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Brad

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Blog Entries posted by Brad

  1. Brad

    OT: Summer Fun - 2017 Edition

    By Brad,


    Summer Fun
    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 down by McNeese State.  McNeese State just happened to be in the series a couple weeks before:
    Three years later, it's time to revisit this Summer Fun theme.  Instead of on the main board, we'll tuck the potentially offense images (babes and logos) into the blog here. 
    But beware ... the Stony Brook Seawolves come to town September 2.  
  12. Brad

    Our Fundraising Effort

    By Brad,

    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 to those rejoining the board to ensure they are aware of the effort.  We also have some nice raffles, I'll recap here.  
    A pair of Club Access tickets to Wisconsin at South Florida, August 30:

     
    This raffle ends Monday at 8:00 eastern.  Please follow the link to learn more.  
     
     
    A Marlon Mack limited and numbered autographed card - in USF uniform:  
       This raffle ends next Saturday
    A team autographed Yuengling hat including all autos for MBB and WBB last season
     This raffle ends Saturday as well.  
     
    Please visit the raffles links to ensure you have the right deadline for purchasing entry tickets.  The raffles close at the posted time, and within minutes the system selects a random winner.  
    You can also expect a few more raffles to be added prior to the end of the drive.  Visiting this page, will keep you up to date on live raffles that are directly in support our our USF Football drive.
  13. Brad
    We had a couple threads on the new "Points" economy, this being the initial one:
    The points collecting has been in place for about a month, there is plenty of experimenting to do, but the possibilities are pretty entertaining.  I don't think it's a good thing to identify what adds points to your count (you'll figure it out), but I can tell you one key source of points is being online everyday, multiple days in a row at the least.  Starting quality topics is rewarding as well.
    Points will be able to be used in the future for a number of things including games (like Rock, Paper, Scissors), board actions (username changes, signature changes, entry into premium raffles) and lotteries and a betting shop.  The latter two will be around towards football season.  Most of all, you can turn in your points earned as a member of this community to buy USF gear, memorabilia and even donate to USF.  
    There will be more to come on this functionality, but there is a version 1.0 of the points store located here:  Points Shop
    If you look on the main menu under "More" you should see this as well as some other helpful stats and information.  Again, get familiar, more to come on this. 
  14. Brad

    Second Box Opening Tonight!

    By Brad,


    Memorabilia
    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 headquarters in Gilbert, Arizona. 
    It's the second time site headquarters have been in Gilbert, Arizona.  After Clermont, Florida (with a satellite office in Owings Mills, Maryland) we established a home base in the rural town of Higley, Arizona before moving to Gilbert, then Chandler, Arizona and then finally back to Gilbert, Arizona.  That probably sounds indecisive and expensive, but for those that know the Phoenix area, you can do all of that and not travel much more than ten miles - you could even add Tempe and Mesa for just a couple miles.  
    Yes, I'm coming home to Tampa.  One of the best outcomes of the pandemic is my 55 hour in-office grind became a 60 hour home office grind instead.  I might do that another year or two but it no longer keeps me in the land of haboobs and javelinas.  I'll miss the weather.
    Anyway, so in preparation for the season and for an imminent move, I am getting this stuff out of storage, sorting it out and deciding what can be displayed back here for the turnaround season, what goes back in storage, what gets tossed and what do I find a new owner for?  For example, the helmet last post.  Signed by Lee Roy.  Display.  Solved.  The box of 10-12 Sun Bowl Game Programs...anyone?  The Notre Dame pins recently mentioned on the board (are somewhere) and I have a lot of stuff that should be in good shape that might have appeal.  A bunch of those Leavitt signed tickets in lucite - a transparent or translucent plastic, any of a class of methyl methacrylate ester polymers.  Signed of course.  Go to the poll of this thread and let me know if you would have interest in buying or donating for any of this stuff.  There is a poll accompanying this post, please vote early and often.
    So I do have a number of game balls.  My fear is that it has been so long since I've had them out of storage, I probably won't remember which is which.  I also have other signed balls and, well, we'll see how that goes.  
    In the box with the LRS signed throwback helmet was a football.  Unsigned and unmarked as a game ball, it seems to be mostly just a handsome football emblazoned with the USF logo.  But it is the famous pre-Under Armour, pre-Adidas Wilson GST ball.  It's in really good shape - logo is sharp and strong.  Love that GST to toss around.  Never played catch with this one, but did buy my kids GST balls from USF for them to play with during that era of USF Football.  Those are now jammed in some sewer drain or left behind in one of the headquarters moves.  The kids were young, loved the Bulls and the balls but they were to play with, not admire. 
    Did I ever tell you I got Roberto Clemente's autograph on a baseball?  Along with Willie Stargell and the entire 1971 World Series Champion Pirates?  Yeah, you guessed it.  I took that ball outside and played with it in the neighborhood.  Thought it was the coolest ball we ever hit from the empty lot into the orange grove, off the dirt mound and into the streets of San Antonio, Florida.  Second dumbest thing I ever did.
    Anyway, nice ball.
    Next item pulled I may need some help on.  I remember buying the jersey from USF and was pretty sure it was a Marlon Mack jersey which delighted me like no other of that time.  Marlon was the only "5" so I was pretty confident.  I bought three different jersey numbers and was surprised this was available.  I was surprised to get this one.  It's been in the box a while, so it's a little wrinkly, but it's an absolute beauty of a SoFlo jersey.  Marlon's iconic 5.  
    I can't believe I have had it in a box this long.
    This should be in a jersey display box.  No autograph.  Just historic.  I loved Andre Hall, his talent and commitment to winning (Hey, I made Andre Hall Heisman bumper stickers).  But, in my mind, there has not been a more talented running back at South Florida than Mack Attack.  Certainly, as expected with these once worn SoFlo jerseys, it's in great shape.  At a minimum, this needs to be on a Lou Hansell garment hanger.  
    Here's a quick shot at what it looks like on its way to the end zone, if you'd sort of forgotten:

