Tampa, Florida					Monday, September 06, 2010

The Home of The Blues Was Never So Blue
Saturday, September 10, 2005
TAMPA--New Orleans, in my times, has always been magical, alluring, tempting, nice and naughty, so very musical, tempting and sneaky, foreign, fun, free, footloose, an arrangement of little the elegant, the enchanting, the eyesores and the captivating historical from French and slave times through the World Wars. its Pacific Theater Museum and this now that is adding the most horrible of chapters to its hurricane history segment, this one named Katrina. And, I didn’t even mention the Mississippi River, nor its casino, its grand hotels, its once Super Bowl, its culture, its great learning places, and the pure and simple fact that it ranks with the world’s top several in the best, and most diverse cities, for its cuisine and those who produce it, from Arnaud’s, Brennan’s, to the Felix oyster shuckers to the most recently created chain dining places that are doing so well—Ruth Chris and Popeye’s. Nor did I mention the music—where none makes you shake more—the smell in and around Bourbon Street that can be so wondrous rising from the kitchens or the firepits in the delightful evenings. But then, then after the party is over the next morning more rancid, none can offer one more rancid. I did not mention the girls, the strippers and the girl friends, the packed streets, Pat O’Brien’s Singalong bar filled with collegians and wanna-be collegians again. There they sing their school songs and drinking watery Hurricanes (yes, that’s the name) to the keyboard slamming-foot stomping talents of a couple of big mama piano players. On stage is a hopping/dancing waiter with thimbles on the fingers of one hand tapping the bottom of a flat silver plate sprinkled with coins he holds in the other to the music to whatever the big mamas are playing loudly and singing loudly, the crowd joining in, of course. Just fun, nothing more, and so New Orleans. It will be again, I guess. Pat O’Brien’s will sing and dance and offer Hurricanes again. It is not destroyed by the angry Katrina. Not even Katrina could punish that haven. And, I didn’t even mention that this diverse city has to be a top of the class holiday tourist destination, a great port of the world, a business capital, a place of trouble, too, even before now, but none of that was a purpose here of this piece. The idea of this collection was to remind us all that Tampa and Florida and those of us here, have shared good times and bad times in the past with New Orleans, most notably, in weather, in tourist gratifying, good and varied restaurants, and enchanting places where European influences have been so important to us both, where fun and frustration have been commonplace to us both. Both know these storms and their unpredictability. Tampa’s lasting influence has been first Spanish, then Cuban, New Orleans has been French and Creole. Sports has been so important, and so frustrating and so successful, sports, college and the NFL particularly, the pros in general and the colleges and the facilities they jump-started. But, the omissions were purposeful. They’ve been done and will be more often soon. The idea of this was to remind us of how tied Tampa and Florida sports are interwoven with each other, so similarly as are those of Louisiana late in the Fall of 1977, then, all of us together, know how so much important to us, including fun and culture and music and food, trace to New Orleans and Baton Rouge. That is why, in addition to the tragedy of it all in general, it is so difficult to watch these pictures on television, in the papers and magazines and read the dramatic reports without thinking of the good times in New Orleans and Louisiana, hey, Gulfport and Mobile, and the others so devastated and/or disrupted. And I wonder if that is wrong, to think of the better times, I hope you think of those good times now too. So here are some of those significant times and events, good and the not so, in which we were involved, or as the Sports Editor of the Tampa Tribune for so long. Here are a couple of teasers of the links across the Gulf: A starter--One of the most significant victories in Tampa Bay Buccaneer history came at the Super Dome in New Orleans, but, the Saints would extract revenge. Then, while later one of the most important victories in the football careers of Coach Bobby Bowden and Florida State University would take place about 90 miles north. Why, the biggest win ever for the Florida Gator football team occurred later back down in the Dome. . . And it was where I received a career- climaxing award in the Roosevelt Hotel, so long The Sports Hotel and where Ella Fitzgerald used to sing. Some years ago at the Associated Press Sports Editors Association luncheon from the late best-of-all Jim Murray I received the Red Smith Award for sports editing and writing. No, I didn’t deserve it. . . .And, in a switch of developments, New Orleans was the place where another sports writer, on a freezing night in old Tulane Stadium died covering the Notre Dame/Alabama game some years ago. He was sitting beside me in that old facility, and fell unconscious. I helped carry him to the small, rickety elevator and then out, but it was too late. As I said it was not always good working sports in the Big Easy, but it was never routine. So, let’s go on this Tampa/Florida-New Orleans/Louisiana verbal trip in a little more