While I have never drafted or organized a bucket list, I have in mind completing a drive along U.S. Highway 1 from Fort Kent, Maine, to Key West, Florida.
I have traversed much of this historic highway already, but there remain several miles virginal to me. And, of course, a challenge.
The biggest gap is driving U.S. 1 North from Raleigh, North Carolina, to New York City. I have not yet given up on the plan, but I have to admit that getting long in the tooth may now be getting in the way of completing the drive.
Still, I have enjoyed some very interesting stops along this thoroughfare. I’ve experienced a “feel” for the magnitude of this federal highway, the charming seaside towns and communities, the inland enclaves such as Vidalia onion country in Toombs County, the German cemetery at Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the brownstone flats of New York City’s Bronx, Mory’s famous restaurant in New Haven, Conn., and any village every coastal mile of the state of Maine.
In upscale Ponte Vedra, Florida, given that German U-boats encroached during World War II, you have elbow room for countless things to do, from abundant golf-related interests to the best in dining to boating and fishing to business opportunities. The good living there near Jacksonville, is as good as you can find on the Eastern seaboard. The seductive call of peaceful ocean waves and coastal indulgences beckons every visitor.
This brings us to a successful friend, Vernon Brinson, “Mister B,” a native of MacClenny, 30 miles west, who experienced an academic journey that took him to South Georgia College, where he played football for Bobby Bowden of Florida State fame, to the University of Georgia where he was a utility baseball player for the Bulldogs under Big Jim Whatley.
Vernon’s stature, standing less than six feet and weighing 150 pounds (if he had his pockets stuffed with rocks), suggests that football for him would be an exercise in futility. To the contrary, in addition to having an innate love of the game, his primary mission in life since he was a teenager was to become a football coach.
To that end, Vernon felt that to enter the coaching profession, it would be to his advantage to play the game, too.
In addition to a compelling competitor’s heart that drove him to succeed, but with class and integrity, Vernon also had a sense of sentiment and charity. He had the savvy that often comes with being a small-town person, benefiting from an environment influenced by locals who forever embraced faith, hope, and charity.
A funny thing happened, though, on his way to following his love of football coaching.
He was introduced to Tom Perry, the owner of Key Buick, which prospered in the city of Jacksonville before the town began to flap its wings.
While Tom did not engender personal headlines, he underscored positive thinking concepts. Nothing negative ever came out of his mouth, something that influenced Vernon from the start.
Soon, the little man with the big heart saw that he could coach, but at a level of compensation that would not allow him to excel financially. So, he decided to change his professional modus operandi. He chose sales and marketing in the car business while enjoying any opportunity to support athletic endeavors as an adjunct.
The rest of his story is as Horatio Alger as it gets. Vernon eventually moved to New Orleans to take over a car dealership, becoming the most successful Oldsmobile dealer in the state of Louisiana. He later enjoyed head-turning success as a Honda dealer, too. By the time he retired, Vernon was not only a stunning success in business but also president and later chairman of the Sugar Bowl. His dealership provided cars for the Sugar Bowl for years, as well as for the Greater New Orleans Open PGA tour event, now the Zurich Classic.
He became friends with and a business partner to Bob Pettit, the star center of the St. Louis Hawks, before Tom Cousins brought the NBA franchise to Atlanta. His wife, Patricia, is an interior designer whose best friend is Olivia Manning, wife of Archie Manning, progenitor of the Manning clan, which includes NFL superstar sons Peyton and Eli, and, of course, grandson Arch Manning, quarterback of the Texas Longhorns.
As his business career zoomed upward, Vernon always maintained close ties with his alma mater, the University of Georgia. He endowed a scholarship in honor of his colorful baseball coach, Jim Whatley, as well as a football scholarship, and was a significant contributor to the development of the Butts-Mehre Building and, subsequently, a weight room initiative.
All this came the way of a sports enthusiast who hitchhiked to Athens to matriculate at UGA with plans to coach. Horatio Alger would be mightily impressed.