    Back in the 90s, I'd have used my knowledge off BBC code to "marquee" that across the page.  Real animation back in the day.  
    Alright, that's all I got right now, but I am falling behind on my box opening schedule.  The Marlon jersey was the first item from the second box.  Looks like another ball is in there and some stuff wrapped in moving paper.  Maybe right after dinner and a check on The Bulls Pen, there'll be more.  Again, don't forget to vote and/or comment, especially if you're a fan of collecting Bulls memorabilia, and so on.  
     
     
  15. Brad
    With the continued evolution of the code that supports this site, it can now support smilies from your phones and tablets.  With the upcoming upgrade, the board will expand to a greater number of smilies that are released with the upgrade.  In order to avoid having 17,000 smilies I deleted the non TBP and Bulls related smilies for the time being.  After the upgrade, we'lll decide if we need those sets back.
    Brad
     
     
  16. Brad

    Social Integrations

    By Brad,

    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 can log in to The Bulls Pen with those credentials.  Very simple access to an account at TBP and immediate posting.  It really is so easy.  So, if you're out there talking with fellow or future Bulls fans, bump into them on Twitter, or Linked In remind them they can join in seconds, and maintain the same identity they have on other social platforms.  Here is what guests will see when they come upon https://thebullspen.com:  

     
    For existing members, if you go to your profile page, you'll see to the left the opportunity to integrate with your social platform accounts, allowing you to share name changes, content, and status updates (varies by social platform).  It makes it very easy to share from TBP to Twitter and FB.  Here is my profile.  I am integrated with all but Linked In at this time.  

     
    Please keep this in mind when talking to other Bulls.  There's no dreaded sign up, just use one of the social platform credentials nearly everyone has already!  And as a member, by getting yourself connected, you will have an easier time sharing with others you.
    If you run into any problems while setting up your integrations, please let me know.  
     
  17. Brad
    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 of the firs South Florida athletics themed Hall of Fame.  It was run on SouthFloridaBulls.com, the original home of TheBullsPen.com.  Of course, since SFB was a Fans' site, it had to include fans.  Below is the inaugural Hall of Fame class, appropriately inscribed and your typical 1970's plaque:
     

     
    I think we had one more class follow the 2002 class, but I haven't found the sweet engraved plaque.  Candidates were voted on by members.  Attached below, you'll find a word document that led to the page members could vote for the Hall of Fame inductees.  I'm not even sure if this was final, but have a read and you can see who the community voted in 15 years ago.
    Here are the official nominees:  SouthFloridaBulls.doc
     
  18. Brad
    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 was named to the NCAA All-Region Tournament Team on a team that just came short of reaching the College World Series. 
    In 1995, Jim Leavitt joined USF to head up its newly approved football team.  Leavitt retains the highest winning percentage of all USF coaches and sits atop the the career wins list.  Oft-maligned for his combination of Pepsi-fueled excitement and passionate competitive nature, Coach Leavitt occasionally found other outlets for his love for USF, including this game against UAB - in basketball:  
     

     
     
    GoUSFBulls.com still has some pictures of Leavitt painted up for that game in December, 2007, you can see them here .  Here's a sample:
     

     
    Lastly, from the Winter 2001 edition of the USF Magazine (I just happened to have it on hand because our long forgotten original site, SouthFloridaBulls.com, published ads in it) a picture of the highly successful Jose Fernandez in his "rookie" year at the helm of USF Womens' Basketball.  Jose has reached meteoric success compared to other USF Sports and did that as WBB was about to crater at USF.
     

