in 1979.
It began to look that way when Tampa Bay lost five of their next six games to drop to 5-9-1 and completely out of the playoff picture. All that remained was a final home contest against the Chicago Bears to close out the disappointing campaign.
Although they had little left to play for, the Buccaneers had a bit of unfinished business with the Bears. On October 6, the Buccaneers made their first-ever appearance on Monday Night Football at Soldier Field in Chicago. The experience turned out to be less than memorable for the Buccaneers and their national audience.
Despite only trailing 3-0 at the half, the Bucs ultimately fell to the Bears 23-0. Walter Payton rushed for 122 of his 183 total yards in the second half and the Bears sacked Doug Williams four times. Head coach John McKay famously quipped after the game that his team had "set Monday Night Football back 2,000 years."
Then there was the additional matter of a borderline shot levied on tight end Jimmie Giles by hard-hitting Chicago safety Doug Plank. Plank achieved a place in NFL lore when his jersey number -- 46 -- became the root of the so-named "46 defense" developed by Chicago defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan. It was his hit on Giles, however, that enraged Tampa Bay quarterback Doug Williams.
Although no penalty was called on the play, Williams believed that Plank had speared Giles with his helmet. For the hit, Plank earned a $750 fine from the league (roughly $1900 in today's dollars). Giles remained in the game, although some speculated that there may have been a long-term impact on his performance.
Prior to the Bears game, Giles had 12 receptions for 222 yards and three touchdowns in four games. Following the Chicago game, Giles had only 19 receptions and one touchdown in 10 games, this after leading the team in receiving with 40 catches and seven touchdowns in 1979. Still, Giles earned ultimate vindication by being named to the NFC's Pro Bowl squad.
While McKay attributed the decline to Giles drawing more attention from opposing defenders, Giles bluntly stated that the hit had nothing to do with his decrease in production.
"If I let one hit stop me or get me scared, I shouldn't be in football," Giles said. "I think I've had a great year compared to last season because I'm getting double-teamed and triple-teamed in certain situations."
While most of the Buccaneers expected that there would be no retaliation in mind towards Plank, defensive lineman David Logan knew the importance of evening the score with the Bears.
"They beat us 23-0," Logan said. "They embarrassed us. We're not just going to go out there and go through the motions and then just get out of town."
On December 20, with John Madden in the house for the nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game on CBS and a sell-out crowd of over 72,000 expected at Tampa Stadium, both the Bears (6-9) and Buccaneers (5-9-1) had plenty of reasons to not just go through the motions.
Although the actual crowd numbered closer to 55,000 fans – resulting in the greatest number of unused tickets in team history at the time -- those in attendance saw a game that epitomized the struggles of Tampa Bay's 1980 campaign. Not that they didn't have their chances, but the Bucs held true to form and self-destructed at the most important time.
Tampa Bay started off strong enough, racing to a 10-0 first quarter lead behind a 33-yard pass from Williams to Gordon Jones and a 27-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian. For the eighth time in 1980, however, the Buccaneers could not hold on to a 10-point lead.
Chicago signal-caller Vince Evans began the Bears comeback with a six-yard touchdown run at the 10:14 mark of the second quarter. He added his second of the game in the third quarter from one yard out just three plays after Tampa Bay's Jerry Eckwood fumbled at his own three-yard line.
Although the Bears held a 14-10 lead, the Buccaneers had time to mount a comeback. A Yepremian field goal from 26 yards out cut the lead to 14-13 with 10:38 left in the fourth quarter. The fun, however, was just about to begin.
On their next drive, Williams connected with rookie wide receiver Kevin House on a 61-yard completion to the Bears 16, but House got careless with the ball and cornerback Terry Schmidt forced a fumble. The ball then bounced down to the 4-yard line where it was recovered by Doug Plank to kill the drive.
After forcing a Chicago punt, the Bucs had another golden opportunity when Williams connected with Giles across the middle inside the Bears 20. Turning to run towards the end zone, however, Giles fumbled after a big hit by rookie linebacker Otis Wilson. Again, the Bears recovered inside their own 5 to end a potential Buccaneer scoring drive.
Tampa Bay forced another Bears punt and had one final chance to win the game, driving down to the Chicago 15. From there, Yepremian would attempt a 32-yard field goal, surely an automatic kick for one of the most accurate kickers in the NFL.
Instead, the kick never had a chance due to a high snap by George Yarno. Holder Tom Blanchard got the ball down, but Chicago's Al Harris - a 6'5" Monster of the Midway -- got his hands up and blocked the potential game-winning kick to preserve the 14-13 lead for the Bears.
The Buccaneers battled and put up a better fight than during their Monday night meltdown in Chicago, but the missed opportunities and turnovers epitomized their wasted season.
McKay, for one, could not understand how his team could be completely undone by the late fumbles.
"It is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "In professional football, when you are paid the money they are paid here, you should not drop the football. It's disgusting, ridiculous, and has no part in the game."
In short, a fitting end to the one of the most disappointing seasons in team history.
At the same point the previous season, the Buccaneers were 7-2 and on their way to winning the NFC Central Division. Although that team would endure a mini-slump en route to clinching the division, the 1980 edition of the Buccaneers shared few similarities with their previous edition.
The defense, which had been such a strength in 1979, failed to dominate opponents or even hold leads. Many wondered if these in fact were the real Buccaneers who had simply over-achieved in 1979.
It began to look that way when Tampa Bay lost five of their next six games to drop to 5-9-1 and completely out of the playoff picture. All that remained was a final home contest against the Chicago Bears to close out the disappointing campaign.
Although they had little left to play for, the Buccaneers had a bit of unfinished business with the Bears. On October 6, the Buccaneers made their first-ever appearance on Monday Night Football at Soldier Field in Chicago. The experience turned out to be less than memorable for the Buccaneers and their national audience.
Despite only trailing 3-0 at the half, the Bucs ultimately fell to the Bears 23-0. Walter Payton rushed for 122 of his 183 total yards in the second half and the Bears sacked Doug Williams four times. Head coach John McKay famously quipped after the game that his team had "set Monday Night Football back 2,000 years."
Then there was the additional matter of a borderline shot levied on tight end Jimmie Giles by hard-hitting Chicago safety Doug Plank. Plank achieved a place in NFL lore when his jersey number -- 46 -- became the root of the so-named "46 defense" developed by Chicago defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan. It was his hit on Giles, however, that enraged Tampa Bay quarterback Doug Williams.
Although no penalty was called on the play, Williams believed that Plank had speared Giles with his helmet. For the hit, Plank earned a $750 fine from the league (roughly $1900 in today's dollars). Giles remained in the game, although some speculated that there may have been a long-term impact on his performance.
Prior to the Bears game, Giles had 12 receptions for 222 yards and three touchdowns in four games. Following the Chicago game, Giles had only 19 receptions and one touchdown in 10 games, this after leading the team in receiving with 40 catches and seven touchdowns in 1979. Still, Giles earned ultimate vindication by being named to the NFC's Pro Bowl squad.
While McKay attributed the decline to Giles drawing more attention from opposing defenders, Giles bluntly stated that the hit had nothing to do with his decrease in production.
"If I let one hit stop me or get me scared, I shouldn't be in football," Giles said. "I think I've had a great year compared to last season because I'm getting double-teamed and triple-teamed in certain situations."
