Rowdies Cup


The Rowdies Cup is a traveling trophy awarded to the winner of the annual college soccer match between the University of South Florida Bulls and the University of Tampa Spartans, two NCAA men's programs based in the city of Tampa, Florida.

History

The rivalry was first contested on November 5, 1972. USF won the match, 9–2. That meeting happens to have the greatest margin of victory in the series among games played during the regular season. The following year in a preseason exhibition, USF, who had been in training for over three weeks, overwhelmed the out-of-shape Spartans in the September heat by a count of 21–0. UT would finally taste victory for the first time four years later in a 1977 preseason match, by the score of 3–2.
USF has been a Division I program for all but the first meeting between the two schools, while UT has competed at the Division II level for their entire history. In the early years from 1972 to 1997 all but three off the twenty-two meetings were played during the two schools' regular season, but since the rivalry's renewal in 2005 all of the matches have been part of their preseason schedules. As of the 2019 edition, USF holds a 24–10–3 edge in the all-time series. The match was known as the Mayor's Cup from 1979 to 1992.
The name "Rowdies Cup" was first used at the 2005 meeting. It comes from the first professional sports franchise in the region, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, whose alumni were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their championship victory in Soccer Bowl '75 on August 24, 1975, with a day-long soccer festival held on August 20, 2005. The Bulls-Spartans exhibition match was the final event of the day and has been played every August ever since.

Results

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