2 weeks Ago By The Gainesville Sun
Steve Spurrier played 18 holes of golf earlier this week.Nowadays, the former Florida football Heisman winning-quarterback and iconic coach usually only plays nine. But playing in a group with his son, Steve Spurrier Jr.
, and current Florida Gators football assistant coaches Mike Peterson and Gerald Chatman, Spurrier felt energized.It was a perfect spring day in Gainesville. Playing on UF’s Mark Bostick golf course brought back memories for Spurrier of his football recruiting visit to Gainesville in 1963.
A grad assistant was showing Spurrier around campus late in the afternoon and asked him what he wanted to do. Spurrier had just taken up golf back in Johnson City, Tennessee, and asked if UF had a golf course.“So, we drove over there and teed off on No.
10,” Spurrier recalled in a phone interview with The Sun. “We sort of got lost and finished up on number 18. but anyway, on my recruiting visit I actually played golf on the university golf course in 1963 and I’m still playing like I did yesterday.
How about that?”For Spurrier, who turns 80 on Sunday, returning to Gainesville has brought joy to not just himself and his family, but to a Gator Nation that adores him. As a quarterback, Spurrier brought home UF’s first Heisman Trophy in 1966. As a head coach, he led the Gators to their first SEC title in 1991 and first national championship in 1996 (though Spurrier will tell you the 1990 and 1984 teams should be recognized as SEC champs, despite NCAA sanctions).
Spurrier’s brilliant offensive mind created the Fun N’ Gun offense, filled with vertical routes and crossing patterns. He made wearing visors on the sidelines cool and was known by a generation of fans simply as “the head ball coach.”“He’s the ultimate Gator,” said Shane Matthews, who as Spurrier’s first starting QB from 1990-92 led UF to its first SEC title.
“He’s done more as a player, a coach, ambassador. He’s the greatest Gator of all time. And I was fortunate enough to be his first quarterback, get an opportunity to play and he basically changed my life.
He’s a special person to me and always will be there.”How Steve Spurrier returned to GainesvilleSpurrier expected to retire with his wife Jerri at nearby Crescent Beach after resigning as South Carolina's head football coach in 2015. There was plenty of room for the kids and grandkids to visit.
“We had built, sort of, a big house on the ocean there, and I thought we might be there for a quite a while,” Spurrier said.Then came a call from former Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, offering him a job as UF’s ambassador with an office inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. It was the stadium he coined “The Swamp” in reviving UF’s football program as head coach in the 1990s and the nickname has stuck.
“It’s something to do all the time,” Spurrier said. “I thought I was going to be playing a lot of golf and all this, that and the other. We knew hardly anybody around St.
Augustine and Crescent Beach, so it was the perfect call for us. We came back. We had a little condo here already, you know, we went ahead and built a house, over here in Oakmont, so we’ve been here in Oakmont since about 2017 and 2018.
“You need someplace to go, where you don’t have a complete full schedule in life. I don’t like to say I’m retired. I guess I’m finished with coaching unless one of those spring leagues wants to win another championship like we did with the Orlando Apollos (in the American Alliance of Football) back in 2019.
"No, I doubt that’s gonna happen.”Spurrier credits UF athletics executive assistant Alesha Busch for balancing his schedule of appearances and travel arrangements.“At first, when he was hired, it was somewhat intimidating when you are talking about a name like Steve Spurrier,” Busch said.
“But it’s been a joy getting to know him and Jerri. They are just really good down to earth people and really great to work for.”Spurrier remains a staunch supporter of all sports on UF’s campus, men and women.
Busch learned that when Spurrier came into the office and asked “what’s going on” it meant he wanted a rundown of all the UF men’s and women’s sports results from the days before. Earlier this year, the Florida women’s gymnastics team wore Spurrier-themed leotards in his honor.“He loves sports, and not just football,” Matthews said.
