Those were the times, my friends

Posted Aug 18, 2010 by Tom McEwen

Updated Aug 18, 2010 at 12:08 AM

I have been thinking that about now, wife Linda and I would be preparing for an annual feast just ahead in late August, preparatory to the start of the football season. We used to have them the Sunday morning after the first Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason game to salute the start of a special time of the year around here.

The Catfish Brunch, as it came to be known, would be held in cooperation with the Tampa Tribune and Phil Alessi and his catering operation, in our backyard that faces Tampa Bay and Bayshore Boulevard. Alessi and his good friend, Leon Denton, a master of such things, would present it for our friends and those of the Tribune and the Buccaneer staff and players who wanted to come.

Alessi’s staff cooked those catfish on the spot in a masterful preparation unlike which anything we had seen anywhere else. The fish were fresh, generally the morning was fresh and it was a fresh new football season for colleges and the pros, such as the Bucs which Hugh Culverhouse owned in those days. There were no written invitations. Everything was by word of mouth and it was always a huge success.

Those in attendance included big shots, little shots and wannabe-shots. One highlight was a bit of a lowlight when Bern’s Steakhouse owner, Bern Laxer, fainted, sending mayors, police chiefs, and others of rank into an emergency circumstance. Bern was not injured, woke up quickly from a lack of eating and I joked as he entered the ambulance that he would not be invited again.

The crowd included head coaches, assistant coaches, playing stars of the past and present. It was truly a terrific mix of sports folks. I remember looking at a table near the seawall, where sitting together were Laxer, Hugh Culverhouse, John Bassett, George Steinbrenner, Jim Walter, Coaches Charlie Pell, Bobby Bowden, John Madden, and Don Shula bullshooting.

I heard Madden ask, “You mean a sportswriter owns this place and has this function?” And I remember Warrick Dunn wandering up from a neighbor’s yard, lost until he saw our crowd. The catfish, Leon and Jackie Denton brought over the day before from the waters of Lake Wales, made a perfect presentation.

The crowd included many players and their kids. There were no speeches, just small talk. It was truly a fun time, thoroughly appreciated, notably when those who chose could throw would cast nets and bring in mullet, which they returned to the water.

Other sports figures in the crowds included Hulk Hogan, Eddie Graham, the Great Malenko, Tommy Gomez, Joie Chitwood, Gary Koch, Jim Colbert, Al Lopez, Andy Bean, John Reaves and the Tampa Tribune family that made it possible, including Jim Council, Stewart Bryan, Bob Hudson, Paul Hogan and Red Dog Pittman.

The menu included, in addition to the fresh catfish, yellow cheese grits, collard greens, blackeyed peas and buttered biscuits. 

Not all who came were invited, but that didn’t matter. It was truly an open house for the sports folks who liked catfish and the open bay and us. It was a special time for friends of ours who came to our place on the water on a Sunday morning after church.

Frankly, no one who came ever regretted it and those who did not come regretted it, but it was a different time and those breakfast brunches are wonderful memories of a wonderful time and wonderful friends.

See you next time.