Three members of the 2006 Class 5A state championship Plant volleyball team were named to the Florida Sports Writers Association Class 5A All-State teams on Friday.
Miami-bound senior and Class 5A Player of the Year runner-up Christine Williamson and junior setter Kellie Catanach, who verbally committed to Duke, were named to the first team. University of North Florida-bound senior Kaley Read was named to the third team. Davidson-bound senior Jennifer Chamblee was named an honorable mention. Bloomingdale senior outside hitter Addison Ritchie was also named a Class 5A honorable mention.
In Class 6A, Durant junior setter Alexa Donini and Riverview senior setter Michelle Trugillo were named honorable mentions.
Bucs fans have spoken - or actually written.
As of 3:15 p.m., 1,706 have signed an online petition, on the website givemiketheball.com, urging Coach Jon Gruden to involve fullback Mike Alstott more heavily in the offense.
The site, which came to life on Dec. 11, encourages fans to chant “Give Mike The Ball” at the Bucs final regular season game on Dec. 31 against Seattle, a game that will likely be Alstott’s final appearance. If by halftime Alstott is not getting the ball, fans are urged to start chanting “Fire Jon Gruden.”
Gruden said this week he’d like to get all of his backs, Cadillac Williams and Michael Pittman included, more involved in the offense. There’s a faction of Bucs fans, however, that would prefer Alstott get the bulk of the carries.
There’s at least 1,706 of them.
Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura’s contract with the Devil Rays guarantees him $7.7 million, including a $250,000 buyout of the $4.25 million team option for 2010.
Iwamura, who turns 28 on Feb. 9, will make $1.8 million in 2007, $2.4 million in 2008 and $3.25 million in 2009. There are plate-apearance incentives built into the first three seasons that could increase the 2010 salary, but for now it would be $4.25 million if the Rays exercise the option. The most he could make in 2010 is $5.25 million, and the buyout could increase to $750,000 if he reaches his incentives.
Iwamura batted .300 in eight-plus seasons for the Japanese Central League’s Yakult Swallows. The Rays won the right to negotiate with him by making a bid of $4.55 million through the Japanese League’s posting system.
Rays executive vice president is scheduled to speak on a conference call this afternoon. Iwamura will be made available to the U.S. media on a conference call tonight (which will be tomorrow morning in Tokyo).
More information will be posted here as it becomes available.
A serious Buccaneers fan’s web site (www.givemiketheball.com) went up a few days ago with a single purpose: To put fan pressure on the Bucs and encourage them to feature Mike Alstott prominently in the final game of the season against Seattle. Actually, the site has two purposes: To get Alstott the ball and to spread site owner Dwayne Scranton‘s anti-Jon Gruden bias the same way Marcus Vick spreads holiday cheer to underage girls in Virginia. But we’ll let that second one slide for a minute. The main feature of the site is a petition that fans can electronically sign and will be delivered to the Glazers the day before the game. As of this writing, the peitition has 1,509 signatures. Most of them even look legit, barring the occasional ”Anita Bonghit” (what, no ”Jock Strap”?) and ”Mike Tice” (who, as we all know, can’t read or write.) Many signers have even gone so far as to identify themselves as long-time season ticket holders and list their seat section numbers as proof. That’s a lot of people for a movement that’s not even a week old. And I say, why not.
I support it because it’s the last game of a meaningless season and the move will have absolutely no negative reprecussions to the team. I support it because Alstott has earned it through all his years of loyal service to the Bucs. But mostly, I support it because the fans want it. And in a season where Bucs fans have been denied victories, or even competent play, they should be given something entertaining for their ticket money. And I can think of fewer things more entertaining than number 40 running over Grant Winstrom and dragging Julian Peterson down the left sideline for ten yards and a score while outrushing the insufferably smug Shaun Alexander on the day.
