Forum: Talk Sports

Paul Straub will be 89 in June. 

Some 57 years ago, Paul Straub landed on the beach at Guadalcanal and was soon after struck by shrapnel in the palms of both hands and both of his legs were blown away.  Straub has lived a full life as an athlete, coach and administrator - mostly with the Jesuit family. During his entire educational and contributing career, he has been legless - though operating on artificial limbs.

He is amazing. 

Today Paul Straub probably looks to some like he is in his fifties.  He is fit, he is in shape, well-conditioned and he remains unintimidated by anything or anybody.  Who would be after the remarkable life of this man, Paul Straub, a coaching teacher of athletics and faith all of this time, most of it with the Jesuits.  He has always been a tough coach, tough but thorough, master teacher of sports at the high school and college level. 

Paul Straub, this Marine, is an admired man and may be even more when you are reminded that but a few yards after landing on the beach at Guadalcanal, an explosion nearby made him the better person that he became, he says.  The blast near him on that beach caused him to be a double amputee for life.  He was quickly carried by the medics off the beach to the mother ship, had his legs amputated and other wounds repaired and was then sent to Alaska, then to Hawaii where he began another career out of the service.

Visited with Straub the other day.  He is as vigorous, strong-willed as ever as he was as an active Marine.  He strode into my house on his artificial legs using a walker.  When I asked him to show me the legs, he did, saying, “these are very good friends of mine, and they have served me well, when I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I was a Marine and that was where I was assigned.”

Paul Straub was not just a coach, he was a plenty-good one. He had champions at Jesuit in football, basketball, swimming and track.  Straub actively coached these teams, he got down and dirty with them.  He ran with them, he hit with them and he leaped with them, “didn’t get very high, about like this” spreading his hands apart about 12 inches. “You can’t get enough spring.”

Straub and son, Steve, brought along for the visit with them an album called ‘A Long, Long Time Ago’ sent by Cookie Garcia, one-time star player for Straub in football and basketball.  With the album was the photograph of the Jesuit State of Florida basketball champions.  And by the way, manager Lou Piniella of the Chicago Cubs, played basketball for Straub at Jesuit.  He was a star. 

“Lou had the shooting eye,” said Straub.

Straub, himself, was quite an athlete before the loss of his legs. He won a scholarship to Potomac Junior College in Pennsylvania, after a high school career in Morgantown, West Virginia. He won a college scholarship to Stetson College in Deland, Florida, and then when Stetson dropped football all of these years ago, he came to University of Tampa to play football and basketball and later to coach both. 

A personal bragging right of Straub’s is to relate how he scored a touchdown against the University of Florida in football.  Prior to that this hard knocks Straub had sold milk, then potatoes he personally dug, and delivered newspapers in West Virginia. 

Straub left the University of Tampa in 1942 to join the Marines and that was a perfect fit for him. Not long after being shipped overseas, he landed on Guadalcanal and a “friendly fire” round exploded so close to Straub, he said he rolled over to advoid being blown up completely, “and it worked,” he said.  He then changed careers and became a spokesman for amputees with the military and the world, meanwhile becoming an administrator and a coach, coming to the University of Tampa.

He was also quite a prankster. He liked nothing better than to have recruits come into his office at the University of Tampa, go stand by the bulletin board and have Coach Marceleno Huerta throw darts that would strike in Straub’s wooden legs which Paul would simply reach down and throw back.  He didn’t tell them that the legs were artificial and pulled that trick on them. 

When Paul Straub flung himself into teaching and coaching, he became an enormous success in those roles.

Paul Straub has received virtually all awards for which he was eligible.

This tribute today is another one.  Don’t ever challenge him to hoops, swimming, hey—even the dashes, or to taking a dart in the leg.

Babaloo!

---

Well, they held the Kumquat Festival in Dade City yesterday and the Gasparilla Parade on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa. 

The Lord showed no mercy, he sent weather as lousy in one place as the other—rain, wind, rain, more wind—but deterred neither from being held.  They got wet, they threw their beads, ate kumquats, drank their beverages, and had about as good a time as if the sun had shown as it usually has in the past. 

The Gasparilla Parade went on in the rain, the stalwart participants not discouraged in the least.  They threw their beads and the people gathered them on the sideline as if they were precious.  They were not, they were souvenirs of days gone by and of yesterday which will now be remembered as another Gasparilla in Tampa and Festival in Dade City.  Saw no one discouraged in any way by the bum weather, which blew into the bay almost precisely at parade start time and never relented. 

Saw no one complaining, saw no one leaving early. 

Now in Tampa at the Gasparilla, the viewing audience was down.  It was an uncomfortable day, though no one seemed to mind.  They got their souvenirs, the beads, and will treasure them for a couple of days, then be hung over a mirror in the bedroom.

Perhaps the best part of the Gasparilla was the forthright involvement of the marchers and hornblowers and bead throwers.  Saw no one weeping, saw no one with a bump on a head, saw no one chewing a person out.  For the cops, it was an easy day and for Tampa, well, it was a winner.  The weather threw its best shot at the parade and just lost.  The parade people won again and this celebration will be held for a long, long time.  It is harmless, it’s fun, it’s a hoot.  Even the band members carrying the tubas seemed to be sashaying with a little more style.  They seem to be determined to forget the state of this union overall.  Parades will do that.

