Reviewed by Jeanne
Love him or hate him, Steve Spurrier left his mark on SEC
football starting with his years as a player and then as coach to Florida and
South Carolina. His press conferences
were legendary; reporters could always count on a great quote from, as someone
dubbed him, the Ol’ Ball Coach.
(Spurrier reportedly hated that version.
He always referred to himself as the Ball Coach or Head Ball Coach.)
In Head Ball Coach: My Life in Football, Spurrier begins
at an ending: his unexpected resignation
as the South Carolina coach. As with
most things, he decided to do it his way and, instead of waiting to be fired or
struggle to hang on, he went out in the middle of the season on his own
terms.
The rest of the book covers his storied career, not
necessarily in chronological order. He
played quarterback at Florida, was drafted by the 49ers into the NFL, and
coached at Georgia Tech and Duke before ending back at Florida where he was
welcomed as hometown boy made good.
In fact, his actual hometown is a bit closer to us. One of my favorite chapters was “Johnson City
Dreams,” in which he recounts playing baseball at Kiwanis Park—yes, baseball!
He also played basketball and for a time considered that to be his best
sport. It wasn’t until his senior year
that he began to show real promise as a quarterback in football, but even so
the parades at Johnson City weren’t for football but for baseball. Science Hill High School took the Tennessee
State Championships for both 1962 and 1963.
Spurrier was recruited by several colleges, but “recruiting”
then wasn’t anywhere near the elaborate wooing that goes on these days. He was interested in Tennessee but their
offense at the time was based more on running not passing, which was Spurrier’s
strong suit. Instead, he visited a
number of schools. Florida was a bit of
an afterthought, but ended up being his choice in part because it was January
and the temperature in Gainesville was about 40 degrees warmer than it had been
in Johnson City.
Another favorite chapter is entitled “Things I Probably
Said.” Spurrier’s own favorite came
while he was South Carolina’s coach and commented on the annual game with
Georgia: “I always sort of liked playing
them that second game because you could always count on them having two or
three key players suspended.”
So if you’re feeling a little nostalgic and want to read
about the way college football used to be, or you just want to hear some
stories about great SEC rivalries, then pick up Head Ball Coach.
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