Why USF is the University of South Florida

[OttawaBull]

Whenever someone asks me about the USF being in Tampa thing, my stock response has always been, "Well, we were relying on UF and FSU grads to name our school, and you can see just how much their geography degrees are worth."

That said, I've never had anyone outside the state of Florida ask me about this. I find most people are lucky if they can find Florida on a map. They sure as heck don't have any idea where Tampa is in relation to the rest of the state. I could tell them it was south of Miami, and they'd just nod and say, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

Here is the official explaination from the USF site:

http://usfweb2.usf.edu/history/struggles.html

I think this thread should be pinned up top, at least until the end of football season...it might keep down the number of "Tampa is not in South Florida" type comments/questions.

dude, we need to change our name to "Bottlecap U" ASAP!!

[BULLSHTR]

Thank God they didn't name us Flamerica!

[Matt]

seriously,

other than UCF fans, how often does this come up?

maybe once or twice.

who cares?

i grew up in Ft Myers and never once did I think to myself.."geez why is USF in Tampa?"

[BULLSHTR]

I just thought that it was interesting that the name had opponents even back then. Collins still claimed afterwards he didnt understand why they couldn't come up with a better name.. I love our name!

GO BULLS

[Bobcat99]

It's important to note that demographically, most of south Florida wasn't populated, or was isolated to Miami which, in the 1950s, was almost all transient tourists and was just starting to absorb the flood of immigration. Everything else south of Gainesville was army/navy/AF bases. Tampa was *the city* in the peninsular portion of Florida, so it seems as reasonable to call Tampa "south Florida" as it is to call Los Angeles "southern California" despite there now being a major city far to the south of LA.

Placed in its historical perspective it's easy to see how Tampa was seen as part of "south Florida." Much like Ohio is part of the "midwest" simply because when it gained that quality, there wasn't really much out in the West. Now there is, but the terminology remains.

[TheNew#1TeamInFlorida]

Nice.  8)

[beastiebull]

Tampa State University

[BULLSHTR]

It's important to note that demographically, most of south Florida wasn't populated, or was isolated to Miami which, in the 1950s, was almost all transient tourists and was just starting to absorb the flood of immigration. Everything else south of Gainesville was army/navy/AF bases. Tampa was *the city* in the peninsular portion of Florida, so it seems as reasonable to call Tampa "south Florida" as it is to call Los Angeles "southern California" despite there now being a major city far to the south of LA.

Placed in its historical perspective it's easy to see how Tampa was seen as part of "south Florida." Much like Ohio is part of the "midwest" simply because when it gained that quality, there wasn't really much out in the West. Now there is, but the terminology remains.

Excellent point Bobcat

[smazza]

one writer from la times suggest

u of f at Tampa