Osceola and Renegade
Osceola and Renegade are the official mascots of the Florida State University Seminoles. Osceola, representing the historical Seminole leader Osceola, and his Appaloosa horse Renegade introduce home football games by riding to midfield with a burning spear and planting it in the turf.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
A name-the-team contest resulted in the nickname "Buccaneers", a reference to José Gaspar, the mythical Florida pirate who is the inspiration for Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Festival. The team name was opposed by St. Petersburg businessmen on the grounds that it emphasized Tampa at the expense of other Bay Area cities, until NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle himself met with them to encourage their support. Their uniforms and "Bucco Bruce" winking pirate logo were designed by "Tampa Tribune" artist Lamar Sparkman using colors drawn from the state's four major college teams at the time: orange from the universities of Miami and Florida, and red from Florida State and the University of Tampa. They were one of the few teams to wear white home uniforms, forcing opponents to wear their warmer dark uniforms in Tampa's afternoon heat. The team's first home was Tampa Stadium, which had been built in 1967 to attract an NFL franchise and was expanded in 1974 to seat just over 72,500 fans.