Oh, to be the Rowdies of old again

Posted Jun 10, 2010 by Tom McEwen

Updated Jun 10, 2010 at 01:24 AM

Folklore tells us that the horns that will start to irritate those who watch the World Cup this weekend are called vuvuzelas and are traceable to the sound of an antelope, a kind of kudu. A South African named Saddam Maake claims to have invented the vuvuzela in 1965 from a bicycle horn and put it on the market.

Now, the vuvuzela surely will become the landmark sound of the World Cup about to begin when the United States and England play on Saturday. The sound is irritating and some who have played with it in the background have complained it interferes. Some say it is just part of the game in South Africa, like it or not. It is not going away.

The U.S. is a long shot in the World Cup as is England, and their opening game is a toss up.

Generally, European soccer competitions are marked by singsong sounds of fans, who seem never to stop their support. The horns will only make it more difficult. If this Cup was being played in America, officials, fans and players would simply say play on and that will happen in these days ahead.

The World Cup is a fascination because it is for declaring the very best there is the world in soccer, and it will hypnotize those who watch these wonderful athletes in their shorts and tee shirts making those impossible shots on goal. The players seem to be walking on air, as demonstrated in a capsule buildup film now being shown to entice those who have thought soccer boring to give it a chance.

The buildup in recent days has been startling because these athletes seem to be airborne and walking on unseen tight wires.

This World Cup will be more appreciated by Tampa fans who have experienced some of the very best by the Rowdies. Forget not that Tampa hosted sellout soccer matches featuring the very best under the team ownership of George Strawbridge, then Cornelia Corbett, featuring such standouts as Pele, Franz Beckinbauer, and of course, the Rowdies’ own Rodney Marsh. Marsh was clearly the man who made soccer here for Strawbridge and his old coaches Eddie Firmani, and Gordon Jago. Marsh so sought perfection that he practiced his fake falls.

He was and still is captivating on the pitch and on the television screen. Marsh remains among us and in soccer, as does Mike Connell, who now heads the Rowdies team here along with Derek Smethurst and Mark Lindsey, and owned by a association that includes David Laxer and Tom Dempsey. The present team is doing fine, playing in a tailored Steinbrenner Field.

If this team continues to do well, it will draw well. A soccer base remains in the Tampa area and ready to enlarge, though it would be hard and unfair to suggest that it could ever be the popular draw soccer once was in the past with Marsh, Pele and Beckinbauer when old Tampa Stadium was filled with fans singing “Oh the Rowdies” and playing the Cosmos and Fort Lauderdale. In soccer in America, those were the days.

Make no mistake, however: These present-day Rowdies must win and perform with the dash of Marsh and Connell and Lindsey, and Tampa once more has to the learn the words to the songs that became so popular.

I will not forget the day years ago when the late Jim Kynes invited me to lunch with the man from Jacksonville who was going to bring soccer to Tampa. And Tampans would embrace it and be blowing their horns, vuvuzelas, to the irritation of rivals. And believe me, the irritation was acute, the Rowdies were fun then and can be again if Mike Connell can get his crowd together to play with the same zest he and his colleagues did in the “We Are The Rowdies” days.

Toot your horns, guys, but have reasons to toot them.