detail through some of the bigger connecting events: -- It was the late fall of 1964, my second year at The Tribune. Hurricane Hilda had moved into the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico and was several hundred miles south of New Orleans. It was edging north to the mouth of the Mississippi. The Florida Gators of Coach Ray Graves were headed to Baton Route to play the LSU Tigers in Tiger Stadium Saturday night. It was Thursday afternoon. The game was called off, postponed. Bob Bassine of the Orlando Sentinel and I got a morning train spot booked for the next day, then went that night to Pat O‘Brien’s on Bourbon Street, after writing of the storm and the cancellation. Pat O’Brien’s was packed. Plenty of Gator fans were there still. Later, they talked to the late Red Mitchum, the Gator ambassador as a master emcee, who could also sing a bit and play a book of safety matches like a tiny guitar. “Butter Beans—Just a Plate of Butter Beans,” was his theme song. He was terrific that night and would go home to Ocala and good wife Grace the next morning. Unhappily, he had called Grace and said the storm was closing in and keeping all there in their New Orleans hotel rooms that night. When I got back to the hotel, I wrote a new piece about the good work of Red Mitchum on the stage at Pat O’Brien’s that Friday night. The Mitchums subscribed to The Tribune. When he got home the next day, Grace was out but placed so he could not miss it was a clip of that Morning After about him entertaining at O’Brien’s the night he said the Hurricane Hilda had him hotel bound. I have apologized since. She didn’t care, really, she knew Red couldn’t pass up an appearance like that. Bassine of Orlando and I made the last train across Lake Pontchartrain, then the last out of Jackson to Atlanta and Tampa, ahead of Hilda, a big one. Weeks later, on Dec. 1, 1964, Coach Ray Graves’ Gators Florida beat LSU in the makeup game, at Baton Rouge, 20-6 for a 7-3 season. but no bowls because Hilda, really, and the delayed finish she caused. -- In 1965, New Orleans turned on the Gators again. That was the Go for Two Year against Missouri in the Sugar Bowl, then in old Tulane Stadium. That was a QB Steve Spurrier to Charley Casey year, But too late. That was the year Missouri moved to a 20-0 lead, but Florida did not quit. In the press box, their strategist fumbled. Spurrier took Florida, with Casey the receiver to three touchdowns, but after each TD, play callers went for two points and failed for 20-6 Gator loss. It was simple. Points kicked after the three scores would have won it for Florida, 21-2. Asked about the calls, the coach making the decision confessed: “I thought 20-8 would look better than 20-6.’’ -- On Dec. 11, 1977. in	the newish Super Bowl, only 40,000 showed up to see the 0-24 Buccaneers play the almost as bad Saints. The Bucs were in the second year of life and heavy underdogs. But, they won. The Bucs won! And big. They won 33-14, to end that horrible streak, an NFL record of 26 straight loses. And, they won with a record three interceptions returned for touchdowns for beleaguered Coach John McKay who said the anvil had been removed from his neck. The few Buc fans there for history, spilled over the walls and ran onto the Super Dome floor. Back in Tampa, a crowd of 8,000 was gathering to welcome their “heroes” home, and did. Why, the Bucs then beat St. Louis in Tampa for a 2-0 finish. Back in New Orleans, the day after the Buc embarrassment to end the losing streak, the late Head Coach Hank Stram burned the film of the game at midfield in the Dome without his team seeing the replay. Stram had lobbied hard for the head job with the Bucs McKay got instead -- Mid-season. 1979, at Baton Rouge, sort-of new Florida State University Coach Bobby Bowden had his Seminoles, a college whose Noles under Larry Jones had gone 0-11 then hired Bowden from West Virginia, not a very popular choice then, 7-0-0, and at Louisiana State for a defining game. Before the game, on the field at Tiger Stadium game, Bowden confided to me that he just might have something going at FSU. He said if he could win that night, at Baton Rouge, he figured to stay at FSU, not leave, maybe ever. He knew he had a schedule that favored him from then out. The Seminoles clubbed LSU 27-0/ , FSU went on to beat Cincinnati, South Carolina, Memphis State and then Florida in Gainesville 27-16 for an 11-0 season under Bowden and Athletic Director John Bridges who had hired him. Wally Woodham and Jimmy Jordan were the sharing quarterbacks, Ron Simmons at linebacker the unanimous All-America. The shot at 11-0 and No. 1 was lost with the 24-7 loss in the Orange Bowl to Coach Barry Switzer and the marvelous quarterback J.C. Watts, now a U.S. congressman. But, the season was ended at a splendid 11-1 and best of all, Bowden kept his word and has stayed to this day and built one of the finest, winningest programs in the country. That win at LSU was a defining one for FSU and Bowden. -- The a college football game of a lifetime in the State of Florida came in the Sugar Bowl in the Nokia New Orleans on Jan. 2, 1997. It was the game so many Floridians had so long craved—Florida and Florida State matched for the national championship. FSU was No. 1 in the land and Florida No. 4 in the polls but in a remarkable twist of fate, put the title on the line there for the Gators to take if they could beat the Noles that night. Texas