What was USF like when you attended?

[Wolfman]

79-83

I attended all of USF home basketball games.  The first year meant a little travel as we played in the Lakeland civic center, fairgrounds, Bayfront Center, etc.  We were horrible that first year, but then  the Sundome was finished and we kept hearing rumors that our new head coach would be announced once his team was eliminated from the NCAA tourney.  When it took until the Final Four for the announcement that Lee Rose would be our next coach, I was thrilled.  Over the next three years the students pretty much filled the Rose Garden (lower level of the Sundome) as we went on to win the only 2 Florida Four tournaments and received our first postseason bid.  I lived in Fontana Hall for three years and then off campus in the Way apartment complex.  I still live about an hour from Campus and attend all home football games and about a half dozen basketball games a year.  Great times and a great thread.

[Markeymark]

Supersurch - Epic story, thanks for sharing.

[hightechbull]

Well if we are talking about the social scene, back in '91 to '93:

Clubs:

911 in downtown - sink or swim on weekends.  To bad it turned into a gay club.

DNA - a real dump but I met the girl I dated all through college at that place, so it was not that bad (or was it? )

Ybor was like the DMZ at the time, but we did go down there every now and then to the Masquarade

There was a club on Bearrs that had $2.00 pitchers on Thursdays.  I was there when the cops raided it twice for underage drinking.  I was over 21, but an underage friend of ours jumped into the pond near the club and swam for freedom.  ;D

I was at the infamous party at apartment where the balcony collapsed.  I just stepped inside to get a refill off the keg, and I turned around and the balcony was gone.  I  knew a few people that were on it when it collapsed, and somehow they did not get hurt.  One guy said he surfed it down.  A few people got hurt pretty bad; one girl's leg was all messed up and she had to leave school to recover.  After the balcony fell, some crazy chick was running around in circles screaming "Call 911! Call 911!".  We booted out of there when the fire dept and cops showed up.

The frats were pretty pathetic at the time.  We had a joke frat called Lamda Sigma Delta (LSD).  The frat boys hated that.  

Sororities were just as lame.  I hooked up with a tri-Delt at a club one night.  Talk about flying the friendly thighs.

The dorms were really bad.  I lived in the Beta prison block.  What a dump.  I did drink for free all the time because I would get the beer for the freshmen.  I then moved to the Village.  They were cool because they had a private bath and kitchen, but one ill wind would blow them away.  Most of the village residents complained about noise and were real duds.  I can see studying durring the week, but Friday and Saturday night?  Get a life.

The bookstore was in that garage/warehouse near the water tower.  That was really lame.  We went there once a semester and never went back because it was out of the way.

The Rocky's club in the basement of the Marshal Center was cool.  I wonder if it is still there?  We played pool all the time in the Marshal Center because it was so cheap.

[Guest Sprtsfn627]

Well, I'm attending right now as a sophmore, and my only life experience so far is Fontana Hall.  Yeah, its still there, and I was among many freshman drafted by USF to live there.  Anyone who used to live there and wanted to know, it is still a dump and i was part of the mass exodus outta there once spring semester ended. Actually, a number of the people living there left within the first month.  By the end of fall semester, we dropped from about 30 people in my hall to 10.

I will say that thanks to Fontana, I know my way around a toilet pretty well.  Don't think I'll have a problem with one of those again

Other differences that are recent and some of you old folk may have not known about is there is a Burger King by Cooper Hall that was built last year.  There is a new science building that dwarfs the Chem building (the CHE is gettin upgraded this semester).  There are 2 Starbucks on campus in the past year, one in the bookstore and one in the library.  And there is a new parking garage near Leroy Collins.

The Beta Prison Block, as noted by high tech bull, is still crap.  I guess some things never change. Luckily for some, there are new dorms by Beta that are pretty nice. Can't remember the name right now.

It was cool readin some of the stories from you guys, good stuff!

P.S. high tech bull, the pool tables are still there, only 3 dollars for 30 min.  Good hang out between classes.