I grew up in Wauchula.  We all in Wauchula wanted to come to the Gasparilla parade in Tampa.  My principal in high school was an Annapolis man.  He warned all if they skipped school to attend the Gasparilla parade, they would receive an unexcused absence.  My late sister, Ruth, and late brother Red, were both active in Gasparilla, they asked our family to come. Mother and Daddy drove us over in our 1938 Buick sedan and I got the promised unexcused absence.  It meant I had to take the final exam in my senior year even though grades would exempt me, but I did all right. 

Mr. Chapman did indeed keep his word - as he would if he felt it necessary to take his belt to any of us students. 

I saw one other parade as a kid, but then no more until I came to Tampa to work for the old Times and then the Tribune.  In later years, I was in the parade twice, both with George Steinbrenner, Leonard Levy and the late Ron Moore and Jim Kynes.  We came in on the pirate ship to disembark in our downtown area, walked in the parade in our Pirate outfits and then excused ourselves at Platt Street and went to have lunch at Selenas in Hyde Park with Alan Salmon.  The late Ron Moore was as upbeat a man as I ever knew. He smiled along the entire route of the parade and kept Steinbrenner and me in a good mood on a chilly day.  We all miss Ron Moore. 

But Gasparillas are like that, full of little adventures and sideshows not generally reported.  In other days, another place for that sort of misdemeanor was, as is now, the International Mall of Dick and Cornelia Corbett. Corbett was with me on many of those trips. He loved Gasparilla as much as anyone I knew other than Ron Moore and Joe Taggart.  Steinbrenner tolerated it, but did enjoy the opportunity to swagger a bit in a pirate outfit along Bayshore with the crowd cheering all. 

Yesterday’s Steinbrenner was Mike Alsott, about as popular a player as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ever had.

So Gasparilla has come and gone again, as has the Kumquat Festival. It was fun and will return next year.  I am going to bet you there will always be a Gasparilla and a Kumquat Festival.

Babaloo!

---

Here come the Rowdies, again. They won’t be playing in a new stadium in North Tampa as first announced, but rather in Steinbrenner Field, spring home of the New York Yankees in Tampa, for the first regular season. They will be members of an established league of professional soccer teams. They will be for real and they are indeed coming back.

David Laxer, along with his mother, Gert, owners of Berns Steak House and the Laxer food businesses in Tampa, has long been considered a premier force in the beef business. The Laxers have carried on the family enterprises and announced a few weeks ago that they planned to build a soccer stadium in north Tampa off Waters Avenue.

This has changed. David (shown above, far left, with fellow owner Andrew Nestor and coach Paul Dalglish) said Tuesday that soccer’s rebirth internationally has undergone changes and will have major developments in a week or two. Part of this will be the origination of a new top international soccer league with the Rowdies the mainstay again in Florida.

The new Rowdies will play for the first two years, starting in April, in Steinbrenner Field, which will be adapted for this sport. The only thing we know now is this soccer field will run north and south, and will offer “as intimate viewing as there will be in any sport anywhere,” said Laxer.

“We are working closely with Hal and Hank Steinbrenner, sons of the Yankee owner, and Felix Lopez, Steinbrenner’s son-in-law. We think the setup will be wonderful and after a couple of seasons, we will move to a new facility to be built near the University of Tampa, in downtown Tampa. This is truly exciting,” said Laxer.

Laxer is buying into an international league with Tampa as a flagship franchise in America. He wants these Rowdies to be of the old Rowdies cut of years ago in song, in color and presentation. He wants to revive one of the great times in sports history in this city.

The Rowdies of old filled old Tampa Stadium when they played top-line opponents, such as the New York Cosmos. They will do that again, and we have seen the power of soccer here. They now have the colors and the music and the history in their background.

Laxer said he will soon name many of his players. He expects to have a roster of at least two dozen of the best available. He also expects to present to Tampa fans the winning records and excitement of the Rowdies of years ago. When Tampa sports history is written, the fine days of the successes of the Rowdies and of the Tampa Bay Bandits football team and the Buccaneers will be included.

This is not speculation. With David Laxer now committed and involved, his assertion he will bring the Rowdies back again and make them contenders for championships is not an idle promise. Laxers have always kept their promises and have made all of their contributions first class.

They will again, believe me. When that first ‘Here Come the Rowdies’ resonates from Jack Harris over the loud speakers at Steinbrenner Stadium and then the University of Tampa playing field, it will be a hoot — again.

Babaloo!

---

With the Super Bowl ahead in Miami, it is time to rally-around a Super Bowl push for another in Tampa at the first opportunity—2014 Raymond James Stadium. 

Paul Catoe again is heading the drive for us all. He is the chair and he has a small committee now at work which will be enlarged.  Rob Higgins of the Tampa Sports Authority is an active worker for this great purpose, as are Tampa area citizens, Dick Beard and Sandy MacKinnon.

Many more will be added, many more will be needed, for this never has been a slam dunk and is not to be now. 

News these days tells us of the Super Bowl ahead in Miami just ahead.  The 2011 Super Bowl will be played in Dallas, the 2012 will be played in Indianapolis and 2013 in New Orleans. The 2014 Bowl is next to be awarded.  Tampa is in that hunt. First presentations for this sports prize, for this sports jackpot, will be early this year. The Catoe—Higgins—MacKinnon—Beard task force is already at work.

