Why are so many people around here fans since '96?

I dont get it, why is everyone a fan since '95 or '96? Ive never seen anyone say they were a fan since '89 or '92. Sound slike a bunch of bandwagen jumpers to me. I guarantee almost everyone who says theyve been a fan since '96 has really been a fan since '97. saying '96 just makes them look better, make sit seem like they were around be4 the "good" times

[BUCFAN4LIFE]

Lived in St Pete since 1975 as a young child-- didn't really care much until I really got into football-- probably in the early 80's-- Ever since I have been a die hard-- They really are all I have known growing up-- After college moved back to the area- and have had season seats since 1995.

[BucsGuru]

I lived in Lakeland but was born in Bartow.  I was born in 1971 and my dad took me to the first 13 games of the Bucs.  My parents divorced and my grandparents got custody of us and moved to Virginia.  I always felt like the only Buc fan in the state of VA.  I was pretty young in 1976, so I don't remember too much about the games or the stadium, just remember the sombrero and orange; they tended to stick out!  I also remember a parade that took place every year in Tampa were they would throw out fake gold coins and people would be dressed up as pirates.  I really have been a Buc fan as long as I can remember.  Unfortunately, the only other memory of Tampa was visiting my father in the VA hospital after he returned from Vietnam.

[Rusty]

Moved here in 1992 from Philly, became a Tampa bay fan in '94. never looked back. I believe you live here, you root for your HOME TEAMS. Go Bucs, Rays, Lightning, Storm & Bulls.

[Buc76]

I have been a fan since team started in 1976.  I remember driving to Tampa International Airport with some college buddies to cheer the Bucs as they got off the plane after their first victory.  In the early days we went to watch the defense play--that was the best we could hope for back then. We all enjoyed Coach McKay's one liners after the games.

[JavaBuc]

It was 97 when they changed their uniforms and made the playoffs for the first time in years.    I agree, that's when the bandwagon loaded up.   I literally know people living in Tampa who constantly made fun of me for being a Buc fan and told me how worthless the Bucs were on a daily basis.    I think I've heard every possible joke and insult directed at the Bucs.   

Then came 1997, it was amazing!   Those exact SAME PEOPLE who had insulted me for years all of a sudden were Buc fans.   Many of them even bought season tickets.   These same people who wouldnt have taken tickets for free just a couple of years earlier.    By 1999 they were declaring to have been Buc fans since day one back in 1976 and stuck by them through the bad times.   What a crock.    There are about 40,000 die hard Buc fans in Tampa.   That's been proven time and time again.   The rest are fair weather fans.   It's not hard to figure out who is who by simply reading the posts.

I agree. Back in the early 90s when I was a young kid I would go into sports bars in New Port Richey with my dad on Sundays and he would have on his orange Erricht Rhett or Derrick Brooks jersey and people would laugh and joke on him. NOBODY in the entire bar would have a BUcs jersey on. Now when I go in the same bars everyone is a Bucs fan. My dads been a Bucs fan since he moved down here from New York in 1985. I know he was a Buffalo fan before that but I cant recall any memories of him rooting passionately for the Bills when I was a kid inTampa. Im so glad he raised me as a fan of all Tampa teams, wouldnt have had the same childhood if it wasnt for it.

For some reason there seems to be 2 kinds of Bucs fans. Those who were fans since '76 and those who were fans since 2-3 years before the Bucs got out of their 15 year slump, nothing in between. Im not buying it

[JavaBuc]

I will never complain about bandwagoners as long as I get to watch every game on TV.

That's a good point.   I never think of that since I go to the games.   But when I was in college, I did have to work some sundays and missed the games since they were blacked out.   That was horrible.

That also points out how poor our fan base was back then.   Even with the threat of not being able to see the game at all, people wouldn't go to the games.

[bucs8ball]

My earliest buc memories come from the late 70's and early 80's when my dad (who had two season tickets) would switch off between taking my mother, me and my brother. We had tickets in the corner near the Buc's band. My dad and I both had bright orange shirts we wore to every game.

I also remember the years we didn't have season tickets and we had to listen to every home game on the radio because the games were always blacked-out. I will never complain about bandwagoners as long as I get to watch every game on TV.

[zed]

I would never say I've been a fan since '96, but I've been a fan since 2005.  You have to start sometime right?  I've been out of the country for over ten years and just came back in 2005 when I landed in Tampa.  By the fourth game I watched, I was a Buc fan.  Call me a bandwagoner or whatever, but if I was, I wouldn't be here still today.

