HUDSON, Fla. — Larry Gasparino is a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fanatic. If you don’t believe him, well, he now has a room in his house to prove it.
He calls it his “Buccaneers Palace.”
“You can look around for a while and see stuff that nobody has,” Gasparino said. “Who has a Buccaneer bowling ball? Nobody.”
It’s a collection of Buccaneers gear that only a Bucs fan can dream of — from bobbleheads to shot glasses to Christmas ornaments.
“People think, ‘Why do you have a Christmas tree in your Buccaneer room?,’” Gasparino said. “All the ornaments on the tree are a special Buccaneer ornament that comes every Christmas.”
Gasparino is one of those fans that every fan at Raymond James Stadium knows. He goes by “Thee Bucaholic” and was named the team’s Fan of the Year in 2020.
“Like I tell everybody, I’m not just a regular fan. This is my team. I’ve been a Bucs fan, not forever, but 27 years when I started collecting stuff. It didn’t start to be this way,” he said. “It’s really cool because lots of people know me; they want to take a picture with me.”
27 years of stuff have a new home in Gasparino’s new home. He and his wife own a small construction company, built the house in May, and added the Bucs room.
“I started on the floor, the lines painted myself, it was a process,” Gasparino said of a floor designed like a football field. “I couldn’t work on it in the evenings a little bit, the weekends; I worked on it every day for the last four months. And finally, it’s ready.”
The room was set up with Super Bowl 55 memorabilia on one side, with the other side dedicated to Super Bowl 37.
The room also memorializes memories his family made through Bucs football.
“This is my Dad’s memorial section,” he said. “I used to take my dad to all the games; we were big Bucs fans together. I started getting him a jersey with his name and his number for every birthday. He lived until he was 89 years old.”
His favorite piece of Bucs stuff is his Fan of the Year ring.
“My beautiful bride got in touch with the NFL and got me my own personalized NFL Bucaholic 2020 Super Bowl Fan of the Year ring,” he said.
The room even has a pirate ship in the corner, just like at Ray Jay.
“I can just come in here and lay on the floor with my little kitty cat and just be amazed.”
He’s having the room's grand opening this Sunday when the Bucs visit the Lions in Detroit.
“This is something I get to enjoy; my Buc friends get to come over whenever they want. It’s fine with me. Just to come see all the stuff that I have, collecting stuff, it’s not just stuff I want to sell, to have autographed jerseys and balls, it’s just nice for me to have. It’s my stuff, but everyone appreciates it.”