While most of the Buccaneers expected that there would be no retaliation in mind towards Plank, defensive lineman David Logan knew the importance of evening the score with the Bears.
"They beat us 23-0," Logan said. "They embarrassed us. We're not just going to go out there and go through the motions and then just get out of town."
On December 20, with John Madden in the house for the nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game on CBS and a sell-out crowd of over 72,000 expected at Tampa Stadium, both the Bears (6-9) and Buccaneers (5-9-1) had plenty of reasons to not just go through the motions.
Although the actual crowd numbered closer to 55,000 fans – resulting in the greatest number of unused tickets in team history at the time -- those in attendance saw a game that epitomized the struggles of Tampa Bay's 1980 campaign. Not that they didn't have their chances, but the Bucs held true to form and self-destructed at the most important time.
Tampa Bay started off strong enough, racing to a 10-0 first quarter lead behind a 33-yard pass from Williams to Gordon Jones and a 27-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian. For the eighth time in 1980, however, the Buccaneers could not hold on to a 10-point lead.
Chicago signal-caller Vince Evans began the Bears comeback with a six-yard touchdown run at the 10:14 mark of the second quarter. He added his second of the game in the third quarter from one yard out just three plays after Tampa Bay's Jerry Eckwood fumbled at his own three-yard line.
Although the Bears held a 14-10 lead, the Buccaneers had time to mount a comeback. A Yepremian field goal from 26 yards out cut the lead to 14-13 with 10:38 left in the fourth quarter. The fun, however, was just about to begin.
On their next drive, Williams connected with rookie wide receiver Kevin House on a 61-yard completion to the Bears 16, but House got careless with the ball and cornerback Terry Schmidt forced a fumble. The ball then bounced down to the 4-yard line where it was recovered by Doug Plank to kill the drive.
After forcing a Chicago punt, the Bucs had another golden opportunity when Williams connected with Giles across the middle inside the Bears 20. Turning to run towards the end zone, however, Giles fumbled after a big hit by rookie linebacker Otis Wilson. Again, the Bears recovered inside their own 5 to end a potential Buccaneer scoring drive.
Tampa Bay forced another Bears punt and had one final chance to win the game, driving down to the Chicago 15. From there, Yepremian would attempt a 32-yard field goal, surely an automatic kick for one of the most accurate kickers in the NFL.
Instead, the kick never had a chance due to a high snap by George Yarno. Holder Tom Blanchard got the ball down, but Chicago's Al Harris - a 6'5" Monster of the Midway -- got his hands up and blocked the potential game-winning kick to preserve the 14-13 lead for the Bears.
The Buccaneers battled and put up a better fight than during their Monday night meltdown in Chicago, but the missed opportunities and turnovers epitomized their wasted season.
McKay, for one, could not understand how his team could be completely undone by the late fumbles.
"It is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "In professional football, when you are paid the money they are paid here, you should not drop the football. It's disgusting, ridiculous, and has no part in the game."
In short, a fitting end to the one of the most disappointing seasons in team history.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sun Dome Finally Opens, 12/2/80
Last week, the University of South Florida marked the 40th anniversary of the first intercollegiate men’s basketball game in school history. When the basketball program began in 1970, however, it had yet to find a suitable place to call home. At the time, the only venue on campus to watch basketball was a 1,500-seat gym more suitable for pick-up games and intramural competitions than spectator sports.
In the beginning, the Golden Brahmans -- as the Bulls were known in those days -- played against community college and freshman teams. The team called Curtis Hixon Hall, located on Ashley Drive and some 10 miles south of the school's campus, its temporary home. During the first decade of the program, USF would also host "home" games at the Ft. Homer Hesterly Armory, the Civic Center in Lakeland and the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg. This would change once and for all with the construction of a multipurpose arena located on the southeast corner of the school's campus.
In 1977, the Florida Board of Regents agreed to approve funding for the 10,000-seat facility that would serve as home for USF's basketball programs. Ground-breaking for the $7 million arena took place late in 1977, with a targeted opening date of fall 1979.
Not all was perfect with the Sun Dome – as it eventually would be named -- as construction problems and cost overruns delayed the project. By March 1980, the roof had been completely installed, but the building remained a work in progress.
With the third floor still under repair, a capacity of 6,000 fans per game would initially be allowed into a building designed to hold 10,000. The show had no choice but to go on, however, as the Sun Dome would be open for business, ready or not.
Although the Bulls officially opened the Sun Dome against the Florida A&M Rattlers on November 29 – a 65-63 defeat in front of 5,213 fans – the official dedication of the new building would not come until December 2 in a nationally-televised game on ESPN against the Duke Blue Devils.
The Blue Devils were led by Mike Krzyzewski, in his first season at Duke after serving as head coach at Army from 1975-1980. The Bulls had a new coach as well, with Lee Rose coming to USF from Purdue where he compiled a 50-18 record in two seasons. Rose had a proven record of success, having taken two different schools (Purdue and UNC-Charlotte) to the Final Four in a five-year span.
Rose would have his work cut out for him in trying to prepare his Bulls for the heavily-favored Blue Devils. With the national spotlight on their team and new building, the Bulls could be forgiven if they suffered a bit of stage fright, which is exactly what happened.
Before they knew what hit them, the USF-record crowd of 6,030 found the home team down 21-6 after Duke went on a 19-point run in a span of about five minutes. The Bulls clawed their way back into the game, however, with a spurt of their own.
Contributions from Tony Grier, Willie Redden and Rob Rutledge helped bring USF within two points of Duke, 28-26, with 2:55 left in the half. After trailing by 19 early, the Bulls were fortunate to only be down by seven points at the half 39-32.
Duke refused to let up in the second half, shooting 71% from the field. Despite USF’s best efforts, they simply could not match Duke basket- for-basket.
Despite having outscored the Blue Devils 66-62 after trailing 19-6, USF fell to Duke 83-72. The Bulls fought hard against a college powerhouse and showed plenty of promise for the season ahead, though the outcome hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.
“It was great to finally get a place to call home,” says former USF play-by-play announcer Jack Harris. “Opening the Sun Dome was a tremendous step forward for the basketball program.”
In the beginning, the Golden Brahmans -- as the Bulls were known in those days -- played against community college and freshman teams. The team called Curtis Hixon Hall, located on Ashley Drive and some 10 miles south of the school's campus, its temporary home. During the first decade of the program, USF would also host "home" games at the Ft. Homer Hesterly Armory, the Civic Center in Lakeland and the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg. This would change once and for all with the construction of a multipurpose arena located on the southeast corner of the school's campus.
In 1977, the Florida Board of Regents agreed to approve funding for the 10,000-seat facility that would serve as home for USF's basketball programs. Ground-breaking for the $7 million arena took place late in 1977, with a targeted opening date of fall 1979.
Not all was perfect with the Sun Dome – as it eventually would be named -- as construction problems and cost overruns delayed the project. By March 1980, the roof had been completely installed, but the building remained a work in progress.
With the third floor still under repair, a capacity of 6,000 fans per game would initially be allowed into a building designed to hold 10,000. The show had no choice but to go on, however, as the Sun Dome would be open for business, ready or not.
