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Tampa subregional
Fans swarm Tampa for the second round of the NCAA tournament, although Iraq does get some of their attention.
By JOHN BALZ, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 24, 2003
TAMPA -- Debra Williams drove 10 hours Thursday night from Raleigh, N.C., to Tampa. She went straight to her hotel, turned on her television, and has been consuming college basketball ever since.
"I don't like shopping. I watch the games," said Williams, wearing a bright yellow felt fedora hat with a thin black band.
Before the Tampa Chamber of Commerce gets too upset with Williams for not enjoying the city's sights, it should understand she is the mother of Eric Williams, the 6-9 freshman center for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Debra Williams was among those hungry for basketball Sunday and Tampa served up a heaping helping of second-round NCAA tournament games at the St. Pete Times Forum.
Mothers, fathers, alumni of Auburn University, Wake Forest University, the University of Florida and Michigan State University, and fans of basketball ate it up.
Most had good things to say about their visit.
Chuck and Jan Gagliano of East Lansing, Mich., had time to take in some Tampa sights.
They visited International Plaza mall and a quilting store, and ate seafood every night for dinner.
"Tampa's so easy to get around," said Jan Gagliano. "Even the airport is user-friendly."
The Gaglianos were part of a few hundred who traveled to Tampa with the Spartan basketball team.
They were instantly recognizable by their green windbreakers and chants of "Go Green!"
Their unofficial leader was former Spartan basketball coach Jud Heathcote, who led the Spartans to their first NCAA championship in 1979.
"Michigan State by six," Heathcote predicted, two hours before the tipoff.
In the first game, the cheering sections for Wake Forest and Auburn spent much of their evening standing.
As Debra Williams worked the refs (unsuccessfully, she would have you know), fans in the Auburn section screamed "War Eagle," a cry from the Civil War era when an Auburn football player returned to campus with an eagle who flew during football games.
"When you say War Eagle, everyone knows you went to Auburn," said alumnus Dave Curry, 64, of Lakeland.
In the Forum's hallways, clumps of spectators crowded around television sets to catch updates of other tournament games and the war in Iraq.
One group cheered as Butler University upset the University of Louisville. Two televisions over, a smaller crowd stood silently, watching pictures of beige tanks rumbling over the Iraqi desert.