Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a professional-level football team from the United States that competes in the NFL, of which it has been a member since 1976. The group represents the NFC Southern Division and is based in Tampa, Florida.
Under the AFC project, the club was founded as one of the 28 expansion franchises planned for the 1970s. According to him, each new structure should play the first two years in different divisions. Therefore, Buccaneers made its debut in the Western branch, then moved to Central. And in 2002, he cooperated with three former NFC West teams, forming the Southern Division.
Tampa’s city is one of the first to whom the American Football Conference decided to provide its club. Its cost was 16 million dollars. In April 1974, AFC secured a franchise for the owner of local construction company Tom McCloskey. However, he was dissatisfied with the deal, and a month later refused it.
Jacksonville lawyer Hugh Culverhouse wanted to acquire a club. Once he accepted the Los Angeles Rams attempt, but could not, because Robert Irsay sold the team. The wealthy businessman was now determined and eventually got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who he headed until 1994. After the first owner’s death, the team was inherited by his son – Hugh Culverhouse Jr., a lawyer from Miami. In turn, he forced the trustees to sell an almost ruined sports organization.
Interested parties included George Steinbrenner (New York Yankees CEO) and Peter Angelos (Baltimore Orioles CEO). This cast doubt on the continued franchise stays in Tampa. However, at the last moment, Malcolm Glazer was outbid, having paid 192 million dollars. The new owner immediately connected his sons Bryan, Edward, and Joe, to the business to make the club successful. The Glazer family has been steadily running the club since 1995.
The franchise got its name in 1975. It was chosen from 400 options that passed the phased competition. In the final stage, competed with the Sailors, Buzzards, and Coastal Tides. It is associated with corsairs – pirates who often attacked Florida’s coast in the 17th century. In the modern version, the name is most commonly used in truncated form – Bucs.
Meaning and History
What is Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a football franchise based in Tampa, Florida. It houses its headquarters (in the One Buccaneer Place building) and home stadium, known informally as Ray Jay. The team has existed since 1974 and has been playing in NFC South since 2002.
The debut logo was presented on April 14, 1975. Its author is a cartoonist from the Tampa Tribune Lamar Sparkman, who has worked as a sports club designer for a long time. He created a corsair graphic image in a hat with a feather that has been used for 20 years. The team’s official colors are orange (a reference to the Tampa citrus industry), red (a symbol of the sun, warmth, courage, and stamina), white (serves as a background).
1976 – 1996
Throughout this period, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers logo was a pirate. The artist decided to make the pirate special, unlike the emblems of the pirates of other teams. The pirate is depicted with a dagger in his teeth, a large earring, a mustache, and a wide-brimmed hat with a large feather. Bucco Bruce (such a nickname he received) smiles slyly and squints his left eye. The author admitted that this resulted from the arranged images of Errol Flynn, Jean LaFitte, and the musketeer D’Artagnon.
1997 – 2013
In 1997, the club management decided to change the logo to aggressive. His task is to improve the team’s image and add to its popularity, coolness, and recognition. Therefore, instead of the corsair, they used a dark red pirate flag with a skull and crossed sabers. The Jolly Roger pictured on it is similar to Calico Jack. In the foreground is an orange ball. All elements have a black border and dark touches that create a frightening impression.
2014 – present
In 2020, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers team unveiled a new logo based on the previous version. Nothing has changed from a compositional point of view: the very same Jolly Roger smiles ominously from a dark red flag and looks ahead with its empty eye sockets. The artists also depicted as many as three sabers: two of them are crossed under the skull instead of bones, and another serves as a “pole” for the flag. Not without the soccer ball, which is under the head of Jolly Roger.
In this version, the previous emblem is slightly reworked:
- The skull does not laugh but frowns and grins.
- The palette of the canvas is shifted to scarlet.
- The red color has disappeared on the handle of the stylized “pole.”
Also, black strokes and a broad edging line, which has become somewhat thinner, are removed. The soccer ball received a scarlet glare at the bottom and white lacing. All details are circled in dark color.
Font and Colors of the Emblem
The current emblem has nothing to do with the first option – a warlike corsair, literally armed to the teeth. This look appeared on April 14, 1975. Its creator is Lamar Sparkman, a cartoonist who worked as a designer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The portrait of a seafarer wearing a wide-brimmed feather was used for 20 years before being replaced by Jolly Roger.
By depicting the skull with sabers, the artists wanted to make it look like Calico Jack, a famous pirate of the early 18th century. The club, in turn, sought to improve its image and become more recognizable. And in this, he was helped by a new emblem – seemingly aggressive, but cartoonish and caricature.
There is not a single inscription on the pirate flag or next to it. The logo developers did not create an individual font or use an existing one – they limited themselves to just the graphic image of Jolly Roger, so they took up a careful selection of colors.
The 2020 emblem differs from the identical 2014 version only in shades. The fabric of the flag is dark red, almost wine-colored. The skull and sabers are traditionally white, with light gray shades that give them volume. The ball is brown as before. All outlines around the elements are black; only the flag with the “pole” is outlined with a wide gray line.