Although the Bulls officially opened the Sun Dome against the Florida A&M Rattlers on November 29 – a 65-63 defeat in front of 5,213 fans – the official dedication of the new building would not come until December 2 in a nationally-televised game on ESPN against the Duke Blue Devils.
The Blue Devils were led by Mike Krzyzewski, in his first season at Duke after serving as head coach at Army from 1975-1980. The Bulls had a new coach as well, with Lee Rose coming to USF from Purdue where he compiled a 50-18 record in two seasons. Rose had a proven record of success, having taken two different schools (Purdue and UNC-Charlotte) to the Final Four in a five-year span.
Rose would have his work cut out for him in trying to prepare his Bulls for the heavily-favored Blue Devils. With the national spotlight on their team and new building, the Bulls could be forgiven if they suffered a bit of stage fright, which is exactly what happened.
Before they knew what hit them, the USF-record crowd of 6,030 found the home team down 21-6 after Duke went on a 19-point run in a span of about five minutes. The Bulls clawed their way back into the game, however, with a spurt of their own.
Contributions from Tony Grier, Willie Redden and Rob Rutledge helped bring USF within two points of Duke, 28-26, with 2:55 left in the half. After trailing by 19 early, the Bulls were fortunate to only be down by seven points at the half 39-32.
Duke refused to let up in the second half, shooting 71% from the field. Despite USF’s best efforts, they simply could not match Duke basket- for-basket.
Despite having outscored the Blue Devils 66-62 after trailing 19-6, USF fell to Duke 83-72. The Bulls fought hard against a college powerhouse and showed plenty of promise for the season ahead, though the outcome hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.
“It was great to finally get a place to call home,” says former USF play-by-play announcer Jack Harris. “Opening the Sun Dome was a tremendous step forward for the basketball program.”
Monday, December 6, 2010
Birth of a Basketball Program, 12/4/70
On June 12, 1969, the University of South Florida announced that the school would begin playing intercollegiate men's basketball beginning with the 1970-71 season. This week, the university celebrates the 40th anniversary of the first game in school history. Although today the school is a proud member of the Big East conference, USF did not jump into the deep end of college basketball right away. Instead, the school would begin by fielding only a freshman team. Games against junior colleges and other freshman teams would have to come before they could reasonably take on similar-sized universities.
It was, of course, an extraordinary effort to make it to that point. The university president, John S. Allen, made himself perfectly clear on his lack of enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports, once vowing that USF would never field a football team. Other administrators and even faculty members voiced their concerns about having an intercollegiate sports program.
Frank Winkles, a member of the student senate who worked tirelessly to bring basketball to USF, recalls that Allen thought sports would compromise his grand vision for USF.
"Allen wanted to have what he called a 'scholastic' university," Winkles says. "There weren't going to be intercollegiate sports, especially football and basketball. He was very much opposed to them."
When the State Board of Regents put their seal of approval on the basketball program in July, the countdown to tip-off could officially begin. This meant finding a head coach to put together a program and start recruiting players.
Dick Bowers, the head of the school's physical education department, hired Don Williams from Milliken University in Illinois to lead the program.
Williams, who had coached basketball at Hillsborough High from 1953 to 1962, set his sights high right from the start.
"This is a major college and it is the aim of every coach to take his team and his school to the top, and no where short of it," he said. "We will go just as far as the philosophy of this school will allow us."
Williams brought in Hillsborough High head coach Bob Shriver to be his top assistant, reuniting the duo who had worked together during Williams’ tenure with the Terriers.
While Williams and Shriver worked hard to build a team together, USF experienced a change at the top when, on July 4, 1970, John Allen resigned as president. When Dr. Harris Dean took over as the acting-president, it became clear that the man who fought for so many years to stifle intercollegiate sports at USF would not be around to see the first basketball game in school history.
The big day came on December 4 against the freshman team from the University of Florida. Without an on-campus facility large enough to host a game, the Bulls were forced to seek refuge in downtown Tampa at the Curtis Hixon Convention Center. University officials were hopeful for a crowd around 2,000-3,000. Instead, they got 4,500.
Dean and Winkles were both on-hand for the historic game and took part in a ceremonial tip-off at center court prior to the game.
On their opening possession, John Kiser scored the first basket in USF history -- a free throw -- to give the Brahmans a 1-0 lead. Tommy Davis hit the first field goal a few minutes later on a jump shot. With the scored notched at 7-7, Lear put USF ahead with his second basket and the Brahmans wouldn't relinquish the lead again.
USF took the lead into the half and the Brahmans were ahead by ten points, 43-33. Although they were outscored 45-42 in the second half, USF held on for an 85-78 victory.
Bill Lear, the Indiana native and first player to sign a scholarship with USF, led all scorers with 21 points, while Kiser dominated underneath with 17 rebounds.
The following week, Williams received a letter from Dean congratulating his team on the victory.
"Not only were you magnificent as a team," Dean wrote, "but the whole affair seemed to represent a new dedication to accomplishment at USF."
These were baby steps for the burgeoning university, and although the game was not officially recognized by the NCAA nor acknowledged in the USF record books, nobody can ever take away the moment 40 years ago when USF basketball went from dream to reality.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Seminoles Fall to Houston at Stadium, 11/26/70
Leading up to their November 26, 1970, showdown against the Houston Cougars at Tampa Stadium, the Florida State Seminoles found themselves in the running for a berth in the Peach Bowl. In the days before 70 teams went to bowl games, the 7-3 Seminoles were on the outside looking in for a berth in either the Liberty Bowl or Peach Bowl, the only two bowls that remained unfilled. To get to Atlanta, however, the Seminoles had to beat a very good, very dangerous Houston Cougar squad.
The Cougars entered the game at 6-3 -- a slight step down from the 1969 season which featured a 9-2 record and a Bluebonnet Bowl victory -- but had lost two close games at Oklahoma State and Ole Miss. They were certainly not a team Florida State could take for granted.
The game would serve as somewhat of a "Thanksgiving Night" bowl game for both teams and be televised by ABC in prime time for a national audience. With the Detroit Lion and Dallas Cowboy games already wrapped up, the Seminoles and Cougars would have the undivided attention of stuffed and sleepy football fans around the country. Unfortunately, organizers of the game were less optimistic about selling the game to the local audience for many reasons.
In 1970, the Seminoles did not have the broad following of the Florida Gators, particularly in the Tampa Bay area. The Seminoles had only been playing football since 1947, while the Gators had a football tradition dating back to 1904. The "Big Three" as we know them today -- Florida, Florida State and Miami -- did not exist. The Florida Gators simply dominated the college football landscape.
The fact that the game was televised seemed to deter local fans from attending, as well as fans from Tallahassee who would otherwise have needed to drive down to see the game. Also, the game had been moved from its originally scheduled October date, sandwiching it right between University of Tampa home games against Vanderbilt and Florida A&M. The Spartans were enjoying a tremendous season at 9-1, and local football fans might not have wanted to pay for three games in seven days.
Only 18,053 fans -- some 17,000 less than the desired attendance mark -- came out to Tampa Stadium, while an estimated 30 million watched the game at home. Not a single person could rightly claim to not be entertained by what they saw.
