At a press conference today, United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue announced the Florida franchise will be named the Tuskers and unveiled innovative team uniforms showcasing the Tuskers’ “Premiere” season colors of blue, black and white. The name “Tuskers” was selected after more than thirty thousand fan entries and interpretation from industry experts and an in-house creative team on what attributes the fans were seeking with their submissions.  Florida Tuskers Head Coach Jim Haslett and Michael Kalt, Tampa Bay Rays’ Senior Vice President of Development and Business Affairs, were also in attendance at the press event.

Commissioner Huyghue also announced that the Tuskers' game against the Las Vegas Locomotives on October 30th will be played at Tropicana Field, home of the Rays, and that the Rays have reached an agreement in principle to acquire an interest in the UFL's Florida franchise.

Previously, the UFL announced Miami-based GameWear Team Sports as the League’s official uniform supplier.  GameWear Team Sports is one of the leading athletic uniform outfitters in the country and has worked extensively in growing the sport of football on the grassroots level.  Award-winning designer Ron Caruso of Purepartner created all the teams’ uniforms using derivatives of the official League logo for all the designs while making each one distinctive.

“The inspiration for the "Premiere" season uniform design comes directly from the UFL shield and its foundation colors which represent "green grass", "blue sky" and silver for innovation," said Caruso.  “Throughout the uniforms, we used the dimensional "arc" of the shield on the chest and supporting "arcs" on the sleeves and pants.  The unique font of the numbers reinforces the shield's classic bold typeface with angles and dimensional treatments conveying depth and motion.  The four uniform designs work together in a unified branded system, providing manufacturing efficiencies while allowing each team to retain its own unique and differentiated character

Earlier this week, the United Football League introduced the Las Vegas Locomotives and the San Francisco Redwoods at press events.  Tomorrow, the United Football League will be holding a press conference in New York to announce that franchise’s name.  Photos of each of the team’s uniforms will be available on the League’s website, www.ufl-football.com, along with video from the press events.

“We are extremely pleased with the names selected for all of our teams and the overall “Premiere” season uniform design,” said Frank Vuono, COO of the UFL.  “Name selection for a new sports franchise can be an arduous process having to take into account the disqualification of many great possibilities due to trademark and copyright issues.  There was a team of experts headed up by Jeff Sofka of Bendigo Co., and included Charley Inc., GameWear Team Sports, Purepartner, and many others who assisted in the name selection and uniform design processes and we are grateful for all of their hard work.”

The UFL launched its Name the Team Campaign with the redesign of its website in February.  From that time, more than thirty thousand entries were submitted.  Fans who submitted the selected names will be notified and given the appropriate credit.

The Florida Tuskers’ first game of the season will be on October 10th at the Citrus Bowl against New York. Tickets are now on-sale and can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster Charge by Phone at 800.745.3000 or visiting www.ticketmaster.com.