had upset third-ranked Nebraska and then on New Year’s Day in the Rose Bowl, Ohio State knocked off number one ranked Arizona in the last second in the Rose Bowl. That did it. That meant the Gators and Noles would have at it in their friendly city of New Orleans and in the Super Dome. It was a matchmaker’s dream as well. Again, FSU was favored. The Noles had already dealt Florida 24-21 at Tallahassee. Both teams were loaded. Florida’s quarterback was Danny Wuerffel, who had just won the Heisman Trophy. Bowden’s fine team had Warrick Dunn as a key. Florida won the game handily, 52-20, Wuerffel playing sensationally, as did running back Fred Taylor. The Gators and Spurrier then took their long suffering fans all to Bourbon Street for a celebration in Celebration City. That memory stands out for so many now as we look so dispirited and concerned as the Katrina’s attack has left the great city still in distress. No matter what, Gators will ever be grateful for this time spent there. I was with Coach Spurrier and wife Jerri, his good friend and Outback executive, the Florida quarterback who preceded SOS, Tom Shannon, that night, and the Gator team, and thus in the eye of the happy event. Now, this. Now, the angry Katrina and amidst the anguished talk of walking away from New Orleans forever and not rebuilding. We know that won’t happen. It will be built, and it will be better. Too much to see and share there, too much gumbo and oysters, too much wonderful music and new blues about which to sing, too many breakfasts at Brennan’s and too many dishes to relish at Mr. B’s, Commander’s Palace, the Sonesta that all those Hall of Fame eateries—and all that left to drink. Got to go back and sing our songs at Pat O’Brien’s. -- Finally—and there are so many more events of great significance to Tampa and Florida. Like, well, it was but a few years ago when the NFL team owners met there, off Bourbon Street, but not by much, to pick the site for Super Bowl XXXV. The owners of the Bucs were the active members of the aggressive Tampa franchise committee—Malcolm Glazer and sons Joel and Bryan. They had promised 100 per cent support for a Super game in 2001. They gave it. I was there. New Orleans had the game the year after, in 2002, for an eighth time, all in the life of the Super Bowl in that facility that as a haven for those displaced by Katrina. It will never be used again. Another grander place will replace it, surely. But, when Tampa was in pursuit of that ’01 XXXV Super Bowl and all were waiting in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel, I was standing with the other reporters (Nick Pugliese), like co-Tampa supporters like Joe Fincher and Leonard Levy, the owners took a break and filed out among us again. The next day on the front page of the Time-Picayune was a photo of me whispering into the ear of Cleveland owner, Art Modell. He was identified. I was only as a lobbyist for the city that would win it, Tampa. What I whispered to good friend, Modell, was that if he would support our town, I’d see to it he had a night of whatever he wished in Tampa. He said, well, he’d take a Porterhouse steak at Bern’s. Tampa got the Super Bowl sought that would be played in the new Raymond James Stadium, and the help of so many and now has won another already for 2012 at RJ. In between, the Bucs came of age themselves in ‘03 by winning the Super Bowl in San Diego under Coach John Gruden, still here and still feisty. Beat Oakland soundly 38-21. Additionally, New Orleans when not pursuing a Super Bowl—of course it will win one as soon as its new facilities are built after these tough times, and its committee people long ago were tutors for the Levy Super Bowl bids won here, by early counsel and vote. That’s enough, enough for now of history of the Florida/Tampa tie, but there is so much more ahead after the misery. There is time for Tampa/Florida support of another kind to go that way across, help for the victims of an enemy far more vicious than sports could offer—Katrina, relief. Know this too—the New Orleans Hornets of the National Basketball Association played home games in the destroyed Super Dome. They are looking for a home for the season ahead and they have inquired about the St. Pete Times Arena, home of the NHL hockey Lightning. Meanwhile, the Lightning is beginning practice next week for its defense of the Stanley Cup, and, or course, the New Orleans NHL reps . A final note of the Bucs/Saints tie. They are both in the Southern Division of the National Football League. They play each other twice, including this year. The Saints are looking at LSU and San Antonio for an NFL home. They have always played the Bucs hard, and have been even more frustrated than Tampa Bay, overall. Now, the Bucs go to play New Orleans at their home Dec. 4, and the Saints come to Tampa for the final game of the season. How about that? Could be the key to a playoffs game for either, or both. The Bucs say to expect no sympathy. In this deciding game, But, most of this lookback was and now is now, and now is the time to share their misery and remember the good times, knowing there have been some not so good times there in the past, but none so punishing as this. So, now is the time to look to the future, and remember how much good there is to eat still in Big Easy, still too much great music to hear, too many songs to sing. ##
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