Even though Mr. Scranton is delivering this to the Glazers, they won’t do anything about it themselves. They have virtually no interest in the game of football as it is played and are not known for catering to fan requests (just ask the fans of the Manchester United.) More likely, Gruden will find out about this groundswell of Alstott love secondhand and do the right thing on his own. In fact, I can’t imagine Gruden not giving Alstott a significant boost in touches that day. If Alstott spends his time on the bench or as a full-time blocker, the fan outcry will be deafening and the Buc-faithful who were on the fence about their support for Gruden to remain with the team will quickly lend their voices to this site’s cries for Gruden’s unemployment. He even encourages shouting “Fire Jon Gruden” in the second half if Alstott hasn’t gotten the requisite number of touches.
Keep in mind that all of this assumes that Alstott announces his retirement sometime before kickoff on December 31. The site states, “Mike Alstott has expressed his desire to retire after this football season,” but that’s not true. He hasn’t made any formal announcement about his future, even though most people tend to think that this will be his final season. But regardless of how well he performs against Seattle, it should be his last game. Don’t mistake a last hurrah in a meaningless game for a career rejuvination. Cadillac Williams is the future at running back for the Buccaneers. Embrace it. Alstott still has some skills and should leave the game in a dignified way. Great players tend to think they’re more effective than they are late in their careers and spend their last couple seasons as afterthoughts and punchlines to senility jokes. There’s a reason why we lament Barry Sanders‘s retirement but are really hoping Marshall Faulk stays in the studio.
So, Mr. Scranton, I salute you and your dedication to Mike Alstott and the Buccaneers. The whole anti-Gruden bitterness is kind of a turn-off (come on… give the guy one more season to turn it around!), but hey, it’s your site. I hope Gruden gets wind of this and the fans can be treated to one more game of loud train whistles and hard-nosed running by number 40.
You have to feel somewhat for John Tortorella and his coaching staff Thursday.
The Lightning did everything they were asked to do against Montreal and flat out dominated the Canadiens. Montreal didn’t get a sniff in that game as Tampa Bay outshot the Canadiens 43-20. Only on rare occasion have I witnessed the Lightning play that well to come out with a loss and it usually came when Roberto Luongo was in the opposing net.
Did Tampa play a perfect game? No, the backcheck was awful on Montreal’s first shorthanded goal and there’s no excuse for the forwards watching the play develop like it did and skating back into the play. And giving up another shorty late in the game is inexcusable.
But here we are 30-plus games into this season and a similar pattern to last year has already developed during the team’s currently seven-game slide - goaltending is letting them down.
I was a big believer in Marc Denis when the team acquired him and he sure looked like the real deal in the first month of the season when he wasn’t getting any goal support in front of him. Lately, however, he is conjuring up images of John Grahame from last season letting in questionable goals at key points in the game. Though you can’t really blame him on the first or second Montreal goal Thursday, he has to come up with a big save late and he didn’t do it.
When a team is doing everything right at one end of the ice, they need some help at the other end, especially with the way Cristobal Huet was playing. Thursday, it didn’t come in Tampa Bay’s net and that has been a problem of late.
The way the Lightning play they don’t need a goaltender to put in a Huet-like performance too often. Not many teams are going to put up 35-plus shots against Tampa Bay. So while they don’t need a goalie to steal too many games, they just need a performance which doesn’t lose them games and we saw that too often last season and it’s creeping up once again.
Is Denis the answer in goal for Tampa? Well, the team inked him to a three-year deal worth nearly $3 million per season so he has to be. Johan Holmqvist, as well as he played in November, has been awful in December. Is he the answer? Certainly not long term.
So if you are Jay Feaster, what do you do right now? Even though the team has only one win in the past seven games, the team has been playing well only to be let down by goaltending. Do you bring up Karri Ramo from Springfield to see what he can do? Do you find a trade for another goalie? Or do you live with what you got believing that Denis will shake out of his slump?
Let me know what you guys are thinking and I’ll check back in on Monday as I will enjoy a rare weekend getaway with the family.
The Devil Rays will announce Friday that they have reached an agreement to sign Japanese infielder Akinori Iwamura to a three-year contract worth about $7.25-million, with a one-year team option for 2010. The deal isn’t completely done; there still are minor details to work out, which will be settled sometime early Friday.
