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It's December, and it's still college football season for the Bulls! In honor of their seventh bowl game, let's look back at the previous six times the Bulls have been part of the bowl season. I've been fortunate enough to be at each game, and they all provide their own unique memories.
PapaJohn's.com Bowl
Dec. 23, 2006
Birmingham, Ala.
USF 24, East Carolina 7
By JIM LOUK
Voice of the Bulls
TAMPA, DEC. 15, 2015 – Like many businesses, the world of college athletics can be a surprisingly small fraternity. Past and future co-workers pop up in different places over time; sometimes in unusual situations. That proved true in the Bulls' second bowl game, the PapaJohn's.com bowl.
By 2006, I had been off the basketball broadcast crew for nearly a decade, but every once in a while scheduling issues allowed me to substitute on a game or two. That was the case when I followed the Bulls basketball team to Greenville, N.C., for a broadcast against East Carolina. It was Dec. 9, 2006, right after the USF-ECU bowl game match-up had been announced.
At halftime, the Pirates did a push for bowl game ticket sales, bringing the head football coach to mid-court to whip up the crowd about the upcoming game against those USF Bulls. He did a good job too, avoiding bulletin board material by falling just short of guaranteeing a win, but definitely getting the crowd excited.
When I next saw Skip Holtz a little over three years later, we were sitting down in the Selmon building to record his “welcome to USF” interview.
This bowl game was quite a bit different than Charlotte. After the established Meineke Car Care Bowl the prior year, we went to an inaugural bowl game in Birmingham, an event still in the process of getting fully established. It was fun and the people were great, but the events surrounding the game were a bit less numerous, and as a result memories are a little scarce.
The game venue, Legion Field, was familiar to quite a few of the Bulls. USF had opened the 2003 season there against Alabama, and had beaten UAB there in November, 2004.
Bowl personnel did a great job seating fans on the side of the field facing the TV cameras. I can still remember how it looked; one stadium aisle right at the 50-yard line cleanly dividing green wearing Bulls fans and purple clad Pirates fans. Both fan bases showed up in force.
The game actually had little drama. The Bulls won, 24-7, by scoring all their points in the first half. Running back Ben Williams, one of the great unsung heroes in USF Football history, was the MVP with 67 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Matt Grothe threw a touchdown pass to Amarri Jackson and then left the game with a leg injury, with Pat Julmiste finishing up for the Bulls.
USF's defense dominated, even though it was without defensive coordinator Wally Burnham, who missed the game due to the death of his mother.
This marked the first bowl game played in Legion Field since the Hall of Fame Bowl in 1990. That game of course eventually moved to Tampa and became the Outback Bowl.
The Papajohn's.com Bowl eventually became the BBVA Compass Bowl and is now known as the Birmingham Bowl. Whatever it's called, it will always be the first bowl game ever won by the Bulls. And, it would lead to the wildest ride of all, the 2007 USF Football season.
The Series
USF Bowl Memories: Part I
Season ticket deposits for the 2016 season start at $125 and can be placed at USFBullstix.com. The Bulls will play seven home games in Raymond James Stadium in 2016, hosting Florida State on Sept. 24 as well as conference clashes with UCF, Navy, East Carolina and UConn.
Follow @USFFootball on twitter for all the latest information concerning the USF Football program.
