University of Tampa students must find substitute ways to give them the good old football spirit, typically familiar to other southern universities.
Many students are unaware that UT ever had a football program, and many students refuse to forgive the University Of Tampa Board Of Trustees for dropping the football program. Regardless, it is extremely unlikely that football will ever return to UT.
Football was a large part of UT for 38 seasons, beginning in 1933.
It started as a small college program, and grew along with the construction of Tampa Stadium.
UT unknowingly played their last game at Tampa Stadium on November 30, 1974.
Although football has disappeared from the university, it leaves a legacy behind. More than half of the UT Athletic Hall Of Fame members, which began in 1962, consists of football players.
Three of the football hall members have received an accumulation of six Super Bowl Rings. Two of the members were major college All-Americans, and 18 players were drafted or started in the NFL.
Three Spartan head football coaches have been voted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame.
One popular intramural sport that has become a popular substitute for football here at Tampa is flag football.
“All nine years it’s been around it has been one of the most popular intramurals on campus. This year we have 21 men’s teams and three women’s teams.” Director of Campus Recreation Charles Yezak, said.“A bunch of students come and watch the games, and playoff and championship games draw as many as 100-250 fans. Last year for the flag football championship we had over two hundred people in attendance to watch, for a small university like UT, that’s unbelievable.”
Junior Lauren Hanlon, Student Coordinator of Intramural Sports, discusses more about flag football.
“Flag football is offered to male and female students of teams of seven or more. This year we have four separate brackets consisting of six teams each, and a separate women’s bracket of five teams. We have not only teams of friends come out, but many organizations and residence halls come out to participate and compete for the directors cup, an award given at the end of second semester to the organization who has been most successful in all of their intramural participation for the year. Just yesterday alone for three flag football games we registered 80 men.
“Flag football is almost as competitive as the real thing, we have teams coming down to scope out their competition, as well as fans.”
When Yezak was asked how he felt about school spirit at UT, he expressed that school spirit is building, and a lot of steps are taken by various departments on campus to deepen student interest.
“There is a lot of potential growth over time,” said Yezak, “we are a younger school (starting up in 1931) compared to other schools that are more involved and have deeper traditions, so we need more time,”
He believes that beautifying the campus creates an environment that students thrive in and will give students more pride in UT.
“It is a challenge to have great amounts of school spirit when we are located in an urban setting because we don’t have all the open fields to play that other schools like Texas have, so we’ve introduced things like indoor sports to help with that disadvantage.”
Other intramurals this year are also becoming increasingly popular on campus.
Intramural sports include 12 sports (six per semester) and three single day tournaments, in which over 400 students participate. There are currently 21 men’s teams and six women’s teams for indoor soccer. Co-ed sand volleyball had 31 students register. Last semester there were a record-breaking 22 softball teams, and Yezak expects the trend to continue.
Not only can students become active in intramural sports, but they can get their football fix by attending other football games around Tampa, for example the University of South Florida games held at Raymond James Stadium, located only a few miles away from UT campus.
When Spartan students were asked how they thought administrators could improve school spirit they had many great ideas.
“I’m disappointed about the lack of school spirit here. Maybe if on game days there were booths were set up around campus playing music and giving out free stuff people would want to be more involved with the teams,” freshman Natasha Kipper said. “Also, the school mascot should be extra involved on game days, running around and just throwing fun stuff around. It doesn’t need to be expensive things, but cheap necklaces and hats would do just fine.”
Although football is missed at UT, faculty and students are getting better and better at coping and learning other ways to fulfill their thirst for school spirit and football.
Student involvement may be progressing, but it is widely agreed that it will never be as good as it could be like if a football team was brought back to Tampa.
Alex Natiss is a first time writer to The Minaret. Natiss can be contacted at anattis@ut.edu.
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