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The Bucs in the 1979 Pre-season

Posted Aug 5, 2010 by Paul Stewart

Updated Aug 5, 2010 at 12:00 PM

There is nothing to usually indicates a team’s future success based on their pre-season performances. And this was very true of the Bucs’ first championship team in 1979 who crawled their way through a 2-2 exhibition campaign and saw a lot of negative stories about the offense published each of those four weeks.

The Bucs began the road that would lead them to the NFC title game on a muggy Saturday evening in Tampa with a 9-7 loss to the Redskins. Both teams were held to minimal offense and after Johnny “Bull” Davis gave the Bucs the lead with a one-yard TD run, three fieldgoals by Mark Moseley saw Washington take the honours.

Moseley missed another two kicks as Doug Williams and Mike Rae struggled to lead any kind of offense and three lost fumbles did not help either.

The following week saw Miami come north for their traditional rivalry game against the Bucs and two fourth quarter fieldgoals by Uwe von Schamann gave them a 13-7 triumph, a late drive by Mike Rae reaching as far as the Dolphin 25-yard line. Doug Williams started for the Bucs and played the first half, throwing an opening 30-yard score to Isaac “six or nothing” Hagins.

Tampa were at home again for a third straight week, this time to the Saints and got themselves their first win of the year with a 14-7 that lessened the criticism a little as the ground game amassed over 150 yards with Jerry Eckwood and George Ragsdale leading the way. Williams hit Larry Mucker with a 62-yard bomb early in the game and Mike Rae’s 14-yard scoring strike to Ricky Bell proved to be the game winner.

The final game was on the road in Cincinnati and trailing 13-3 late in the first half, things were looking bleak. Ricky Bell’s one-yard run gave the Bucs some hope and although Doug Williams threw a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to Gordon Jones and Jimmie Giles, he only completed one other pass in the game.

Rick Berns had a 56-yard run in his limited appearance although this third round pick from Nebraska would never really fulfill his college promise during his two years with the Bucs.

Future NFL head coach Dick Jauron was returning punts for the Bengals in this game and future Bic QB Jack “The Throwin’ Samoan” Thompson played the second half in relief of Ken Anderson.