Forum: Talk Sports

It was, I think, Brett McMurphy’s idea, to assemble as many who could make it and were still around to our back porch on Davis Islands, a scenic place where John Madden once asked with incredulity, “You mean a sportswriter lives jere?”. Madden asked it of Bob Costas when they visited me at a Super Bowl function years ago. It is a nice place and we are proud of it. Realtor Ken Lightfoot found it for us over forty years ago.

The recent function was quite sudden and the idea of former Tribune beat writer McMurphy and non-sportswriter Frank Campisi, who thinks he is a sportswriter but is in the tomato business and made a lot of money there (which he would not have made in the sportswriting business). The guys came because they represented some of my best hires during my times at the Tribune, many of whom are still there.

The crowd of writers and analysts came to my home for lunch over Phil Alessi Cubans and an assortment of baked sweets to catch up on each other. The crowd included those who have filled your Tribune Sports section for years of reports and interpretations. They included McMurphy, Mick Elliott, Martin Fennelly, David Whitley, Joey Johnston, Ira Kaufman, Pat Yasinskas, David Alfonso, Bill Fay, Roy Cummings, Chris Harry and Campisi. There was no program except for those who chose to say they appreciated their Tribune years during our time there and, of course, we told them we did it well and we were successful.

It was, during their time, the heyday of newspapering and a great growth period for the industry. People read, people wanted to read and we obliged. A true veteran of those years, Jim Selman, could not attend, but he is doing well in retirement, as is Bob Austin in his new field of acting in theater. Austin and Selman were the among the sportswriters who were around when I joined the staff and are hereabouts today.

As always in such assemblies, David Whitley is a lead subject. I told the staff it was the only time in my years at the Tribune I had to make a public apology when Whitley, tongue in cheek, wrote a report on the opening of the Frank Sargeant Outdoors Show at the State Fairgrounds. He spoofed it. I understood his humor, but few others did since he made fun of fishing, plugs, reels, rods and the entire idea of such a show.

I got a call the morning the column appeared from Tribune publisher Jack Butcher. I knee-jerked as clearly Butcher did and said I would take care of it. I wrote a piece placating outdoors folks, for I was one of them - as are more people in Florida than most other states. What Whitley wrote was simply David Whitley taking a poke at a sports staple. We got rid of the problem, and nothing further developed. Sales about outdoors did not subside. It is entirely possible that those who may have objected had stopped reading after the Whitley piece.

The Outdoors Show has been a sensation through the years, for it answers the need of so many of us who boat or fish or participate in water sports, and Sargeant blossomed into one of Florida’s premier outdoor authors. I hired him when he was fishing on Lake Wales in central Florida. He was a cherished Tribune tradition, as was Herb Allen before him.

Martin Fennelly is among the nation’s top writers of sports and is an insightful observer. He is a humorist in a field where not too many are. The truth is Fennelly loves what he does in part because he does it so well. He likes to get that chuckle out of you or favorable grunt. One reason is he is a good-natured man and he likes to laugh more than gripe, as so many in my business have wanted to do.

So there they were, the dozen writers who worked with me and supplied you with the news you wanted to know and will continue to do so. They are a good lot, carefully chosen.

Like the late Tom Ford, who walked into my office without any experience at all and wanted a job. He became good at what he did and could cover anything. He also was a bit of a rarity for after I hired him, about a week later, I came in and he was sitting in his desk with a pretty girl in his lap. He was teaching her to write, he said.

He would do things like that, and he could cover anything in sports well and fast, like the 24 Hours of Sebring, like the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500, and a University of Tampa football game that ended at midnight. But he had the story into the newsroom 10 minutes after the game was over on time. He died young, sadly, Tom Ford did.

