Tampa is home to many professional sports franchises such as the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers, MLS Tampa Bay Mutiny, NHL The Tampa Bay Lightning, Yankees' Minor League Baseball and the world champion AFL Tampa Bay Storm. Don't forget the golf! Tampa is home to many of Florida's finest golf courses and some of the world's finest country clubs.

Tampa Bay was explored by the Spanish soldier Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528. The site, however, was not settled until 1823, when a plantation was established. Fort Brooke was built here the next year. Tampa was incorporated as a city in 1855. Confederate forces occupied the fort at the start of the American Civil War, surrendering it to Union troops in May 1864. Growth of the community was spurred by the discovery of phosphates in 1883, the arrival of the railroad in 1885, and the establishment of the cigar-making industry in 1886. During the Spanish-American War (1898) Tampa was an army training camp; Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders used the city as an embarkation point for Cuba, where they launched the celebrated charge at the Battle of San Juan Hill. In 1953 the city greatly increased its area and population by the incorporation of surrounding suburbs.