[CoolBull1]

Graduated in '85...good times.  I was only able to attend USF my final two years since I played JUCO tennis elsewhere.  I lived in Alpha and we would consistently get at least 40 people from the hall to each game.  It was in the days of block seating and we had an obnoxious yellow (gold?) shirt we wore to games.  We were the most spirited group and won recognition at year end.  Back in the day, student attendance was strong because we weren't just looking for the next big thing, there were less cable channels, school pride was big, etc.  The only possible road trips were to Gainesville to play UF in basketball my junior year...as I remember, we managed to get 5-7 buses up there....what an atmosphere that was.  We also took a little road trip to UT for the Mayor's Cup Soccer.   Opportunities were few.  I would have such a field day given the chance to be on campus today with road trips, etc.   I'm pleased to say my son will have that opportunity beginning in the Fall and he is planning on going to the PSU and Miami games.   We thought the Sun Belt was as good as most conferences and loved our Bulls.  Thank God FSU left the Metro and gave us a springboard into something else.  From there, it's been cool to try and attract higher caliber players to complete at a higher caliber level.  Back to USF....we had a lot of fun even though the campus was dead relative to what it is today.  1/2 the housing meant 1/2 the fun on campus.  What is amazing to me is that student turnout was better when we had less and our students today really need to step it up.  I don't know what to say about that or how to fix it but Athletics has got to get these kids involved.

I have NEVER missed a home USF football game.  The UCF game is a conflict this year because of a wedding, but I haven't given the people the bad news yet.  I'll be cheering the Bulls on to victory live and in person.  (I told them not to plan it in the fall!)  Numerous trips on the road for football and a few basketball trips as well.  Since entering USF in '83, I haven't missed more than three basketball games in any one season.  I've seen some pretty good seasons, some great games and a lot of games/seasons I'd like to forget but I am a fan and the Bulls can count on me.  Sorry to ramble.

[TexasHoldemFan]

1985-1990.....Lived in Beta Hall (1W) first two years.  I chose USF because it was close to home (Seminole) and my best friend in high school was going there.  In retrospect I wish I had gone somewhere and played football (Div II or III), but that is not a knock on USF because I loved my time there.  I can remember standing in line for hours to register for classes.  In the dorms we drank a lot, played a lot of poker and backgammon.  The weekend usually started on Thursday.  Lot's of parties.  As far as football goes, when I was there the rumor was the lady who donated the land to the college stated she did not want to have a football team.  I feel there was a lot of support for basketball when I was there, much more than there is now.  My hall went to plenty of games.  We usually went to happy hour at a bar on Fletcher on game day - don't remember the name of it.  It was $5 to get in and nickel draft beer from 4 - 7.  I never saw the sun dome so packed the night we played UT.  Don't think there was an empty seat in the house.  Lots of students from UT were at the game.   A few memories - coeds (beer goggles came in handy a few times) , watching a baseball game from behind the left field fence and heckling the opponents left fielder.  He must have complained because coach Carderi (sp) came out and told us, "He appreciates are support, but can we keep it cool.", getting into a brawl with a frat, me and two other hall mates stealing a HUGE banner from the soccer stadium on a drunken night.  It was reported in the Oracle and we ended up returning it anonymously.  When USF made the NCAA tournament the UC set up chairs and a large TV.  A lot of people showed up to watch USF play Arizona.  It was Brian Williams battling with Hakim.  If I recall the game was pretty close, but we ended up losing.  Hakim always stood out on the court because of his physique.  He was all muscle.  The campus looks totally different now, much more developed.  Sorry to ramble on, just brought back a lot of memories.  I had so much fun during that time period, just can't believe it was 20 years ago!

[hightechbull]

I have NEVER missed a home USF football game.  The UCF game is a conflict this year because of a wedding, but I haven't given the people the bad news yet.  I'll be cheering the Bulls on to victory live and in person.  (I told them not to plan it in the fall!)

Ha ha!  I blew off a friend's wedding to go to a home game.  Why people get married in the fall is beyond me.

[mutt]

Uhm ... huh?... What? There's a school?...    

[BullDoug]

Attended Fall '87-Summer '92 including a 3 semester tour at TECO as an engineering co-op.  I was 22 yrs old when I started at USF b/c I played football two yrs at a WV college and took a yr. off to make some money as an iron worker hanging steel.  Because I didn't have the funds I needed to go to a university far from home, St. Pete, USF was the choice. My biggest memory of my time at USF was that I was always broke and my car always needed to be fixed.  Two cars that I owned while attending USF went straight to the junk yard.

