tampabayfootball.net
(May 1, 2007)

After almost a decade on the Internet, the Tampa Bay Football History Network finally has its own domain name.

Why now, after all this time? GeoCities had been used as a host since the site went up in September of 1999, but Yahoo has announced they are phasing out GeoCities this summer. So, a change had to be made.

Several different names were unavailable. footballhistory.net, tampabay.net and tbfn.net could not be used. tampabayfootballhistory.net was considered, after all, that reflects the name of this site, but that name was thought to be too long. So, tampabayfootball.net was selected.

Memorial Day weekend was used to start and substantially complete the conversion. We did find out that the Tampa Bay Football History Network Database had only 814 pages instead of the 826 advertised. There were also ??? photos, not ???.

Almost every page required some sort of modification to reflect the new domain name, so we now have an accurate count and little desire to change things again anytime soon. There may still be a couple links that show up as broken, or still linked to the GeoCities address, but we'll work on that. Heck, there are likely references to the site's old name, "DaBucs" and that change took place in 2002.

When changes are made or milestones reached it is time to reflect. It is hard to belive that it has been almost ten years on the Web and over fifteen years documenting the history of football in Tampa Bay.

Thanks go out to all that have been involved over the years. The person who finds the site for the first time and leaves a message saying they did not know the site existed and how much they enjoyed it. The people who have emailed corrections. Those who have provided additional information and suggestions. The times I've met people, talked to them, or worked together on some project. This makes this hobby even more enjoyable. The Tampa Bay Storm are down, but not technically out. This proud franchise, winners of a record five Arena Bowl championships, has struggled the past two seasons. The team's 2007 playoff chances may not be dead yet, but they are on life support.