It probably has never been so difficult, this competition, though Tampa in the past has prevailed three previous times and each Super Bowl has been hailed repeatedly as superiorly executed, winning the game in the past for old Tampa Stadium and for Raymond James Stadium.

The post mortems of those games were wonderful.  Tampa’s track record so far is just dandy and all of those on the committee, including Sports Authority Secretary, Barbara Casey, have been considered splendidly accepted.  All of the three were considered hits and came off with blue chip recommendations. Tampa is in good shape going in but Tampa has never had such competition as it has coming up.

The world these days is talking Super Bowl and when that happens, always, high plaudits go to this city of ours.  We have many supporters among the elite who make the decisions but we also have competition that was never so fierce. 

“We always have faced the toughest of opponents and competitors in this race.”  said Catoe, but then when we got our first one in old Tampa Stadium and it was largely done because of our friends in and out of the NFL.  Many of those great remembrances of Super Bowls in Tampa have left us but it is on record as a choice location that can do the job, Catoe and his committee are wonderfully experienced, have good friends in and around the NFL.

“We have a new and fierce competitor in this competition now.  New York City has declared it will seek a Super Bowl, and the NFL will accept a presentation from Gotham, waiving any restrictions imposed on areas because of weather,” said Catoe. “But you know what kind of competitor New York City can be in any competition. It will be formidable.

However, we are not backing off a lick. Yes, we are at work on our presentation now and we expect to make the first cut.

“By the way, the Tampa area is also actively pursuing the World Cup in soccer in the future,” said Catoe.  We have already made three cuts for the World Cup, we will be a lively competitor. Eighteen cities will be in the finals for the World Cup. We will be competitive,” said Catoe. “Remember we have some important soccer people among us here in Tampa including the Malcolm Glazer people, owners of the Manchester United Soccer Team and of the Buccaneers complex.”

So the Glazer sports plate is filling fast, with soccer, football and perhaps the Super Bowl on their mind adding to the backlog.  The truth is that these are heady times in Tampa with plenty filling up the plate and the sports calendar of the future, hopefully to include the best of football and of soccer and hockey and all of the other sports we can jam onto our calendar here. 

Babaloo!

---

Recommending special reading for my audience is not an everyday occurrence.  It is today. 

This coffee table book/history is titled “This Nearly Was Mine, A Journey Through Carlton Country.”  It is coauthored by Dr. Barbara Castleberry Carlton with historian, Barbara Oehlbeck.  Barbara Carlton is almost a native Floridian, who still lives and directs vast cattle and citrus operations in Hardee County to our southeast in Florida.  Wauchula is the county seat and home to so many of the Carlton/McEwen clans.  Dr. Carlton still resides on her ranch east of Wauchula in the Vandola area. She also has holdings in North Carolina and is a brilliant business lady and rancher.  She will mark and brand them with the best, doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty and is as good of a sportsman’s shot with a shotgunas there is.  She will let you miss them then she will get them, always within the limits of the law.

Barbara is the widow of the late Albert Carlton, my cousin who lived with my family for a time in Wauchula, but took over much of the vast Carlton ranching and citrus operations before he died years ago. Barbara and their four family children, Will, Pat, Julie and Charlie, now oversee the Carlton holdings.

“A Journey Through Carlton Country.”  is filled with history and subtitles. It traces the history of the Carlton family spread of cattle lands and citrus in Hardee and surrounding counties.  Barbara Oehlbeck lives in Glades County, and she and Barbara did the heavy lifting that produced this book, including the great rise of the Carlton Empire and spreads, including those of the other Carlton family members such as the late Florida governor, Doyle E. Carlton, whose properties were in the same area. Doyle Carlton’s record was spotless as the governor and later as a landholder.  He was Florida’s excellent governor during the 1920’s depression and took no salary for this.  His positions were always as clear as the clean waters of Troublesome Creek that flowed through his Hardee County land. The Carltons and the McEwens were related from their earlier move to Florida from the Carolinas during the 1800’s.  The wiser Carltons got the land and made the most of it as ranchers and citrus people.

This new book, “This Nearly Was Mine A Journey Through Carlton Country,” is a must for those who love Florida history or those who grew up as part of it.  I did the foreword at Barbara’s request, because we are all cousins and my father, the late John Cross McEwen, rode the range with the Carltons and they later helped elect him three times as Hardee County Tax Assessor.  He had a third grade education and walked miles to school in Wauchula, but, “I could add and I could subtract.” Later, he was the manager of the Florida Farmers Market in Wauchula and Plant City for years. 

Barbara Carlton, in the presentation of her book, wrote of her “leaving priceless information not only about her nine generational family, their families and their friends, but often about the daily challenges for bare living necessities. Their lives were often fraught with life threatening adversities, yet they were steadfast pioneers who moved forward without complaint from one generation to another. Despite wars, disease, tragedy, death, and searing heat, this book covers more than a century of their lives told by some who lived well nigh more than a century.”

Carlton’s undying love and deep devotion to the land and the creatures that call “the land” home are an integral part of the fabric of “This Nearly Was Mine, A Journey Through Carlton Country.” 

Those who know her know of her love of the land.

Even the cover of this book, a cowboy in saddle, riding home embracing a child, tells of this wonderful look at the land, the land, the land, the land. The book is worth your coffee table.

---

Tampa Bay History Museum once more took time to thank longtime Congressman Sam Gibbons for his public and military service this week on his 90th birthday, a reminder of his heroics on behalf of us all. Gibbons was humble as ever and grateful as ever to have had the opportunity to serve.