Iwamura, 27, is likely to be the Rays’ primary third baseman after winning five Gold Gloves at that position for the Central League Yakult Swallows. But he also has expressed his willingness to move around the diamond, and could project best in the majors as a second baseman.
Swimming With My Friends
Over a small glass of chilled Florida O.J., a bowl of corn flakes with sliced bananas and milk, one glazed donut, walkaway handful of green grapes, this small fry breakfast, these thinkabouts:
Gotten involved as an aging kid with some peculiarities noticed by my newish, inquisitive, and straight talking little friends there at the Palma Ceia Country Club pool.
I go almost daily, usually mid-day to mid-afternoon where the swimmers are mostly young mothers, sometimes dads, and their kids, who usually are one to 10. Ninety percent can outswim me and do, but we are there for most opposite of reasons-me to live on, them to learn to live
Some completely ignore me, most do not. They generally are beautifully mannered, no trouble, obey the lifeguards and their mamas or daddies, and have something to say to me, even if just a hello. They all yell, or scream, play Marco Polo at one time or another, throw a ball or a submarine, or whatever. Most eat or drink something most of the time and are soaked in sun screen.
All take, or have taken swim lessons under the guiding hand of Coach Todd, quick to spot with his big, wide-brimmed hat. I counted 96 kids on this day I arrived with a big, brownish scab on my adequate nose, the result of the removal by Dr. Henry Wiley of a considerable growth there. It wasn’t pretty, but it was never submerged, mamas and papas.
In the pool, a red-haired, freckled swimmer of perhaps 4, just couldn’t help it. He was fascinated by the scab.
“Why?” he asked, “do you have a bugger on your nose?”
He got close for a good look. His mama, outside of the pool heard him and came over. She was horrified.
“It’s not a bugger son and believe me I know what a bugger is. I’m from Wauchula. It’s a sore. I got something cut out.” His mom knew it was okay.
The kid started to leave, took another look and me and asked what only a kid could ask directly.
“Are you old?”
Son, I said, you are looking at the definition of old. I am a picture of old.
He was satisfied and left, the old guy with no bugger. His mother tried to speak. What to say. It was a moment to remember.
A few minutes later, a stump of a black-haired kid, perhaps two years old, tugged at my bathing suit leg. When I looked down, he said: “I am Al Lopez the Fourth.”
Your great granddad was the Hall of Fame catcher, Al Lopez? He nodded vigorously. I reached down and shook his and said, “I knew your great granddad well, and I know your granddad and your dad. You look like them all. You gonna be a catcher, too?’
“Yep,” and he ran away.
Some times when it is chilly, I start the swim wearing a T-shirt.
I always get comments, mostly from the girls:
“Why are you swimming with your clothes on?”
“You are getting your shirt wet, sir.”
“Mister, you forgot to undress. We are here to swim.”
I eventually take it off in self-defense. No one has yet asked why the stiff-arming running back in a football uniform apparently named Heisman was on the shirt’s front. I haven’t gotten to tell anybody I got a vote.
Like most, at times, I leave my glasses on the soap dish in the men’s locker room shower, my keys in my shorts when I swim, in the car, or in the washroom, and my money clip (a rubber band around the cards and a few dollars in my shorts and swim with them).
On this trip to Palma Ceia, as I left the pool and headed for the locker room, a tiny, pretty little black haired girl in a green and black bathing suit, who would be named Martha Painter, ran around in front of me, and held up my wet money clip.
“You left this in the pool,” she said, shy and sweet as she could be. Once more, a dopey move by the only super senior at the pool. I thanked her repeatedly. Lifeguard Donnie, always helpful came up to help. He said Martha’s mama wasn’t at the pool but Martha’s nanny was. He brought her up. I thanked her repeatedly, was told that mama would be there the next day. And she was.
Martha Painter’s mama is attractive very early Thirties, dark haired woman who was being a mother, she said, these years, and had proof in Martha, two sons and evidence of another child on the way. Both parents are lawyers, a profession to which she will in time return. That day, Wallet Day, the mama and kids were at the pool. Martha led me to them. I had a new Buc visor for Martha, quickly got drinks and soft drinks for all, thanked them all and promised a shirt for Martha.