“He can rattle off stats, from the women’s tennis team and the lacrosse team, he follows them all and, you know, if you saw him walking down the parking lot or walking down the road you’d say, man he’s struggling. The body is beat up a little bit but mentally he’s as sharp as a tack.”How a restaurant has become a shrine for Steve Spurrier, Florida athleticsSpurrier’s daughter, Amy, was the first to suggest that he lend his name to a restaurant and display the trophies he won as a player and a coach.
Freddie Wehbe had arranged a marketing deal with Spurrier to become a spokesperson for Campus USA Credit Union in Gainesville. Wehbe had prior success in the food industry in Gainesville as a franchise owner of Gator Domino’s, expanding to eight locations as sales doubled and tripled under his leadership.When an opportunity arose to open a restaurant in the new Celebration Pointe entertainment district just west of I-75, Wehbe and Spurrier jumped at the chance.
The restaurant will celebrate its four-year anniversary in August.“Freddie put the deal together, he studied how restaurants were successful and how they were not successful,” Spurrier said. “One thing I always need to do is show up at least a couple of days a week, sometimes three days a week if something special is going on so I’ve been trying to do that the last three-and-a-half years, four years it’s been open.
”As managing partner at Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille, Wehbe said Spurrier’s impact on fans remains as profound as ever. And Spurrier, Wehbe says, reciprocates that passion.“People will drive from Tampa, Orlando,” Wehbe said.
“These are fans that admire him and it’s a dream come true, and you see the pictures on social media, not one, two, three...
thousands, tens of thousands of pictures with him and he wants to do so.“That’s what he means to Gator Nation, he loves coming in, him and Miss Jerri love coming in to interact with their fanbase, people introduce him to their kids and their grandkids.”The restaurant has aided UF’s recruiting and Name, Image and Likeness funding efforts as well.
Earlier this week, while recruiting star transfer point guard Xaivian Lee, Florida basketball coach Todd Golden invited Lee with his players for dinner at Spurrier’s, to demonstrate the legacy he could create by becoming a Gator. Lee committed to UF the next day.Wehbe said Spurrier goes above and beyond making appearances at the restaurant, whether to entertain high-level boosters or celebrate fan birthdays.
“He understands what it means to the success of Gator Nation,” Wehbe said. “He understands what it means for the success of business in our community, where in an industry where restaurants are closing left and right, he wants it to succeed.“He teaches us a lot of good things, but we have to realize there’s a man that hates to lose and he likes to win.
He wants his restaurant to succeed and to me that’s what it’s all about.”Steve Spurrier’s legacy at FloridaSpurrier said he’s happy to have his son, Steve Spurrier Jr., back in town as an offensive analyst on UF’s football staff.
The younger Spurrier, known by family and friends as “Bubba” began his 30-year coaching career as a grad assistant under his dad in the 1990s.“He’s got his job over there,” Spurrier said. “Coaching is a full-time job but he’s enjoying it.
I think they’ve got a chance to make some real noise this year, we’ve just got to wait and see.”Matthews, who co-hosts a radio show for an hour with Spurrier during the fall, said Spurrier's mark on Florida football remains etched in the players he coached and the relationships he developed with him.“I always remember him saying, ‘You’ve done your job as a coach, if 15 to 20 years after you coach a player, if he wants to come back and drink a beer with you, you’ve done something right,’” Matthews said.
“I think that’s pretty much what pretty much every player loves to do is sit around, shoot the breeze with coach because the stories are great.“I’ll never forget, he always used to tell us before games, he wasn’t a rah rah kind of guy, he’s said good things are gonna happen, bad things are gonna happen, just keep playing. And that’s kind of like life, you know what I mean.
Good things are gonna happen, bad things are gonna happen but just keep plugging away.”From the decision to play at Florida in the 1960s, to coaching at Florida in the 1990s and then coming back at UF’s Ambassador, Spurrier's legacy in Gainesville goes beyond wins and losses.“My paths in life have been blessed,” Spurrier said.
“No doubt about it.”Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun's Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.
com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Steve Spurrier still a Florida football treasure and Gainesville icon.
