Head Ball Coach: My Life in Football, Doing It Differently--and Winning

Disappointed. Half of the pages are blank, I guess he just gave up and quit half way through writing it.

Fantastic book with a lot of great stories! If you love football, you'll love this book.

Great read!

It looks like Spurrier put as much effort into this book as he did the Gamecock football program. At least this book didn't lose to the Citadel.

Any review of this unnecessary book would be incomplete without mentioning the book that made it unnecessary: Ran Henry’s wonderfully-crafted and definitive biography Spurrier, published in 2014 after 17 years of meticulous research spanning interviews, church records, and newspapers. Never mind that Mr. Henry presented Spurrier as a heroic figure. Apparently, a few pages that the Ball Coach found disagreeable prompted him to engage Buddy Martin to help him “set the record straight.”

The best way to read Spurrier’s autobiography is to read it along with Henry’s biography, then decide for yourself whether Spurrier was successful—that is, whether he was able to convince you that his book was necessary after all.

Here’s an example of what you should be on the alert for. Spurrier’s father was a Presbyterian Church pastor. A year after Spurrier was born in Miami, his father was replaced as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Miami Beach. Henry’s account of the family’s departure appears on pages 18 through 20, and is based on church records and several interviews with the pastor who followed Rev. Spurrier but did not precede him. As you will read on p. 44, Spurrier’s account differs. It is not clear what he could have based his version on. Perhaps family lore?

No doubt there are exceptions, but there’s a reason for this maxim: Read the autobiography for color, but read the biography for fact—and in the case of Ran Henry’s literary biography, for inspired writing to boot.

For a taste, I’ll quote Henry’s very first paragraph. It’s August, 31 years after Spurrier’s Heisman, and his team is on the practice field, entering the season as the reigning national champions. Nobody remotely resembles Danny Wuerffel, the only Heisman coached by a Heisman.
Steve Spurrier cocks his arm and looks downfield, trying to show the other guys how you play quarterback. He’s back in that stance that owned the yard, back when you had some friends, a ball, and a maple tree for a goalpost. Back when you could pick your teams, make up rules, and run like no one was scouting you, with your whole life shining down through the leaves, you already knew who’d be calling the plays and making the throws.

Alas, I could find no comparable writing anywhere in the Martin/Spurrier tome. To be fair, Ran Henry is a writer and writing teacher who decided to write a book about his hero. Spurrier is no writer, and Martin is a sports writer. One could say they did the best they could. And in truth, their account of the Florida years is engaging even if the writing remains pedestrian.

But the Carolina years—where Spurrier arguably did his best coaching in the very Graveyard of Coaches, up against a Chicken Curse loosed by none other than Pitchfork Ben Tillman—will disappoint even the Carolina fan most disposed to be generous to Spurrier despite his having quit his job at the university—twice. Important players and coaches don’t even get mentioned. Incredibly, even Stephen Garcia gets only a couple of mentions. Garcia was always in the news—all too often news that was painful to read, especially for Spurrier. But the problem child also played a near-perfect game as Carolina brought #1 Alabama to its knees, and he put the program on the map. You would think that despite all the trouble, Spurrier would be able, even eager, to give credit where credit is due.

Nobody will get any insights into the inner Spurrier of those exhilarating and tumultuous years at Carolina—so many firsts, and in the end, so much disappointment. And his lack of Gamecock passion will be breathtaking to the Garnet and Black faithful.

It does make it easier to understand why Spurrier is back in Gainesville. He never really left.

I have watched Steve Spurrier throwing his visor and grimiacing for years. I am a grandmama sports fan. I screamed Oooooh no when he retired. Much of my football fun was leaving the sidelines. The book sounds just like him. It is wonderful to learn some of the unknown facts about this unique man. I knew he was from Johnson City TN., but I did not know that his dad was a pastor and I never dreamed that there was a spiritual side to Spurrier. Not that he gave any reason for me to think otherwise. I tend to think one is a nonbeliever unless I hear differently. I was also surprised to find him to be a people person. His list of friends and contacts is long. His coaching and playing years reach back to the good old days. I especially enjoyed the stories about the greats in the game. He has had a long and successful career, however he did write about his failure, the NFL and the Washington Redskins. I will let Steve tell it his way. Telling it his way always has a touch of humor, which I am sure was needed in his life. I am glad he is a family man and a Christian---his retirement should be peaceful and gratifying. The book is good and there is wealth of colored pictures. Pictures of Steve with all of the greats of football.

Hubby is a big UF fan. Steve Spurrier did a lot for the UF football program. Purchased this book for a birthday gift. Hubby is enjoying.

Football coaches sometimes are the dullest people in sports.

They are the ones who brag about how many hours in a day they work, who never say anything interesting, and don't have much of a life outside the 120-yard playing field.

And then there was Steve Spurrier. Say what you want about the Head Ball Coach, but he wasn't dull.

Spurrier liked having fun on the field, and what's more fun than scoring points? He unleashed offenses wherever he coached, and the results followed: several conference titles, and a national championship.

What's more, he had some fun along the way. Spurrier put it plenty of hours, but wasn't above sneaking off to the golf course for a while when he had some down moments. The veteran coach even liked to take a day or two off when time permitted during the season (perhaps during a bye week) and recharge his batteries.

Spurrier wasn't above throwing a few funny quotes at the opposition. For example, when Florida State had a bit of a scandal involving its players and footwear, Spurrier said FSU now stood for something else: Free Shoes University.

Those qualities come out in "Head Ball Coach," an autobiography written shortly after his retirement from football in 2015.

Spurrier had a rather charmed life when it came to football for the most part. Florida wasn't much of a team when he arrived as a player in the 1960s, but he did more than his share to turn that around - winning the Heisman Trophy as the nation's best player. That earned him a spot as a No. 1 pick of the San Francisco 49ers ... where he sat as the backup quarterback to John Brodie for most of his career.

All that sitting gave him time to learn about the game and ponder his future, and when his playing days were over he smoothly moved into coaching. Spurrier climbed the usual ladder, which included a stop in the United States Football League with Tampa Bay. He actually won games at Duke - no small accomplishment at the time - and moved on to Florida. Spurrier turned the Gators into national powers. As you'd expect, there are plenty of stories about his days there.

After going 122-27-1, Spurrier decided he wanted a new world to conquer and accepted a job as head coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins. He found out the hard way that pro ball wasn't so easy to dominate, particularly when the owner is Daniel Snyder. The chapter is about that stop in Washington is quite brief, and tossed aside as if Spurrier doesn't really want to go back there mentally. That might be the biggest disappointment in the book.

Then it's on to South Carolina. There were no national titles there, but the Gamecocks won plenty of games and made bowl appearances during Spurrier's ten-plus years there. He left when he felt like he wasn't doing a good enough job - in midseason, which is rare enough to be interesting.

The book is something of a goodbye to a successful part of his life. Spurrier hands out plenty of credit to the players and coaches he encountered along the way. His family gets its own chapter at the end; the wives of football coaches all should be candidates for sainthood. There are a great many games and scores that get the once over here. That may work for big fans of Spurrier, who followed his career closely, but it's a little tougher to be involved in the tale for those who watched from a distance. A few coaching tips and philosophical thoughts are thrown in for good measure.

"Head Ball Coach," then, is a pleasant enough is a bit guarded read, and his fans in Florida and South Carolina certainly will enjoy hearing about the big wins from the past. Whether others will find it compelling is another story.

Item is really good.

This book was like having a conversation with the head ball coach. Highly recommend to Gator fans!