What was USF like when you attended?

[smazza]

74-78

lots of tanned loose girls in bathing suits at several pools on campus

drinking age was 18 so we had 16 years in the bar at the madhatter bar where i worked my way thru school

**** greco jr was a bouncer

lots of quaaludes and sex

what a great time

[Supersurch]

This is too funny, fellas  ;D.  Quaaludes and sex?  Man, I wish I went there during those times.

My time:  92 - 97.  Five year plan as my first two years were geared towards by BATT degree.  Beer All The Time.  Finally settled down and realized how important it is to actually go to class.  Not trying to glamorized its or anything, but I think you all know how it is when you finally leave home for the freedom you've been yearning for all your adolescent life.  

Chucky was king.  I too, am a big BB fan.  Played all the time in the new Gym when it finally opened.  Played all the time outside when the gym was being constructed.  

A moment I'll never forget is when I had next game during pick-up basketball in the new gym.  Mind you, I'm not that bad, but I'm not close to being Chucky.  I had picked up three other schleps like myself and needed one more.  We were going against a team that had won five in a row already, and they reminded me of the guys on this year's Cincinnati squad.  Very tall, very mean looking, and very good.  For pickup BB that is.  I couldn't seem to pickup a fifth as other guys waiting did not want to play with us schleps.  And there were a lot of guys waiting!  Then comes in Chucky and his BB crew:  James Harper, Donzel Rush, Greg Summers, and couple others.

"Who got next?!", asked Chucky.

"Uh, I do", I said.  

"You got them all?"  asked Chucky.

"Uh, no.  Not really"  I replied.

"How many you need?"

"Just one".  (But I wanted to drop the others, knowing I could be playing with the USF BB team.  But who am I to do that, right?)

"You wanna run?"  I asked.

"Yeah, why not", and then he yells "Hey yo, I got next!"

I didn't feel too good at that moment as he was already calling next before we even started playing.  I was guessing that our game was just a warm-up for Chucky.  

But you know what?  Something about that afternoon I'll never forget for the rest of my life.  I still see it today watching Chucky play in the NBA.  He gives 100% no matter what situation he's in.  We didn't lose a game that afternoon.  I quit after winning five games in a row, because I was down right tired.  Chucky lit up the gym with his outside shots.  I don't think he missed more than five shots during those five games.  He scored probably 8 out of 11 points per game.  I scored 2 of the last three.  And one other scored at least one.  Not kidding.  I swear on my grave!  We even beat his crew when they finally played.  Harper, Rush, and Summers.  (I'm sure they weren't playing their hardest, but they still couldn't stop Chucky.)

I made my shots because I had Chucky on my team.  There were always three and sometimes four guys trying to keep up with him.  When he needed a break from running the defenders in circle he would just dish it off to us.  There was no way in hell we could miss as we all felt pretty confident with him on our team.  Most of the times we would just pick for him and do some of the dirty work:  rebound, dive for loose balls, etc.  The guy was amazing!  That afternoon made my college years even more memorable.  Chucky never really said much to us on his team, but he was always talking trash to the opposing team.  I was at awed as this 5'10" tall of a man talking as if he was 7'0".  But he backed up everything he dished out.  Man, he was awesome!

[Brad]

Great post Supersurch - thanks for taking the time to type that out for all of us...

[Supersurch]

;D.  Yeah, it was kind of long.  Sorry fellas.

[hightechbull]

1st two years in the Metro.  NCAA at large bid.  Bounced in first round.

Nothing beats a Gary Alexander slam dunk with the cannon exploding.  I know we beat FSU one year, and I think we beat UF another year.

[CoralSpringsBull]