[JasonOfthetower]

I was born here in Tampa in (cough) 1973 so I was a youngun when the Bucs made it to the Championship game in 79. Still, I remember growing up with the Bucs. Bucs and Gators football was all I had ever known (with the exception of the Bandits in the 80's). I remember James Wilder, Jimmie Giles, Kevin House. The Batman. I went to my first Bucs game in 1977...the final home game of the Season. My only memory of that game were the Bucs fans tearing down the goal post after the team got their first home win.

I was a Bucs fan and wore the Orange proudly when all my friends were Dolphins, 49ers, and Cowboy fans. Every year I went into the season believing, "This is it...this is the year." and then discovered...it wasn't. That all changed in 96 when a mild mannered defensive coordinator from Minnesota became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I liked him from the start. He was no-nonsense. So much better than the crazy goofiness of Sam Wyche.

I remember going to the season opener in 1996, hoping the Bucs could find a way to pull out a win and get folks behind the stadium referendum that was coming the week after. The Bucs future in Tampa Bay rested on that vote. They lost 34-0....and I remember shedding a tear and wondering who would be my pro football team when the Bucs, my Bucs, are gone.

It was a dark time, that year. Still, the stadium vote was passed, the Bucs stayed, Tony Dungy provided stability to the the franchise and in 1997...my dream of season the Bucs in the playoffs for the first time since 1982 came true.

I feel bad for the fans that missed out on that. I know that sounds crazy. For me though, when I saw Jon Gruden lift that Super Bowl trophy over his head, when I saw Derrick Brooks weeping, when I saw my Bucs, my lowly, god awful, Bucs win the Super Bowl - the ultimate prize in Sports, it made all the years of belief, all the years of ridicule, suffering, and dissapointment worth it. It was my vindication.

I will always love Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden for that moment.

One thing we Buccaneer fans forget is the natural makeup of our community. We are a transient metropolitan area. Not many of us are from Tampa. Usually someone is from somewhere else. They have their old ties to their old teams that's hard to break - especially when the home team sucks.

Ask yourself this....if you were to move away from Tampa Bay and live in say Arizona....would you drop the Bucs and become a Cardinals fan? I've asked myself that question a dozen times. The answer, absolutely not. I'd root for the Cardinals to do well and I probably would go to a few games and if they ever got good, sure, I'd probably be swept up in the uphoria of the community...but the Buccaneers would always be #1 in my heart. NFL Sunday Ticket was created for misplaced fans.

So yeah, 1997...96....for transient fans from other places that was the first time the Bucs ever game them a need to watch. I don't hold that against those fans. Hell, I'm glad their here. Even if they weren't in the stands with me at the Old Sombrero with the other 30,000 faithfuls when you left Two tickets on your the windshield before the game and when you came back, there were four. Even if they "jumped on the bandwagon", I'm glad. Its because of them that we still have a team in Tampa Bay. Its because of them the Glazers feel its in their best interests to pay the big bucks to keep our players here or sign new players to make our team competitive. Its because of them we've sold out every game since the inception of Raymond James Stadium.

96 is ten years invested into the football team. I think you can shed the "bandwagon" label if you've stuck around that long and you're still here even with the football team at 2-6

[MrFreakinMiyagi]

I was born in 1978, and have been a Bucs fan as long as I can remember. I used to go to games with my dad when I was a little bugger. We had his company seats, which were 50 yard line about 20-30 rows up.

The only timeframe of my life in which I wasn't a diehard, was when I lived in Gainesville in '96-'97 (go figure...). I was way to busy getting f'ed up to pay attention to football  :-

[captain jack]

I have been a fan since '76. I have seen and survived a lot worse than this. Keep the faith, this season may be going in the toilet, but brighter days are ahead. At least we beat the Eagirls this year!!!

[replica]

Became a Buc fan in 1997, yep that's right, 1997. Moved from South Jersey in 1990, pretty much ignored football until 97. My buddy called me and said 'You have got to see this little guy run!'
That was Warrick Dunn, been a huge fan of the Bucs ever since. What really made me a fanatic was seeing the Bucs/Lions in December of 1999, my first football game. Bandwagoner? Maybe, but I'm never getting off this one!

[cheveliar]

This is no condemnation on anyone, but you can tell who's been here and for how long just by the quality of the posts.  At least I can.  I won't go into specifics, but the longer your tenure, seems like the more patience you have.  There are exceptions for sure but that seems to be the theme as I see it around here...