The Cougars struck first, marching 65 yards on seven plays to open the game. Houston quarterback Gary "Moon" Mullins connected with Elmo Wright on a 12-yard pass to give Houston the lead, but Florida State blocked the extra point attempt to make the score 6-0.
The Seminoles matched Houston with a 12-yard touchdown pass of their own, this one coming from Tommy Warren to Rhett Dawson with 0:54 seconds left in the first quarter to give Florida State a 7-6 lead.
After forcing a Houston punt, James Jarrett capped a 66-yard, 14-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to make the score 14-6 in favor of the Seminoles. A Tom Mozisek 2-yard touchdown run for Houston narrowed the score to 14-12, but Florida State immediately answered with a 65-yard touchdown strike from Warren to Barry Smith, extending the Seminole lead to 21-12.
An unsuspecting Florida State took the lead into the break, completely unaware of what awaited them in the second half.
Midway through the third quarter, a heads up play by the Cougars changed the momentum of the game. After intercepting a Florida State pass at the Houston 30, Charles Ford ran another 50 yards to the Seminole 20-yard-line. Before being brought down, however, he pitched the ball to teammate Frank Ditta, who took it the rest of the way for a touchdown. Houston again failed on the point-after-attempt and trailed Florida State by three, 21-18.
It would not matter, however, as the Cougars were only getting started. Houston would go ahead for good on their next possession, scoring on a 2-yard run by Mozisek to take a 25-21 lead as the third quarter came to a close.
The entire fourth quarter belong to Houston. After Mullins hit Mike Parrott on a 25-yard strike to extend their lead to 32-21, the Cougars were literally off and running. Mozisek got into the end zone again, this time on a 70-yard run, and in one of the most memorable moments of the game, Cougar Nick Holm intercepted a Tommy Warren pass and appeared end zone bound. Seminole Dan Whitehurst, however, had other ideas.
From his spot near midfield on the Florida State sideline, Whitehurst decided he had seen enough. As Holm approached, Whitehurst extended his foot onto the playing field to trip the Houston cornerback. His attempt succeeded, and a certain Houston touchdown turned into a 15-yard penalty on Florida State and the ball placed on the 35-yard-line.
"What's 15 yards when you're 30 points behind," Whitehurst said after the game, although the Seminole were only trailing by 18 at the time. "I just knew I had to stop him, and figured if I tripped him the ref might not see it."
Florida State head coach Bill Peterson said after the game that he couldn't be too mad at Whitehurst because he felt like doing it himself. Houston would punch it in on another Elmo Wright receiving touchdown to take a 46-21 lead, and they would add one more on a Joe Depain run from one-yard out to provide the final points in a 53-21 rout.
Along with suffering the indignity of a 32-point defeat, the Seminoles played their way right out of bowl consideration. Peterson summed it up best in the end, saying, "They just gave us a good country beating."
Monday, November 22, 2010
Rick Casares the Gator, ca. 1951-53
Earlier this year, the Tampa Bay History Center received a large gift of original drawings, prints, and materials from the family of the late Tampa Tribune artist Lamar Sparkman. Among the countless wonderful artifacts in the collection are a few hundred photographs that Sparkman took of his subjects prior to drawing them for the newspaper.Some gems recently uncovered include a series of photographs taken of local football star Rick Casares. The Jefferson High School standout led the Dragons to two city titles (1947, 1949) playing fullback while earning All-American, All-State and All-Southern honors as a senior. He went on to star as a two-sport athlete at the University of Florida in football and basketball from 1951-1953. The Chicago Bears drafted Casares in 1955, and he eventually became the team’s all-time leading rusher before being eclipsed by Walter Payton.
In this photograph, Casares is joined at Florida Field by University of Florida head football coach Bob Woodruff, who coached the Gators from 1950-1959. The highlight of both of their careers at Florida came in the Gator Bowl on January 1, 1953. Casares scored the first touchdown of the game on a two-yard run and kicked two extra points as the Gators defeated Tulsa 14-13 for their first-ever bowl game victory.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Gator/Spartan Twin-Bill at Stadium, 11/14/70
In 1969, Tampa Stadium hosted a doubleheader featuring the University of Florida against Tulane, followed by the University of Tampa against Tulsa. A total of 55,553 fans turned out for the "Super Saturday" games, and the event proved to be so successful that organizers tried the concept again on November 14, 1970.This time, the 6-3 Florida Gators would square off against the 2-7 Kentucky Wildcats. The Wildcats were technically the home team since the game was moved from Lexington, thanks in large part to the efforts of local attorney Tom MacDonald of the West Coast Bowl Association. This would be the first Southeastern Conference game played in Tampa since the two teams faced each other at Phillips Field in 1949, a contest won 35-0 by the Paul "Bear" Bryant coached Wildcats.
As in 1969, the game would be a homecoming for Florida's starting quarterback John Reaves. Against the Green Wave the previous year, the Robinson High graduate led the Gators to a late come-from-behind 18-17 victory.
In the nightcap, the 8-0 University of Tampa Spartans would play host to the 5-4 Bengals of Idaho State. The Spartans -- ranked No. 1 in the nation among small colleges -- entered the game in pursuit of a school-record ninth consecutive victory. Running back Leon McQuay had something special to play for as well, coming into the game with 72 total points on the season.
After scoring five touchdowns the previous week against Southwestern Louisiana, McQuay needed only two touchdowns to break the record for points scored by a Spartan in a single season held by Charlie Harris (84 points in 1952).
The Gators and Wildcats opened the day of football at Tampa Stadium with an early afternoon kickoff. In front of 44,312 fans, the Gators and Wildcats both got off to slow starts.
Jim Getzen put the Gators on the board in the first quarter with a 29-yard field goal to give Florida an early 3-0 lead. Kentucky answered back with three of their own, courtesy of a 33-yarder by Bob Jones to even the score at 3-3 in the second quarter.
Gator partisans must have felt nervous later in the second when Kentucky running back Houston Hogg scored from eight yards out to put the Wildcats up by a touchdown.
With 17 seconds left in the half, Reaves put his Gators back in the game by connecting with Willie Jackson on a 70-yard touchdown strike. The Gators and Wildcats went into the locker room tied 10-10.
In the third quarter, the Gators kept Kentucky out of the end zone with a huge goal line stand, forcing the Wildcats to settle for a field goal. Kentucky took a 13-10 lead, but it would be short-lived.
Reaves tossed his second touchdown of the day -- this time to Jim Yancey from 10 yards out -- to give Florida their first lead of the game, 17-13.
With the game's outcome still in doubt, Reaves led Florida on an 80-yard, fourth quarter drive to put the game out of reach. Reaves' second touchdown pass of the game to Yancey, a 14-yarder, capped the drive and gave Florida a 24-13 lead which would end up as the final score.
Reaves' three touchdown passes allowed him to tie former Gator Steve Spurrier for the school record of 36 career touchdown passes. Like Reaves, Leon McQuay of Tampa would also have a record-setting day.
In the evening contest, the Spartans had a far easier time putting away their opponent than Florida did with Kentucky. In front of very respectable crowd of 20,238, the Spartans put on a clinic for the team from Idaho.
As a team, the Spartans rushed for 465 yards and scored 10 touchdowns en route to a 68-7 shellacking of the Bengals.
"We just did everything right," said Spartan head coach Fran Curci.
