The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became an NFL franchise in 1974 as an expansion team and became the league’s 27th franchise. It was late in 1974 when a Philadelphia construction executive, Tom McCloskey, was awarded the Tampa Bay Bucs, however soon after he turned down the ownership opportunity. McCloskey served as chair of the Liberty Bowl before it left its site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tom was also the founder of the Philadelphia Atoms, the North American Soccer Club, he built Veteran’s Stadium and was known for much more. When he attempted to purchase the Philadelphia Eagles franchise, he was outbid and was awarded the Tampa Bay Bucs. After McCloskey couldn’t come to terms with the NFL at that point, he was replaced by Hugh Culverhouse as the expansion team’s owner.
BUCCANEERS OWNERSHIP 1974-1994:
Hugh Franklin Culverhouse Sr. took over as the Buccaneers owner after McCloskey had some financial issues and couldn’t get the deal done with the NFL as this expansion team’s owner. Culverhouse, who took ownership of the team two years before the Bucs took the field was a successful Jacksonville tax attorney before he became an NFL franchise owner. Upon taking Ownership of this new expansion team Hugh looked around the NFL and NCAA to find himself a possible fit to be the Head Coach for his newly acquired team. He seemed to find a perfect fit as he hired Coach John McKay. McKay was a four-time National Champion and the previous Head Coach of the USC program in Southern California.
Tampa Bay’s first Head Coach, John McKay was ultimately viewed as the guy who would bring his prior success as a college coach for USC to the state of Florida for this new NFL team. Owner Hugh Culverhouse thought that Tampa’s Head Coach McKay was the guy who would put these Buccaneers on the map and hopefully show the rest of the other twenty-six NFL teams that Tampa Bay was here and for real. Though unfortunately for Culverhouse this was not the case, not even close. During Tampa Bay Bucs' first three seasons, they were appalling, a laughingstock, and just plain hard to watch. In the Buccaneers’ first three years as an NFL team, they only won 7 out of 44 games, on top of losing every game in their first season. It wasn’t until after their initial twenty-six-game losing streak that Tampa Bay would finally win a game. They would go on to post consecutive wins to end their second season. Unfortunately for the Bucs, it wouldn’t be until Tampa Bay’s fourth season in the league that they would finish a season .500 or better, when they did achieve this feat for the first time, they ended up winning their division with a record of 10-6.
NEW OWNERSHIP 1995-CURRENT DAY:
Upon the end of the Bucs 20th NFL season the Glazer family who currently owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had originally purchased this Florida-based franchise for 192 million dollars in 1995. At the time of the purchase, Malcolm Glazer bought the team for the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise. The end of the 1995 NFL season would also mark the end of Head Coach Sam Wyche’s era for the Bucs. Tampa then hired Tony Dungy to replace Wyche as their new Head Coach and boy was that a good move, as Tampa Bay went 54-42 under Dungy. They also had a record of .500 or better in 5 of 6 seasons, made the playoffs in 4 out of 5 seasons, and saw post-season play in all of Dungy’s last three seasons.
After Gruden led them to a Super Bowl win in 2002 along with his last season where the Bucs went 9-7, they hadn’t been a .500 team or better for about a decade. They did go 10-6 under Raheem Morris in 2010 but missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker to the Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers. Head Coach Dirk Koetter also had one decent season in 2016 as the team finished 9-7 but still no postseason. In 2020 the unthinkable happened. Tom Brady decided to part with Head Coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Tom then signed with the Tampa Bay Bucs, his old teammate and friend, tight end Rob Gronkowski came out of retirement to join, and Tom influenced the Bucs to sign running back Leonard Fournette. Tampa Bay went on to win Super Bowl LV. The Bucs were favored to make another Super Bowl run with arguably the best quarterback in NFL history, however, it didn’t go down that way. Tampa did make the playoffs the following year but lost in the Divisional Round to the eventual Super Bowl Champs, the Los Angeles Rams. The following year the Buccaneers were merely a shell of themselves finishing the season 8-9 and though they did make the playoffs, becoming only the fifth sub .500 team to make the playoffs since the merger they lost to the Dallas Cowboys at home in the Wild Card Round.