The start of the UCF football program (back then known as Florida Tech) has been well-documented.
Current UCF players understandably have little appreciation for what it took for the Knights (then the Fighting Knights) to start a program from scratch and watch it grow from NCAA Division III to Division II to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), that last distinction since 1996.
Orlando native Mike Stapp does. He's been there from the beginning, and he's been actively supporting and following the Knights ever since.
"I actually had an appointment to West Point to play football, but I ended up going to Georgia Tech as a preferred walk-on," he says. "I was there as a freshman but had issues with my knee. I came back to UCF just to finish school here, rehabbed my knee for a year and then my junior year they started the football program. That part was pure coincidence.
"I had thought I was putting the pads away and turning the page. Then, lo and behold, football comes to UCF. Torchy Clark was the (UCF) basketball coach—he found me and said, 'You're going to be the running back.' He knew me from high school (Bishop Moore in Orlando). I'd played quarterback and defensive back, but we were mostly a running offense there. And Don Jonas, who a year later became the first full-time head coach (at UCF), had helped coach at Bishop Moore, so he knew me, too."
UCF began football that 1979 season with no on-campus facilities, a coaching staff—led by Jonas, a former Canadian Football League all-star--of volunteers and mostly donated equipment. Practices happened on a golf driving range—and when they were over there was no locker room, so players sought out showers in various other campus buildings.
Jonas received no salary that initial season. UCF had to persuade Orlando mayor Carl Langford to release Jonas from his duties as a city employee at 3 p.m. so he could run practice with his dozen volunteer assistants (several with NFL experience). Still, the team's local popularity grew after the first season, with close to 200 players trying out for the Knights in their second year.
To open that 1979 season Stapp (an offensive team captain) and his teammates went on the road and defeated the St. Leo Monarchs (in suburban Tampa-St. Petersburg) on a muddy field where cows once grazed. Stapp ran for 101 yards that afternoon and led that first UCF team in rushing (444 yards and two touchdowns). St. Leo had wanted to scratch the game due to a downpour that turned the game field into a quagmire. But Jonas persisted.
UCF finished its inaugural season 6-2 and set an NCAA Division III record for attendance, drawing an average of 11,240 per game (also leading the country in 1980 at 10,450 per game). Stapp again led the team in rushing in 1980 with 319 yards, while earning CoSIDA District III Academic All-America recognition with his 3.7 grade-point average.
Stapp marvels at the number of his teammates who came from around Orlando, went to UCF and have stayed in the area.
"Quite a few of the guys we played with have stayed here in the Orlando area," he says. "There might be 10 to 12 guys we run into every so often. That's kind of remarkable."
At the top of that list is the leading tackler from that first team.
"Bill Giovannetti played linebacker on defense and I played offense," says Stapp. "We knew each other, but the offensive guys kind of hung out together and the same with the defensive side.
"Then after football I was the general sales manager at the dairy (Dean Foods) and we end up hiring Bill to work with us. We're godparents to each other's kids—it's kind of crazy how it all turned out.
"His four boys and my three boys have tailgated together (at UCF games) for almost 40 years. So there's no doubt there's a significant bond."
Stapp is currently a sales manager/business consultant for CoAdvantage (an HR resources company). He previously worked with Giovanetti at Dean Foods/T.G. Lee Dairy and then spent 10 years directing sales for Gooding's Supermarkets in Orlando.
Winner of multiple sales awards, Stapp has been active at UCF—including as part of the Dean's Executive Council in the College of Business Administration. He's a 1981 graduate with a bachelor's degree in business administration and management.
Stapp has no difficulty connecting his UCF football experiences to his business success.
"When you look back to that first team, everybody was a non-scholarship player doing it for the love of the game," he says. "It teaches you that if you have a dream or a wish or there's something you want to do, you just put your mind to it.
"That mindset for a lot of our guys has helped us be successful professionally. Hard work and effort gives you the opportunity—it's not given to you.
"There were 100-some guys trying out, so everyone started on an even keel. You just had to outwork everybody if you wanted to play.
"Even in the dairy business, we were a bunch of young guys in an industry where most of the senior management was significantly older than we were. We just had to outwork everybody. We worked 60-70 hours a week--that's just what you did. That work ethic is instilled in you, and hopefully you pass it along to your kids."
Stapp cherishes all those memories—yet he also couldn't be more excited about the start of the Gus Malzahn era at UCF.
"I've been involved since the beginning," Stapp says.
"It's remarkable to see how it's grown and where it is now, it really is."
This is a recurring series of feature pieces on former UCF student-athletes.
