its forerunners, mostly against other small colleges in the south. Tampa U usually fielded competitive teams and won two Cigar Bowls, a bowl game for NAIA programs played in Tampa. The Spartans scheduled eleven games against the Florida State Seminoles in the 1940s and 1950s soon after FSU founded its football program and was playing in the lower division of college football. Tampa went 2–9 against the Seminoles, with the last meeting coming in 1959. The UT football program occasionally scheduled games against NCAA Division I teams in its early years including the University of Florida Gators, whom they played on five occasions in the 1930s and 1940s but never defeated. Move to Division I In 1963, head coach Fred Pancoast encouraged the university to move its football program to the top tier of college football, NCAA Division I, but the university leadership did not feel that the school could support the move at the time, and Pancoast left to become an assistant with the Florida Gators. However, after the program moved its home field from Phillips Field to newly-constructed Tampa Stadium in 1967, the school decided to compete as an independent at the Division I program beginning with the 1971 season. Tampa U. quickly became competitive at the highest level of college football. The Spartans earned wins over established programs such as Ole Miss and Miami and won the 1972 Tangerine Bowl to cap a 10-2 season. They were led by several stars who went on to play professional football, including Leon McQuay, Freddie Solomon, Noah Jackson, and John Matuszak, who was the first overall pick in the 1973 NFL Draft. Ending the program Although the Spartans enjoyed success on the field against Division I opponents from much larger universities, the University of Tampa had an enrollment of about 1,300 in the early 1970s and the football program was putting an increasing financial strain on the school's limited resources. In early 1975, university president B.D. Owens and the UT finance committee surprised the university community by proposing that the school drop football due to unsustainable expenses. A financial report released by the committee revealed that the football program had run a deficit of almost $200,000 in 1974 ($ today) and that the school had borrowed over $750,000 ($ today) from its endowment to subsidize the sport since its move to Division I. Owens also expressed concern that Tampa's new