The voice of USF Athletics, Jim Louk, will routinely put down his radio headset and pick up the pen to share his perspective on the history of USF Athletics.

Louk has been broadcasting games for 27 years and is the resident historian in the Athletics Department hallways... So this week he remembers the Home(s) of the Bulls.

When trying to analyze how far the Bulls have come, there are a number of factors that can be considered. Certainly academic and athletic success is at the forefront. Conference alignments, television appearances and attendance figures factor in somewhere too. But today we'll take a different route to show how fast the program has grown.

It's time to talk office space.

Last month, we passed the sixth anniversary of the current home of USF Athletics, the Athletics Training Center. Groundbreaking was in 2002, we moved in during May, 2004, and today the building is just as beautiful as it was the day it opened.

The training center's surroundings, however, won't be too scenic this summer. Dirt will be flying everywhere, parking will be carved up and temporary fencing will dot the landscape.

All of which is fine by us.

Because in a few months when the dust clears, the new look of the USF Athletics District will be amazing.

New softball and baseball stadiums, a dining hall, football practice fields and a new basketball practice facility will make the drive down Bull Run a much different experience.

Dwarfed by it all is a small two story 1960's era building located just northwest of the Sun Dome. It recently lost most of its parking lot to the new ROTC building. But it's still there; a reminder of a great era of USF Athletics.

It's the current home of USF Physical Education. Remarkably enough, half of the building was the center of operations for USF Athletics as recently as 2004.

In those days we shared the building with the Physical Education staff, and it was a good partnership. Everyone got along great in close quarters, but as our department began to grow, office space became more and more at a premium. By 1997, we were busting at the seams, and someone had to go.

Me, and a few others, unfortunately.

USF Athletics ... Then
Physical Education Dept.	Main Reception Area
The physical education building. Even in our heyday there, “Athletics” never appeared on the building itself.	In the old days, it was athletics to the right and physical education to the left. The entrance to the office of Athletic Director Paul Griffin was just to the right of the clock.
Conference Room	Ground Breaking
“So should we leave the Sun Belt or not?” That discussion and many others took place in this conference room.	President Judy Genshaft addresses the crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Athletic Training Center.

That summer our ticket sales staff as well as the ESPN Regional staff (they were our corporate marketing arm of the day and predecessor to today's ISP) went on the road to 56th Street in Temple Terrace for a five year run in an off campus office.

Did we miss being at USF? Only every second of every day.

As a department, it was a tremendous challenge. Think about trying to do everyday business that way (and remember 1997 technology; at that time we were thrilled to have e-mail). Staff was in four different locations (Sun Dome, Physical Education, football trailers and 56th Street). Staff members went days without seeing each other at a time of huge growth in the department. Our customer service goal in ticket sales was to not let anyone know we weren't actually on campus. Most days, we carried that off pretty well.

By 2002, plans were in place to build the Athletics Training Center. For sales and corporate marketing, it meant the best possible news; we were coming back to campus. A few months before the groundbreaking we returned to USF … to trailers located right near the Sun Dome. Those early-in-the-program football trailers weren't the only temporary office units in our history. Still, we couldn't have been happier to be back on true USF soil.

On November 6, 2002, the Athletic Training Center groundbreaking was held under a big tent near what is now the northwest corner of the building. In the following months we watched the new building go up from across the parking lot, and it was a great feeling knowing we'd soon be moving in.

Two years later, the ticket sales and corporate marketing groups ended a seven year odyssey of temporary office moves and settled in the new building. The rest of the staff moved out of the Physical Education building at the same time.

Now, the Athletic Training Center is the anchor around a series of new buildings that will change our department forever.

USF Athletics ... Now

Athletic Training Center

In May 2004, the USF athletic family moved into a sparkling new $15 million facility that provides student-athletes with an outstanding environment for improving the mind and body with impressive space for academic counseling, sports medicine and strength and conditioning, in addition to a home for the athletic department staff. The facility is 104,000 square feet and brings the vast majority of the athletic department under one roof.

In a few months after all the construction is finished, make sure to watch Ken and Lelo lead their teams out on the field in their new stadiums. Say hi to Stan and Jose in the new basketball facility, and see if Skip has practice open that day on the new football fields. Grab lunch at the new dining hall.

But also take a minute to tip your hat to our old home, the Physical Education building. It'll be sitting quietly near the outdoor basketball courts just north of the new dining hall.

It may not look like much, but it was home when the Bulls went to those NCAA Basketball Tournaments in 1990 and 1992. When they hosted the Final Four at Tropicana Field in 1999. When Bulls baseball was ranked No. 1 in the nation in 1989.

And, when the thought of maybe playing a little football someday was first brought up.

It was a nice little home. But, as it always seems to be with USF Athletics, the next thing to come along was even better.

GO BULLS!