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About this blog

A blog to discuss site issues and ideas as well as some occasional rambling, reflecting and repeating old USF stories.

Entries in this blog

Member Leaderboard functionality

If you look across the top of the site (desktop mode) in the main title bar, you'll see tabs for "Browse", "Activity", "New & Info" and so through "More".  Some of these have sub-menus with other content or links.  Under "Members" is "Leaderboard" and "Member Map".   For mobile version, click on the three bars in upper right corner to see the menus. Leaderboard lists the "top rated members" by content for the day, week month or custom period.  If you look at last week, I Bleed Awesomene

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

OT: Summer Fun - 2017 Edition

Was it really three years ago?  Out of boredom, I decided to be politically incorrect and attempt to get the attention of our board members by displaying pictures of scantily clad bikini babes.  My devious plan was to grab their attention and then test their NCAA logo knowledge.   The fun lasted from June 2 - August 29, featuring 14 different attention grabbing logo discussions.  The eye-straining effort concluded just two days before the season kicked off with an embarrassing 53-21 beat d

Brad

Brad in Summer Fun

Some rare looks at our coaches over the years

Looking through the archives of pictures taken, scanned or saved from the internet, I came across at least three right away that are worth re-visiting.  First we'll start with a very long tenured coach, Ken Eriksen, flashing back to his days on the USF Baseball team:     Per GoUSFBulls.com: In four seasons (1981-84) as a player on the USF baseball team, and while playing five positions, his career batting average topped .315 and he had an ERA of 2.48 on the mound. In 1982, he

Brad

Brad in USF Athletics

Jim Leavitt on new QB Matt Grothe

I'm not sure Coach Jim Leavitt knew exactly what he had when Matt Grothe arrived on campus.  But one thing he got right, was Matt's confidence.  It carried him.  Take a quick listen to Jim Leavitt discuss Matt Grothe as recorded at Bulls Media Day by board member Gene Haines.  

Brad

Brad in USF Athletics

Tampa Tribune and the Bulls

Thought some would enjoy this, especially in theses times of wishing the local reporters cared a little more.  This is quite a committment by the now defunct Tampa Tribune, but could you imagine the excitement to see this today with the Tampa Bay Times?   At least two on that billboard were active on TBP back then.  Either way, it was a nice billboard and an embrace of the program by the local paper. Any chance will ever see the Bulls embraced like this from the remaining pa

Brad

Brad in Bulls Media

Andre Hall and The Heisman Hope

It's been a long time since the word Heisman and Bull was mentioned in the same conversation.  In 2017, Quinton Flowers has been referred to as a candidate for the honor, even if just a "dark horse".  The first ever chatter around a USF Bulls player breaking into that club was with RB Andre Hall.  Hall was an offensive MVP and 9th in the nation in yards per game as a junior.  He was hyped as a potential All-American and yes an outside shot at the H trophy.  USF never took that leap, but many Sou

Brad

Brad in USF Athletics

How about the old "TheBullsPen.com" radio ad?

A while back when the site was spending some dollars to help rally the USF Bulls community, we put out a radio ad to attract additional members.  Initially, I used the Google radio advertising service that allowed access to dozens of stations across Florida.  I remember UCFers posting on the board they heard an ad for TBP in Orlando and it grinded on them a bit.  Ultimately Google closed down that part of the business.  I later worked with a local Tampa station to run the ads - I think it may ha

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

BullsGallery.com is back

I have been working on restoring the latest version of BullsGallery.com.  Not yet finished, but you are welcome to take a look. BullsGallery.com   Right now, there are nearly 12,000 images ranging from 1997 to 2014.  There are still many to enter including Bulls @ Penn State and sets from 2015 and 2016.  There are sets taken back in the 1999-2002 era.  Granted the image capabilities are much better now, but it gives you a look at some of the older, early games of the Bulls.

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Some of the crazy stuff you find in the attic...

Occasionally I look through some of the hard drives and find some old memories.  When you think about this site being around for almost 18 years there has to be good stuff, right?  The board, when it was young, had a lot of great posts lost in the great crashes of 2005- 2007 (I think).  We lost some great stories by @TheSheriff and probably more.  I had a couple hard drives die.  One resuscitated briefly and I retrieved some board images as well as some tax returns.   I came across remnants

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

New Members To-Do List

I've noticed quite a few members that have joined recently (and some members that have been so for longer periods) have not personalized their profile picture.  Using the default profile image is okay: Those are some nice horns, but take a little time and you can break from the herd with your own image.  If you look in the upper right corner you'll see your screen name.  Click on the arrow next to it and select Profile, under Content. On your profile page, you'll see an icon

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Around the site...

I know a lot of people bookmark the Main Page and reach it directly, often on mobile, but there is more that the site has to offer to our USF Bulls online community.  Of course the message boards are heating up with talk of the new season, but there are other pages and links I think you'd enjoy, including:   Gallery set up for season Media Guides, wallpapers and other digital downloads Consolidated video collection of past games Twitter feeds from top beat reporters New RSS board gatherin

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

TBP NFL Office Pool

Open for registration now is our first annual site "office pool" where members compete against each other picking the NFL winners against the spread.  It is hosted by CBS Sports.  It's free to sign up and play. The link is in this thread: I hope you'll join and take part in this with other Bulls fans and board members.

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Invite system

I am very pleased to announce that I have purchased a member invite system that is now integrated into the board.  You will see the changes if you look in the upper right section of the screen.  You'll see something that looks like a ticket.  If you click that, you can enter into the app and invite people you know to TheBullsPen.com.  You simply enter email addresses and the system sends out an invite (pictured below, looks better live) that allows the receiver to click to go to TBP and aut

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

TBP Gallery and the 2016-17 Football Season

In the past, I've struggled to get the gallery function working as I would like it to.  I think I have it figured out, and I'd like Bulls fans to help out.  We had permissions issues before, but I think it's ready to work. I have already set up the primary events for the 2016-17 season. As a member, if you'll look in the top menu bar, select Browse, you'll see a submenu for the Gallery.  Click on that and you will see the first box is titled 2016-17 USF Football.  Click on that and you

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Dog Days of Summer, Part I

As we await fall practices, one thing always gets lost in the shuffle - the message board's birthday on August 31.  Founded in 1999 (between my sons born in '98 and '00 - now you know why I looked tired going to Saturday games, it wasn't the kids), the site will be celebrating it's 17th birthday next month.  It's been a pleasure and a struggle establishing and maintaining a site throughout the ups and downs of the program and the rudimentary technology available back in the day. Oh, and the summ

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

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