phipps@fortune.UUCP (Clay Phipps) (01/04/84)
The observation about Tampa Bay professional sports teams being the only ones
named after bodies of water was interesting.
"Tampa Bay" is an appealing label for the Buccaneers for historical reasons.
Tampa Bay was home base to real buccaneers back in the days
when pirates preyed on treasure-laden (and other) ships in the Gulf of Mexico
and the Caribbean, and Tampa was a Caloosa Indian town/village.
Particularly notorious was Jose Gaspar,
whose bloody career lasted for over 30 years,
beginning when he seized his own ship (he was only a lieutenant) in 1783.
His base of operations was Gasparilla Island in (where else ?) Tampa Bay.
However, I believe that the actual reason for the area name
used by its pro teams was more political, as suggested earlier.
Yes, this should be the last item on the origin of Tampa Bay team names.
-- Clay Phipps
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