Great story Supersurch. I can't top that. As I said in a post a few days ago, I started at USF in September of 1969 when soccer was the big sport. Homecoming was built around soccer. Dan Holcumb was the coach. We always won about 75% of our games. I lived in Eta my freshman and sophomore years. I rarely saw (other than me) a student wear a USF shirt or hat. All I ever saw were UF or FSU attire. Any way, USF basketbull began in 1970 with a junior varsity team. We went 19-4 that first year playing junior colleges from around the state and several junior varsity teams in Florida. We beat the UF jv at Curtis Hixon Hall our first game. I was a manager of the first varsity team the following year. I remember playing pick up basketball with a USF baseball player named Doug Hogestyn. He had just transferred to USF from Arizona State. He was later drafted by the Yankees and wound up playing third base for the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees of the Florida State League. He never made it to the big leagues but is now a star of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives". He is now known as Drake Hogestyn. I graduated from South Florida with my second BA in 1976. I am a seventh grade math teacher in Coral Springs, FL. I have one gripe. Many of the faculty members at my school are graduates of UF and FSU. They have posters and pennants of their schools on their classroom walls. I cannot find such items here. I wish my classroom was sporting green and gold. I hate those Gator and Seminole ********! Go Bulls!!!

[RJWGoBulls]

Fall Semester '02 on the international exchange living in Epsilon hall

I have the honour of saying that I have never seen the bulls football (I went to every home game while there and the tenn tech game this year) or Mens basketball team lose in person.

Also won the half time shooting contest at the providence game.  Not to sure why we got selected or why I accepted the challenge (i hadnt played in about 4 years) but I still won although I was recieveing a fair amount of booing and stick from the students behind the basket (I think I had one or two air shots in there!!) Oh well!

had the time of my life whilst there

[Bull Matrix]

Just wanted to say thanks to all the great stories that many of you have posted in this thread. You cant beat those years at USF. Hey Bullo, I was a member of that SFA too. And yes, we all use to get drunk at Bahama Breeze to talk about how much money we were going to make. I know that feeling, and thanks for bringing that up. Class of 2000 with a Finace degree here, and I am concidering going back for another degree just to get more of that USF experience. I will never forget that SW TEXAS game that lotsofbull brought up. Sat right next to SETH GOLDBERG (USF fans with the BULLHORN HAT) during that down poor. It was a pretty historic game because that was when the HERD OF THUNDER was first introduced I believe. It was ironic because there was a loud thunder when the PA announcer introduced the band to the crowd which made the fans go wild.

[BULLO12]

Just wanted to say thanks to all the great stories that many of you have posted in this thread. You cant beat those years at USF. Hey Bullo, I was a member of that SFA too. And yes, we all use to get drunk at Bahama Breeze to talk about how much money we were going to make. I know that feeling, and thanks for bringing that up. Class of 2000 with a Finace degree here, and I am concidering going back for another degree just to get more of that USF experience. I will never forget that SW TEXAS game that lotsofbull brought up. Sat right next to SETH GOLDBERG (USF fans with the BULLHORN HAT) during that down poor. It was a pretty historic game because that was when the HERD OF THUNDER was first introduced I believe. It was ironic because there was a loud thunder when the PA announcer introduced the band to the crowd which made the fans go wild.

The Bahama Breeze OH HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THe SFA was a blast. LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

[wagers]

88-93'

Arrival on campus in 88.....fraternities and sororities were still big....lots of hotties in the sororities.  I ended up marrying one.  USF basketball was horrible in 88, but Dobras, Alexander, Russell all arrived on campus at the same time.  So, in 1989 there was a huge turnaround in one year.  This cause so much buzz that the SunDome had over 7k a game and was rocking because they allowed student groups to save 'blocked' off areas.  

Then when Paschal let the program go back down.....by recruiting a bunch of thugs....Mike Hosteter, Chris Coleman, George Reece, Ricky McClanahan, ect.......they all failed drug tests and failed out.  The program was totally destroyed and the school spirit immediately gone.  

Speaking of a Chucky in the gym playing pickup ball.....that gym is where I used to practically live as well.   So USF player or not....I wasn't afraid of anybody.  I got in a game of 'hustle' or sometimes called 21 with all the other USF players and some other guys.  I took a suprising early lead on the pack and I let them know about it.  Chucky was enamored by this bold white dude and when I drilled all my free throws he put the ball in my stomach and he said let's go.  I was like....ok little man.  Back then he was a nobody freshman player.....very small.  So after Chucky and I went at it a bit, I said let's play one on one.  So everyone cleared off to laugh and watch us go at it.  I ended up beating Chucky in that game with him being a young freshman and me being a senior or so.   I claimed that the gym was 'my house'.    However, keep in mind, this was September and Chucky hadn't even practice or played a game for the Bulls yet.  The obviously quickly changed and Chucky took over.