They Kick the Ball Around
IWAS PART OF THE ROWDIES’
Reunion recently. As the stadium
voice for the team back when it
started, I feel privileged to have been
part of the “original” Rowdies’ gang.
This was a year before the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers appeared on the
scene.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies were
starting to play at the old Tampa
Stadium in 1976, when George
Strawbridge, the original owner,
and Beau Rogers, the first General
Manager, approached me to discuss
becoming the stadium voice. I’ll
never forget the day they were
about to hold a press conference
to announce the name of the team
and what my position would be.
They took me to the side and told
me that they wanted me to be the first to
know the team’s name, the Rowdies. I
remember standing there for a moment
waiting to hear the rest of it. They sensed
my hesitation and assured me that was
it – just Rowdies.
Several weeks later, as the team was
debuting at Tampa Stadium, I looked
from my press box seat as the team took
the field. I saw their white jerseys with
Rowdies spelled out in a sort of old
English script, with feet at the bottom of
each letter, and yellow and green shoulder
stripes with their shorts and long yellow
and green striped knee socks. As they
gathered for the pre-game introduction,
they looked like a team that might have
been rounded up from a nearby bar. It is
no wonder that I commented, “What else
would you call them?”
The name and the team blended
beautifully with the bar sounding
hooligans singing their “Kick in the Grass”
Stork,” since that was a bird better
known to our younger fans. It stuck,
and that was the start of the players’
nicknames.
When the Rowdies hosted Pele
and the New York Cosmos at Tampa
Stadium, it sold out its 55,000 seats.
It was the first soccer game ever
broadcast by an American television
network on ABC’s Wide World of
Sports. They asked me to prep
the crowd by yelling, “Welcome
to Tampa Bay,” on cue. I did; and
when the broadcast started, people
all across the country heard this
welcoming cry.
My signature phrase was
“Fannies, what do you think of
your Rowdies now?” I would say
it normally after they scored a goal,
and I would be answered by their famous
theme song. Just in case the fans weren’t
ready, I had it on tape so I could simply
push the “play” button to get the response
I wanted.
While standing at midfield in Al Lang
Stadium, I looked around at the players
and coaches and recalled many great
memories from 40 years ago. Some are as
strong today as they were then. It was a
special time in Tampa Bay, and it set the
stage for bigger things that were about to
come via the Bucs, Lightning and Rays.
The Rowdies of today are trying hard to
hold their place among our other sports
teams. Here’s hoping they will carry on the
tradition of that first team that started it all!
C O M M E N T A R Y
By Dick Crippen
Dick Crippen
theme song that lived on through the years.
It set the stage for a night of family fun that
would be the centerpiece for the Rowdies’
success. I have long maintained that in all
of my years in sports, there was never a
marketing plan quite like the Rowdies. The
closest I remember came with the Tampa
Bay Bandits. However, owner John Bassett
said his plan was simple, as all he did was
take a page out of the Rowdies’ playbook.
The Rowdies’ marketing paid off in a
big way, as their players went around to
schools giving clinics; and their theme
song started to be heard everywhere,
as fans began showing up at the games.
It was my job to educate most of them
about soccer, as well as entertain them.
The front office gave me free reign. For
instance, Derek Smethurst, who was taller
and lankier than the rest of the team, had
a habit of rolling down his knee socks
about halfway through the game, so that
he looked like an Egret. I called him “The
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 117