McQuay carried the ball only 16 times, but he ran for 213 yards and scored three touchdowns, enough to propel him into sole possession of first place for most points scored in a season by a Spartan.
The enjoyment of the day for the event organizers and fans of the Gators and Spartans became subdued later in the evening, however, as the news came out that a plane carrying the Marshall University football team had crashed in West Virginia, killing all 75 people on board. Dave and Rick Bankston, who played linebacker for the Spartans, had an older brother on Marshall’s freshman football coaching staff. They were relieved to find out that their brother -- who sometimes traveled with the varsity team -- had not been on the trip.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Rehe Captures Florida Federal Open, 11/10/85
Organizers of the Florida Federal Tennis Open knew they were going to have a challenge marketing the event in 1985.
Some of the biggest names in women’s tennis had all politely declined to enter the tournament. Martina Navratilova – winner of the 1983 Florida Federal – skipped the 1984 event and had no intention of returning in 1985. Other top-ranked women skipping the tournament were Pam Shriver, Hana Mandlikova, Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, Zina Garrison, Helena Sukova, and Manuela Maleeva.
A rising star on the women’s tour, 16-year-old German Steffi Graf, likewise withdrew prior to the start of the tournament.
Then, just a week before the tournament began, the last of the dominoes fell: Chris Evert Lloyd. The winner of 18 Grand Slam events withdrew from the tournament in Largo due to a knee injury and the demands of a heavy travel schedule.
“I’m disappointed,” tournament co-director Barry Siegel said. “I certainly won’t lie about it.”
Still, Siegel and others had reasons to be enthusiastic about the upcoming tournament. Being held for the first time at the Bardmoor Country Club in Largo, the tournament lineup may not have been big on star-power, but it was loaded with fresh talent.
“It’s a good field,” Siegel said. “The best way to describe the field is that these are the top players of the future of women’s tennis.”
Among these in the field were Largo’s own Bonnie Gadusek, the tournament’s top seed and the 10th ranked player in the world. Michelle Torres, the winner of the 1984 Florida Federal Open, returned to defend her title, and Kathy Rinaldi, who in August beat Graf to capture the A&P Tennis Classic championship in Mahawh, New Jersey, was the 11th ranked player in the world and one of the top young players in the game.
Carling Bassett, a finalist the previous year, returned to the tournament, and a promising pair of 14-year-olds -- Gabriela Sabatini and Mary Jo Fernandez – were each considered rising stars.
First-round play opened on November 4, as the top-seeded Gadusek earned a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Caroline Kuhlman. Seventh-seeded Terry Phelps ousted Gabriella Mosca, a 15-year-old Argentinian who took Chris Evert Lloyd’s place in the draw. It took Phelps only 38 minutes to overwhelm Mosca, who only won two points the entire second set. Pam Casale, one of the fiercest competitors on the tour, made quick work of the up-and-coming Fernandez, 6-2, 6-3.
While Bassett and Sabatini both won their first round matches, two other top seeds were not so lucky.
Gadusek, the No. 1 seed, suffered a humiliating defeat to Lisa Bonder, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1. Gadusek credited her problems to effect of the damp weather on her strings.
“My strings were getting loose because of the dampness and humidity,” she said. “I lost feeling in the ball and I didn’t get it back.”
Bonder, for her part, almost didn’t finish the match.
“I was nervous and cold, and I think I ate too many raisins," she said. “I almost died right there on the court.”
Rinaldi, the No. 2 seed, never even set foot on the court, as she withdrew due to a severe case of tonsillitis. Her last-minute replacement, Amy Holton of Sarasota, went down 6-1, 6-1 to the defending champion Torres.
Sabatini, Bassett, Torres and Casale all breezed through the second round to set up some interesting quarterfinals match-ups.
Casale fell to the No. 3 seed Sabatini 6-0, 6-1, in a 52-minute match, and Bassett took care of unseeded Grace Kim, 6-2, 7-5. The Lisa Bonder-Ann White match, however, proved to be one of the more interesting matches in the tournament.
Bonder accused White, who won the match 6-2, 6-4, of using intimidation tactics during a let-call at 2-2 of the first set. White argued for two minutes that there was no let on her serve. The delay seemingly zapped Bonder’s focus.
“Anne’s very intimidating,” she said. “She gave me some mean stares and she growled. The whole thing was intimidating.”
An exhausted Michelle Torres – who the day before needed three hours to get past her opponent – fell meekly to Stephanie Rehe, 6-1, 6-2.
In the semis, Rehe continued her winning ways with a gutsy 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Bassett. The 16-year-old Rehe, who turned pro just two months earlier, wrestled the match away from Bassett by overcoming nine game-points trailing 2-1 in the third set. The game lasted 22 minutes and took 32 points to settle, ending when Bassett pushed a volley long.
Sabatini cruised into the finals with a 6-1, 6-2 dismantling of White.
“I was embarrassingly bad today,” White said. “When things go bad, they go really bad.”
Although the crowd may have preferred seeing Sabatini play her doubles partner Bassett in the finals, Rehe’s victory set up an extremely compelling final between two players who had just turned pro in 1985. The two delivered a thrilling finale to the tournament in front of a crowd of 5,176.
Trailing the 12th ranked player in the world by a score of 4-2 in the third set, Rehe rallied to win three straight games and held on to capture the match 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. Sabatini admitted to playing nervous, and it showed, as she sprayed an uncharacteristic 48 unforced errors.
Despite the lack of “big name” talent, the tournament proved to be a resounding success. Nearly 26,000 people attended the tournament, 5,000 more than had attended the previous year at the Innisbrook Resort.
As for Rehe and Sabatini, what could have been the start of a great rivalry never materialized. Although Rehe climbed to as high as No. 10 in the world by 1989, a serious back injury put her on the shelf for a year, and just eight years after her victory in Largo, she would be out of the game permanently.
Sabatini, on the other hand, became one of the best players of her generation. The winner of the 1990 U.S. Open, Sabatini earned induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.
Some of the biggest names in women’s tennis had all politely declined to enter the tournament. Martina Navratilova – winner of the 1983 Florida Federal – skipped the 1984 event and had no intention of returning in 1985. Other top-ranked women skipping the tournament were Pam Shriver, Hana Mandlikova, Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, Zina Garrison, Helena Sukova, and Manuela Maleeva.
A rising star on the women’s tour, 16-year-old German Steffi Graf, likewise withdrew prior to the start of the tournament.
Then, just a week before the tournament began, the last of the dominoes fell: Chris Evert Lloyd. The winner of 18 Grand Slam events withdrew from the tournament in Largo due to a knee injury and the demands of a heavy travel schedule.
“I’m disappointed,” tournament co-director Barry Siegel said. “I certainly won’t lie about it.”
Still, Siegel and others had reasons to be enthusiastic about the upcoming tournament. Being held for the first time at the Bardmoor Country Club in Largo, the tournament lineup may not have been big on star-power, but it was loaded with fresh talent.
“It’s a good field,” Siegel said. “The best way to describe the field is that these are the top players of the future of women’s tennis.”
Among these in the field were Largo’s own Bonnie Gadusek, the tournament’s top seed and the 10th ranked player in the world. Michelle Torres, the winner of the 1984 Florida Federal Open, returned to defend her title, and Kathy Rinaldi, who in August beat Graf to capture the A&P Tennis Classic championship in Mahawh, New Jersey, was the 11th ranked player in the world and one of the top young players in the game.
