By JOHN PATTON
To so many, whether he ever employed them or not, George Steinbrenner was known as “The Boss.”
And whether it be his multiple hirings and firings of managers, his condemnation of the players to whom he paid millions or his suspensions from baseball, the long-time owner of the New York Yankees often got people talking – mostly in the negative.
But that’s because the same man, born on the Fourth of July 80 years ago, did so many positive things behind the scenes, without asking for any of the fanfare. It was that side of “The Boss,” who died Tuesday morning of a massive heart attack in Tampa, that was remembered leading up to Tuesday’s annual All-Star Game in Anaheim, Calif., where the American League was managed and stocked with players from the Yankees team that had given “Mr. Steinbrenner” his seventh World Series title.
It was that benevolent and generous side which touched many in north-central and central Florida where Steinbrenner had a home in Ocala and became a benefactor of the University of Florida.
A Bull Gator (the highest level UF booster) since 1980, Steinbrenner funded the lights that were put up at McKethan Stadium for the first time in 1977. Ten years later, he sat with the Florida athletic director Bill Arnsparger and then school president Marshall Criser as his Yankees took on the host Gators in an exhibition game.
That generosity to college athletics showed by Steinbrenner, who received his bachelor of arts from Williams College and his Master’s degree from Ohio State made him one of just 10 people to ever be presented with “The Flying Wedge Award” given by the NCAA to individuals who exemplify outstanding leadership and service to intercollegiate sports.
Also a lover of thoroughbred racing – six of his horses born and raised at his family stud farm in Ocala entered the Kentucky Derby between 1977 and 2005 – Steinbrenner donated $260,000 in 1989 to Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine’s large animal hospital and 16 years later he gave $400,000 more to help the school purchase an equine imaging machine.
More recently, Steinbrenner and his wife Joan joined music legend Stephen Stills (a Florida dropout but nevertheless a proud Gator) of Crosby, Stills & Nash, as well as other supporters of the arts to donate a healthy sum of money that helped build “The Steinbrenner Band Hall” on the Florida campus. Steinbrenner cut his check in 2002 and the project was completed six years later. His son, Hal, who earned a Master’s degree in business administration from UF in 1994 and is the Yankees’ Chairman of the Board, attended the ceremony as his father was too ill to be there in person.
The building now serves as the rehearsal hall for “The Pride of the Sunshine” Marching Band.
And just this past March 2, the Yankees sponsored “The Florida Four” – the baseball teams from Florida, Florida State, Miami and South Florida – at Steinbrenner Field (formerly Legends Field) in Tampa.
“He was an incredible and charitable man,” the Steinbrenner family said in a statement. “He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports.”
Steinbrenner also made donations to Gainesville’s Oak Hall School, providing the original sod for the baseball field named after Yankee legend Roger Maris, who had moved to Gainesville with his family to operate a Budweiser distributorship.
Not surprisingly, that arrangement came as a result of a trade.
In 1977 Steinbrenner called and asked Maris to be a part of “Old Timers Day” at Yankee Stadium that year. Out of baseball and bitter about how poorly he had been treated 16 years earlier when he hit 61 home runs to break Babe Ruth’s single-season record, Maris said he would come to New York for the ceremony if Steinbrenner paid for the grass at Oak Hall.
Deal.
For many years, Maris’s son Kevin, an OHS alum, coached the Eagles’ baseball team.
“One of the toughest things about leaving here is no longer being able to coach on the field named after my father,” Kevin Maris said after accepting the job at Gainesville St. Francis two years ago. “Being able to come to work every day and see that sign (in the outfield) is very special.”
And that was due in great part to Steinbrenner, who was a major contributor to high school sports throughout Florida, where he had a home for three decades.
His contributions included bringing the Florida High School Athletic Association baseball finals to Legends Field in 1997, donating $200,000 to Hillsborough County to re-establish its middle school athletic program, and donating funds to help underprivileged children with the cost of participation in prep sports.
In August of 2009, George Steinbrenner High School opened in Lutz, Fla.
“My lasting impression of George Steinbrenner will be his largely unpublicized goodwill for youth and high school athletics in Florida,” wrote former FHSAA director of media relations Robert Hernberger on his Facebook page.
Steinbrenner is survived by Joan, sons Hal and Hank, daughters Jessica and Jennifer, as well as 13 grandchildren.