In 1987, when my son, Ben, Jr., was 12 years old, I was concerned that he needed a structured after school activity. His mother and I had divorced, I was traveling a lot due to business opportunities, and I was concerned about what he might be doing after school until his mother came home from work. My quick solution to this problem was to convince him to play football at the Boy’s Club. Two years earlier, he had played Boy’s Club football, but it had not been a good experi

Back in the late 70’s, former Alachua County Judge John Connell and I purchased a 94-room motel in Atlanta from a real estate investment trust. Due to the motel’s very low occupancy rate, they were going to tear down the motel sell the property for its land value. When John learned of this via a contact in Atlanta, he asked me if I'd go in as a 50/50 partner. After looking over the physical condition of the property, I inquired of the motel manager about their occupancy

When I was in my early 30’s, I was driving a very long, very boring, very brown, 4 door Buick. It was a good car but it wasn’t me. I had in mind a car with a sportier, yet professional, look. I didn’t want just any car; I wanted the car my Dad said was THE best car ever made. That car was a Mercedes Benz. When I was a child, our family couldn’t afford one, so we drove a Ford. As my father regaled the qualities of a Mercedes, I told myself that I would own that brand of car on

When I was in the 10th grade, I enrolled in a Journalism course. It interest me as I had aspirations of being a sportswriter or sports broadcaster (of course, after my highly anticipated pro football career!) After a few weeks of classes of Journalism concepts, our professor, Mr. Ring, gave us a multi-week assignment to write on a topic of our choice. I was very excited and began writing about my favorite subject: sports! I poured myself into the assignment. It was a bit l