Gibbons not only was a congressman credited with so much success in this area, including the University of South Florida, but he also was a hero prior to D-Day and on D-Day in Europe in World War II. Gibbons parachuted into Normandy, France and was involved in the fighting throughout Europe. He was a decorated officer and was honored on D-Day celebration some years ago.

This week, the Museum saw to it that his Bronze Star and Legion of Merit were featured in presentations there. Gibbons, who had a 90th birthday this week, jumped into France with the 101st Infantry Division just prior to D-Day. His heroics, and those of his fellow Allied soldiers, have been carefully charted and recharted through these years, notably in a book and television special featuring writer and news commentator, Tom Brokaw.

Gibbons, his humor still quick, quipped to Tribune writer Sue Carlton, “Oh to be 75 again.” He accepted the latest honors with the same humility as he has others through the years presented him. It was time again to pay tribute to Sam Gibbons and his compatriots of those harrowing days. Gibbons has always been that way.

I came to know him first in 1940 when I was a freshman who had pledged Alpha Tau Omega, his fraternity at the University of Florida. I can vividly remember that first meeting when I had helped him recover a stolen bicycle someone had stashed in a tree above the ATO House.

He became the president of ATO and later joined a law firm that included my brother, Red, in Tampa. Gibbons was a marvelous Congressman and a powerful one. He was a Democrat and always effective.

He was a good speaker, a star representative from this area. Not so sure USF would be in Tampa without his support. He never considered forsaking his consistency for personal gains.

He has a proud professional record, just like the one he built during his military days that involved such frantic action like in the pre-invasion day in Normandy. He was among those featured in the Band of Brothers when the parachutists used the famous clicker to identify each other in the dark days before D-Day.

Gibbons involves himself still in the business of the veterans, American politics and that which he thinks is right for his beloved University of Florida. His late brother, Myron, died too soon as the result of injuries from World War II. Another brother, Arthur, was a lead attorney in the Gibbons, McEwen law firm.

I have known Sam Gibbons for 70 years and have never known him to advocate propositions for which he was not totally dedicated. Identify the qualities you want in a Congressman and you will get them in Sam Gibbons. We all wish Sam was only 75 again.

---

An unmatched credential of new University of South Florida football coach, Skip Holtz, is that he is the son of Lou. 

Few in this business have left the high marks of his famous dad, now retired from coaching and living in Orlando, trying to break 90 at Bay Hill.  He hasn’t done it often. Did not when I played with him several times with Bear Bryant.  As I recall the best line on that day came on the first fairway when I was the last to hit and I asked Lou if we were “rolling them over in the fairway” and Bear Bryant replied for him “roll them over everwhere…in the fairways, in the rough, out of bounds, and in the traps, that way nobody will cheat” and nobody did. 

As I remember, Bryant and Holtz won.

This is pertinent today because Skip Holtz, Lou’s son, has accepted the head coaching job with the South Florida Bulls.

In his first interview, young Holtz made points when he said Tampa was his favorite vacation spot.  He came here often with his dad, notably some years ago when Lou was the speaker at the Outback Bowl for Jim McVay.

He told my good wife Linda that he was just a puppet on a string, and had no idea what he was going to say, until he started speaking. He was good, he always was, as a college football coach and speaker. Lou was the head coach at Notre Dame, Arkansas, South Carolina, all over the South and West, and he was a good one. 

However, good as he was on the sidelines, he was unmatched behind the mike as he was at Higgins Hall for the Outback Bowl in Tampa.

Holtz was peerless on his feet, adlibbing, and regaling the crowd with his one liners. Here are some he used that night at Higgins Hall;

“I can’t believe that God put us on Earth to be ordinary.” 

“If what you did yesterday seems big, then you haven’t done anything today.”

“Life is 10% what happened to you and 90% how you responded to it.”

“Why not 90% of the time” he was asked by the audience, and he said “no one has ever drowned in his own sweat.”

About his team of that season, he said, “we are united in a common goal; to keep my job.”

What about motivation, he was asked, “When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

“Don’t tell your problems to people, 80% don’t care and the other 20% are glad you have them, the problems.”

Where did that sort of thing get you in recruiting?  Answer, “it is not the way you break it down, it is the way you carry it.”

“The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.  I don’t think I ever heard a player complain about the way a ball bounced.”

Lou Holtz is on as a regular on ESPN as Dr. Lou and he is excellent in that role.  He always has an answer, it is usually a fresh one.

And so he sends his son, now as an emissary to coach in Tampa as he so often did as an assistant.  His son is not quite the speaker Dr. Lou is, but who is?  We guarantee you he will be successful at USF and the public role that position has come to demand.

Go get ‘em, Dr. Lou, Jr.

---

It now looks as if the University of South Florida, after a series of front-room, back-room, screen door-room meetings, has come up with the right answer to solving the nervous negotiations ongoing out at their school so much in the national news these days.

The Bulls appear poised to hire a bright, young prospect to coach their growing football program. The hiree is Skip Holtz, 45, successful son of exceptional coach Lou Holtz, formerly of Notre Dame and now an ESPN commentator. Holtz was a wise coach and has been a wiser man in this new role of commentating. He also appears to have kept his son on track until the right kind of job turned up he could help him land.

