Dooley’s Dozen: 12 pieces of Gators memorabilia for Pat’s Gainesville restaurant
There was a time a decade or so ago when I thought about opening a restaurant. A friend of mine had done it in Jacksonville (it closed rather quickly) and fortunately my wife talked me down off the ledge.
She had been in the business. She knew the horror stories.
But I still dream about it sometimes (especially after watching The Bear). My restaurant would be loaded with Gator memorabilia.
That concept was tried in Gainesville a long time ago with Gator Greats and again with The Swamp, which is thriving in its new location.
Most restaurants and bars (like Adam’s Rib Co.) have Gator stuff on the walls, some of which I provided.
Anyway, if I ever did open a place in Gainesville, here are the 12 things I’d put up on the walls. Today’s Dooley’s Dozen brings back some nice memories as we get ready to open the 2023 fall camp.
The tricky part
Since Steve Spurrier has his own restaurant which is a museum to his career, so it’s not going to be easy to get him to part with something. But I have been to his house and there is another museum there. I’ll find something, but what I would really like is the square-toed shoe he used to kick the field goal against Auburn. We’ll negotiate.
Three baseballs
It’s so cool that JJ Schwarz caught the last ball when Florida won its only national title and his sister Taylor caught both of them for Florida’s back-to-backers in softball. I want them. I will display them properly. Maybe a loan for a year?
Champions bag
I would think this would require a road trip so who’s up for Delray Beach? That’s where the great Bob Murphy lives. He is one of only three Gators to win the NCAA individual title. I think I can get the other two fairly easily to sign a Gator golf bag – Nick Gilliam (saw him this week) and Fred Biondi.
The relay baton
Track meets almost always come down to the last event which is a relay and Florida has so many national titles we have to be able to find one. Ideally, it would be from this year’s men’s champions and I’ll take the NCAA record-breaking 4×400 team that clinched it if that one is around.
... or Grant Holloway’s cleats
He still holds the NCAA record for the 110-meter hurdles and is in the argument for the greatest Gator track athlete ever. I remember they used to have a display in the old football offices of Jeff Demps’ cleats from track. I’ll take those, too.
The lost trophy
For years I have been searching for the Florida version of the Holy Grail – the 1984 SEC Championship Trophy. I know it is somewhere in the building. What building that might be, I don’t know anymore. It was never returned but it would look really nice inside the front door of “Dooley’s”.
Mary Wise’s clipboard
She always has it with her with tendencies and service errors and strategies being jotted down and relayed to her teams. Look, she won 25 SEC crowns with that clipboard so there has to be one that she can spare.
Urban’s whistle
Say what you want about the guy, but he won championships and we all would like to go back to the days when Florida was on top of the world. When I think back to Urban’s time here, I think about his blowing that whistle to get the attention of his players.
That game ball
I know we can’t get the one that Spurrier kicked or the one that Florida used in any of the title games. But I will never forget Spurrier coming out of a post-game interview area after the Florida-FSU matchup in 1997 and fake tossing me the game ball he had been given. People would want the table where that ball was so they could retell their stories from that night.
An Abby Wambach jersey
Signed, of course. You can make an argument that she is the best athlete to ever play at Florida. It’s a difficult argument to lose and she has the ring to prove it.
One of two destroyed balls
I’ll take either one – the homer that Wyatt Langford hit in Omaha to tie the game against TCU or the one Matt LaPorta hit for a grand slam when Florida won the SEC in Nashville. I think LaPorta’s is still rolling around on top of Memorial Gym. We’ll have to pull Langford’s out of orbit.
The ripped cords
I saved the basketball one for last because these aren’t in any order. But I would take any piece of net from any conference or regional or certainly NCAA title. I’ll have pictures up of things like Chris Chiozza’s shot. But I need to have something to remember the best run in the history of UF.
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