For more than three decades, few sports fans were as recognizable as Big Nasty, the horn-helmeted Tampa Bay Buccaneers devotee whose red-and-black face paint became part of the team's game day atmosphere.
Behind the persona was Keith Kunzig, 58, a hulking but mild-mannered Largo resident, financial adviser and family man who turned his passion for the Bucs into something much larger than fandom.
He and his wife, Debbie, and their daughter, Destiny Lozano, made Bucs games their second home.
“When I was a kid, I thought everybody had a dad like that,” said Lozano, 26, who considered her family’s involvement a blessing. “I thought everybody went to the Bucs games on Sundays. But as I got older, I quickly realized that we are a very fanatical family.”
Kunzig retired his alter ego after the 2022 season and cheers these days from his living room. Health played a role in the decision, including back surgery and the long-term effects of a 2006 Lap-Band procedure that helped him drop 100 pounds and got him off insulin for diabetes.
But he left an indelible mark. The Pro Football Hall of Fame recognized his dedication twice: 2001, when he was inducted into the Visa Hall of Fans, and again in 2020, when he was voted into the Ford Hall of Fans, a modern-day extension of the program.
Kunzig grew up in Seminole and attended his first Bucs game at old Tampa Stadium in 1977. His favorite player was safety Mark Cotney, who took him under his wing at a youth football camp a few years later.
Big Nasty was impossible to miss. Kunzig says the makeup had roots in rock legends Kiss, and the hardhat horn was a tribute to the “Rhino Backfield,” a nickname for when 250-pound fullbacks Mike Alstott and Lorenzo Neal lined up together in 1998.
What set Kunzig apart was how he used his fame. Through his “Drugs are Nasty” campaign, he visited local schools to talk to children about staying off drugs. He organized tailgates to raise money for anti-drug programs and regularly visited children’s hospitals
Like other Bucs fans, Kunzig is celebrating the team’s 50th anniversary. He and his daughter recently visited “Florida Matters Live & Local” and discussed life before, during and after Big Nasty with host Matthew Peddie.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Describe the look. It's kind of like something between a cross between Kiss’ Gene Simmons and some Viking iconography going on there.
When we first started, it was kind of crazy. I looked like an orange pumpkin. I remember putting the paste on, and I kid you not, it was before they had spray-on tans. It stained my face for a week.
This is when the Bucs had the Creamsicle color.
This is back in the day. Then it kind of evolved. And yes, I am a huge Kiss fan, so that's kind of where the top lines (are from). But then I looked at the Wisconsin Badgers’ helmet, and I liked the W that they had on there. I was like, “W could be for win." And that's how it evolved over the years.
At first it was changing the makeup every week. Then I said, "Nah. What does Kiss do?" If you want to create some kind of trademark, you want to do something consistent.
How did you come up with "Big Nasty"?
These days, people create their own nicknames. I'm not a fan of that. I can remember like it was yesterday. In Tampa Stadium, about 64 rows up where we sat, a lady who went there every week, she said, "You need a nickname, something big and something nasty." And that's how it got started.
We all have gotten older, but it was just a lot of fun. We did it mainly just to have a good time, family and football. That's what it's all about.
You were doing it to cheer your brother up?
The original reason why we did it the first time was my brother (Kenny, aka “Little Nasty”) broke up with his girlfriend (in 1988). He was very down, and I said, "Dude, let's just go paint up and go to the game." And that was when we stained our faces and ended up going to the game.
We took more pictures, because there were not face painters back then. I don't think there was anybody that was an idiot like us that wanted to do at 120 degrees heat. But we had a lot of fun with it. I can remember it was the “(Bay) of the Pigs” (rivalry) with the Green Bay Packers, because we were the worst two teams in the NFL. And now look at us.
Was it hard to know that once you had this persona, people were sort of relying on you to be there? Do you feel like, if you are this fan, it's taken a life of its own, and then you have a responsibility to put the face paint on, put the gear on, come with the helmet?
We didn't do it for fame. We didn't do it to be on the TV. What we did was just to have fun, and we did it consistently. I'm kind of that way. If we're going to do it, we're going to do it right. There wasn't, "Take a week off, come back maybe next year." It was a consistent over 35 years.
What people don't realize is, even when the season’s over, it's not over. You're doing charity events and stuff like that, which is really what it was all about.
I could tell you a really cool thing, that when it first started I knew we had something. It was a crew of us, we were walking in the stadium, and all of a sudden, I saw this handicapped child in a wheelchair. … I went up with him. I had the 'Who Let the Dogs Out' stuffed animal ... and tied it to his chair. At first, he was like, 'What in the world is coming at me?' Then afterward, the smile on that kid's face. …
Now, you think that would make you feel good? No, I got on the other side of the stadium. Here comes his mom screaming. … And she's crying, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God." I said, "What happened?" I was thinking something happened to this lady. She goes, "That's the first time he smiled in 10 years." All the guys in the crew are looking at me, like, "Wow. We just uncovered something here. Let's be more consistent." And what we did was just make a person's game-day experience more memorable over the 35 years. I loved it, and I still love it.
The Bucs have had some ups and downs over the years, right? And you've been there riding that wave from the very beginning. Did it make it easier to channel the highs and lows because you had this sort of fan persona to put that into?
As an 8-year-old Bucs fan at the beginning, going 0-26 and not winning a game, just loving the colors of the Bucs and getting to meet some of these players at a football camp. And then when you go from losing to winning your first game, and then evolving as you get older, I could tell you, our first Super Bowl win in San Diego — it was like I played the game. Something lifted off my shoulders, and I didn't play one down.
When did you realize it was time to hang up the helmet and put away the face paint?
The year before was when I started noticing I'm coming home, I'm totally dehydrated, looking like Edward Scissorhands. And me having the Lap-Band, it takes a little bit more time for the fluids to get in you. Not that I passed out or anything, but when I got home, I'm done for the day. It's a participating sport, Big Nasty, and when you're screaming from the top of your lungs every third down, it takes its toll. I dropped 20 pounds in water weight each game.
Then I had my back surgery, and I was like, we're getting close to the time. That last year was rough, because we went to Germany (2022; Bucs defeated Seattle in Munich). We went to a lot of away games because it was our last year when they call our “last ride.” I guess you could say somebody came up and did T-shirts for charity on that.
So, it was time then to say, "I'm going to enjoy these games at a slightly more sedate pace now."
Yeah. I mean, come on, you get in the Hall of Fame twice? I've got (the) first one was in 2001 with Visa and then Ford in 2020. What else can I do with this?
