Tampa Joins the Big Leagues

A city without professional sports is the Tampa I grew up in during the 60's and early 70's. Most of us were Miami Dolphin fans. In baseball we listened to the Atlanta Braves on the radio. In basketball my best friend Steve was a huge Boston Celtics fan so I followed them too. Nothing in our town...

In 1966 construction began on Tampa Stadium...Al Lopez Field where the Cincinnati Reds trained is in the background. The NFL encouraged the city to build a stadium and pursue a franchise. In the meantime the University of Tampa would play home games in the stadium

In November 1967 Tampa Stadium hosted it's first event. The University of Tampa played the Tennessee Volunteers. Tennessee won the game 38-0 and the stadium received high praise

Beginning in 1968 and into the early 70's Tampa hosted several NFL pre season games. The photo above is from a game between the Lions and the Jets

I remember going to the Dolphins and Patriots game. Note the Patriots were not always called the New England Patriots. This game in 1969 was unique...it was an AFL game before the merger

Then in 1976 Tampa changed forever...we had made the big time

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were our team. It's fun being a sports fan. It takes on a new level when you have a team in your town...your home town team
The Bucs endured much futility in the early days but we loved them just the same

Soon things began to change and the Buccaneer franchise became good...real good and in 2002..The very best

Super Bowl Champs !! 

Tampa became a big league city that has now hosted four Super Bowls...the first was Super Bowl XVIII between the Raiders and Redskins. Super Bowls in 1991, 2001, and 2009 were also played in Tampa

The Bucs now play in beautiful Raymond James Stadium. Tampa now has three pro teams with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay Rays now also home teams. 1976 seems a long time ago now...