Sam Gibbons was re-elected to Congress 16 times, and never lost an election. That came after he parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day in Normandy, during one of the most harrowing invasions of World War II. He was instrumental in getting the University of South Florida off the ground. He also helped the then-small town of Tampa expand to the limits of the university. And he rode in President John F. Kennedy's convertible limousine through Tampa in 1963 - the last stop before that fateful ride in Dallas.

Sam Gibbons is now 92. He rolls around in a wheelchair now, a long way from the days he strode as a political giant in Tampa. He appeared before a standing-room-only crowd recently with former circuit judge John F. Germany at the downtown library that bears his friend's name.