Facts and information about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• The Buccaneers lost their first 26 games, not winning a game until near the end of their second season.

• The Buccaneers came into the NFL the same year, 1976, as the Seattle Seahawks.

• At one time, the Buccaneers had a string of 14 consecutive losing seasons.

• The early Buccaneer defense was anchored by brothers Lee Roy and Dewey Selmon.

• Though their team colors are now red and pewter, the Buccaneers original color scheme was orange and white.

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in Head Coach Jon Gruden’s first year with the team beating the team he coached the year before, the Oakland Raiders.

• The Buccaneers were actually the second modern professional football team in Tampa after the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL.

• In 1976, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first year in the league they were in the AFC West. Before the start of the second year they switched to the NFC Central.

• The first owner of the Buccaneers was Hugh Culverhouse, a tax attorney from Jacksonville. Interestingly, Culverhouse had been the attorney that brokered Carroll Rosenbloom’s swapping of his Baltimore Colts for Robert Irsay’s Los Angeles Rams. No players or other personnel were involved in the trade, the teams owners simply traded franchises.

• The Buccaneers first win in franchise history was over the New Orleans Saints on the road; their first home win came the very next week against the St. Louis Cardinals.

• In 1979, the Buccaneers won the NFC Central Division title and made the playoffs.

• In the 1986 NFL Draft, Tampa Bay selected Heisman Trophy winning Running Back from the University of Auburn, Bo Jackson. Jackson would never wear a Buccaneers uniform as he elected to play professional baseball; though he would join the NFL later with the Los Angeles Raiders.

• Following the death of original owner Hugh Culverhouse, it was revealed that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization was close to bankruptcy. The team was almost purchased by Peter Angelos, the owner of baseball’s Baltimore Orioles, who wanted to move the team to Baltimore (since they had lost the Colts years earlier) but at the last minute they were bought by Malcolm Glazer.

• Former Buccaneer Head Coach Tony Dungy and former Buccaneer Linebackers Coach Lovie Smith would later become the first two African-American Head Coaches to coach in the Super Bowl when Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts defeated Smith’s Chicago Bears in 2007.

• In 2002, when the Buccaneers obtained the rights to hire Jon Gruden as Head Coach, even though he was currently employed in that position with the Oakland Raiders, it cost them dearly. They had to give the Raiders their 1^st and 2^nd round draft picks in 2002, their 1^st round pick in 2003, and their 2^nd round pick in 2004… plus $8 million dollars in cash. As a result of this trade the NFL now prohibits the trading of draft picks for coaches.

• The Buccaneers NFC Championship victory over the Philadelphia Eagles following the 2002 season was the last game ever played in Philadelphia’s Veteran’s Stadium.

• Upon winning Super Bowl XXXVII, Jon Gruden became the youngest Head Coach to ever win the Super Bowl.

• When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the 2003 Super Bowl they became the first team to ever win the Super Bowl without having a first or second round draft pick in the previous year’s NFL Draft.

• In 2003, Rich McKay was General Manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for part of the year and after leaving the team, General Manager of the Atlanta Falcons for the rest of the year.

• In Super Bowl XXXVII, the Bucs had defeated the Raiders. The very next season the Buccaneers record was 7-9 and the Raiders record was 4-12 and neither team made the playoffs.

• With a 5-11 record for the 2004 season, the Buccaneers became the first team ever to follow a Super Bowl win with back-to-back losing seasons.

• After the 2006 season, Linebacker Derrick Brooks was named to his 10^th consecutive Pro Bowl.

• The original Tampa Bay Buccaneer logo (pirate in a swashbuckler hat with dagger in his teeth) was drawn by Tampa Tribune cartoonist Lamar Sparkman.

• When the Buccaneers got their new logo in 1997 (skull with crossed swords and a football), they became the second team to ever have a logo on their helmet that included a football (the old Patriots logo was the first).

• At Raymond James Stadium, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play home games, the visitor’s bench is located on the east side of the stadium. When the Bucs play home games that start at 1pm, the visitor’s bench is in the sun while the home team’s bench is in the shade.

• The Buccaneers are the first expansion team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to win a division (1979), a playoff game (1979), and a Super Bowl (2003).

• In the Buccaneers first thirty years in the league (1976-2006) they had never returned a kickoff for a Touchdown in a regular season game, though they had accomplished this five times in preseason games.

• Through the 2006 season what is commonly referred to as the “Tampa Bay Curse” was still in effect. No team has ever lost to the Buccaneers during the regular season and gone on to win the Super Bowl.

• Hall-of-Fame Quarterback and 49ers great, Steve Young started his NFL career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

• The first former Buccaneer to have his jersey retired was Defensive Lineman Lee Roy Selmon.

• Lee Roy Selmon, former Defensive Lineman, was the first former Tampa player to be inducted into the Hall-of-Fame.

• There have been three Quarterbacks that started for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but went on to win Super Bowls with other teams; Doug Williams (Washington Redskins), Steve Young (San Francisco 49ers), and Trent Dilfer (Baltimore Ravens).

• Through the 2006 season, only one Head Coach had ever compiled an above .500 record as Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach; Tony Dungy (56-46).

• Two former Buccaneers coaches have just four victories during their stays in Tampa Bay; Richard Williamson (4-15) and Leeman Bennett (4-28).