'Built for Gator Nation': Steve Spurrier floods new Florida restaurant with old memories
![Steve Spurrier stands in front of a display of memorabilia including his college jersey, helmet and his Heisman Trophy at his new restaurant, the Gridiron Grill, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Gainesville, Fla. The restaurant doubles as Spurrier's personal museum. (AP Photo/John Raoux)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.usatoday.com/gcdn/media/2021/08/14/USATODAY/usatsports/d62f2e7e74774d68b3ca08e564f15464.jpg?width=660&height=441&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. ā Steve Spurrier stashed six decades worth of memorabilia in closets and cabinets, scattered between his office, his home and his nearby beach house. Jerseys and cleats. Helmets and visors. Trophies and trinkets. Rings and pictures. Spurrierās collection was as massive as it was impressive.
He stored another assortment of keepsakes in his head: āball plays,ā some of them as famous as his notable one-liners.
He has gathered all those treasures ā even the plays he jotted down from memory ā and proudly put them on display at Spurrierās Gridiron Grille. The one-of-a-kind restaurant opened this month in Gainesville and doubles as the Head Ball Coachās personal museum.
Golden opportunity:Olympic gold medalist Tamyra Mensah-Stock buys mom a $250K food truck
10 unique Florida destinations:Key West, Islamorada, Rosemary Beach, more
Spurrier and his investment team spared no expense in putting together a āpolished casualā eatery that serves farm-to-table food. They visited nearly 60 celebrity restaurants across the world, stopping at places owned by Troy Aikman, John Elway, Gloria Estefan, PeleĢ, Mike Shanahan and Tiger Woods. They also studied what caused others to falter.
āWe believe we got a plan thatās in place to be very successful,ā Spurrier said. āLocation, food, service, we got all that. Hopefully we got all that. We believe we do.ā
Spurrier gave The Associated Press a tour of the 18,600-square-foot restaurant that cost more than $12 million to build weeks before the grand opening, and the details and deĢcor stood out.
Spurrier has his Heisman Trophy on display along with 14 championship rings, including Dukeās 1989 Atlantic Coast Conference title, South Carolinaās 2010 Southeastern Conference Eastern Division championship and his latest one from the Orlando Apollos (He claims the Alliance of American Football title after the league suspended operations in April 2019 with Spurrierās Apollos atop the standings at 7-1).
The cleats he wore while kicking a 40-yard field goal to beat Auburn 30-27 in 1966 and clinch the Heisman Trophy are on display and so is the game ball from that one, both on loan from the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
He has glass cabinets filled with trophies awarded to former players. Thereās a wall-sized mosaic of Spurrier from his quarterback days adorning the main entryway, plaques recognizing Spurrier's āGator Greatsā ā the inaugural class featured Spurrier, Carlos Alvarez, Emmitt Smith, Errict Rhett, Danny Wuerffel and Percy Harvin ā and hundreds of other items spread throughout.
A hole-in-one display from the par-3 course at Augusta National. Congratulatory letters from Hall of Fame coaches Pat Summitt and John Wooden. Fifteen keys to cities. An array of bowl watches. Pictures with President Bill Clinton, entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. and comedian/actor Jackie Gleason. Photos of Spurrier from every decade of his coaching career, beginning before he switched from hats to his trademark visors.
Speaking of Visors ā thatās the name of Spurrierās rooftop bar where, of course, he has a collection of about 250 of them on display. He also had two specific bar stools reserved for the āHBCā and his wife, Jerri.
āItās all me? Yeah, itās a little weird, I guess,ā Spurrier said. āBut a lot of team pictures, too, which is very important.ā
There are five private dining rooms, which make Spurrierās a hot spot for meetings and parties. Current Gators football coach Dan Mullen and menās basketball coach Mike White will broadcast their weekly shows from the restaurant. Thereās also a podcast room that houses every helmet from every team Spurrier has even been associated with.
ESPN has placed a rental deposit on part of the restaurant for the weekend of the Alabama-Florida game, scheduled to be played Sept. 18.
āThis is built for Gator Nation,ā said Freddie Wehbe, who collaborated with Frankel Media to handle most of the heavy lifting in getting Spurrierās from conception to completion. āHow would you not? UF is the program that Coach created.ā
Spurrier was Floridaās first Heisman winner and coached the Gators to their first national championship 30 years later. He has a statue outside the stadium and is a member of the programās exclusive ring of honor.
Spurrier also nicknamed the stadium āThe Swamp.ā The Gators went 122-27-1 in 12 seasons under Spurrier, including a staggering 68-5 at home, and won six SEC titles.
The Gators renamed their football field after him in 2016, calling it Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Heās without question the most beloved personality in school history.
Spurrierās daughter, Amy Moody, urged him to build a restaurant just to get all his memorabilia organized and on display. Spurrier didnāt do much else to get the place up and running other than sit in meetings and tweak ideas from countless consultants.
One thing he did provide: those plays.
Spurrier recreated dozens of his most famous and successful plays on paper and had them turned into wallpaper that now covers both upstairs bathrooms.
A few of them came from lopsided wins against hated rival Georgia, of course. Others: Terry Dean connecting with Jack Jackson in a victory against Alabama in the 1993 SEC title game; Wuerffel to Reidel Anthony on a fourth-and-12 play versus Tennessee in 1996; Doug Johnson hooking up with Jacquez Green on a curl-and-go that set up the winning score against Florida State in 1997.
Spurrierās menu, meanwhile, has several items that are sure to elicit smiles from the Florida faithful, too. Main courses include the Ike Hillard Catch of the Day, the Tomahawk Porkchop and the Emory & Henry. Drinks include The Kick (for Spurrierās 40-yarder against Auburn), CiTrUs 75 (for his āyou canāt spell Citrus without U-T" joke) and the 52-20 Pale Ale (the score of Floridaās first national title).
For Spurrier, creating the restaurant stirred fond memories. And he hopes it will do the same for his fans. It might also fill a void since the winningest football coach in the history of two schools (Florida and South Carolina) has more time on his hands than he expected when he temporarily walked away in 2016.
āLife doesnāt always go the way you plan,ā he said. āI thought when my coaching days were over, Iād get good at golf again. But guess what? I grew arthritis in the fingers. ... My golf game is not near what it used to be. But you get to the play the senior tees."