Carling Bassett, a finalist the previous year, returned to the tournament, and a promising pair of 14-year-olds -- Gabriela Sabatini and Mary Jo Fernandez – were each considered rising stars.
First-round play opened on November 4, as the top-seeded Gadusek earned a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Caroline Kuhlman. Seventh-seeded Terry Phelps ousted Gabriella Mosca, a 15-year-old Argentinian who took Chris Evert Lloyd’s place in the draw. It took Phelps only 38 minutes to overwhelm Mosca, who only won two points the entire second set. Pam Casale, one of the fiercest competitors on the tour, made quick work of the up-and-coming Fernandez, 6-2, 6-3.
While Bassett and Sabatini both won their first round matches, two other top seeds were not so lucky.
Gadusek, the No. 1 seed, suffered a humiliating defeat to Lisa Bonder, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1. Gadusek credited her problems to effect of the damp weather on her strings.
“My strings were getting loose because of the dampness and humidity,” she said. “I lost feeling in the ball and I didn’t get it back.”
Bonder, for her part, almost didn’t finish the match.
“I was nervous and cold, and I think I ate too many raisins," she said. “I almost died right there on the court.”
Rinaldi, the No. 2 seed, never even set foot on the court, as she withdrew due to a severe case of tonsillitis. Her last-minute replacement, Amy Holton of Sarasota, went down 6-1, 6-1 to the defending champion Torres.
Sabatini, Bassett, Torres and Casale all breezed through the second round to set up some interesting quarterfinals match-ups.
Casale fell to the No. 3 seed Sabatini 6-0, 6-1, in a 52-minute match, and Bassett took care of unseeded Grace Kim, 6-2, 7-5. The Lisa Bonder-Ann White match, however, proved to be one of the more interesting matches in the tournament.
Bonder accused White, who won the match 6-2, 6-4, of using intimidation tactics during a let-call at 2-2 of the first set. White argued for two minutes that there was no let on her serve. The delay seemingly zapped Bonder’s focus.
“Anne’s very intimidating,” she said. “She gave me some mean stares and she growled. The whole thing was intimidating.”
An exhausted Michelle Torres – who the day before needed three hours to get past her opponent – fell meekly to Stephanie Rehe, 6-1, 6-2.
In the semis, Rehe continued her winning ways with a gutsy 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Bassett. The 16-year-old Rehe, who turned pro just two months earlier, wrestled the match away from Bassett by overcoming nine game-points trailing 2-1 in the third set. The game lasted 22 minutes and took 32 points to settle, ending when Bassett pushed a volley long.
Sabatini cruised into the finals with a 6-1, 6-2 dismantling of White.
“I was embarrassingly bad today,” White said. “When things go bad, they go really bad.”
Although the crowd may have preferred seeing Sabatini play her doubles partner Bassett in the finals, Rehe’s victory set up an extremely compelling final between two players who had just turned pro in 1985. The two delivered a thrilling finale to the tournament in front of a crowd of 5,176.
Trailing the 12th ranked player in the world by a score of 4-2 in the third set, Rehe rallied to win three straight games and held on to capture the match 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. Sabatini admitted to playing nervous, and it showed, as she sprayed an uncharacteristic 48 unforced errors.
Despite the lack of “big name” talent, the tournament proved to be a resounding success. Nearly 26,000 people attended the tournament, 5,000 more than had attended the previous year at the Innisbrook Resort.
As for Rehe and Sabatini, what could have been the start of a great rivalry never materialized. Although Rehe climbed to as high as No. 10 in the world by 1989, a serious back injury put her on the shelf for a year, and just eight years after her victory in Largo, she would be out of the game permanently.
Sabatini, on the other hand, became one of the best players of her generation. The winner of the 1990 U.S. Open, Sabatini earned induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.
Monday, November 1, 2010
John McKay Hired in Tampa Bay, 10/31/75
By late October 1975, fans of Tampa Bay's new professional football team had to be wondering when their first head coach would be hired. With the first exhibition game just nine months out, the Buccaneers still had no players and only a hint of who would be leading the team into battle.
Speculation had been running rampant since July when Tampa Tribune columnist Tom McEwen confirmed that University of Southern California head coach John McKay had been offered the job by Buccaneer's owner Hugh Culverhouse.
A winner of four national championships with USC, McKay admitted to having interest in the Tampa Bay position and that it was the only job outside of USC he had under consideration. In other words, he would either coach the Trojans for another five to six years or become the first head coach in Buccaneer history.
"Tampa is the only place in which I am interested," McKay said. "My wife and I haven't worked this hard to get where we are to talk of going to some cold climate."
On Halloween, the announcement became official that John McKay would become vice president and head coach of the Buccaneers. Although USC made a serious play to keep McKay in Los Angeles, Culverhouse evidently lured McKay to Tampa with a five-year contract, which included a house, an insurance policy, transportation and full authority over hiring of his coaching staff.
The deal -- worth between $1.5 and $2 million ($5.9 million in today's dollars) -- represented an exorbitant amount to pay a head coach at the time. Consider that in 2009, the Sports Business Daily estimated the average salary of an NFL head coach at $2.5 million per year. McKay may have had some misgivings about leaving a comfortable situation behind, but in Tampa he had a chance at long-term financial security.
In McKay, Culverhouse seemingly had his target in mind from the beginning, never seriously considering any other coaches. The only credible name to surface other than McKay was that of his close friend, former Notre Dame head coach Ara Parseghian. Culverhouse and Parseghian never talked, however, and no offers were ever made.
In the weeks prior to the announcement, Culverhouse went on the record and said, "I'm not interested in anybody but John McKay. We want him and him alone. I just believe he would be perfect for the Tampa job."
Since he planned on retaining his duties at USC until the end of their season, McKay did not leave Los Angeles immediately and come to Tampa. There was also the small matter of a game that night against the University of California. Instead, his first interview with the local media came over the telephone.
In one of the first of thousands of quips to come during his time in Tampa, the notorious cigar aficionado McKay said that he "took the job because of the Tampa cigars."
He explained his decision to leave the comforts of USC as part of a desire to try something new.
"I've been a college coach, either an assistant of the head man, for 27 years now," McKay said, "and I figured that was enough. My family is grown and I thought I might enough the challenge.
Tampa Bay's Vice President of Football Operations Ron Wolf said that he could not have been happier at the chance to work with McKay.
"He gives us instant credibility," Wolf said. "He also gives you something to write about. This man coaches a team that currently has more players in the National Football League (36) than anyone else."
The reaction to McKay's hire outside of Tampa was uniformly positive.
Parseghian said that, "Tampa has itself one heckuva head coach and it makes for a beautiful marriage."
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Paul Brown described the signing a "fine start for Tampa Bay" and called McKay "a very worthy addition" to the NFL.
Denver Broncos head coach John Ralston -- who coached against McKay at Stanford -- said that the Buccaneers "just couldn't pick a more qualified person."
Dan Rooney, general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers, called the Tampa Bay's signing of McKay "a step towards becoming one of the great pro franchises in the NFL."
