Middle Magnet School Named In Honor Of Community Icon

TAMPA, FL — He's been called a community icon, a philanthropist, hero to thousands of Tampa Bay children, and now a Hillsborough County school will bear his name.

At the request of students, teachers and parents at Sligh Middle Magnet School, the Hillsborough County School Board voted unanimously to name the school in honor of Thaddeus M. Bullard, aka Titus O'Neil. It will now be known as the Thaddeus M. Bullard Academy at Sligh Middle Magnet School.

The world knows him as a former World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling superstar, now the global ambassador for the WWE, and a finalist for ESPN's 2020 Sports Humanitarian Awards. But Bullard is best known in his hometown of Tampa as the guy who's always willing to play a pickup game of basketball with kids at the Boys & Girls Club, serve up food for the homeless at a soup kitchen and drop by the hospital pediatric unit to bring a smile to the face of a critically ill child.

He personally doesn't keep track, but his supporters say he's helped improve the lives of thousands of children and family through his nonprofit Bullard Family Foundation.

For Keith and Monica Harris — who launched a Change.org petition drive to have Sligh Middle Magnet, at 2011 E. Sligh Ave., Tampa, named for Bullard — the honor is long overdue.

One fall day in 2016, Bullard dropped by the school and asked if he could throw a birthday party for the students who were celebrating a milestone that month.

Bullard, who was brought up in poverty by a single mom who'd become pregnant with him when she was raped at the age of 11, never had a birthday party growing up, and he knew there were children in the community who were also missing out on birthday celebrations.

He bought a cake, gathered the kids in the school gym and sang "Happy birthday" to them. They played basketball, laughed and celebrated.

It didn't end there. Bullard returned to Sligh each month, sharing his struggles and successes with the children.

He said it was the attention of adults who believed in him when he was sent to the Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranch in Live Oak as a youngster for fighting and disciplinary problems that turned his life around.

That experience later became the central theme of his autobiography, "There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Kid."

He went on to become one of the top high school football recruits in the nation, graduating from the University of Florida with two degrees. He served as student body vice president, played in the NFL and became a WWE superstar.

Two years after that first birthday party at Sligh, Bullard founded his nonprofit. He first set his sights on Sligh Middle Magnet School, which sits in a ZIP code that has the sixth-highest percentage of children in the state living in poverty and more than 96 percent of the student body qualifying for free or reduced-price meals.

His goal was to turn the school into an example of what can happen if a community is willing to donate its time and resources.

“Where's the best place to start any transformation? Education," he said. "I want this to be like a haven for this neighborhood. I want to develop a culture of health and wellness and pride."

Today, the Bullard Family Foundation has more than 100 corporate and community partners who donate to the middle school, giving the students access to leadership, arts, technology and sports programs they might otherwise never experience.

Additionally, the foundation offers workforce development training and support services to parents of students at the school.

After just one year, Sligh experienced a 67-point total gain on state assessments in the spring of 2019, ranking first among Hillsborough County middle schools. In 2020, overall attendance was up, student misconduct and suspensions were down, and teacher retention was at an all-time high.

"We have watched Thad in action at Sligh, where the students all know him," Keith Harris said. "It’s easy for celebrities to just write checks or come see the students for photo ops. But Thad invests his time, year after year, in the students and community, because, to him, we are family, and to us, he's our family. That's why we're eager to honor him in this way, to make sure his legacy lives on, just like his impact on this school and community."

Sligh isn't the only benefactor of Bullard's largesse.

In what's become an annual tradition, on July 17, 1,000 volunteers gathered at Amalie Arena to join Bullard and the Tampa Bay Lightning in stuffing 30,000 backpacks with school supplies.

Bullard will follow up by hosting the Bullard Family Foundation's annual Back-to-School Bash on Aug. 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Raymond James Stadium.

In addition to giving out 30,000 backpacks, the event will offer school and sports physicals, dental X-rays and cleanings, eye exams and glasses, haircuts along with food and kids' activities.

When civil unrest gripped Tampa following George's Floyd's murder in 2020, Bullard and longtime friend, Tampa resident and fellow WWE wrestler Dave Bautista, led hundreds of people on a Love Walk through Tampa to promote peace and solidarity.

During the coronavirus pandemic, his foundation supported restaurants by ordering catered lunches each day for the Sligh staff and volunteers. Students received laptops and technology to aid in the transition to e-learning during the pandemic, thanks to Bullard.

The foundation has built five innovation labs at schools in the Tampa Bay Area, which double as incentive rooms during the school day and a safe space after school.

Each year the Joy of Giving holiday event provides gifts and food for Sligh, Foster Elementary and Carter G. Woodson students.

Cops and Cleats collects more than 8,000 pairs of football cleats for youth leagues and high school football teams.

And the BFF Tennis Academy in which 250 children from seven Boys & Girls Clubs in Tampa Bay receive tennis instruction in conjunction with the United States Tennis Association.

When they launched their petition drive to name Sligh Middle Magnet School for Bullard, the Harrises were planning to present the petition to the school board after obtaining 1,500 signatures.

They never got the chance. Just days after learning about the effort, the school board agreed that Bullard was long overdue for the honor.

"The Bullard Academy at Sligh Middle Magnet School will be a beacon for the community where Thad has transformed the lives of students, families and faculty districtwide," said the school board in a statement.