Neighbors for 50 years, the University of South Florida College of Business toasted its close relationship with nearby Busch Gardens at its annual Celebration of Free Enterprise dinner. The honoree was Busch Entertainment Corp. president Jim Atchison. Like many USF grads, he worked as a student at Busch Gardens (in his case, parking cars) before rising up the ranks of the Anheuser-Busch InBev unit that now runs 10 theme parks from headquarters at SeaWorld in Orlando. In fact, 138 salaried executives at Busch theme parks from Sea Diego to Williamsburg, Va., hold USF degrees. That's more than any other college. So when USF finally wins an NCAA championship and the announcer asks where the MVP is going to celebrate, Atchison joked the response will be: "I'm going home to Busch Gardens."
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