When the history of Florida Polytechnic University is written, it will have — or should have — quite a number of asterisks that point out the unusual, and in many cases unlikely, process by which it came to life.

To start with, it will be an institution few people wanted: not the University of South Florida, which was to have established a branch campus in Polk County under its own academic umbrella; not the Board of Governors, which exercises oversight over the state university system; not even the Legislature, which eventually created it at the behest of former State Senator J.D. Alexander.