When Jim Leavitt did whatever he did to turn off the USF hiring committee, into the fray jumped personable Skip Holtz, for the longest time the head coach at East Carolina. He won there and established himself as a leader. Lord knows, he has a sage on whom to lean in his dad, who lives in Orlando.

For a time, it appeared Leavitt may have a shot at the job of replacing himself. Along the way, he was plagued by commentary that did not support, apparently, the background as the head coach he had wanted to get across. There was a time when Leavitt could have had the head job at Alabama, but then chose to stay at USF, the repeated choice of this native St. Pete resident.

Then events developed that may have swung the pendulum in the direction of young Holtz, who apparently is squeaky clean, as squeaky clean can be. Holtz Jr., has a solid background for this position and no baggage with which I am familiar. He has won and he can win again.

No, this is not an easy choice. Jim Leavitt has always wanted this job at USF and none other. He has won there and could win again. However, along the way, in recent days, revelations involving Leavitt turned the search committee in another direction. One of the interesting asides in this is that young Holtz is, so far as I know, a relatively new candidate for the job. Thoughts among the alumni known here seemed to favor the hiring of Holtz.

What an opportunity he has. He is now with the second-largest state university in Florida, with a program that is booming and has recruited well in recent years. His conference is the Big East, a major league made up by big-time universities. They all committed to the big-time status and the only way the program cannot succeed is by stepping on its own foot.

They play in big cities and big-time stadiums and have emerged as a major university playing in the modern stadium that Raymond James Stadium has come to be.

Also, and important here, is that South Florida has established a sound recruiting base. It is a winner there and will continue to be. All players love to play in big-time sold-out stadiums, such as Raymond James.

This is a great opportunity for young Holtz and his dad, and USF President July Genshaft. She has previously anointed the program as a prize object of her affection and I see no chance of that romance waning.

Let’s see; Skip Holtz, Head Football Coach, University of South Florida, Tampa Bay has a ring to it, doesn’t it?

---

At this last season’s end, I checked the roster of the Buccaneers and concluded this was an overall poor lineup to contend for some sort of a playoff spot.

But then, after conversations with my Tribune associates who cover the Bucs on a regular basis and Buccaneers coaches, I relented.  From afar right now, although there is still hard work still ahead, the consensus seems to be with a few breaks here and there, well, these Buccaneers might surprise a few people. 

Might.

Coach Raheem Morris, a pleasant young man who speaks at a staccato pace, seems to have his hands on the problem and has a generally confident air about him with this season ending and an offseason just ahead.  Those who have worked with him like him, I do. 

For one thing, Morris has already settled on a starting quarterback, Josh Freeman, a big kid with a strong arm that causes him to send the ball off on flyers, but who may have enough of the basic credentials to be a Buc quarterback in the NFL for a long time.  He is big enough and a hard tackle. He has escape-ability techniques. He is fearless, and should mature early.  He clearly is Morris’s quarterback for the Bucs.  In his first year, he won some and lost some.  He lost some he should have won and he won some he should have lost.  His teammates like him, he seems to take charge in the huddle.

In the National Football League, you are nowhere without a quarterback and there are doggone few of them in the NFL.  This new quarterback on the block appears to have an opportunity to make it. 

The necessary early conclusion here is the Buccaneers, who have for so long been without a quarterback with future and talent, may well have one.

He closed strong last season with wins, but customarily, as a rookie quarterback often does, threw far too many interceptions, most of them obvious, most of the behind his receivers, sinful. He won’t do that long.  He will work on interceptions ‘till he is sick of the drill, and he needs to.

The Bucs also made surprising progress in other areas, notably pass receiving, running the football, and defensive play.  The defensive backs on this Buc team will start out as a group from which much is expected, notably veteran Ronde Barber, Tanard Jackson, Sabby Piscitelli and Elbert Mack. Defensive line and the offensive line will be bigger and stronger this year, Barrett Ruud is a genuine star on the rise and the Buccaneers will have some fine pass catchers, like Kellen Winslow, an all Pro down the line.

The Bucs will get some specialty team help, although, there was certainly no shortcoming this past year.

The Buccaneer schedule is not out and won’t be out until April.  However, they are again locked into the Southern Division of the National Football Conference, which causes two games to be scheduled with Atlanta, two New Orleans, and two with Carolina.  It is a tough, tough, division.

It is far too early for predictions, I suppose, but the Buccaneers should be able to compete in their league, win some and lose some.  In these troubled economic times, Buccaneer season tickets are no longer an automatic sale.  These Buccaneers have to sell tickets based on performance, which I suppose, is how it always has been and always will be.

---

I don’t ever remember the late Lamar Sparkman making a deadline. 

He was always late whether it was for the old Tampa Times, the afternoon newspaper in Tampa, or the Tribune, the morning newspaper.  We knew he was going to be late with his cartoon work and planned for it.  Occasionally, it never got in.

I don’t remember Lamar Sparkman working a complete cartoon without a misspelled word. Though he prided himself on being a graduate of the University of Florida and Plant High School, he couldn’t spell a lick even to the last and yet through all of the years of newspapering I have never dealt with a man of such drive and sincerity, nor with such special talent he had with the cartoons that were so poignant and humorous. Indeed, Lamar was such a rare individual that Augusta National, home of the Masters, commissioned him to paint settings and scenes at that great golf tournament. He had the freedom of the clubhouse during his last years at Augusta. 

