Despite a history of ups and downs and a 12-year hiatus, ETSU’s Buccaneers have pushed through with a strong start to the season, winning six straight games and meeting with a close loss against UT Chattanooga.
“Football is an American tradition,” ETSU President Brian Noland said in 2013 when first announcing the reintroduction of the football team, according to etsubucs.com. “It builds school spirit, it builds school pride, and it builds engagement- engagement with our students, with our community, and with our alumni.”
This statement rings especially true today as excitement for ETSU’s team mounts. The Buccaneers are no strangers to an enthusiastic fan base, since students and the community brought football back to the university.
ETSU has boasted a football team as far back as 1920, when the university was just East Tennessee State Normal School, according to the Johnson City Press. Originally called “the Normalities,” the team took up its current name of “the Buccaneers” in 1935. The Mini-Dome was built in 1977. Despite the ups and downs in winning seasons over the years, the Bucs have had decent success and a lasting impact on the community.
According to a previous East Tennessean article, ETSU has sent 12 players to the NFL. One such player was Gerald Sensabaugh, who played for two years at ETSU before the disbandment and went on to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Dallas Cowboys. Mike Smith, former coach of the Atlanta Falcons, also attended ETSU.
One of the most iconic moments in Buc football history was the 1969 Grantland Rice Bowl victory over future Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw to cap a 10-0-1 season.
The Buccaneers began to slow down in the years leading up to 2003 as the team began to lose money. The Bucs played their last game on Nov. 22, 2003, copping a win against the Citadel before shutting down for the next 12 years. There was an attempt to bring football back in 2006, but the required student fee was too much. The Bucs remained in a limbo until 2013, when Noland promised a return to football as soon as fall of 2015.
And that’s exactly what happened: with a student fee increase of $125, the university pulled together enough funds to bring the Bucs back. With Carl Torbush as head coach and former UT coach Phil Fulmer as consultant, ETSU signed on the first recruiting class in 2014 and began practice. ETSU football resumed in the fall of 2015. A full SoCon schedule was implemented in 2016. Shortly after followed the announcement of the William B. Greene, Jr. Stadium, which completed construction in 2017.
Sharing the Buccaneers’ success are the ETSU Marching Bucs, the student marching band that is the largest the university has ever seen at 250 members. The return of the marching band has been just as successful as the football team, lending a greater sense of community and high energy to the football scene.
The future of the Buccaneers and the Marching Bucs looks bright, and they continue to shine as sources of entertainment, education and community.
