Demand for creamsicle jerseys ‘phenomenal’
In the 24 hours since the Tampa Bay Bucs’ retro jerseys went on sale to the public, nostalgia’s potency has commanded the area spotlight. Or in this case, strobe light.
Creamsicle, a color once locally abhorred, suddenly is adored.
Those original Bucs threads, once synonymous with the franchise’s chronic mediocrity, are flying off the shelves. Chief operating officer Brian Ford said Thursday that demand for the jerseys has been “phenomenal” since they went on sale to the public at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
“We know that our fans have been very passionate about bringing back the creamsicles for the past decade, and we anticipated a heavy demand,” Ford said. “But the initial reaction exceeded even our greatest expectations.”
Citing team policy, Ford wouldn’t quantify exactly how many jerseys were sold in the first 24 hours, but he indicated the reaction locally and nationally has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
All of which stands in stunning contrast to a generation ago, when they bore all the popularity of Ray Perkins.
In April 1997, the Bucs formally bid adieu to the creamsicle jerseys and Bucco Bruce logo with a literal funeral at sea. During a ceremony aboard the HMS Bounty in St. Petersburg, the creamsicle team flag (bearing the Bucco Bruce helmet) was mounted as one of the ship’s sails, brought down and formally presented to John McKay, the Bucs’ first coach.
“If [Bucco Bruce] is the guy who’s in charge of losing, let’s get rid of him,” McKay joked.
A symbolic jersey (No. 76, in memory of the team’s inception in 1976) even was retired, and cannon shots were fired. A day later in Tampa, the team formally unveiled a new color scheme (red, black, pewter, white and burnt orange).
“[The creamsicles] were definitely not popular back then, but they were unique,” said former Bucs Pro Bowl cornerback Donnie Abraham, a member of the last Tampa Bay team (1996) to formally wear the creamsicles.
“When you saw those creamsicles, they kind of resembled Florida’s sun. So it was big, Tampa, the sun, being in Florida, and that unique color kind of exemplified all that. So I loved them. ”