UT Football: Where Have All the Good TImes Gone?

Every year, as we move farther into the autumn, we can always count on two annual events: the leaves changing colors, eventually falling off the trees, and the mass hysteria, that is the college football season. From tail-gating to bodies doused in school colors,; students, players and outside fans alike get to follow their favorite school, and hope they can get to victory.
Unfortunately, any student who has attended UT for their Freshman year on, never had the chance to root on their school’s football team., the 20 year UT veteran, and Associate Athletic Director, Gil Swalls, has never seen a UT Football game during his career. Despite this, he is still very knowledgeable about the former football team. When asked about the team, he said: “ They existed up until 1974 .They actually won the Tangerine Bowl. They would even play teams that are currently power teams such as Miami, and beat them, quite a bit. The Board of trustees, I think they had a what was almost a private meeting, and based on the documents I’ve read, they were facing a deficit; from what I read was 100 thousand dollars, which in 1974, they thought was meaningful to them. But its funny, because we were the main event. Our games would bring in 20,000 fans to the football stadium. As far as Tampa football went, we were the talk of the town in the late 60’s, early 70’s. Some people think that the Buccaneers bought us out because they happened to start in 1974, and moved into Tampa Stadium, but I think we could have coexisted.”
The idea of not having a school football team is definitely one that stirs up conversation among students. Samantha George, a UT Junior, puts it frankly: “It pisses me off that I can’t go to football games, and I’m pretty jealous of my friends who go to schools that have one.” Other students are not as bothered by the lack of a team. Chris Bieluch, a UT Junior,, tell us his Plan B to catch college ball games. said: “ Yea, I wish we had a team, but its not a big deal. I follow USF instead, the games aren’t that far away.”