1997 Tampa Bay Storm

The Storm's training camp was not without interesting occurrences. Five minutes into the first practice, former Storm fullback Ivan Ceasar went after head coach Tim Marcum. Ceasar, who had been traded to Portland, was angry he had not received his championship ring and knocked the coach to the ground. Marcum's glasses were broken in Ceasar's effort to pry the championship ring from the coach's hand. The player the team received from Portland in exchange for Ceasar was kicker Terry Beldon. A Northern Arizona graduate, who was attending the Indiana University dental school in the off-season, Beldon ended up being released after six games.

The 1997 season opened at Arizona on May 3. Cedric McKinnon scored the Storm's first touchdown of the season on a 1 yard run in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Peter Tom Willis threw for his first Arena League touchdown, hitting Stevie Thomas from 12 yards out. The scoring would close with two fourth quarter TD receptions by George LaFrance, as the Storm won the game 42- 30. Willis complete 21 of 32 passes, for 224 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. "Not bad for his Arena debut," proclaimed head coach Tim Marcum.

The following Saturday night, the Storm took to the floor of the Ice Palace for the first time. The Florida Bobcats were in town for the first Storm game played in Tampa. It was defensive a struggle for three quarters with the Storm holding an 18-7 lead going into the final period. Stevie Thomas had big night with 11 receptions for 145 yards and three touchdowns. Peter Tom Willis connected with Thomas twice in the fourth quarter and the Storm posted a 38-19 victory. Tim Marcum was not totally satisfied with the effort. "Sometimes we looked fairly ugly and undisciplined."

The next Saturday night, the Predators came to town. Peter Tom Willis had two interceptions ran back for touchdowns in the first quarter and was picked off four times during the game. In his first arena football start, former Lehigh University quarterback Scott Semptimphelter threw four touchdown passes for Orlando. Barry Wagner scored five TDs, as Orlando posted a 43-17 victory. The 17 point total was the lowest in Tampa Bay's history and Orlando's 16 pass attempts were the fewest a team had attempted against the Storm.

The Storm went on the road to play the Nashville Kats and it was the first meeting with the expansion team. The new team's head coach was Eddie Khayat, who was the defensive line coach for the Buccaneers in 1992 and 1993. Former Storm quarterback Jay Gruden, now on the sidelines as the offensive coordinator for the Kats, watched his team take a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Tampa Bay would storm back, with Tony Jones running for two touchdowns and P.T. Willis hitting George LaFrance on four TD passes. The Nashville Arena crowd saw the Storm win going away 42-26.

A matchup against the Milwaukee Mustangs featured eight lead changes. George LaFrance had 245 all purpose yards and scored three touchdowns, however, turnovers killed the Storm. They gave the ball away five times, including three interceptions of P.T. Willis, and it lead to 28 points for the Mustangs. Just 9,888 fans, an all-time low for the franchise, watched the Storm lose consecutive home games for the first time. In fact, it was the first time the team had lost two home games in a season. It was also the first time Milwaukee had defeated the Storm. Tim Marcum said after the 51-42 loss, "It just hurts to lose. We're going to make some changes, probably some dramatic changes."

In the attempt to turn things around, Tim Marcum made personnel moves during the season. RB/LB Andre Bowden returned to the team after a stint in the NFL and World League. Receiver Wayne Walker, an AFC all-rookie team member with the San Diego Chargers in 1989, also signed with the Storm.

The next game was against the Albany Firebirds in the recently renamed Pepsi Arena. The highlight of the first quarter was Les Barley becoming the all-time Arena League rusher on a 23 yard TD run. Barley surpassed Major Harris' career record of 837 yards. The low point of the first quarter was QB Peter Tom Willis getting knocked out of the game late in the period. Dan White, a rookie from the University of Arizona, replaced Willis at quarterback. The game's MVP was Albany quarterback Mike Pawlawski, a former Buccaneers backup, as the Firebirds won 53-31 to drop the Storm to 3-3.

