Last week on a warm Tuesday night, UT students came together and gathered around to watch an action-packed football game. The tension in the air was high as quiet crept its way into people's mouths. The clock begins to tick, all you can here is the crack noise a cold beer makes when you open it, and then "wohoooo yeaaaa" the crowd says as UT student Joey Venezia gives his team the lead with a touchdown. At the end of the game a friend of Venezia's and fellow UT Student, Dana Dietl, gives him a pat on the back and thanks him for inviting her over to join in on the festivities. She never realized how much fun playing NCAA college football on a PS3 could be.
Presently, many UT students have to look outside the box to take part in the college football experience, although it was not always like this. UT has changed drastically since it was first founded in 1931. The first president of UT, Frederic Spaulding stated "The decision to begin was one of the most daring ever made. We had no building, no money, no teachers, and no students. No college ever began on less, but after the decision was made progress was phenomenal."
With this institution already off to a rocky start, it was expected that in 1933 when Nash Higgins became the universities first athletic director and football coach it would be a difficult time with players having to pay for their own expenses. However, even with financial setbacks, The Spartons still followed through with an impressive season. Through their hard work The Spartons brought a sense of community to the school as well as the area. In 1967, when the team was struggling financially once again, alumni and fans helped form the Sword and Shield organization that raised $139,360 for the athletic programs; through this Tampa Stadium was created. The team had a great success beating the Miami Hurricanes at the Orange Bowl, being accepted into the National Collegiate Athletic Association and winning a victory in the Tangerine Bowl. But on November 30, 1974, The Spartons played their last game due to yet again, fiscal complications. University President B.D Owens reported "over the last three years $755,000 was taken out the endowment fund to support the football program. If reserves continued to be depleted, the school would become bankrupt or have to become part of the state system.
Though the University of Tampa dropped their football program in 1974, students like Joey Venezia and Dana Dietl don't let that stop them from finding their fix of college football. Venezia states "besides playing football on the PS3 I attend USF games, usually two per season and I take part in the whole tailgating and college football experience." Although students have their history to cheer for and can find other ways to support their football fiends students like Dietl still hope for a change, "I hate it how we don't have a team, I feel as though we have no unity to our school. Every other school gets together and has school spirit and we don't. I feel dumb cheering for another school other than mine but I want to have something to be apart of in or community. I sometime hope maybe one day it will change!"
No comments:
Post a Comment