Moving the Chains: A Career unlike any other

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Part two of three

‘He hates to lose more than he likes to win.’

When I spoke to him over the phone for the first time, those were the first words he said to me.

Freddie Wehbe, the managing partner of Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille in Gainesville, Florida, was talking about the owner of the establishment: the Head Ball Coach (HBC) himself, Steve Spurrier.

It was also the first thing he said when we met for the first time.  It was inside the front door of his home turf, in the friendly confines of one of the top celebrity restaurants in the country.    

He was preaching to the choir, of course, because I know exactly how he feels about winning and losing – especially when it pertains to the Georgia Bulldog, a team Spurrier beat 11 out of 12 times as the Florida head coach.  Perhaps an even more impressive statistic about Steve Spurrier is that in a dozen seasons in Gainesville, teams he coached only lost five games at home. 

However, as the quarterback of the Gators he lost to the Bulldogs twice in the three times they met, none more painful than a 1966 loss that ruined an undefeated season and cost his team an SEC title.  

Which is the perfect segue for moving onto the museum aspect of Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille, a collection of this, that, and the other collected over more than a half-century playing and coaching the game of football.  

And what a collection it is.  But before that, one last word about the restaurant’s culinary offerings.  

It’s only fair to point out that every entrée my wife Cindy and I have ever eaten there has been exceptional.  The menu item I’d like to address is one of the dessert offerings: Jerri’s chocolate chip cookies.   Jerri, of course, is Steve’s wife.  The two of them will be celebrating 60 years of marriage in September. 

As for the cookies, Cindy and I took an order with us for the road on our five-hour drive home.  Every bite was heavenly, and made the couple of miles it took to consume them pass by quickly.  Interesting thing about those cookies: when her husband was coaching, Jerri baked a batch and put them in the locker of every single one of his players – both college and pro – on their respective birthdays.  A conservative estimate is that she did this 9,200 times over the course of Steve’s coaching career.  I imagine if all Jerri’s cookies were taken into account – from both birthday gifts and menu sales – she is probably giving Famous Amos a run for his money.

Now, back to football.  I’ll begin with a few things about Steve Spurrier you may not know:  

• He is the only living person to be in the College Football Hall of Fame as both player and coach. 

• He is the only person ever to win a Heisman himself as well as coach a Heisman winner (Danny Wuerffel).  He has the most wins at two different SEC schools: Florida and South Carolina.  

• And he is the first collegiate football coach to earn annual salaries of $1, $2, and ultimately $5 million dollars.  (He also was the first NFL coach to earn $5 million a year, a time that I have to believe he’d rather forget.  He was with the Washington Redskins for two disappointing seasons.) 

Now for a few stories that I didn’t know, which surprised me because I’ve been a Florida Gator for just a few years less than Steve Spurrier has been involved in football.  

• Spurrier’s visor collection is one of the many displays found in the museum.  His favorite, surprisingly, is neither orange nor blue – which are the colors of the Florida Gators.  Rather, it’s the black visor he wore when his Gamecocks beat the Gators, his former team, in Gainesville on November 15, 2014.  Final score: Gamecocks – 23, Florida – 20.  

• Steve Spurrier has been the recipient of  Keys to the City no less than 23 times.  To put that number into perspective, Ronald Reagan has 27; Elvis Presley and Barack Obama both have 25.   

• Steve Spurrier was the third player selected in the 1967 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers.  Nine years later he was selected by the expansion Tampa Bay Bucs from the 49ers to be their starting quarterback.

• On November 11, 2006, after the Gators’ Jarvis Moss blocked a South Carolina field goal attempt to preserve a 17 – 16 win and keep their national championship hopes alive, Gamecock coach Spurrier met Gator coach Urban Meyer at midfield, firmly grabbed his hand, looked him in the eye, and said ‘you can win it all.’   Two months later Meyer did just that, beating Ohio State 41 – 14 to claim his first national championship.  Meyer awarded Spurrier a national championship ring, which is proudly on display in the museum – along with many other rings Spurrier won on his own.

Next time I’ll relay some interesting tidbits Freddie Wehbe shared with Cindy and I during our tour of the establishment, particularly with respect to the museum.  Freddie may well be the most enthusiastic Florida Gator fan I’ve ever met. 

Which, if you know me, is saying a lot.