It was fun. It was a good experience for us all, with more to come the next Saturday when the Painters drove to our home and gave me my old Screen Door Open cap I’d left on their table the other day by the PC pool.
Can’t get rid of me, can they?
Not as long as I have something to lose while swimming, and staying as young as the kids can make me.
TAMPA - Before the season began, Plant senior quarterback Robert Marve did not have a slew of attention from recruiters. That is how Alabama was able to strong arm him into a verbal commitment.
The Tide made Marve an offer over the summer, giving 24 hours to make a decision. At the time, it was the best offer Marve had, but the tide has definitely shifted in his favor.
Since coach Alabama coach Mike Shula was fired recently, Marve no longer is 100 percent committed to that school. It also does not help that Alabama has not hired a coach yet, which is causing the Tide to lose key players from this year’s recruiting class, which could include Marve.
“We’re not waiting around, per se, for Alabama. If anything, it’s an open situation and we’re actively talking to other schools,” Plant coach Robert Weiner said. “The longer it takes for them [Alabama] to name a coach, the more difficult of a situation it is for them.”
There is a long list of teams taking advantage of Alabama’s current difficultly.
Purdue visited Plant’s campus on Thursday, while Miami has turned up the heat on recruiting Marve recently. Other schools actively in the mix are Florida, USF, Mississippi State, UCLA, Illinois, Maryland and Hawaii.
Weiner said Florida State has shown interest, but the Seminoles only have seven scholarships to offer and are not sure if they want another quarterback. LSU wants Marve, but Jarrett Lee (Brenham High, Texas), another highly ranked quarterback, has verbally committed to the Tigers, while N.C. State has also shown some interest.
“The quarterback recruiting game is usually done pretty early. There may be people who love him, but there are only so many positions, and there is not much some schools can do,” Weiner said. “There might be 50 places that want him, but only half of those can sign him … Right now, I will field the calls and put the options in front of him. Some people are just talk, but we’ll figure out who has the most interest.”
USF has shown tremendous interest in Marve, who appears intrigued. Marve and Weiner attended USF’s practice on Wednesday. Weiner said the Bulls are definitely strong contenders, but Marve does not have any favorites right now.
“USF will always be in the mix,” Weiner said.
“When you finish 15-0, win a state championship, and the local media makes you into a hometown hero, there is always an allure to stay here and be around people you care for. In that regard, USF will be in the mix.”
“We will narrow it down to three or four schools over the holidays, and then Robert will take his visits. We really don’t know which school to attend because we’re starting over again. It just has to be a good situation for him.”
Here is the news of the day, which Tribune reporter Eddie Daniels broke:
TAMPA - Land O’ Lakes quarterback Joe Weatherford committed to the University of Central Florida Tuesday night. The commitment comes following a career senior season in which the 6-foot-4, 190-pounder completed 110 of 236 passes for 2,141 yards and 20 touchdowns.
“It’s awesome. It’s a great feeling,” Weatherford said. “I’m really happy about where I’m going to school.”
Weatherford, the younger brother of Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford, maintained during the summer and throughout the 2006 season that UCF was his front-runner.
“I’m happy,” Land O’ Lakes coach John Benedetto said. “I was hoping that he would have done it a long time ago, but he’s taken three visits to schools and he’s made his decision.”
Last weekend, Weatherford made official visits to Western Michigan and Toledo. He also made a visit to UCF earlier this year.
Armwood kicker Darren deRochemont has verbally committed to play for Tulane, while running back Marquise Branton said he will play for Middle Tennessee State.
deRochemont made 7-of-7 field goals, 42 of 43 point after attempts, and scored 63 points for the Hawks last season.
Meanwhile, Branton rushed 201 times for 1,279 yards and 15 touchdowns last season and led Armwood to an 11-2 record.
