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.

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost at least ten games in each season except for one for the years 1982 through 1996

• In the early 1980’s, Buccaneers quarterback Jack Thompson effectively ended his pro football career when he crossed the strike line to continue playing football during the labor impasse.

• The first Tampa Bay Buccaneers player to put up more than two consecutive 1,000 yard receiving seasons in a row was wide receiver Joey Galloway.

• The Buccaneers are the first NFL team to have won the Super Bowl after losing at home on the opening day of the season (against the New Orleans Saints).

• In 1997, Trent Dilfer became the first Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback to ever go to the Pro Bowl.

• Buccaneers running back Mike Alstott played his first two seasons in the NFL with his name misspelled on the back of his jersey, it read “Alsott”.

• When the Buccaneers won the 2002 Super Bowl, Jon Gruden became the youngest Super Bowl winning coach in NFL history.

• One of the companies purchased by Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer as part of his business empire was the near bankrupt Zapata Oil Company which had originally been founded in 1953 by future United States President George H. W. Bush. Zapata Oil is claimed by many to have at one time been a front for the CIA.

• Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks was named in 2007 to the Florida High School Association All-Century Team.

• Onetime Buccaneers running back Gary Anderson is also the fourth leading career rusher in the history of the rival United States Football League.

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ first head coach in team history was John McKay who coached the team from 1976-1984. From 1976-1979 he coached his son, as J.K. McKay played wide receiver for the Buccaneers during that stretch.

• Longtime Buccaneers defensive back Ronde Barber’s twin brother Tiki had a long and successful career at running back with the New York Giants.

• While in college at Purdue University, future Buccaneers running back Mike Alstott became the first Purdue football player named Team MVP three seasons in a row.

• Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks is the first linebacker to ever return three interceptions for touchdowns in one season.

• Buccaneers defensive back John Lynch holds the distinction of throwing the first pitch in the history of the Florida Marlins baseball organization when he took the mound as a member of the Class A Erie Sailors. Because of this, his jersey is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

• Running back Gary Anderson is one of the few players in pro football history who has been the team leader in rushing for two different teams from the same city; the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL.

• Tampa Bay defensive back Ronde Barber was the first cornerback in NFL history to record 20 interceptions and 20 quarterback sacks in his career.

• Running back Mike Alstott scored the first touchdown in Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl history.

• Buccaneers defensive tackle Warren Sapp finished in second place during season 7 of the television show Dancing With The Stars.

• Future San Francisco 49ers star quarterback and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Steve Young had a record of 3-16 as the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

• In 1976, the first player chosen in the NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their first year of existence was defensive lineman Lee Roy Selmon. Selmon would play for the Buccaneers for nine seasons and eventually be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the second round of the 1976 NFL Draft, Tampa Bay would select Selmon’s brother Dewey who would also play a number of years with the team.

• During construction, the stadium that would eventually be opened in 1998 as the new home field for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Raymond James Stadium) was briefly named Tampa Community Stadium.

• The first football game played in Tampa Stadium (The Big Sombrero), the original home field of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was a college football game between the University of Tampa and the University of Tennessee.

• 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 are one of actually two modern professional football teams to play in Tampa along with 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, and 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).

More Links

Florida Traffic Cameras

WOULD YOU LIKE A LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE TO APPEAR ON THIS PAGE? CLICK HERE!

Tweet This Post