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Brad's TBP Blog

Second Box Opening Tonight!

Yep, it's back here in my man cave, er Bulls cave, getting ready for the season and opening up boxes of memorabilia and merchandise that I always thought I would have in my man cave.  But my travels over the years, due to work, have landed me in multiple towns and houses.  It seems now I am finally in a "forever" home (until I move to Florida in the very near future).  Either way, I'm going through the stuff in storage and determining what is going to be in the short term cave here at site headq
Brad

Brad in Memorabilia

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Brad's TBP Blog

Visit #1 to the 24 hour secured, climate controlled USF Bulls memorabilia cache

Well, over the weekend, I was thinking about the other blog I post to and decided to go to the storage center where I have most of my by non-essential belongings after we downgraded to a small ranch near the town's restaurant/bar district. I was looking for some of my hard drives, they're probably destroyed by now.  The family doesn't enter the storage unit with the diligence and carefulness that I do.  It's more like their trapped in a fun house and just sort of create a way in and out.   
Brad

Brad in Memorabilia

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Artifacts Blog

Helping to Fund Facilities Goes Back a Long Way for this Community

I can't even remember much about this any more.  But I guess we took action to contribute towards the now named Lee Roy Selmon Athletics Center.  It was very nice to receive this letter in appreciation:   As best as I can remember, this was probably something that came out of one of the original iterations of the Bulls Backers Club.  If I had to guess, Eric is @E.T., Steve is @ZeroBullChip, Richard is @Ricky the Bull.  I'm not sure who Jeff is but have some ideas.  Jeff (and maybe
Artifacts Blog

USFBullsEye's Dave Glaser Chats with The Bulls Pen

Back in the early days of USF Football, SouthFloridaBulls.com held chats with different Bulls-related guests ranging from reporters to administrators to former players.  I just came across the transcripts and want to test out displaying - AND this is the transcript with our fellow board member @Dave_Glaser.  It occurred on 6/9/2005.  So, if you want to flash back and see if we were asking questions about uniforms back then or suggesting we fire everyone, you can read for yourself.   Left in the
Artifacts Blog

In 11th year of existence, Bulls Stampede BCS ratings

Attached is a document from 15 years ago showing the Bulls rating in the BCS, as well as #1 ranking by the computers.   The document is store in our Media Library.  Please click above to view By the way, BullsGallery.com, our on site image gallery, has a 2007 collection of USF Football here: https://www.thebullspen.com/gallery/category/54-2007/  
Artifacts Blog

Ok, now we're ready...

Not too long ago, someone suggested posting some of the old stuff from the early years.  I have probably 5 hard drives of stuff, but three of those hard drives don't seem to want to work.  Anyway, a more recent one had a mini-trove of interesting stuff I thought I'd toss out here to get it started.  Please feel free to add your own and to comment so I know someone is seeing this stuff! First, I have a circa 2005 Athletics Master Planning image you'd probably enjoy seeing considering today's
Brad's TBP Blog

Artifacts

Not too long ago, someone suggested posting some of the old stuff from the early years.  I have probably 5 hard drives of stuff, but three of those hard drives don't seem to want to work.  Anyway, a more recent one had a mini-trove of interesting stuff I thought I'd toss out here to get it started.  Please feel free to add your own and to comment so I know someone is seeing this stuff! First, I have a circa 2005 Athletics Master Planning image you'd probably enjoy seeing considering today's
Brad's TBP Blog

2005 Article on Message Boards

Another clipping from the very early days.  The writer mentions three Bulls fans all of which were members here back in 2005, our 5th/6th year of existence.  If you have trouble reading, let me know I will try to add a screen grab easier on the eyes.   Tue, Feb 15, 2005 – 21 · Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida) · Newspapers.com   Tue, Feb 15, 2005 – 24 · Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida) · Newspapers.com
Brad's TBP Blog

"SNORTIN FIRE AND BREATHIN' SMOKE"

Seems we're finally getting old enough as a football program or athletic program overall for people to start appreciating the retro or vintage Bulls logos.  I grabbed this page off the internet archive site.  It was created quite a bit ago from an old basketball media guide I bought.  Best part is it includes our boy, @smazza in it!     Please allow load time for this graphics intensive page A look back at Bulls teams of yesteryear  
Brad's TBP Blog

The early years...

