Author: opinionstogo

The year was 1956.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected president. Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. The Yankees beat the (Brooklyn) Dodgers in the World Series. Rocky Marciano retired undefeated. “My Fair Lady” debuted on Broadway. “The King and I” was a box office smash. Elvis Presley recorded “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel.”

And the University of South Florida was born.

For those of us older than USF, was that a fast 50 or what?

For those of you younger, yes, there really were “Sandspur U” sobriquets back in the day. And, indeed, there was a time when athletics maxed out with intramural championships. And any reference to USF seemingly required an almost apologetic “commuter school” qualifier. USF wasn’t Florida; it wasn’t Florida State; it wasn’t even IN South Florida.

Now it’s the second largest public university in the Southeast, with more than 43,000 students. By 2010, 6,000 will be living on the Tampa campus.

USF is a 21st century research university that is a big-time player in a major metro market and anchors one end of the I-4 tech corridor. It is known to the National Science Foundation as one of the two fastest growing research universities in the country. Research funding now totals nearly $350 million.

USF began with three buildings; the current figure, including new student housing, is almost 400 on four campuses. There are more than 200 graduate and undergraduate programs. Its colleges of medicine, public health, engineering and business are key community partners and bay area recruiting assets. USF is the fourth largest employer in the region, with an annual economic impact estimated at more than $3 billion.

And those intramural leagues have morphed into a Big East affiliation, which guarantees exposure in the country’s largest media market (New York). After only nine seasons, USF played in its first bowl game last month.

And, yet, a university is so much more than the sum of its disparate parts. It’s more than bricks and mortar and payrolls and grants and endowments and TV exposure and enrollment explosions. It’s also having half of your (190,000) alumni living and working in the Tampa Bay area. It’s being home to the nationally acclaimed Graphicstudio. It’s being a de facto corporate headquarters – only the implications are as varied as advances in Alzheimer’s research, consultations on urban transportation issues, expertise in marine science or contributions to national security via bio-defense and sonar innovations.

And sometimes, it’s as mundane as a bunch of college kids getting down and dirty to help their community. That’s what happened a couple of weeks ago when USF’sStampede of Service Day drew more than 1,000 students from sororities, fraternities and service clubs to East Tampa to clean up parks and roadways.

One other thing.

Sorry, but I’m still steamed about that Connecticut game.

Go, Bulls.

Perhaps you heard about the extended family that is the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, that recently barnstormed through Tampa, rhetorically pillaging as it went. Maybe two dozen in number, they shouted their offensive litany at several sectarian venues, including St. John’s Episcopal Church in Hyde Park. The Westboro web site, www.godhatesfags.com, pretty much tells you everything you need to know to have an informed opinion of them.

They are precisely what we see entirely too much of: loathsome yahoos and repellent odd balls deigning to speak for the Deity. Pat Robertson never looked so elevated.

I witnessed the confrontation at St. John’s, winced at the vulgar hectoring and placarded insults and admired the tolerance and discipline of the 400 congregants who were subjected to the spew-fest. My most charitable thought: “Nothing good ever comes from inbreeding.”

Even the Rev. Douglas E. Remer, rector of St. John’s, got a hearty, probably off-the-record, perhaps therapeutic, laugh out of that one.

“When we heard they were coming, my first inclination was to give them a cup of coffee and invite them in to worship,” acknowledged Remer. “But the police said not to. Not to give them the satisfaction and the publicity.

“I thought I was prepared for their level of viciousness, but they surpassed that,” added Remer. “Not just slogans but personal insults – even to the (sidewalk queuing) chalice-bearers. That’s what I found most offensive. But not one of our folk took the bait.”

So, how did that Sunday’s sermon go?

“We have just witnessed the personification of hateful, hurtful behavior,” he told the congregation. “Within the context of everything we know, that is outside the bounds of Christian living. All we can do is control how we act. To return hatefulness is to sink to their level.”

No one did.

As we know all too well, there’s been a recent rash of criminal cases involving sexual relationships between teachers and students. While the dynamics are all different, a common thread is that adults in positions of authority have abused a sacred trust and taken advantage of a child under their tutelage. All are nearly impossible to fathom.

What was truly inexplicable, however, was a father’s reaction to the sentencing of the Lecanto High School teacher and coach, 36-year-old Amy Lilley, who had engaged in a sexual relationship with his daughter.

“I don’t believe she is a victim,” he said of his daughter, now all of 15. “I believe that two people can fall in love.”

That can’t help.

Could there really be something in the water? Why do we keep having these highly publicized, outlandishly unnecessary issues such as the controversy over the “Welcome To Tampa/ City of Champions” signs? When you say “Champions” and then you note: “Super Bowl,” “Stanley Cup” and “Arena Bowl,” isn’t it obvious what you’re getting at? Three Tampa-based franchises recently won championships (well, 2003-04).

But to throw the New York Yankees, who spring train here and are owned by the philanthropic, Tampa-residing George Steinbrenner, into the signage mix is beyond irrelevant. Historically, the Yankees have been baseball’s gold standard, but there’s a very good reason why they’ve been called the “Bronx Bombers” for nearly a century. And, frankly, it’s been a while since they’ve won a World Series. But they do have local signage; it’s all over the taxpayer-underwritten “Legends Field.”

This whole flap about including the Yankees should actually embarrass Steinbrenner, if not certain city council members. Especially Rose Ferlita, who has most vocally made the specious point that “the Yankees are the home team.”

Maybe the only relevant point is this: Ferlita, who is stepping down from city council, is already prepping for the county commission, where parochial, needlessly divisive and petty issues are routinely raised, if not venerated.