It will be revealing as to just how much Gator football has infected my brain.  1998.  I got this ingenious idea for an awesome  new Gator helmet logo. Awesome.  I was like the guy building those clay models of the mountain in "Close Encounters", I had to see what it would actually look like.  So I got  a cheap unpainted helmet and hand-painted it with my new design (this was before all these snazzy software graphic programs were available).  It looked great!  OK, now to sell it to Coach Spurrier.  I didn't want to just send a picture, I wanted him to see it in person.  I called Steve's office, his secretary told there was no way Spurrier had time to meet with all the fans that had new uniform or helmet ideas. Shot down!  I thought about just mailing it to them, unsolicited.  But I wasn't sure Spurrier would ever even see it that way. Soooo.........  3-hour road trip to Gainesville,, uninvited!  I barged into his office with my helmet in hand. Had no idea whether he'd actually be in or not, and no way to find out, of course. Boy, did it get some stares from the folks around.  I showed  his secretary the helmet, told her about my drive from out of town, and asked for one minute with Coach, just to let him eyeball it and laugh me out of his office if he wanted to.  She disappeared for a moment   She came back and said he's getting ready for a meeting, he can't meet with you, but I'll take your helmet back and show him, if you'd like.  I said sure!  So off she goes with my helmet.  She comes back out about 5 minutes later, with my helmet and a smile on her face.  She says, Coach Spurrier says thanks for letting him see your helmet, and just hands it back to me.  I said, "well, what did he say?".  She says, he said it's a beautiful helmet, but it just wouldn't fly in the SEC. He said it would look great in.... the USFL!!  (grrrrrr!!! )    So, I didn't even look at the helmet, just picked it up and walked out, dejected.  On the way out, a group of people saw the helmet, and said "what's that?".  I showed it to them, explained the story, and they all thought the helmet was cool!!  It was THEN that I noticed, penned on top of my helmet in broad black flair pen, a beautiful "Go Gators" with the autograph of one Steve Spurrier right underneath it.   He had autographed my rejected helmet !!!!   The helmet is and will remain my most treasured Gator posession!! 

(Yes, I also showed it to Ron Zook after he got hired.  He also passed on it.  I wonder if it was because of the "Steve Spurrier" autograph he saw!)

That reminds me, I gotta visit Urban's office....