     
    I know I have some great Seth Greenberg images stored somewhere (none when he had hair).  If I find them I'll add them.  I hope you enjoy these slightly rare images of Bulls coaches.  
  19. Brad

    Subscription option for TBP

    By Brad,


    Site Archives
    A few months back some members asked about a subscription option for TBP that would include primarily an ad-free experience.  I think I have it set up to function that way now with an introductory cost of $4.95/month.  Please see the poll to help determine that ultimate price.
    I can certainly have the ads blocked for the subscribing user group.  I am also looking at some other possibilities to go into that package.
    I am looking for 4 or 5 volunteers to test the functionality that would include going to the site store and sleecting the subscription, seeing it processed through PayPal and ensuring that they have the ad free experience.  Make sure the recurring monthly is happening for at least one month and then ensure it is easily canceled by the board member when desired.
    If you would like to be a lab rat and at least experience an ad-free TBP for a couple months, let me know here.  I would llike to get a handful of test cases moving asap.
     
    Thanks,
    Brad
  20. Brad

    Tampa Tribune and the Bulls

    By Brad,


    Bulls Media
    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 paper?
  21. Brad

    TBP Gallery and the 2016-17 Football Season

    By Brad,


    Site Archives
    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'll see albums beginning with Bullsrally and ending with the game vs UCF.  Not going to be presumptuous and but a bowl game on there yet. 
    Once you click on the album you wish to add pictures too, you'll see a familiar looking "Add Images" button to the right.  When you click on that you'll now be in the album. 
    You're probably wondering, "why is Brad talking to us like we've never been on the inter webs?".  Well this is the part where one could get lost.  At this page, there is an option to create an album.  I have not tested that part yet, but if you were so inclined to add your album for that particular event you can.  I just added a test album with my test user ID, it was easy and accepted.  You should go look at it, you'll like the test pictures used.
    Back on track, if you don't want your own album and instead wish to contribute pictures to the community album, you'll need to click on "Continue without using an album":

    After you click there, you'll have a chance to upload multiple images and have the option to provide credit to yourself, apply a copyright or add caption and description.
    This is also fully functional from your phone.  Snap a few pictures on the phone of the tailgate and load em up for all to see.  We've done a lot of uploading pregame pictures from road game tailgates so that those at home can get an idea of the atmosphere and facility.
    I'd like to see us build a gallery for each event/game this season.  Feel free over the next couple days to test it out.  I can go in and delete test images before the season starts.
    As always, if you have a suggestion, or another way to do it, please let me know. 
    Do you think you might be able to contribute some images this season?  Let me know.
     
    Thanks,
    Brad
     
  22. Brad
    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 some website operator from TheBullsPen.com was also upset.  😂

    Wed, Aug 30, 2006 – 24 · The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida) · Newspapers.com
     
  23. Brad

    TBP NFL Office Pool

    By Brad,


    Site Archives
    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.
  24. Brad

    The early years...

    By Brad,


    Site Archives
    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 directly related to the desire to form "The 12th Man Club" - the precursor to the Bull Backers Club.  Not too long after advertising a 12th Man Club, I received a cease and desist order from Texas A&M that I still have lying around somewhere.  We talked about renaming to the "12th Bull Club" but ultimately settled on the Bull Backers in order to support the program.. without jail time.  
     

    Click to enlarge
  25. Brad
    Hey, part of our community has been the fun of prediction contests and other things....most recently, raffle style giveaways and bracket contests.  In order to make it a more easily manageable situation for your humble host, I am asking that you complete the Name and Address profile fields added to your Profile. 

    This will make it much easier for me to get winnings out on time.  It's all private, but saves me from having to ask and then being delayed because I do not want to make multiple trips to the Post Office.  Much like the ticket giveaways require you to have a good email address in your profile, you will need a good shipping name and address to successfully participate in giveaways, contests and some newer things we have coming up for 2018.
    You can get to these fields to complete by clicking on your username in upper right hand corner of screen, select profile and then click on the "Edit Profile" text. 

     
    Then, scroll down and enter name and address.  These fields are viewable to you and me.  Permissions are set to private.
    Please let me know if you have any questions.  
    Thanks,
    Brad
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