We miss Ford and the daily routine of work - easy, fun, difficult, on deadline and not. All those who sat around my table that day were a vital part of the Tampa Tribune Sports department and the successes it has had over these years. I want to thank them today and those who preceded them in this presentation of Tribune Sports. We tried with so much enthusiasm to give to the readers out there the fulfillment that sports can provide. I was proud to be a sort of founding father these past years and grateful so many fine men in my business chose to join me and pursue their careers.

Babaloo.

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We have a lot of trophies like plaques, medals, and all manner of reminders of sports events we have held in this city of Tampa - and they have been successful. Most notably is the Running Shoe Award, presented to me on behalf of the Distance Classic for long support from the Tribune’s vast reaches. It is big and it is heavy and it is strong, for it represents those who have made this grand event through the Tampa streets a premier running event internationally and a genuinely fine representation of that which you all out there have made successful.

I remember years ago when Max Mitchell, the first coordinator of this event, called me and asked if we could meet those of the Tribune who would be making decisions about sponsoring future sports events. The Classic people, through Mitchell, wanted the Tribune to become an original sponsor of the Classic and we did after a meeting the next day involving the late Bob Hudson, Managing Editor, who had hired me as Sports Editor from the old Tampa Times and Paul Hogan, who would become the Managing Editor in time.

In any case, both Hogan and Hudson let it be known to me and Mitchell that they wanted to be major sponsors of the Classic and that is what it became, one of Tampa’s premier sports events, virtually open to the world, able and infirm, who could run with help from wheels and by foot. This Classic would become a boom to this community; the Tribune has not undertaken a more far reaching sponsorship than the long distance Classic that rolled through the streets of our city this weekend past.

It was impossible to cover the Classic and not find participants or those who would be participants. If you could walk, run, trot, move along with the help of wheels, you could be in it. The Gasparilla Distance Classic not only became a landmark for this city but spoke volumes for the running sports. And so it was this weekend again in this great city in which we live. The city of Tampa early on, as well as Anhueser Busch and Publix, realized what a valuable asset the Classic could be and it has been that since.

Race Chairman Susan Harmeling staged another productive competition through the streets of Tampa this past weekend. When those who founded the Classic began it — I was there - they had no idea they had such a jewel in the rough. Many other cities, large and small, have followed suit in the running sports, open to all. 

This running shoe trophy in my home presented to me by the Classic people is admired, revered, saluted and always asked about. Once more, thousands of your friends and mine came to Tampa to run through the streets for our personal joy and ours as well. They paid a minimal fee and race reminders in return, plus the opportunity to mix if they chose with co-runners whatever their reason who flooded through our streets. The coursewent out Bayshore Boulevard and back and won’t be forgotten by participants. Thousands participated, thousands ran with others with good intentions.

I did not run or walk in this event, but I did go down to mix with these fine people. It was too cold, it rained but no one complained. They came and got their souvenirs and went back home to spread the word of this superior event. None of us in those original readings thought we had such an opportunity when we started the Classic. In many ways, it became a model and in all cases it became a showcase of Tampa.

Now, it has become a reminder of what it costs to stage such an event, manpower more than anything else. More and more people want to be paid for what they do. That sort of talk was not begun in the original meeting and I think its sponsors now can find ways to solve these arriving possible interruptions. Some now are wondering if it is worth the costs and staff.

Yes, it is. Susan Hanneling and her associates, with help from her sponsors can surely find the support, financial and otherwise to continue this new American phenomena, running and walking and pushing, and enjoying the outdoors for a day in this wondrous city in which we live.

We have come too far too fast not to stick with it as we encourage those who run or walk in this race.

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Peter Pureheart asked for the world to forgive him for an indiscretion or two and in time, most of the world will do that.

Most will also agree to go along with Tiger Wood’s announced remorse for his infidelity and indiscretions.  It always has and will again.  Tiger Woods announced in an arranged interview on Friday he was guilty of fooling around and that he should not have done that. 

He has thought, like the rest of us, that confessions such as this spare more of the rod. 