“After Torrey Davis committed to Florida, I wasn’t sure how many other recruits we were going to have. This ends up being a good fit for both of those guys,” Armwood coach Sean Callahan said. “Middle Tennessee State offered Marquise over the summer, and they have stayed with him all year, so that was a natural fit for him. Darren did a good job of marketing himself, and he’s looking forward to kicking in the dome.”
JUCO COMMITMENT: Jefferson receiver Dinario Smith has verbally committed to play Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Calif. Smith has 11 receptions and four touchdowns last season.
JEFFERSON UPDATES: Jefferson quarterback Stephen Garcia all ready verbally committed to play for South Carolina, but the Dragons will have plenty other seniors make their college choices soon enough.
Defensive back Kevin Brown is currently entertaining offers from Middle Tennessee State, Akron, Minnesota and Vanderbilt; receiver Evan Cromer has offers from Western Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Air Force and Richmond; lineman Mike Williams has offers from Kansas, Middle Tennessee State; lineman DeMarcus Cleveland has offers Kansas, Middle Tennessee State and Akron; tight end Byron McLeod has offers from Southern Miss., Middle Tennessee State and Western Kentucky.
If Andrew Friedman and Gerry Hunsicker had identified a free agent worth pursuing in this high-cost market, they would have been given the freedom to spend what they had to spend to get their man.
So said Rays team president Matt Silverman.
“We will spend dollars when we feel like we are getting a good return on those dollars,” Silverman said. “Our commitment to winning is unwavering.”
So, the Rays—like the Royals, apparently—have the wherewithal to pay these big bucks for free agents?
“Yes, but that person, that player, has to fit in not only this year,” Silverman said, “but has to fit in our forecast for the next couple of years.”
Silverman also said that he believes the outrageous spending (example: Kansas City gave relatively unproven starter Gil Meche $55 million for five years) won’t necessarily carry over in seasons to come. A “market adjustment,” he called it.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay chooses to let other teams dive recklessly into a relatively weak free agent class.
“It has not been our intention to build our team through free agency, so we were somewhat immune from those happenings. It makes us even more certain that the path that we’re following is the right one for this organization,” Silverman said. “Certainly, we’ll need free agents this year and in future years to fill out our roster. But we are better off than in years past, in terms of having major-league talent throughout our 25- and 40-man roster that we’re anxious to see what they can produce.”
What does that mean for the 2007 Devil Rays? It means don’t expect a significantly different roster in April from the players under control today. There will be a few additions, maybe a utility infielder and a reliever or two. And there’s always the remote possibility that Friedman could hear the right words from another team during trade talks involving Rocco Baldelli or B.J. Upton.
It also means that there are only two ways this team will significantly improve next season.
First, they’ll need Scott Kazmir, Jonny Gomes and Jorge Cantu to have healthy, productive seasons. Injuries to those three players were the biggest cause for Tampa Bay’s spiral to 101 losses in 2006.
Second, they’ll need all the young players to make visible steps in their development. This includes Carl Crawford and Baldelli, who are, after all, still only 25.
But mostly it includes Delmon Young, Dioner Navarro, James Shields, Seth McClung, Ruddy Lugo and Ben Zobrist. It includes Upton, too, but where he should be included, no one knows yet. Eventually, it’ll include pitchers Jeff Niemann, Mitch Talbot and Juan Salas. One day, perhaps by 2008, it’ll include Evan Longoria and Reid Brignac, the infield’s left side of the future.
To a lesser extent, it includes Casey Fossum, Jae Seo, Ty Wigginton, Greg Norton, Shawn Camp and Dan Miceli, but these particular players aren’t necessarily part of the “core” around which the Rays hope to build for 2008 and beyond.
Starting Friday, I’ll analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each aspect of the Rays’ roster: starting pitching, relief pitching, outfield/bench, infield/catcher. It won’t be the final word, because there are sure to be a change or two before pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 17. But it should give you an idea at the off-season’s midway point of what they need to do in order to improve.
Land O’ Lakes quarterback Joe Weatherford committed to the University of Central Florida Tuesday night. The commitment comes following a career senior season in which the 6-foot-4, 190-pounder completed 110 of 236 passes for 2,141 yards and 20 touchdowns.
