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2009 USF Football Fan Fest
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may be on the road and there may not be any college football played at Raymond James Stadium until Sept. 5, but there was no shortage of excitement this afternoon as the University of South Florida football team hosted its annual Fan Fest.
An estimated crowd of 4,000 fans came to the home of the Bulls for the increasingly popular event to take part in interactive games, meet and get autographs from their present day collegiate gridiron heroes, and more importantly get geared up for the upcoming college football season, which is right around the corner.
Fan Fest for USF has come as far, and has become as successful, as the Bulls' meteoric rise since the program's inception in 1997, when the event was held at the school's practice field.
Roman Grabowski, a season ticket holder from Englewood, Fla., entered the stadium when the gates opened at 3 p.m. and was first in line to meet and get his football signed by head coach Jim Leavitt.
“This is great, it's great to be a (USF) fan,” said Grabowski. “This is awesome, it's nice and organized, the colors are great, and I'm having a blast. I can't wait for the season to start.”
The Twitter and Facebook craze also hit Ray Jay. Fans had the opportunity to take part in a Twitter scavenger hunt where, after receiving a Tweet from USF Athletics, they had to come to a requested location, complete their objective, and the first person to do so would receive a prize.
Melanie Mucitelli, a 2007 USF graduate from Tampa was the first Twitter winner of the day and joined the Twitter frenzy just because of the Fan Fest promotion. Mucitelli received the Tweet on her cell phone to find USF wide receiver Jessie Hester at the stage on the south end of the stadium.
“I had been waiting in line since Fan Fest started to get autographs and while I was doing that also waiting to get the first clue,” said Mucitelli. “I refreshed my phone and got the clue to find Jessie. Since I had already gotten his autograph, I knew where to find him.”
Fans were also encouraged to Tweet using the hashtag #FanFest and will be able to see the comments on GoUSFBulls.com on Sunday.
In addition, fans were also allowed to send photos and comments to Facebook.com/USFAthletics.
Fan Fest Notes
- Saturday's estimated Fan Fest attendance of 4,000 is believed to be the largest in the program's history.
- All 32 fans that were winners in the Bulls Casting Call promotion – 12 that appeared on billboards around the Tampa Bay area and 20 that were used on one of the 2009 USF Football posters – were invited to Raymond James Stadium for a group photo.
- The lines to get Matt Grothe, George Selvie and coach Leavitt's John Hancock lasted well past the close of Fan Fest.
- Fans showed up to Raymond James Stadium early to get in line for autographs. Lines of approximately 125 fans deep formed before 3:30 p.m. for the quarterbacks, running backs and specialists (including Matt Grothe); the defensive line (including George Selvie) and head coach Jim Leavitt.
- Defensive end George Selvie, quarterback Matt Grothe, punter/kicker Delbert Alvarado, kicker Maikon Bonani and safety Nate Allen were all the most popular Bulls during Fan Fest with the USF faithful and media.
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