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But, Tampa Isn't In South Florida

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2007

If you've ever wondered why the University of South Florida got its name, look no further than to the newspaper you're reading.

Fifty years ago, state leaders fiercely debated the name of a new public university in Hillsborough County. Possibilities included Citrus State University, Ponce de Leon University, Flamerica University and the University of the Western Hemisphere.

When then-Gov. LeRoy Collins proposed the University of Florida, Temple Terrace, The Tampa Tribune objected. In an editorial dated Oct. 17, 1957, the Tribune recommended the name University of South Florida.

Editors then noted the name would bestow 'dignity and prestige' on a state institution that might one day enroll as many as '10,000 students.'

Lawmakers and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce rallied around the Tribune's suggestion and pushed the state Board of Education to adopt the name, wrote Mark Greenberg, director of USF's Florida Studies Center and author of the university's commemorative history.

Sam Gibbons, then a state representative who led the effort to create the university, took to the name warmly. In an interview at his Tampa home Tuesday, Gibbons said he needed money from his fellow legislators to start up the university, 'and I had to claim as many constituents as possible.' So he settled on the geographically sweeping 'South Florida.'

'South Florida belonged to everybody south of Gainesville,' Gibbons said.

Others found the name confusing. The Ledger in Lakeland wrote, 'The University of South Florida would be just dandy - if Tampa was in south Florida instead of Central Florida.'

Gibbons rejected 'Central Florida,' though, because the region was 'too little a place.'

On Oct. 22, 1957, at the urging of Gibbons and the Tribune, the state Cabinet officially adopted the name University of South Florida. Collins, however, later said he didn't know why state officials 'couldn't have come up with a better name.'

The University of Central Florida name went to Florida Technological University in 1978.

And the Tribune's prediction was a little off: The USF system today enrolls 45,000 students.

We regret the error.

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