This year, for the first time in NFL history, a team will play in the Super Bowl on their home turf. We’re lucky enough to call that team ours – the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In honor of this historic moment, we asked our team members to share their most memorable stories as they look back on previous Super Bowl games.

From performing in the halftime show to attending the first game held here in Tampa, our team members had plenty of stories to share.

A Half Time to Remember

My best friend and I were chosen to perform at the half time show last Super Bowl here in Tampa in 2009. The game was with the Steelers and the Cardinals. We danced and were a part of the audience cheering for Bruce Springsteen. We stayed under the stadium for the first half of the show and then were allowed to watch the second half of the game after the half time show. It was a very fun experience.  

- Ann McCormick, Patient Access Representative

A Big Game Preserved on Paper

Do you believe I still have the St. Petersburg Times newspaper article from when Tampa Bay won the 2003 Super Bowl against Oakland? Coach Jon Gruden is pictured here celebrating with Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer! Although I was not at the game – it was an exciting time for Tampa Bay and is again! So glad to see all that Tampa is doing for this year’s Super Bowl! A lot has changed this year, for sure! Hopefully we’ll be able to “TREASURE THIS” time with another win! Go BUCS!

-Debra Cheek, Wellness Coordinator

Greetings from Tampa

I didn’t actually attend the game in Tampa, but I did volunteer!  My job (shown with my Mom) was at Tampa International Airport greeting the thousands of visitors flying in. I took the picture, as you can tell, while I was watching the news broadcast.

-Bonny Carlson, Division Coordinator, Data Quality & Business Intelligence and The Cancer Registry 

The Winningest Puppy of All Time

In 2012 on Super Bowl Sunday, we brought this gorgeous puppy home. Elijah Manning and Tom Brady were the quarterbacks playing each other. We named the puppy ‘Tom Brady Kumar’ because we predicted Brady to win. Elijah won. But we kept the name! Eight years later, Brady is in his 10th Super Bowl right here in Tampa Bay as a Buccaneer!

-Dr. Nagi Kumar, Director, Cancer Chemoprevention Research Interest Group

A Bucket List Big Game

I had the pleasure of attending Super Bowl  XLIII at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa – a beautiful stadium and city with perfect weather (I was still in Ohio at the time and in February it was cold back home). The game included a first half dominated by the Pittsburgh Steelers and ended with a 99-yard pick-six by linebacker James Harrison. This was followed by a second half dominated by the Arizona Cardinals which required a game winning 80-yard drive by Ben Roethlisberger in the final two minutes of the game. I was a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so to see my team win on the greatest stage was a bucket list life event for me. My brother-in-law and I sat in the stadium for an hour after we won, just taking it all in. It was an absolutely surreal moment. Since my Steelers couldn’t play in this year’s game, I am wholeheartedly rooting for the Bucs. I hope that you Bucs fans are able to experience what I was able to experience … and in your home stadium.

-Kenneth Komorny, Pharm.D., BCPS, Chief Pharmacy Officer

Bucs Fandom a Family Affair

I was born and raised in Tampa. I have been a diehard Buccaneers fan since the beginning when they used to wear the orange and white. My family and I have always celebrated the Buccaneers – no matter how they're doing, we have always stood by their side. In 2003, we had a Super Bowl party. I used to live in East Tampa. These pictures are when we were standing outside and as cars drove by they would blow the horn and we would all just start screaming out Go Bucs! I'm sure you can see that in our faces! In the pictures are my sisters, myself (gray shirt with bandana) and all of our kids. My children at the time were 5, 7 and 10 years old. Now they are all adults, and they are fans that scream just as much as we did back then. We are all still true diehard Buc fans!

-Carmen Pizarro, RN

A Patriotic Salute at SBXXV

I was fortunate to have attended Super Bowl XXV on January 27, 1991!  The Buffalo Bills lost to the New York Giants. Final Score: 20 – 19! This game was played when only ten days had passed since American military forces were deployed to Iraq, officially launching the Persian Gulf War. There was an eerie feeling over the “Big Sombrero” (Tampa Stadium) that day because of the war and MacDill Air Force Base being only a few miles away, but the crowd was inspired by the most patriotic salute ever: the now famous version of the national anthem sung by Whitney Houston! This rendition changed our expectations for the last 30 years as to how our anthem should be sung! The halftime show was New Kids on the Block. Photos are of my seat cushion and some commemorative cards of both teams, a Super Bowl XXV pin and of course, the first hologram game ticket … the cost of which was only $150! 

-Christine Marsella, Grants Administrator

Tampa’s First Super Bowl

In 1984 Tampa's first Super Bowl was held in the Big Sombrero (the original Tampa Stadium). A few days before the Super Bowl, I was working the 3 to 11 shift as an ER nurse at Tampa General Hospital, and my fiancée decided to head to a nightclub while waiting for me to get off of work. He called me and was so excited. Both teams (The Raiders and Washington) had players in the club. He spent thirty minutes talking to Jim Plunket and also met Joe Theismann, Dexter Manly, Markus Allen, Howie Long, Mike Hanes and Mike Hase. They were all gone by the time I got off work, but we still laugh 37 years later when I remind him how excited he was. He still denies telling me he would never wash his hand that he shook with Jim Plunkett, though I swear it's the truth. The level of excitement in Tampa was so palpable then and I look forward to it this year as well! 

-Kris Clickner, Lead IT Business Relationship Manager