“It’s awesome. It’s a great feeling,” Weatherford said. “I’m really happy about where I’m going to school.”
Weatherford - the younger brother of Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford - maintained during the summer and throughout the 2006 season that UCF was his front-runner.
“I’m happy,” Land O’ Lakes coach John Benedetto said.
“I was hoping that he would have done it a long time ago, but he’s taken three visits to schools and he’s made his decision.”
Last weekend Weatherford made official visits to Western Michigan and Toledo. He also made a visit to UCF earlier this year.
“First of all, it’s just really exciting to see him get the opportunity to play at he next level,” Drew Weatherford said. “When he first started in high school he really didn’t look like he was going to be able to play at he next level. He was real frail, wasn’t very athletic.
“Because of all his hard work and his dedication, he’s going to get that opportunity. More importantly is he’s going to get a chance to have his education paid for.”
So far we are up to 6-1 on the season and we just returned from a road trip from North Carolina where we spent five days between Winston-Salem and Greenville. On the road I roomed with Melvin Buckley, so every night I get to hear his pipes because he loves to just sing.
When we got to Greenville where ECU is located Chris Howard and Eddie Lovett played a pretty good prank on Solomon Bozeman. Solomon was getting a quick nap before the game when Chris and Eddie came running into his room saying “Solo we have to go - the bus is about to leave.” The next thing you know Solo is in a rush trying to get all his clothes when he still had a good hour before we left. You probably had to be there to realize how funny it really was.
Anyway, next road trip we go to Las Vegas and we get Jesus Verdejo and Kentrell Gransberry eligible so I should have some really good stories for the next blog.
Girls Soccer
RIVER RIDGE 3, LAND O’ LAKES 2
By RICK HARMON
The Tampa Tribune
NEW PORT RICHEY—Deana Rossi scored her 22nd goal of the season on a penalty kick in the 75th minute to keep River Ridge undefeated with a 3-2 victory against Land O’ Lakes on Wednesday at foggy Jim Valentine Athletic Complex.
The win gives River Ridge (13-0, 7-0 Class 5A-District 7) its second consecutive district title and the No. 1 seed in January’s district tournament. The win also keeps the Royal Knights atop the Sunshine Athletic Conference standings. Land O’ Lakes drops to 8-5-1 overall and 5-2 in the five-team district. Both of the Gators’ district losses were to River Ridge.
Rossi’s game-winning goal, her second this season against Land O’ Lakes, came after the Gators were whistled for a hand ball in the penalty area. Her first attempt at the penalty shot was good but Land O’ Lakes goalie Sarah Saavedra was called for leaving the goal line before the shot was attempted. Rossi put her second attempt in the same place—upper right corner of the net—for the winner.
As heavy fog covered the field at the start, River Ridge jumped out to a quick lead—scoring goals in the 1st and 6th minutes of the game. Brittany Mascia scored on the opening possession and Mikaela Morolla, who assisted on the Mascia goal, scored to put the Royal Knights ahead, 2-0.
But the Gators weren’t about to lay down. Amanda Goble, who scored Land O’ Lakes only goal in Monday’s 1-1 tie against Mitchell, got the Gators on the board in the 9th minute with a 40-yard free kick that arched over the head of River Ridge goalie Brittany Hahn.
Land O’ Lakes tied the score at 2-2 when a misplayed header in the penalty box landed on Claire Kurlychek foot and she dribbled the ball into the net in the 34th minute.
Both teams traded possessions and scoring chances in the second half but couldn’t find the back of the net until Rossi’s penalty kick.
Land O’ Lakes 2 0—2
River Ridge 2 1—3
Goals—Goble, Kurlychek (LL); Mascia, Morolla, Rossi (RR). Assists—Morolla, Rossi (RR). Shots on goal—LL 14, RR 16. Saves—Saavedra (LL) 5; Hahn (RR) 7. Records—LL 8-5-1, RR 13-0.