On a day with so much excitement and optimism, nobody could have anticipated how brief a honeymoon it would be for McKay as a head coach in the NFL. He would find out soon enough that nothing in his illustrious college career could have prepared him for life as head coach of the expansion Buccaneers.
Time would certainly prove, however, that he was the right man for the job. McKay eventually orchestrated one of the most stunning turnarounds in league history, bringing Tampa Bay within one game of the Super Bowl in just the team’s fourth season. On December 5, the Buccaneers will recognize McKay’s contributions to the franchise as he becomes the team’s second Ring of Honor inductee alongside Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon.
Speculation had been running rampant since July when Tampa Tribune columnist Tom McEwen confirmed that University of Southern California head coach John McKay had been offered the job by Buccaneer's owner Hugh Culverhouse.
A winner of four national championships with USC, McKay admitted to having interest in the Tampa Bay position and that it was the only job outside of USC he had under consideration. In other words, he would either coach the Trojans for another five to six years or become the first head coach in Buccaneer history.
"Tampa is the only place in which I am interested," McKay said. "My wife and I haven't worked this hard to get where we are to talk of going to some cold climate."
On Halloween, the announcement became official that John McKay would become vice president and head coach of the Buccaneers. Although USC made a serious play to keep McKay in Los Angeles, Culverhouse evidently lured McKay to Tampa with a five-year contract, which included a house, an insurance policy, transportation and full authority over hiring of his coaching staff.
The deal -- worth between $1.5 and $2 million ($5.9 million in today's dollars) -- represented an exorbitant amount to pay a head coach at the time. Consider that in 2009, the Sports Business Daily estimated the average salary of an NFL head coach at $2.5 million per year. McKay may have had some misgivings about leaving a comfortable situation behind, but in Tampa he had a chance at long-term financial security.
In McKay, Culverhouse seemingly had his target in mind from the beginning, never seriously considering any other coaches. The only credible name to surface other than McKay was that of his close friend, former Notre Dame head coach Ara Parseghian. Culverhouse and Parseghian never talked, however, and no offers were ever made.
In the weeks prior to the announcement, Culverhouse went on the record and said, "I'm not interested in anybody but John McKay. We want him and him alone. I just believe he would be perfect for the Tampa job."
Since he planned on retaining his duties at USC until the end of their season, McKay did not leave Los Angeles immediately and come to Tampa. There was also the small matter of a game that night against the University of California. Instead, his first interview with the local media came over the telephone.
In one of the first of thousands of quips to come during his time in Tampa, the notorious cigar aficionado McKay said that he "took the job because of the Tampa cigars."
He explained his decision to leave the comforts of USC as part of a desire to try something new.
"I've been a college coach, either an assistant of the head man, for 27 years now," McKay said, "and I figured that was enough. My family is grown and I thought I might enough the challenge.
Tampa Bay's Vice President of Football Operations Ron Wolf said that he could not have been happier at the chance to work with McKay.
"He gives us instant credibility," Wolf said. "He also gives you something to write about. This man coaches a team that currently has more players in the National Football League (36) than anyone else."
The reaction to McKay's hire outside of Tampa was uniformly positive.
Parseghian said that, "Tampa has itself one heckuva head coach and it makes for a beautiful marriage."
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Paul Brown described the signing a "fine start for Tampa Bay" and called McKay "a very worthy addition" to the NFL.
Denver Broncos head coach John Ralston -- who coached against McKay at Stanford -- said that the Buccaneers "just couldn't pick a more qualified person."
Dan Rooney, general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers, called the Tampa Bay's signing of McKay "a step towards becoming one of the great pro franchises in the NFL."
On a day with so much excitement and optimism, nobody could have anticipated how brief a honeymoon it would be for McKay as a head coach in the NFL. He would find out soon enough that nothing in his illustrious college career could have prepared him for life as head coach of the expansion Buccaneers.
Time would certainly prove, however, that he was the right man for the job. McKay eventually orchestrated one of the most stunning turnarounds in league history, bringing Tampa Bay within one game of the Super Bowl in just the team’s fourth season. On December 5, the Buccaneers will recognize McKay’s contributions to the franchise as he becomes the team’s second Ring of Honor inductee alongside Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Catching Up With The Fabulous Sports Babe
Radio personality Nanci Donnellan, better known to her legions of fans as “The Fabulous Sports Babe,” began her career here in the Tampa Bay area in 1982. After moves that took her to Seattle, Bristol, Conn., and New York City, the Babe took several years off from broadcasting earlier in the decade, but she is once again a fixture on the local airwaves. Always opinionated and willing to tell it like it is, the Babe can be heard weekdays on WHBO 1040-AM from 12-3 p.m. She recently took some time to talk about the changes in sports radio, the issue of local baseball attendance, and some fond memories involving the late George Steinbrenner.
Q. What was the climate like for sports radio when you first started in this market?
A. I don't know that we actually had a climate for it in the early 1980s. I started off with a sports show at an all-news/talk radio station, WPLP. Then in 1990, I put WFNS on the air. We changed the Plant City station and turned it into sports radio. That was the first all-sports radio station here in Tampa for sure.
Q. How has the scene evolved over the last 20 years?
A. It's evolved in that we have three all-sports stations now. They each offer different things, that's for sure. Sports is huge and much more popular now than it was 20 years ago with the advent of 24-hour networks, and the growing popularity of football. In baseball, you used to have a Saturday afternoon game. Now, you have multiple games every night that you can tune into. With football, on Sunday you could watch the game at 1 and the game at 4. Now you can watch every stinkin' one of them, which is the way it should be. We should be able to get whatever game we want.
Q. Back when WFNS got started, there were no blogs, no Twitter, no message boards. Now, there are numerous ways for fans to have their opinions heard that don't necessarily involve calling the radio station.
A. Radio used to be where you could express your opinions. You couldn't very well talk back to the TV, but as you said, people have turned into bloggers. Now even a regular fan can take the time a couple times a week to really expound on what they're feeling. I think it's great. I think it's wonderful.
Q. Some print reporters might take a differing view and say that kind of cuts into what they're doing, but you're saying it's a good thing that more people have a voice.
A. Absolutely, I think it is. I understand what newspaper reporters are saying. We've seen it already in television. Look how squashed the sports reports are on television. They used to be "X" amount of minutes long and you're lucky if you get three minutes now. Even in my business, there's so much syndication now. It's funny, when I was doing syndication 15 years ago I was on 300 radio stations across the country. That was a fairly new phenomenon, especially to that degree. Now, one of the main reasons that I'm here is that I really feel the local fan has been completely under-served. I'm really glad to see that more and more local talk is back.
Q. How about your show, is it more focused on local or national sports?
A. I've always taken both. One of the main things for me here is that this is a Tampa Bay radio station and we are going to talk about Tampa Bay. Now, if there's a big issue that is a national issue, obviously it relates to us. But by and large, I'm talking about the Rays and the Bucs and the Lightning and college football.
Q. Baseball was a big part of your show going back to the 1980s and the original effort to bring a team to this area. Would you have ever thought that we'd still be debating the location of the stadium?
A. No, but it has been my experience of being in this business in different locations that everyone complains about their stadium, everyone threatens to move, and they always get a new stadium and don't move. I think this obsession with attacking the fans in the end will backfire heavily on the ownership of the Rays.
