Prominent business family perseveres through odds, obstacles

Long before Richard Gonzmart was an iconic figure in the Tampa restaurant scene, he was a stud high school football running back in town. Gonzmart was on Jesuit High’s 1968 state championship team. He considers longtime Tigers coach “Wild” Bill Minahan, a U.S. Marine, Korean War Veteran and an old-school, gruff, straight-out-of-central-casting high school coach, a third life mentor, behind his father and grandfather.

But like many star athletes, decades later, it’s losses and misses that stand out, not just victories and touchdowns. Like the time, Gonzmart recalls, he took the handoff from the quarterback in a game, scattered away from tacklers and rumbled toward the end zone. Then: he fumbled the ball. No touchdown.