It will.  Woods appeared to have been a model athlete, good to great at times, modest, appreciative of his fans and the world as he came out of nowhere to become as powerful a man in sports as there is today.  Now, for whatever the reasons, he has confessed, then he was sorry, and suggested he won’t fool around outside of his marriage with other women again.  He is far from being the first to have fulfilled these adventures, asked for forgiveness and been approved for more pursuits in golf.

Gosh, he is good at golf.  Gosh, he’s been good to the media and with the public. He can not only play but he has been able to appreciate success, not to let it affect him and keep his feet on the ground, and his eyes straight ahead.

Slips!

Idle Tiger Woods, the best in the world at what he does, and what he sells.  He can hit it farther, higher, longer, more accurately, than anyone in golf these days.  He was very nearly flawless and he was from a flawless family, a Mama and a Daddy who saw to it that he loved the game and taught him to love his fans, unless that was a natural embracement.  Not only that, his wife, Elin, who so far has stuck by his side, though she was not with him when he made his confession.  The Woods and their children live in Orlando and seem not ever to have been snoots.  At tournaments, Tiger Woods has always been accommodating, always appreciative of his fans and sponsors.  Frankly, I don’t know of anything Tiger Woods has done against the grain, until now. 

And even now, he held a public press conference for invited reporters in Orlando at his home, to make the announcement that he had strayed. He said in a press conference he would not take questions, that he would address the issues, and now will address them again, again, and again. 

His sponsors generally have been supportive.  Most of them will stick with him, Woods has always been so public and he probably can handle this circumstance well.  He never dodged controversy in these matters of fact and is unlikely to change that role.  I have known Tiger Woods since he came on the tour, and his fourteen championship wins and his extraordinary times. 

And all of us who knew him were surprised as these revelations of infidelity and his fleeting apologies.  Most of us in sports have forgiven those in that profession for more or for less. These next weeks will be important to see how Tiger handles himself.  Notably, his mother was with him at his public confession. His wife was not, and has not yet explained how her position will be with their children.  She has appeared to be heartstruck, wouldn’t you be when your most public of sport star-achievers made such painful decisions as he has lately to find another dance partner at times.

Tiger Woods is one of the great sports athlete of America, one of the most appreciative.  All who follow his career hope that he will follow through with his stated aim to be a good man and father and husband again, as well as the world’s finest at what he does.

This is a shocker for us all.

Please no after shocks.

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The pot is being stirred again, this time with vigor, the pot out of which could come a new facility for the Tampa Bay Rays, and other goodies. We are for now listening to the new commentaries ongoing among public officials and forward-thinking citizens.

Remember years ago, when Frank Morsani and the baseball progressives at that time eventually wound up with a franchise and chose to put it in the standing, but ill-suited Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg? It was put there because the field was already there. It has never been a fit. Talk all of these years has been about a more comfortable facility despite the fact that the Rays have experienced success and prosperity. They won.

But, no one has ever seemed to be satisfied with Tropicana Field. St. Petersburg recently appointed a committee to search for other locations for the Rays. Now once more the Rays are restless and growing impatient. They are looking again for a new home. Mike Kalt and his committee have come up with several potential sites, first and foremost being the St. Petersburg Waterfront Park, home now to Al Lang Field. However, residents immediately balked and the committee passed on other inquiries in that area.

Since then, the committee has suggested three potential sites: one at the St. Petersburg gateway area near the Howard Frankland Bridge, and two in the downtown Tampa area, which immediately raised the suggestion that Tampa was trying to steal the Rays again.

Aggressive Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Ken Hagan and some of his colleagues have been involved in these studies. A foremost Tampa site was Channelside downtown, a bit north of the St. Pete Times ForumA. Much of that is city property and surely available at a reasonable price. It is a dandy site suggestion with feeder roads from all directions there now and the port booming along with Channelside and the arena area.

