Michael Imbruglia

The book brought back many good memories of my favorite team…the Tampa Bay Bandits. I had the good fortune of living in Tampa from 1980 to 1984 and seeing the Bandits in person. I was in attendance at the first game on March 6^th 1983 when the Bandits beat the Breakers 21-17, the ticket stub is still in the program from that day.

I also attended the last game of the 1983 season when the Bandits came from behind to defeat the Gold, the game was interrupted by a torrential downpour that forced many of us in attendance to evacuate our seats and go underneath the stands, unfortunately Tampa Stadium had a poor drainage system so the water came down the stands like a waterfall and pooled underneath, I recall being in about ankle deep water before we were allowed to return to our seats. Of the 46k in attendance to see this Monday ESPN game maybe a few hundred returned to see the Bandits pull out a 26-23 win.

The last game I saw was a game between the Bandits and the New Jersey Generals in May 1985, the Bandits were making a run to the playoffs, seems like every season they were playoff bound, anyway they lost in overtime 30-23. With John Bassett’s death and the $3 decision in the trial in May 1986 I knew that was the end of the USFL and spring football.