Despite some bruised ribs, P.T. Willis started the next game, which was the first time the Storm played the expansion New Jersey Red Dogs. Former University of Arizona place kicker Rich Fall saw his first AFL action in the game at the Ice Palace. The Storm took a 7-3 lead after the first quarter and the teams combined for 45 points in the second period. Tampa Bay lead 28-27 at halftime, but for the only time in team history were held scoreless in the second half and lost 44-28. It was the first time the franchise had been held scoreless in a half, lost three straight games and dropped three home games in a row.

The losing streak came to an end the following Saturday night in Tampa. In the first matchup against the New York CityHawks, the visitors lead 9-7 in the second quarter. The expansion team would not score again, as the Storm held them scoreless in the second half. Peter Tom Willis tossed three touchdown passes and George LaFrance caught 9 balls for 119 yards with a TD. The 27-9 victory saw the lowest total points (36) in team history and evened Tampa Bay's record at 4-4. Now with New York, former Storm head coach Lary Kuharich said afterwards, "We made some mistakes you wouldn't expect from a pro team at this stage."

A record crowd of 16,529 filled the Orlando Arena for the rivalry between the Storm and the Predators. The teams scored on every first quarter possession, traded field goals in the second quarter, and Orlando lead 23-17 at the half. Rich Fall tied a Storm record with five field goal attempts. Mac Cody was the hero for the Predators. He scored on a run, a reception, a kickoff return, a missed field goal return and finished with 293 all-purpose yards. Tim Marcum said of the 54-30 defeat, "We just got whupped in the second half."

In a game at Texas, Peter Tom Willis (17 of 30 for 229 yards) threw three TD passes, while not being intercepted or sacked. The Storm lead 21-19 at the half and picked off four passes in a 40-31 victory. Tracey Perkins, who returned one of his two interceptions for a touchdown, said after the game, "The quarterback didn't do a good job looking off the receivers."

The Storm offense got on track against Anaheim at the Ice Palace. The aerial assault featured 280 yards and four touchdowns passes by Peter Tom Willis. Leading the ground attack was Andre Bowden with 37 yards rushing and four touchdowns. Tampa Bay came within a point of the team record for most points in a game, as the Storm beat the Piranhas 68-43.

Next up was an Arena Bowl re-match against Iowa in Tampa. Peter Tom Willis had three touchdown passes and three interceptions, while Barnstormer quarterback Kurt Warner threw seven TD passes. Lapses by the Storm at the end of each half, Tampa Bay was out-scored 26-0 in the final 1:30 of each half, proved to be the difference. For the third straight game, Tracey Perkins intercepted two passes to give him a league record tying eleven for the season. Iowa won the game 61-38 and the Storm were 6-6. Speaking of the team's playoff chances, Tim Marcum commented, "We've got our backs against the wall now."

The last game of the year at the Ice Palace would be a road game against Florida. The Bobcats were losing money at the small West Palm Beach Auditorium, so the league suggested a "Showcase Tour" for the 1997 season. This meant Florida would play twelve road games, many at potential expansion cites, such as Boston, Fresno, Los Angeles and Ottawa. While the team was expected to move into a brand new arena for the 1999 season, Florida appeared to be faced with the same dilemma for the 1998 season. The Bobcats opened the scoring with a 58 yard field goal by Walter Grant, which was a Florida record and the longest field goal in a Storm game. Andre Bowden had four rushing touchdowns for the second time this season and also sacked Florida quarterback Clemente Gordon twice. Defensive specialist Tracey Perkins had a diving interception of Gordon at the Florida 1 yard line, giving him an AFL record twelve INTs for the season. It was the seventh straight game where Perkins had intercepted a pass, which set a Tampa Bay record. Wayne Walker replaced George LaFrance at offensive specialist and caught two TD passes. The Storm kept its playoff hopes alive with a 48-22 victory.

