Childhood Memories of My First Bucs Game

I remember watching the Bucs on T.V. as a young kid. What drew me to my love for my Bucs? They were always considered the underdog. I remember my first game, it was a preseason game against the Saints in 1978. I believe the final score was 3-14 Bucs. My best friend’s dad owned a restaurant, and we went to the game in a huge Winnebago. Talk about a tailgate party! Hotdogs, wings, pizza you name it, and he had it!

As we drove down Dale Mabry south towards Tampa Stadium, I recall seeing the stadium lights poking just over the horizon. I could feel the goosebumps on my arms and remember yelling out, “there’s the stadium!”

After that game, I began going to every game that I could. I’ve been to over 60 games in my lifetime! I still have 32 tickets stored away in boxes.

I came from a broken family, and the Bucs win or lose helped me make it throughout some pretty tough times.

When they won, it was pure joy! When they lost, I usually couldn’t talk about it until the Wednesday after.

Well, that was my fun memory of how I became a Bucs fan!