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Date Posted: 08:40:17 11/15/13 Fri
Author: Buc2
Author Host/IP: 23.25.106.209
Subject: Did you know...?

The first professional football game ever played in Tampa was the Chicago Bears vs Tampa Cardinals in 1926.

THE FIRST PRO GAME IN TAMPA
The first professional football game in the Tampa bay area was between the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Cardinals. The game was played at Plant Field on January 1, 1926. The Bears were led by rookie Harold “Red” Grange and the Cardinals were a pickup team put together by Jim Thorpe. The game itself was billed as a clash of old vs. new, with Grange, the rising star, taking on Thorpe, the aging legend. Read about Red Grange and more about this game.

Plant Field was the first large spectator sports facility in the area. It was built in 1889 by Henry B. Plant across the Hillsborough River from Tampa as part of his Tampa Bay Hotel resort. As the only facility of its kind in Central Florida, Plant Field hosted a wide variety of events, including auto and horse racing; pro, college, and high school football; and large political events. It was also the long-time location of the Florida State Fair, and the route of the Gasparilla parade would end on Plant Field's track while the fair was in session.


Red Grange and his "Chicago Bears" pose at Plant Field the day before the game.


Jan. 2, 1926 article in the Milwaukee Sentinel

Mr. Grange attracted quite a bit of attention while in town. Here he is getting a speeding ticket in Temple Terrace. He was at the Temple Terrace Country Club on January 3, 1926, for an event to kick off the winter golf season. The match featured British Open champ Jim Barnes paired with future U.S. Open winner Johnny Farrell against Gordon Gibbons, the amateur champion of Florida, and Lawrence Sherill, the amateur champion of Tampa.



After leaving the Temple Terrace Country Club, a Packard automobile driven by Grange exceeded the posted speed limit while en route to an orange grove. A motorcycle cop pulled over the luxury vehicle, whose occupants included Barnes and Farrell, as well as Olympic silver medal-winning swimmer Helen Wainwright, and the owner of the vehicle, Joe Mickler. A photographer who had just finished snapping photos of the athletes came upon the scene and took one final image for posterity. Grange would leave Tampa with more than just a traffic ticket, however, as he also purchased $15,000 worth of property on the Forest Hills Golf and Country Club, the present-day site of the Babe Zaharias Country Club.

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