The regular season finale saw Tampa Bay make its first trip to the San Jose Arena. P.T. Willis hit George LaFrance with two first quarter touchdowns and the game was tied 21-21 at halftime. With a couple of key players on the bench nicked by injuries, and the Storm's playoff spot secured by results earlier in the evening, Tim Marcum decided to let backup quarterback Ron Adams play the second half. Adams played at Eastern Michigan University and had joined the team at mid-season. He turned in the most impressive QB performance in team history, completing 13 of 15 passes for 136 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Adams completed a Storm single game record 86.7 percent of his passes, which was the third best in league history. The Storm had an AFL single game record three safeties, along with three sacks, in a 30 point third quarter outburst. Tampa Bay topped the SabreCats 58-34. The bad news coming out of the game was that Stevie Thomas and Tracey Perkins would not be available for the postseason opener due to injuries.

The Storm's 8-6 record placed them second, two games behind Orlando, in the Southern Division. It also gave Tampa Bay the worst winning percentage in team history (.571) and the sixth seed in the playoff hunt. This was the first season the team did not have a winning record at home (4-4). Even though the Storm allowed a team record 521 points, they had the league's top rated defense allowing an average of 209 yards per game. Peter Tom Willis had a decent first year as the Storm QB, but the offense did score a team record low of 39.1 points per game. Willis had 225 completions in 413 attempts for 2,846 yards with 41 touchdown passes and a team record 19 interceptions. George LaFrance (1,131 yards and 22 TDs) finished sixth in the league in receiving and Les Barley (183 yards and 8 TDs) ranked fourth in rushing. Tracey Perkins was named Defenseman of the Year and was joined on the All-Arena League team by lineman Willie Wyatt. In the first year at the Ice Palace, the Storm's average attendance was 12,007, which was sixth best in the league.

The first round of the playoffs were on a Sunday night in Nashville. It was only the second time in team history the Storm had to open the playoffs on the road. The Kats had set a record for most victories by an expansion team (ten) and had won six of their last seven games. The Storm scored on every first half possession and, when George LaFrance caught his third touchdown pass of the game, the Storm had 38-21 lead early in the second half. Nashville came back. Nashville QB Andy Kelly finished with seven TD passes, the most against the Storm in the postseason, and the home team scored 21 points in the final period. Tampa Bay held on for a 52-49 triumph in a game where Les Barley rushed for two touchdowns. Asked about how the team struggled through the regular season, Tim Marcum replied "I don't even remember that." This setup a rematch of last year's semi-final against Arizona.

The playoff semi-final was a rematch of the season opener, when the Storm won in Phoenix. It also marked the 100th game in franchise history. Tampa Bay kicker Rich Fall set team playoff records with four field goals and sixteen points, Wayne Walker had a Storm postseason record 56 yard kickoff return and George LaFrance caught a pair of TD passes. The Rattlers had some big performances as well, such as, Calvin Schexnayder with four touchdown catches and Hunkie Cooper with the most kickoff return yardage against the Storm in playoffs (192 yards). Arizona quarterback Sherdrick Bonner broke his leg in fourth quarter, so backup QB Donnie Davis came into the game. When regulation time ended with the score 43-43, the berth in the league championship game would be decided in overtime. The Storm scored a field goal on their first possession in OT, but Donnie Davis threw a 17 yard touchdown pass on Arizona's possession. The Rattlers 49-46 win gave the Storm a team record seven defeats. It also was the first time a Tim Marcum coached team failed to make it to the Arena Bowl. It also marked the first time since 1990 that the Arena Bowl would not feature a Florida team.

A few days after the league championship game, there was a press conference in Orlando to announce the hiring of a new head coach. Nashville offensive coordinator, and former Storm quarterback, Jay Gruden would take over the helm for the Predators. At age 30, he would be the youngest head coach in league history. Gruden said, "Maybe some people in Tampa will view me as a traitor, but it's just too good an opportunity." Speaking of the central Florida rivalry, and the fact the Storm had knocked Nashville out of the playoffs, Gruden stated "Over the last couple of weeks I've grown to hate Tampa myself."

Related Links

1997 Tampa Bay Storm Results

1997 AFL Southern Division Standings

1997 Tampa Bay Storm Statistics

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