Tony Umholtz remembers some of the earliest days of USF football. 

In 1997, Umholtz went to an open tryout for the inaugural USF football roster at Sycamore Fields after being encouraged by former coach Jim Leavitt. 

“There must have been 350 students, it was crazy,” Umholtz said. “I’m talking gym rats, people with no skill… they kept three of us.” 

Umholtz was one of those three. He became USF’s first punter, staying with the program from 1997 to 2000. 

On the same field, 27 years after that tryout, he stood at the podium in front of hundreds of attendees as USF officially broke ground on its $340 million campus stadium on Friday afternoon. 

USF President Rhea Law and Board of Trustees members Will Weatherford and Michael Griffin were among those who participated in the ceremonial shovel dig.  

Law was the first speaker at Friday’s event – introducing some of the many familiar faces in attendance. 

Related: USF moves stadium groundbreaking ceremony and Homecoming Week

Many prominent Florida politicians were present, including State Attorney General Ashley Moody, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, former Florida Secretary of State Jennifer Kennedy and State Speaker of the House Paul Renner.

Former USF presidents Betty Castor and Judy Genshaft were also in attendance. 

On Wednesday, the university released new renderings of the stadium ahead of the ceremony, including a more detailed view of the student section and a first look at the stadium’s concourse. 

The stadium groundbreaking was years in the making. The ceremony was even pushed back three weeks from its original date of Oct. 18 due to the effects of Hurricane Milton. 

Before the campus stadium was officially announced, talks of constructing a stadium on the Tampa campus began in 1998. USF Athletics Director Michael Kelly said “it wasn’t the right time.” 

Related: Sycamore Fields to be recommended as stadium location

Weatherford announced plans to construct a stadium in 2021 at USF Athletics’ last groundbreaking ceremony – the Indoor Performance Facility. He joked that despite his announcement, the university had no finite plans in place to build the stadium. 

“I have to say, sometimes in life, you have to speak things into existence,” Weatherford said at the ceremony. 

The open-air stadium is slated to open in 2027 before football season begins. It will feature 35,000 seats and an adjacent sports performance center that is set to open in 2026. The stadium will also be home to USF’s women’s lacrosse team. 

Bulls football coach Alex Golesh said the stadium will have an “absolutely huge” impact on the sport at USF. 

“The impact from a recruiting side, the impact from a functionality side, and the impact from where we’re going as a football program for years to come will be hard to put into words,” Golesh said. 

Kelly talked about the historical significance of the construction site – Sycamore Fields – which were some of the first fields that USF football practiced on. The 27-acre site has been used by students for intramural sports since then. 

“The first blood, sweat, and tears of USF football occured right here,” Kelly said. “Our forever home will be here, championships will be won here, playoff games will be played here.” 

Umholtz thought back to the time when USF football operations were housed in trailers. Now, it begins construction on its own stadium. 

“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “As I stand here today, I just wanted to go back to the past and acknowledge that… It’s such an honor to be here and be a part of this journey.”