“USF! USFSP! We are the Bulls by the bay, the Bulls by the bay! Hey hey!”
This new campus chant got its first go at USF St. Petersburg’s inaugural Dance Marathon.
After teaching the chant to the audience, Jared Bolton, Harborside Activities Board’s director of special events asked for the crowd to join in. The crowd repeated in sing song. Bolton did the chant one more time and was met with even more enthusiasm from his audience.
The chant came from a Residence Hall Association conference known as FARH (Florida Association of Residence Halls) in Pensacola. During the conference, schools shared their respective cheers including USF Tampa. USFSP’s RHA group decided that USFSP needed its own chant.
Bolton loved the idea and decided it would make an excellent USFSP tradition.
“At the conference all of the schools did their cheers and chants as a kind of competition to see who was the best, and the RHA here kinda felt that we didn’t have anything to offer because Tampa campus did our usual South Florida chant,” Bolton said. “As a result we decided to make our own, and I said we should make it a tradition.”
Bolton decided to take the chant to Catherine Kouretsos, student government’s director of university relations.
Kourtesos said the chant will officially debut during USFSP’s spirit week kickoff.
The chant is expected to be featured in a video promo and on flyers and shirts.
As USFSP plans to expand to 10,000 students by 2024, Bolton believes it is important that the campus has a distinct identity.
“I think that USFSP has become more known and is growing constantly, and I felt that we should, not separate ourselves from Tampa, but have our own distinctive identity, so we can know and be known,” Bolton said.
Bolton hopes that the chant will spread to sporting events, homecoming, USFSP week and even graduation ceremonies.