Another site suggestion is near Tampa Stadium, east of Dale Mabry Boulevard, and another just entering the picture with a strong push is the Florida State Fair area near the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a hot spot operated by the Seminole tribe, who have gambling rights. Former Mayor Dick Greco this week offered the possibility of a stadium—arena that would be suitable for major league baseball. It is an enticing proposition and Greco is a convincing salesman. The Seminoles already have the traffic.

It all looks pretty inviting now, both the site in downtown Tampa and the Seminole reservation. Look for Chairman Hagan to be impressed. I am. These are good options. The problem is that it causes the same concern among some that Tampa may be once again trying to steal the team. I don’t think that matters.

What they need is the right site and one that would be available. We know Greco has presented the Seminole circumstance as an option and the bet here is that the city property on the port has also been thrown into the hat. There is no rush, and commission chairman Hagan is a level-headed man who can be counted on to make the right decision.

Tampa and St. Petersburg have forever been competitors for events and facilities, which will usually assure the right decision being made, just as the decision to build the Tampa Stadium where it was built. The good people of both sides of this issue are in a great spot to make a good solid decision. It is not going to happen tomorrow but it should happen pretty soon with the Rays so much in need of a good facility and in the right location.

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A couple of the warriors of the good old University of Tampa Spartan football days stopped by Riviera Drive for a noon visit and to share crab cakes and Cuban sandwiches they’d had made minutes before in North Tampa. Freddie Solomon and Vin Hoover, fine Spartan players of not so long ago, were the visitors. They wanted to talk about their days they cherish at UT. Believe me, don’t know many who do not react with fondness on those days in the early Seventies.

“Wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else or play anywhere else,” says world-class running back Solomon, who played for the Spartans, then the Miami Dolphins, then the San Francisco 49ers and could have played for anyone. Most of us testify that no one was ever quicker or change directions faster than Fred Solomon when he was at UT and playing at Tampa Stadium.

I once heard a would-be Miami Hurricane say, “I don’t worry, he’ll be back this way. I’ll get another chance.” Solomon was that way. Not even the great Leon McQuay was shiftier than him. And his buddy, Hoover, was just as difficult to contain in his playing days as a UT tight end. Solomon, at Tampa, played quarterback, running back at about 178 pounds, while Hoover was a moose at 220. No one ever before or after Freddie could match his elusiveness, his quick starts and his direction changes.

“I wasn’t that quick, they just all fell down,” says Fred. They fell down because they were duped by as good a runner that ever played in Tampa Stadium, old or new, to this day.

Those Spartans of the early Seventies toiled under Coach Fran Curci and his successors, Earle Bruce - an obstinate man - and Dennis Fryzell - a wild man - and Bill Fulcher, who moved on to Georgia Tech. Bruce went on to coach successfully at Ohio State, taking Fryzell with him. Bruce once forced a penalty to be called on Florida A&M for a halftime show which, he said, went too long. Fryzell was once penalized for having 12 men on the field at kickoff while demanding of the officials, “Who was it?” He got no answer and got the penalty.

Solomon, Hoover and any of the others at that time never tire of speaking of those days . They more often talk of Fryzell’s quick, crazy decisions, of Curci’s ability to bring in on the Midnight Express secret players such as John Matuzak, as well as Bruce’s anger trips, and Fulcher’s serenity.

“I never have regretted coming to the University of Tampa,” said Solomon. “I had shots to go about anywhere but Tampa was the right decision for me. Wife, Delilah, and I love it here in Plant City.”

No one had a crowd standing more than did Freddie, and he loved every minute of it and now appreciates his permanent situation with Hillsborough County and the DeBartolo Corporation, and both he and Hoover are both solid citizens. Hoover has a construction business in North Tampa and does well. They both support their old school and believe in it.

Sadly, UT was unable to compete in a football matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Then-President B. D. Owens had long wanted to rid the school of its football program, judging it too costly. His Board of Directors went along with him. And apparently they were right, as the school is progressing in enrollment and curricula thriving under President Vaughn. Its growth seems unlimited without football.