Lamar died at 88 the other day leaving a wonderful family legacy, his great works, and otherwise unchartered reporting for the sports cartoon world.

In 1977, I was hired by Bennett DeLoach to be his Sports Editor at the old Tampa Times.  I came over from St. Pete.  Lamar Sparkman was a jewel on the old Times staff, working with Sports Editor, Bob Frick.  He was their best sports commodity. I asked DeLoach permission to keep Sparkman as the cartoonist, and he approved it, though the Tribune had its eye on him. Ironically. Sparkman, who suffered eye problems forever it seems, was suffering from aneurisms and had to sit out awhile before returning to work. 

Lamar stayed with me at the Times and then when Bob Hudson of the Tribune hired me as Sports Editor, DeLoach allowed me to take Sparkman with me to the bigger paper for bigger exposure.  Sparkman continued in that role, winning award after award for his cartooning until more eye problems caused him to give up his profession and spend his days at Canterbury Towers where he had lived his final years surrounded by friends.

Lamar Sparkman has continued to be a perfect gentleman in all ways, all the while being involved in Tampa’s high social circles including Gasparilla.

  Throughout the years of his cartooning, his favorite subjects have been the Florida Gators, so beloved to him, the Buccaneers and all things in Tampa sports.  In his features, he developed a series of cartoon subjects on the Gators which were widely accepted for their humor and his nitpicking at Gator politics. Lamar also stayed current on all of his Florida and Tampa subjects and was one of the best known young men in this town.  Sparkman and his late wife, Gloria, were longtime fixtures here in Tampa society.  They lived on Palma Ceia and participated in those club events.  Lamar was a bit of a paradox in that since he tended his family citrus groves.  He was always in a pickup truck, wearing jeans and roustabouting a bit.

Please know too that Lamar was an accomplished fisherman, a crowd of us fished Alaska, Central America and Boca Grande, where by the way, this gifted artist, Lamar Sparkman did some of his finest paintings of wildlife on the Gasparilla Island on Boca Grande. Our family living room is dotted with his works including the classic shot of a fishhawk having found and captured a mullet high over Boca Grande pass. The Sparkman family loved it so, the time they spent in Boca Grande, particularly when he could walk the beach with his easel and paint whatever came in view. 

I am sure that a photo of Lamar Sparkman and his painting equipment in Boca Grande might best reflect his happier times

Lamar Sparkman was as good a friend as I had in the Tampa Tribune and Times. 

Those were among our most cherished times, both Lamar and I. 

Thank you, Lord.

---

Wife Linda and I have been season ticketholders for the Buccaneers and for the preseason games in the seasons before we had regular games. We had them this year, and we will buy them again prior to the next season, hopefully at a lower price considering the misdeeds of the Buccaneers - like Sunday’s chilling loss to Atlanta in a game they could have won.

If Raheem Morris is or is not retained will not affect that decision. We will buy the tickets with or without Coach Morris. The club owners make the decisions on their coaches, not we season ticketholders. That is not to say that they won’t mull over this one to some extraordinary length considering the lousy season just ended at Raymond James Stadium in the coldest air to surround that grand facility in many years.

The Buccaneers just played badly, pretty much from the start. In the fourth period, they had every chance to win the game. It has been a characteristic of this team not to win in the clutch, and hopefully that is not ingrained.

We had all felt Morris was a decent choice to be the head coach when the owning Malcolm Glazer family chose him a year ago. Clearly, he has not done as well as they expected him to do, and as I expected him to do and as you expected him to do, because of a sad, sad lacking on his roster. He doesn’t have enough. He has doggone few stalwarts, certainly not enough to contend for championships, and that was all the more apparent in the loss Sunday.

After the game, talent man Mark Dominik stopped by and said to me, “We are going to get better quickly. We have 10 draft picks for next season and they are going to help us. We are going to be very, very careful.”

I got the impression that Dominik and the Glazer family have no intention of wholesale changes beyond the people rostered or in their grasp. They seem to believe that they have the nucleus for a title-run team and will get down to that business today, or did it last night. Knowing the Glazers, we also are aware that the family seeks nothing less than another Super Bowl contender as soon as possible.

I began to get the feeling in these last Buc games that season ticketholders and loyal fans are very angry that there has not been greater success for this franchise in the last couple of years. However, I don’t see anyone abandoning tickets right now, but there may be a reduction in the prices with the world economy on the wane and everyone now so aware of it.

The Glazers clearly have no intention of abandoning worldwide sports since they are now owners of the world’s greatest soccer franchise, Manchester United. It is regrettable that they have not brought Manchester United to Tampa for exhibition games at their great facility on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The greatest disappointment Sunday, truly, was the awful weather, the frigid cold that swept over us in Tampa, the second-coldest on record for a Bucs game, that cut the crowd in half. It was simply too uncomfortable for any outdoor activity, even football.

The Glazers certainly don’t listen to you and me, but we need to go on record as recommending that they quickly straighten out their house on MLK with the right players, the right coaches in the right position and hopeully the schedule will include Manchester United and other major sporting events. Won’t hurt you, Raheem Morris, to get behind this too, to save your role if that is what it will take.

Babaloo!

---

A friend of ours moved to Tampa some years ago from Minnesota.  She said it was two degrees when she left. She is not going back. Few do.