When Lamar Hunt leaves us, as the doctors in the Dallas he loved so have warned, his legacies are not just to football and to soccer and sports business but to all of us here about in on Florida’s West Coast for whom he did so much.
Yes, that is the Texas oilman, son of H.L., who not only owns the Kansas City Chiefs and so sought to make soccer as big in America as it is in the rest of the world. He most recently was a charter member of the old, almost big North American Soccer League (Oh, the Rowdies!), and more recently the newer, smaller Major League Soccer, in which he owns the Dallas team.
Now, up front, he led the National Football League to expand in 1974 to begin play in 1976. He was always for the Tampa
franchise and he was on the committee that favored Tampa Bay in that ’74 vote to expand.
That was the start, well, no, it was the first positive result. He was on the committee from the U.S. (so was I and the Dick Corbetts here) and made an effective speech at the World Cup (as did I explaining the Tampa media facilities and outlets). So did Shannon Edge, now a consultant to Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.
Main points here, Lamar Hunt was a lead member of the expansion committee chaired by an unrelenting believer in Tampa Bay, Dan Rooney of Pittsburgh, and he was life-long imaginative about soccer. He loved the Rowdies and what they did in the NASL.
Now, back in the days of no formative pro football franchise committee yet, promoter Bill Marcum was out front on behalf of the Jaycees, and us all, businessman Leonard Levy, attorney-sport Ed Rood (who paid the bills) and me, as a sportswriting tagalong. Once back then, Marcum, who is in Fort Myers and about to have some lost eyesight restored, a conniver, managed to get a room next to that of Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s suite at a private owners meeting in Dallas. The walls were expensive, but not thick. He pressed (he has no hearing problem) an ear on rolled up paper.
Expansion, dodged all the time because nobody wanted to share revenue, never expecting a place like Tampa to be the growth bomb it became, was late coming. It was, Buc fans, Lamar - who certainly didn’t need any more dough - said it was time to talk about expansion and Tampa should be considered (Tampa was then sniffing around soccer, too, and had old-new Tampa Stadium ready for a max of about 50,000, which was what the Gators drew in the late 1968 christening game when Florida got by Air Force 23-20). After overhearing that, Marcum made it known Tampa was going to get into the franchise business, Rood, Levy and that crowd sticking with it until Tampa Bay got itself a formally appointed committee.
But, even back then, Lamar Hunt pushed his second soccer involvement and it probably made him an even stronger supporter of the NFL push. I know he was helpful on the expansion. That original group included Rooney, Hunt, Green Bay and Philadelphia. Tampa, with a fine committee Levy headed and Marcum advised, was popular. Did a nice job. I forget but I think there were only two negative votes. Didn’t matter. One of those clubs now even has a worse record this year than the Mighty Buckolas.
Though a wealthy man (his dad was one of the three wealthiest in the world at the time), he never showed. Class, style he showed, always, usually wore a suit. Had one on here recently at a game, on crutches. We even liked each other personally, and I am from the cabin-born, not the manor, as was he.
“We went to see him.’’ said Marcum in his office. “It was in a bank building. He had a desk and a chair and a sofa. On the way to the Petroleum Club, an older distinguished man came up to ride on the elevator with us. He was H.L. Hunt. At the club, another clearly wealthy man came up with a package. H.L. Hunt said to the man, the owner of the Haggar slacks, he’d bet him a season ticket the Chiefs there against his best pair of slacks on the game. They did. I don’t – should - remember who won, but I know we made a couple of fine friends. Lamar has been attentive to us all along. This should demonstrate to you something. He favored Tampa because he felt the NFL should expand … and that Tampa deserved that.’’
He has repeated that to me often through the years.
You know I used to run daily—not walk and swim.
Mr. Hunt always ran, too, when he could. At a Super Bowl game in Houston - get this - I ran through that great city early morning with Lamar Hung and Don Shula and we talked often on the phone about soccer, and the NASL - both wistfully.
We are losing another star with that enemy of us all, cancer, about to know this one out of the sky. He’s somewhere pulling for us all. Lord knows, we, and the Bucs so badly, need whatever Lamar - all call him that - can send us.
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