Instead, David Laxer and his colleagues are about to begin a major soccer program that will lead to a stadium near old Plant Field where football began. Times have changed, and times will change more. Seems to us like all is moving in the right direction and the University of Tampa and its athletes have an unlimited future without football.

Go Freddie, go Vin, go Spartans! 

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Time in. Time has been out too long.

Only the second or third time in these long years as your sports servant have I been away from you and this responsibility this long. Sorry.

Last time it was because of an interrupting stroke and this time because of a cousin of that hated physical bully - a blood clot. The clot is gone and other resulting problems all repaired effectively at Tampa General Hospital by master medical men, Dr. Murray Shames, Dr. Phil Stromquist, Dr. Anthony Pizzo (he so loves the Gators), Dr. Jack Guggino and the other experts they summoned for council and advice to rid these old veins of blockage.

It is done, it is over, it is successful. So as of today, here I am back to this wonderful responsibility of keeping you as best I can with my associates of sports in our wonderful world from kiddie games to the grand Winter Olympic now ongoing and so enchanting. How lucky are we to have most of the day and evening to watch Canada’s presentation of this wintry magic.

Thanks for your patience, again. I am now back at it and available to you all for your thoughts and opinions on the sports world in general and specifically as we prod our legions in uniform to win them all. Goodness, what a time to return, with these Olympics, with Major League Baseball about to start with spring training among us as well as our own Tampa Bay Rays still seeking a permanent home on one side of the Bay or other.

Then there’s all of our other spring and summer sports, in addition to the hit that the National Hockey League has become, the hit that the Tampa Bay Rowdies rebirthing in the nick of time with the wise David/Gert Laxer family and all of our previous soccer experts involved - not to mention the sports of spring such as golf, tennis, swimming, softball and those of personal preference. Sports are so very personal we all know, for the participants.

Among the bigger, better news is the assurance that the Rays are bent on staying among us to build their new home here from the fact that the Rowdies will do the same at the University of Tampa. All of our other resident and temporary teams who work among us seem pleased with what we have to offer. No one wants any one of them to consider leaving. The mayors of Tampa, St. Pete, and Clearwater and our heavily involved media, plus the owners seem to have no interest at all in leaving this great place in which we live.

We are now proven as both temporary and permanent sites for big-time events like Super Bowls, to all manner of collegiate and high school activities. This place of ours happily bursts at the seams with enthusiasm and ambition. We are already in another Super Bowl hunt and in pursuit of any major sports event you can think of. Got one?  Call Paul Cato or Sandy McKinnon, or Mayor Pam Iorio or any other public official. They all know what sports have done for this place and can do for the future. Frankly, I think we have the hottest hand in sports for major events, if and when we can get that new baseball stadium in place at the right time.

A joy of sports in Tampa Bay is that everyone seems to favor its growth. Pinellas County is quick to pick up new water sports and new golf events, Tampa jumps on possible indoor (St. Pete Times Arena), Tampa Stadium, always in pursuit of events and always ready to grow. That does not mention the value of our sports venues that we have been so carefully to prepare — like Steinbrenner Field, which will double as a home for soccer as well as New York Yankees baseball. Look soon for those in position to be able to get things done to start to think about expanding big-time sports into downtown Tampa. These sites are looming.

One is near Channelside and to the north where I-275 and I-4 meet and feed into what can be an expanded sports happy land in that inviting waterfront area. Believe me, that is going to happen if leaders don’t let it get away. Other possible sites for long-range planners can be on the campus at the University of Tampa and the other near the airport and Cypress.

This great city and its environs never sleep nor should they. It has just begun. The Tampa area in time has just begun the most exciting sports arena/center in this part of the country, so long as our great leaders, including the Glazers, owners of the Tampa Bay Bucs and the George Steinbrenner family, owners of the New York Yankees, and those on the horizon assemble regularly to plot the future of our vibrant Tampa Bay.

Glad to be back.

Babaloo.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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