Sprinkles, Lord Stanley and a big fight: The Lightning mean plenty to the Scarborough family

Stanley Cup wins, extra sprinkles on ice cream, support through a cancer diagnosis and even lighting the spark of what has now become a once-in-a-lifetime love.

All of it places the Tampa Bay Lightning in high regard for Bryan and Dawn Scarborough.

The Scarboroughs are Bolt for Life members and attend around 30 games each season. They make sure to be in the building for every home playoff game.

“They’re an easy team to root for,” Bryan said. “They always tend to try to put a good product on the ice. You can tell the players are passionate and they invest in the team…It’s easy to be a fan when you were a fan before it was cool to be a fan.”

A love built on Lightning

There was no NHL team in the Sunshine State when Bryan moved to Florida in 1988, but his hockey fandom was alive and well—Raised near Los Angeles, he grew up watching on a small, colorless TV screen. The puck was fuzzy and jersey numbers were hard to see, but the announcers always kept him engaged.

When the Lightning joined the NHL for the 1992-93 season, Bryan’s fandom flipped. Working as an electrician, tickets at the Thunderdome (now Tropicana Field) were hard to afford when the team played there from 1993 to 1996.

Luckily for Bryan, his past as a soccer player provided some attendance.

“They had a fan fair and had different games. One of them was if you could kick a 30-yard field goal, you got free tickets to the next game,” Bryan said. “For a soccer player, kicking a 30-yard field goal with no one coming at me was easy. So I went to like 20 games that year just by kicking field goals.”

Dawn grew up in Tampa and watched hockey on TV when her son became a fan. She then met Bryan in the late 1990s, and one of their dates was attending a Lightning game.

They’ve been a “diehard” duo of Lightning fans since. From 2000 to 2004, Bryan and Dawn rarely missed a game. They were at St. Pete Times Forum for the Stanley Cup Final Game 7 in 2004 and watched Tampa Bay hoist its first Stanley Cup.

The couple would drive to the airport in the early morning hours, greeting players as they returned from road trips.

“He (Bryan) started teaching me and we ended up getting season tickets, and I went to all the games,” Dawn said. “I immersed myself 100% into it, and I'm a huge fan now. I love hockey.”

They took a break from being Bolt for Life members before buying ticket packs in 2010. They rejoined as Bolt for Life members in 2016, just in time to support the Lightning through back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2020 and 2021.

A connection deeper than final scores

The Scarboroughs say their fandom runs deeper than just final scores, and their memory indicates as much—Bryan and Dawn traded favorite Lightning memories, player interactions and roster changes alike dating back to the early 2000s.

Their home demonstrates their fandom, too. An upstairs loft is dedicated as a Lightning room, featuring hundreds of team items that range from photos to bobbleheads, signed jerseys, custom paintings, decorations, clothing items and plenty of other collectibles.

There are baskets with more items in closets and the garage, which also houses their vehicle that features custom stickers and detailing with Lightning images. When their friends and family need a gift idea for the Scarboroughs, it often arrives Lightning themed.

Dawn said she enjoyed getting to watch Hockey Hall of Fame member Mario Lemieux play one of his final games in Tampa.

Her favorite Lightning item is her handmade sign which told defenseman Pavel Kubina to hit Jaromir Jagr during the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Kubina signed it for her at the airport, and it later appeared on the big screen in the arena. It still lives in their fan cave.

Bryan’s prized collector’s item is a jersey that was signed by nearly the entire 2004 Stanley Cup team as well as Wayne Gretzky. He snuck out of his seat to find Gretzky during a Lightning game to earn the only non-Bolts signature on the jersey.

Pat Maroon and Vincent Lecavalier are two of Bryan’s favorite Lightning players of all-time, but former captain Dave Andreychuk tops his list.

When Andreychuk signed with the Lightning as a free agent in June 2003, Bryan was quick to bet on his team to win the Stanley Cup. Less than a calendar year later, Andreychuk and the Lightning delivered.

Bryan remembers yelling for and against John Tortorella coaching decisions, even when Tortorella’s brother was occasionally seated behind the Scarboroughs. They were often surrounded by Tampa Bay figures including Erin Andrews, Jon Gruden, Monte Kiffin and Ian Beckles.

“We have that passion and they get that passion,” Bryan said of fans, “and the arena provides that because it’s such a good environment.”

The Scarboroughs have introduced many family members and friends to the sport, and they are now quick to claim any unused tickets.

The couple joked that the ice cream vendor at AMALIE Arena is quick to add extra sprinkles to their ice cream order, and they have developed relationships with many other staff members.

Even when life got tough for the Scarboroughs, the Lightning organization was there, just as it always has been.

Bryan was diagnosed with stage four malignant melanoma—skin cancer—last year. After Lightning account executive Kate Henley learned of his diagnosis, she put his name on the Hockey Fights Cancer wall at the arena and told Bryan the team was pulling for him.

He is now cancer free and once again enjoying every Lightning game he can attend.

“It just made me feel good,” he said. “It just, it was very heartwarming.”

Whether it be sprinkles, on-ice victories or ‘Get well’ wishes, the Lightning are more than just a hockey team to the Scarboroughs.

They wouldn’t have it any other way.