Q. Would it be a different story if the stadium were in Tampa or is it the economic climate?
A. If Tropicana Field had been built in Tampa, they would be complaining about the stadium anyways. As far as people going, the ownership's total disregard for the economy here is somewhat surprising. They have no respect for what the average working person here is going through.
Q. And this area has been hit as hard as any in the country.
A. And the ownership of the Tampa Bay Rays either doesn’t know it or really don't care.
Q. Going back to 2008, what were your emotions on that season knowing how long and arduous the journey was just to bring baseball here.
A. I spent that whole season saying, "I don't buy it. Wait 'til Memorial Day. Wait 'til the All-Star break. Wait 'til August.” And it wasn't really until they were in the playoffs that I was ready to say they were for real. I believed in them and thought they were good -- I thought they were very lucky -- and that was fine. There were a lot of home runs in the bottom of the 8th and bottom of the 9th innings and it was very exciting. For someone who had season tickets for as long as I did, and to have seen so much bad baseball, it was incredible.
Now, I think the bar has been set and we have come to have certain expectations. I don't think that going to the World Series or deep into the playoffs necessarily has to be the expectation, but you expect a team that's good and no longer a joke. I don't expect them to fall back to that. Of course, based on Sternberg's whining about how he doesn't have any money, it may very well go back to that.
Q. Your thoughts on the passing this year of George Steinbrenner.
A. The bottom line is this: if there’s no George Steinbrenner, there’s no baseball in this town. People can say what they want, but George is the one that opened the door for baseball to come here. I talked to Vince Naimoli the day George died and he talked about how instrumental George was in helping bring baseball here.
A quick story on George. One summer on my show, we got a phone call from a George in Tampa. We didn't think anything of it, so I put him on. It was George Steinbrenner calling me. So every 4th of July – which was his birthday -- we'd get a call from George and it became a tradition. Then he invited me to Yankee Stadium for a playoff game one year to sit in his box, which was really an incredible experience. I remember how cordial he was, and that was a really impressionable point for me.
I remember a few years ago, there was a soccer team of teenagers from somewhere in South America. They were in Florida playing different teams, and something happened with either the airline or travel agency they booked their tickets through, and they were stranded in Orlando. There was a story about it, and you can guess who wrote the check to put them on a plane home to South America. That's the kind of person he was, the kind of thing he would do for people, and one of the reasons why he’s going to be so missed.
Q. What was the climate like for sports radio when you first started in this market?
A. I don't know that we actually had a climate for it in the early 1980s. I started off with a sports show at an all-news/talk radio station, WPLP. Then in 1990, I put WFNS on the air. We changed the Plant City station and turned it into sports radio. That was the first all-sports radio station here in Tampa for sure.
Q. How has the scene evolved over the last 20 years?
A. It's evolved in that we have three all-sports stations now. They each offer different things, that's for sure. Sports is huge and much more popular now than it was 20 years ago with the advent of 24-hour networks, and the growing popularity of football. In baseball, you used to have a Saturday afternoon game. Now, you have multiple games every night that you can tune into. With football, on Sunday you could watch the game at 1 and the game at 4. Now you can watch every stinkin' one of them, which is the way it should be. We should be able to get whatever game we want.
Q. Back when WFNS got started, there were no blogs, no Twitter, no message boards. Now, there are numerous ways for fans to have their opinions heard that don't necessarily involve calling the radio station.
A. Radio used to be where you could express your opinions. You couldn't very well talk back to the TV, but as you said, people have turned into bloggers. Now even a regular fan can take the time a couple times a week to really expound on what they're feeling. I think it's great. I think it's wonderful.
Q. Some print reporters might take a differing view and say that kind of cuts into what they're doing, but you're saying it's a good thing that more people have a voice.
A. Absolutely, I think it is. I understand what newspaper reporters are saying. We've seen it already in television. Look how squashed the sports reports are on television. They used to be "X" amount of minutes long and you're lucky if you get three minutes now. Even in my business, there's so much syndication now. It's funny, when I was doing syndication 15 years ago I was on 300 radio stations across the country. That was a fairly new phenomenon, especially to that degree. Now, one of the main reasons that I'm here is that I really feel the local fan has been completely under-served. I'm really glad to see that more and more local talk is back.
Q. How about your show, is it more focused on local or national sports?
A. I've always taken both. One of the main things for me here is that this is a Tampa Bay radio station and we are going to talk about Tampa Bay. Now, if there's a big issue that is a national issue, obviously it relates to us. But by and large, I'm talking about the Rays and the Bucs and the Lightning and college football.
Q. Baseball was a big part of your show going back to the 1980s and the original effort to bring a team to this area. Would you have ever thought that we'd still be debating the location of the stadium?
A. No, but it has been my experience of being in this business in different locations that everyone complains about their stadium, everyone threatens to move, and they always get a new stadium and don't move. I think this obsession with attacking the fans in the end will backfire heavily on the ownership of the Rays.
Q. Would it be a different story if the stadium were in Tampa or is it the economic climate?
A. If Tropicana Field had been built in Tampa, they would be complaining about the stadium anyways. As far as people going, the ownership's total disregard for the economy here is somewhat surprising. They have no respect for what the average working person here is going through.
Q. And this area has been hit as hard as any in the country.
A. And the ownership of the Tampa Bay Rays either doesn’t know it or really don't care.
Q. Going back to 2008, what were your emotions on that season knowing how long and arduous the journey was just to bring baseball here.
A. I spent that whole season saying, "I don't buy it. Wait 'til Memorial Day. Wait 'til the All-Star break. Wait 'til August.” And it wasn't really until they were in the playoffs that I was ready to say they were for real. I believed in them and thought they were good -- I thought they were very lucky -- and that was fine. There were a lot of home runs in the bottom of the 8th and bottom of the 9th innings and it was very exciting. For someone who had season tickets for as long as I did, and to have seen so much bad baseball, it was incredible.
Now, I think the bar has been set and we have come to have certain expectations. I don't think that going to the World Series or deep into the playoffs necessarily has to be the expectation, but you expect a team that's good and no longer a joke. I don't expect them to fall back to that. Of course, based on Sternberg's whining about how he doesn't have any money, it may very well go back to that.
Q. Your thoughts on the passing this year of George Steinbrenner.
A. The bottom line is this: if there’s no George Steinbrenner, there’s no baseball in this town. People can say what they want, but George is the one that opened the door for baseball to come here. I talked to Vince Naimoli the day George died and he talked about how instrumental George was in helping bring baseball here.
A quick story on George. One summer on my show, we got a phone call from a George in Tampa. We didn't think anything of it, so I put him on. It was George Steinbrenner calling me. So every 4th of July – which was his birthday -- we'd get a call from George and it became a tradition. Then he invited me to Yankee Stadium for a playoff game one year to sit in his box, which was really an incredible experience. I remember how cordial he was, and that was a really impressionable point for me.
I remember a few years ago, there was a soccer team of teenagers from somewhere in South America. They were in Florida playing different teams, and something happened with either the airline or travel agency they booked their tickets through, and they were stranded in Orlando. There was a story about it, and you can guess who wrote the check to put them on a plane home to South America. That's the kind of person he was, the kind of thing he would do for people, and one of the reasons why he’s going to be so missed.
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