Jack Espinosa, one-time Cuban stand-up comedian said he is going to the Buccaneers-Atlanta game Sunday, sit in the endzone in the sun and shoot birds at the Falcons.  He is going to do that because he can and it gives him a little bit of satisfaction to hurl taunts, “because the poor devils have to go back to Atlanta after the game and I can stay here in warmer Tampa and live my life the way I want to.”

There is not much real satisfaction there for our friend from Minnesota or for Espinosa, except in a sort of “get even” manner because the opposition has to go home to their chilling place.

The truth is, this doesn’t differ that much from the Gators and Tim Tebow when they could go to New Orleans, simply beat the hound out of Cincinnati where it was cold outside but warm inside and they could then return to their own warm place, Gainesville, here in Florida. And beat the hound out of Cincinnati, the Gators did in New Orleans. It was a mismatch, but it certainly gave Tebow the opportunity he needed to showcase his talent before a national audience.  He was a dandy performer and is as good as ever and may be getting better. 

The deal here is that these programs that are good are getting better all of the time—like the Gators or like Florida State Seminoles did in the Gator Bowl.  Frankly, I don’t see any of these programs losing any ground at all in these post-season games.  On this great showcase weekend, these Florida products simply demonstrated how speed rules in football, and speed is native to the State of Florida. 

This past weekend of bowl games was one of fine viewing and matchups.  The best of all was the Outback Bowl, right here in Tampa, it was a back and forth, lead-changing event that deserved more in the live audience than were drawn.  The conclusion overall was that it was the best of all games. 

Florida—Cincinnati was a mismatch with Florida on the long end, as was the Florida State domination of West Virginia, here in Jacksonville.  It was a perfect exit circumstance for the wonderful Bobby Bowden who managed yet another victory over West Virginia, from where he came to the Florida State coaching job.  There is no dirt on Bobby Bowden, no shortcomings, what you see is what you get.  It is a fact that “dadgummit” is his strongest expletive. Bowden leaves the Seminoles with his head high, and his plate clean.  If he has violated any of the rules, I don’t know anything about it.  I don’t think he would even if he knew if he could and get away with it. It was a proud moment this weekend in Jacksonville when so many of his old players returned to see him bow out, in victory, in style, and one final dadgummit.  I played golf with him often and he often miss the kind of shot that would make you or I want to saymore than just “shoot fire” but he never did.  I was with him when he got the job at FSU, while having dinner with old friend, Bill Watson, and he never looked back. I will miss Bobby Bowden in football, and so will you, Seminoles.  He carried your banner long and proudly. 

I think I heard him say “shucks” once after he had topped a golf tee shot.

I don’t know if the Seminoles will miss Bobby Bowden much more than the Gators will miss Tim Tebow, the gifted quarterback who played his final game in the Sugar Bowl on Friday night this weekend.  I mean if Bobby Bowden quoted the Bible even more than Tim Tebow, somebody will have to show me some accounting.  They are both honest, meaningful, and true to their beliefs.  Tebow’s parents were missionaries and he was born in the Philippines.  He is likely to return there in the future to establish a school for children.  Tebow had his scriptures painted on his cheeks, for all to see during the games he played just before he leveled the opposing obstacle.  The question now is what position he will play in the professionals.  I don’t know that it matters where he will play.

In my long years in this gratifying business, surely Bowden and young Tebow have been bonuses.  They are classy men.

---

It’s regrettable that the Bucs game Sunday, that well played one they won 24-7 over Seattle at Seattle, was not the first game of the ‘09 season instead of the third from the last.

However, betting here is that Bucs Coach Raheem Morris used that angle in his postgame talk with the team, declaring this the first game of the next season in 2010. Betting here also, is the players themselves chose to use that same tact as surely as did young quarterback, Josh Freeman.  Freeman had a fine day in Seattle, the kind of day he hoped to have.  He made a few errors but not many. The Bucs made a few errors but not as many as Seattle.

Bucs everywhere, people everywhere, looking at this situation and knowing how lousy the Buccaneers have been playing, surely will agree this may very well be the start of something good.

The Bucs in this, golly, only the second win this season, did all the things, played in the manner anticipated all season for the 24-7 win. 

Seattle made the mistakes the Bucs have made throughout this year.  They were throwing interceptions at the start and at the end.  But, in between, Buc quarterback Freeman played as all have expected.  He was accurate enough in his passing, particularly in the second half, demonstrating his progress and the speed of his passes impressed.  Often, his throws could not have been completed if he had not had the zing on the ball to get it to his catchers who were often surrounded.  It was the result Coach Morris had promised and on this day in Seattle, Freeman came through.  He threw passes to receivers who seem to be covered but broke free enough to get in position to receive his speeding passes.

I frankly think he genuinely impressed those who saw this game - including those doubters.

Of course, Freeman had to have his receivers in position and most of the time, they were. His primary receivers seem to include Cadillac Williams, who also ran the ball with zip, Antonio Bryant, Maurice Stovall, Kellen Winslow and Derrick Ward. Stovall and Ward were also slashing runners.

This is a good win, late as it is in the season, but perhaps it can suggest what may lie in the future. I would imagine the performance of this team may well have improved Coach Morris’ standing with the Buc ownership, as it surely did with fans who clearly were becoming disgruntled, just as clearly as Seattle fans were disgruntled with their team.  New Orleans and Atlanta remain on the schedule, at New Orleans next week and closing the season here in Tampa with Atlanta, in January.

