Your Tampa Bay Crackers
August 9th, 2010
Former Bucs great and future Hall of Fame player Warren Sapp unearthed an interesting piece of Bucs history this afternoon.
Twittering as he is wont to do, Sapp snapped a photo of some document that had a final list of names to call Tampa Bay’s NFL franchise which was awarded to the area in the early 1970s.
Seems as Buccaneers won out over Crackers.
@QBKILLA: Look What They Considered Naming The Buccaneers at One Time!! What I Miss??
Wow. Dodged the bullet there. The other names seemed strange too. Rough Riders is an ode to Tampa’s history, but just about everyone outside of Florida would have thought it was named after a Canadian Football League team.
Someone explain to Joe the significance of “76ers.” Joe hopes it’s not a take off on the non-basketball association team in Philly.
August 9th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
The team was established in ’76, I assume that’s why ’76ers was suggested.
August 9th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Sander:
Joe believes the team was established in 1974 but didn’t play, obviously, until 1976.
August 9th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
It says in that document they were established in ’75.
But I’m assuming 76ers is in reference to the year they started playing.
August 9th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
The Tampa Bay Rough Riders! lol
Seriously though….who in the f*** thought Crackers might be a good name? Is there some other meaning the the word cracker other than a thin crunchy pastry snack or a racial term for white folks? Like…wtf?
August 9th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Oh boy! That would’ve been too funny right about now.
August 9th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
76’ers refers to Raheem Morris’s I.Q. score , of a 76…
August 9th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
” Ladies and Gentleman- your 2010 Tampa Bay Crackers!” yeah, that would have earmarked us as a Community of the New millennium! Yee haw! Guess the mascot was gonna be a jackass! Then again, with simpletons like Mushy, Javier, Thomas, and Tampa 2 running around , a Jackass was probably the way to go!!
August 9th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
The old timers look at “cracker” a little differently. I know Tom McEwen refers to himself as a Plant City Cracker. He surely didn’t mean it in a bigoted way.
Thise guys didn’t use it as a racial thing. The State Fair used to have a “Cracker Country” exhibit, which was focused on rural Fla.
Terrible name for a team, given the current connotation, but it was a different term in the 70’s.
August 9th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Crackers may have been fashionable back in the 70’s, when natives of Tampa called themselves Florida Crackers, but surely not now. Most people now living in Tampa are from up north, hardly Florida Crackers.
August 9th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
I thought you guys might like this on the origins of Buccaneer Bruce and how the team got its original colors.
August 9th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
I thought you guys might like this on the origins of Buccaneer Bruce and how the team got its original colors.
http://tampasportshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/meet-buccaneer-bruce-61475.html
August 9th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Please don’t misunderstand … I wouldn’t want the local NFL team to be called the Crackers. But very few people outside of Florida natives, and even most of them, don’t really understand the historical significance of the term “Cracker”. It has nothing to do with “hicks” or “red necks” although that is unfortunately what it now calls to mind. Most people don’t realize Florida was a HUGE cattle state in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s … just like Texas, Kansas and other States further west. The state’s cowboys were called “crackers” because of the sound their bull whips made (CRACK!) when they herded the partially wild, predominately Spanish cattle out of the fields, forests and swamps of Florida. As Eric said, Tom McEwan understood this. If you don’t know who Tom McEwen is … well … you need to have some sliced cantaloupe with your breakfast! Sports enthusiasts who have been here since the Bucs began will certainly understand that reference.
August 10th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Read up on history. Buzzsaw has it right. It was never a derogatory racial slur, just has turned into that.
August 10th, 2010 at 9:38 am
And I thought it was cause, the folks back then didn’t have belts or overalls, they showed too much crack!?
August 10th, 2010 at 10:54 am
@buzzsaw,
When I was reading the comments on here I was wondering if anyone actually knew where the term came from. But you hit it right on the head. Those old cowpokes had to get the cattle out of the palmetto & brush and drive them to market. My Grandfather was one of those. And they were a tough breed.
There are still a few of us that are proud to be Florida Crackers.
Even though the ignorant, such as tugboat timmie or Sapp, can only relate the name to racism instead of to it’s true meaning. But like you, I don’t think it would have fared well as a name for a sports team.
The name 76ers might have been because Eddie DeBartolo “Senior” offered to trade the 49ers to Culverhouse when he was awarded the,(what is now Bucs), franchise.