Anyway during my first yr, my best friend at the time & I moved into an apartment on Bearss Ave.  He had just flunked out of the aeronautic engineering program at Emory Riddle in Daytona.  On weekends he'd go back to St. Pete to "do" his future wife and stay at her apartment and go fishing thus leaving me in Tampa by myself.  There was a pub down the street that had pool tables & foozball.  I'd usually go down there to pretty much get toasted on Red Strip and walk home.  Going to sporting events was not really a big deal.  I had a few negative experiences going to a few frat parties during my first yr which I attributed to being a nontraditional student.  I did hit the Bahama Breeze a few times that first yr.

There were 4 other guys at USF that I played HS football with at the same time.  One was a part-time supervisor at UPS.  All of us ended up working in the evenings 5:30-9:30 at UPS.  Additionally I found out after the first semester that I needed more than the usual library hrs for the below average SAT score engineering student.  My social life and ability to participate in intermurals(sp?) during the week was shot all to hell b/c of this & my UPS work schedule.

In the second yr, the best friend wanted to move the future wife in w/us so I bolted.  THe best friend eventually flunked out of mech. engineering after his second yr.  I moved in with two of the UPS guys into the The Way apartments behind the mall.  Living with a criminology major and a much poorer mech. engineer student than I was, was pretty much a drinkfest either in Tampa or we'd go back to St. Pete for a party on a regular basis.  18 mos later, the ME flunked out & the criminology major graduated and got married.  I moved into my own one bedroom apartment at the Way.

In years 2 thru 4, there was a group of "not quite" GDI burnouts at The Way that luv'd college football.  My roomies & I would hang with them on occasion.  Everyone had their team.  I was the 'Huskers.  There was a Michigan fan and your typical Gator and Seminole fans.  We started drinking at noon and watched college football 'til the last ESPN game.  After the games if we were able to walk, we'd head to a party or Ybor or maybe a bar.  We constantly talked about how great it would be for USF to have a FB team.

During basketball season, We'd pick tickets up Saturday morn, get liquored up all day and and go to the games to watch Shahid & Dobras.  We'd sneak Bacardi in and sit behind a goal.  I do not remember which one 'cause I was rarely coherent.

In years 3 thru 4, I had a neighbor that moved down from Jersey.  He was an ex-USF student.  He didn't work b/c he had inherited some cash he was living off of.  Usually while I was a co-op, we'd go to Hooters at least twice a month on Saturday nite.  Order 20 wings and pitchers.  If we drank 2 pitchers, we'd go to this dance club on Dale Mabry to chase skirt.  I don't remember the name but it was big.  I just remember never being able to afford more than 1-2 drinks and the skirts were older (late 20's and 30's) and if they were lookers they expect someone to buy drinks for them.  If we had 3 pitchers, it was a beeline for Mons Venus or Space Odessy 2001.  I'd be super broke after that for the next 10-14 days.  I will never forget the nite in Space Odessy 2001 the nite before the Giants-Bills Super Bowl.

In the final year I was so poor I had to move to Clearwater to live with my brother & his wife in the fall and to St. Pete with my Mom & Dad in the spring.  M&D moved to Ohio while I attend USF but they came back to stay in FL for the late winter & spring of '92.  That last yr. was basically drive to school at 7, go to classes, hit the library 'til 4:30.  Head to UPS to work @5.  Drive back to Pinellas county @9:30pm and repeat.  I was ready to be done w/USF by '92 is all I can say.

[Guest BasketBull.]

BullDoug, I'll bite...

I was so poor... that I probably ate enough Ramen noodles my first year to complete a few circles around the world with that junk. Btw: all the flavors taste the same!

And I was so poor that I actually went down to the plasma bank downtown Tampa. But on the first visit they only take a sample (there was this 'Dr.' there who looked like he had been... --well, you get the idea), and come to find out they lost the sample! They wanted me to come down there again for another sample --NO CASH-- so I gave it up.

That was when my 2 brain cells started to click: PIZZA DELIVERY! I got money and there was always pizza to eat --and even chicken wings sometimes... ;D