Spurrier's 70th birthday present: golf

Steve Spurrier will spend his 70th birthday on a golf course ... and on a boat ... and at dinner with friends.

"No big party," said South Carolina's head football coach, who will turn 70 Monday.

Spurrier will start the day at the Black Diamond golf course near Crystal River, Fla., then take a friend's boat up the Crystal River before joining wife Jerri and three close friends from Orlando, Fla., for dinner. The Spurriers will spend his birthday at their beach home in Crescent Beach, Fla., and return to Columbia on Wednesday for a family birthday party, said wife Jerri Spurrier, who will make her husband a cheesecake.

"We come home for one day every seven or eight days to pack and then go somewhere else, and we are doing that until the day the players report (in August). It's just pack a bag and go. That's what he does, and he loves it. We're having fun."

Steve Spurrier barely will notice he's entering his eighth decade, his wife said.

"Just so much of it is in your mind. If you think you are old, you are old. If you don't, you're not," she said. "It's been a long time since I have seen him happier and more peaceful than he is right now about the things that are going on in his life. I think he is just genuinely enjoying it. He's kind of excited about having a birthday."

Something related to golf or the beach is usually the way to go for gifts, Steve Spurrier Jr. said.

"I typically try to get him a book. H''s got about everything. If you get him another pair of loafers, he looks at you funny. I can't do that. Usually a book that's not too thick is something he looks at pretty good."

This article was written by Josh Kendall from The State and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.