This screen grab of the site about 15 years ago has some memorable meaning for me.  It was around 2002 and the site was beginning to take off a little.  A fan from another site of one of the early pay sites decided to insult the old SouthFloridaBulls.com site - the original host of "TheBullsPen".  So being a smart ass, I went ahead and gave the guy his own front page story.  We were going to seek venture capital to update the site to proper 2002 standards. The other memorable part was direc
Brad

Brad in Site Archives

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Brad's TBP Blog

BullVenturesInc.com

How about a look way back at the early days and origin of The Bulls Pen, saved from the internet archive.           This site, bullventuresinc.com, was the lead site in the sprawling internet based empire led by the former entrepreneur known as Bulliever. Bulliever incorporated a company known as "Bull Ventures, Inc. (BVI)  It was a company whose charter and mission would lead into unknown recess
Brad

Brad in Site Archives

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Brad's TBP Blog

TBP in the News 2006; Leavitt Called "Brief"

Below you will find an article written by Brett McMurphy.  It is from August 2006 and you can detect McMurphy's entitlement and his disdain for Coach Jim Leavitt.  Leavitt was being Leavitt, which probably wasn't helpful and the article became about Leavitt.  There were some player issues that brought this on and we know how that worked with the media back then.  Oh and by the way, this is clearly from back when Brett and I were on talking terms.  Towards the end of the article, he piped in how
Brad's TBP Blog

Before there was an official "USF Athletic Hall of Fame"

Continuing to inventory relics of the old SouthFloridaBulls.com takes us to one of the more offbeat things a young USF fan base did.  After about 4-5 years of football we decided it was time to erect an online "Hall of Fame".  Since we're a fans' site, fewer rules got in the way.  This allowed us to induct anyone that was making a difference at that time for the upstart USF Football team or elsewhere within Athletics. Ancient html makes this a less than pretty page, but take a look.  
Brad's TBP Blog

2001 Article - USF Official Site Problems

In a recent discussion about local coverage of the USF Bulls football program (What’s with Knight and the McNeese State references?) I mentioned some of the involvement of former beat writers Brett McMurphy, Greg Auman and Jeff Odom having interaction with TheBullsPen.com.  In fact, I recalled how the relationship benefited both parties as TBP promoted McMurphy and Auman in the days of USF's rise to national awareness.  Both McMurphy and Auman frequented the board and from it gathered story idea
Brad

Brad in Site Archives

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Brad's TBP Blog

Our Fundraising Effort

We are in the final three weeks of our $23 for 23 Crowdfunding effort.  I must admit, I thought raising $10,000 for USF Football would have been much easier among the fan base of The Bulls Pen.  Right now, between the Crowdfunding App and straight donating to the effort we are beyond $5,000.  The raffles are helping, by adding more than $500 more. With board activity beginning to increase and the anticipation for Bulls football mounting, I still think we will get there.  I will send a note
Brad

Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

Time for a TBP Survey

It's the offseason, so maybe not the best time to be asking for feedback, but it provides us time to analyze and evaluate feedback before the 2019-20 USF Athletic seasons.  So, whether you are a new member, or a founding member, please share your insights with us in the site survey.  You can find it and other discussion on this thread:  
Brad

Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

Why not - the TBP Points Lottery

Just to have something else fun to do with your member points, now you can play the lottery.  Initially, it will be a weekly lottery with pots of various sizes.  You can see this week's lottery (just started today) here: https://www.thebullspen.com/lottery/ It will end tonight, as it is mostly a test run.  But if you like games of chance like lotteries, feel free to play weekly.  You can buy as many tickets as your points will afford. You should already be aware of the Member Shop
Brad

Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

Social Integrations

It is easier than ever to join the conversation at The Bulls Pen.  And the giveaways, quizzes, galleries, downloads, Member Shop, etc., too. I have recently completed a revisit of the social integrations functionality after finding some had been broken by our software as well as that of Facebook and Twitter. The integrations are important for a number of reasons, but I'll stick with the top two. New members - Anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, Google, Linked In or Windows account c
Brad

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