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USF fans pack restaurant for preseason tailgate party
By LEE DIEKEMPER
Article published on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/072208_cit-01.jpg) |
| Photo by LEE DIEKEMPER |
| University of South Florida head football coach Jim Leavitt signs autographs July 20 during a USF Alumni Association preseason tailgate party at Capogna’s Dugout in Clearwater. |
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CLEARWATER – The Tampa Bay Rays, after a decade of losing, are actually toying with first place in the American League East, an unthinkable feat before this season.
The Tampa Bay Lighting have gone through such an overhaul with new owners, a new coach and signed so many new players, it’s as if a new team has come to town.
With all the talk in late July of baseball and hockey, at times it seems the Tampa Bay area has turned into Detroit or St. Louis. Lest we forget, we live in the Sunshine State where football rules the sports landscape.
University of South Florida football coach Jim Leavitt made sure some 300 football fans and USF boosters were reminded of that. For the second straight year, Leavitt made an appearance at Capogna’s Dugout in Clearwater to fire up fans as the season looms.
“I’m getting really anxious,” Leavitt said. “After July 4, it’s time. I’m on fire.”
The event was billed as a “preseason tailgate party” with Leavitt, a St. Petersburg native who played for Dixie Hollins High School, being the main attraction. Leavitt was treated like an archbishop. He arrived at mid-afternoon and was escorted into the restaurant by the Bulls pep band, the Herd of Thunder.
“You have no idea how much this means to me,” he said. “This is awesome. This is overwhelming.”
The three-room restaurant was packed with the bar area nearly shoulder-to-shoulder, almost as many as last year when some 400 Bulls fans squeezed into the establishment. A second dining room was reserved for Bulls merchandise sales while in the third dining room Leavitt walked up and down the aisles, working the crowd at the tables, thanking them all for coming.
This after a lengthy question-and-answer session with the fans in the bar area. Leavitt knew how to get a rise out of the fans by mentioning George Selvie and Matt Grothe, as well as noting cornerback Jerome Murphy “will be a special player.” But additional applause came often whenever he mentioned former starting center Nick Capogna, who played his high school football at Clearwater Central Catholic. Capogna graduated from USF this spring and has entered police academy training.
But the event wasn’t for the Capognas. So eager to see Leavitt, one fan, Steve George of Pinellas Park, came despite being on crutches.
“We have had season tickets since the very first game,” George said, his right knee wrapped in a bandage. “This fella (Leavitt) came to us from the very beginning and I see him being the embodiment and the commitment of a coach that goes all the way to the top tier. I actually envision if he can resist all the temptations of all the money and all the schools who want him so much that someday we will have a stadium named after him.
“I’d rather be here than any place else.”
Jason “Mutt” Hubbard of Seminole came decked out in his horns and customized jersey and marveled at the USF pep band showing up.
“They were awesome,” Hubbard said. “There is nothing that charges a crowd better than a college band. This is the way to go.”
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Article published on Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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