You can bet again that the Bucs will be the underdogs in both of these games, although Atlanta may come here out of the playoffs as well.     

Word now is the Buccaneers may be the darling of the draft in April. They could have as many as 10 top draft picks with which to make choices.  Most fans are counting heavily on that draft and the quick prospects of the future.  If there is any unrest in the Buc organization of having another lousy year causing season ticket holders to weigh their options more closely, I haven’t seen it.  When the season began, my personal estimate was that the Bucs didn’t have much and were last place contenders and were starless. 

That is no longer so now, they have some stars rising, but they have a long way to reach the stardom they seek and we seek for them. 

It would be nice to be around a winner again at No. 1 Buc Place.

Babaloo!

---

Any man who has had reason to follow the career of Coach Robert Weiner will be a little surprised of his most recent coaching achievement, oh, like winning a third championship in four years for Tampa Plant High School.

Saturday night in Orlando, Plant rebuffed Manatee High’s two last-half rally efforts, which if completed could have spelled disaster for Plant.  The Panthers turned away Manatee twice in clutch drive positions to preserve and post a precious 21-14 victory. 

Consecutive titles now means this Plant team has won three of the four Florida State championships and three in a row. 

“I don’t know if there has been a better four-year run and probably three or four similar runs in the state championship,” said Coach Weiner, a proud man and coach who has sort of eased up the ladder in Florida high school coaching, and now may get some looks from other big high schools and perhaps colleges.

This is a man who has been in the business and coached from here to the northeast and the far west, according to high school coaching historian, Bill Minahan, and is now back here in Tampa.

At Plant High, Weiner’s career has been remarkable.  He was 3-7 his first year, then 9-3, then 15-0, then 11-2, 13-1, and state champs these last two years. Weiner has produced so far at Plant High players like Robert Marve at Purdue, Aaron Murray at Georgia, and has on this current team college prospects such as James Wilder, Jr., who Coach Weiner said may be the most sought after senior football player in America next year. 

Weiner also mentioned two more that he did not have too because they played so well in the championship games; Eric Dungy, son of the former Buccaneers coach, Tony, and quarterback, Philip Ely.

This is a rare assembly of talent in such numbers at Plant High. The campus will be covered next fall with talent scouts.

“This is a good bunch,” said Coach Weiner. “They played the game together, and bonded well, we have good leadership on this team in addition to good talent. This is a fine group of young men of which we are all so proud. Football should be good around here for quite awhile.”

A point which Coach Weiner has been a major contributor.  He has established himself as one of the best high school coaches in the state and needs to stay right here in what has become a good high school producing area in the triangle created by Polk County, Hillsborough County, Manatee County and the counties that shirttail off of these.  This area seems to be fast replacing Miami and south Florida as a hotbed of high school stars.

This was not always so.  But now Plant, Manatee and Polk have done so much to emerge as the premier football fields in Florida. 

---

Looks like the alleged fight out at USF involving Coach Jim Leavitt, a passionate man, did not live up to expectations. Leavitt was mentioned as an involvee in a spat which was picked up by ESPN and Brett McMurphy, formerly a top Tribune reporter. As it turns out, player Joel Miller, who was quoted heavily on ESPN in reporting the fight, appeared to change his position or was misunderstood earlier.

Coach Leavitt himself said the incident was really nothing and he wasn’t mad at anybody. Apparently Leavitt, in the heat of argument for whatever causes, centered on the fact that he was mentioned as grabbing Miller’s shoulder pads, shaking him and perhaps slapping him a couple of times. Leavitt said, “not so.” Miller now says Leavitt did not do this.

Miller allegedly told ESPN he wanted to put this incident behind him, which happened at the half of the Louisville-USF game last month. “I believe my story was misrepresented. I told this to the school when they interviewed me for a half of an hour on Tuesday. Basically, I wasn’t having a good game on special teams (Miller was a walk-on athlete) and he was trying to motivate me.”

Miller had already told ESPN that Leavitt, “only grabbed my shoulder pads to motivate me.”

This was the first report and Leavitt on Friday told The Tribune that this was correct and he did nothing wrong. He said he has shaken the shoulder pads of many of his athletes to motivate them “or wake them up. To get into the game.”

We all know Jim Leavitt is a passionate football coach. Told to refrain from the use of profanity on the sidelines, thought by some to be directed at officials, he did. Told to be more careful with what he said about those officials silently without spoken words, he did that by not making comments about officials silently but with mouth motions. He did that.

He remains a passionate, exuberant man on the sidelines; some things cannot be changed. One of the positives about Leavitt has been his full involvement in coaching. None of us can hardly say we have seen a more red-blooded man. It was an attraction of Leavitt when he was hired 12 years ago to come to Tampa and from where he has never wavered or been tempted to leave.

Not even the calling cards of the University of Alabama, and they were genuine, could get his attention. Leavitt wants to continue coaching at USF his entire days or until USF responds favorably to some misguided attempts to make him unattractive.

“My plans now? When I do retire from USF as the head coach, and that is the way I want it to be, I hope to buy a little house on St. Pete Ceach so that I can sit there in the afternoon and watch that gorgeous sun go down,” said Leavitt. “That last little spot of land on the beach will be the last I will ever buy.”

Leavitt lives on Harbour Island now. Not bad, either.

---

Advertisement

Write a letter to the editor | Subscribe and get two weeks free | Place an Ad Online