Widow recalls death of Gunner Stockton’s grandfather at Georgia-Florida game: ‘He said something about Todd Grantham and collapsed’
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Every Georgia quarterback wants to beat the Florida Gators. Gunner Stockton has more personal motivation than most Bulldogs.
A Week 10 preview from ESPN includes the story that Lawrence Stockton, Gunner’s grandfather, passed away from a heart attack after attending the 2010 game.
“He had a heart attack there at the stadium,” Gunner Stockton told ESPN. “Every time we go to Florida, I really want to beat them bad in Jacksonville.”
Lawrence Stockton’s widow offered an incredible quote when speaking to ESPN about her late husband.
“He said something about [then-Bulldogs defensive coordinator] Todd Grantham and collapsed,” said Suzanne Frederickson, per Mark Schlabach.
The 2010 season was Grantham’s first of 4 at Georgia. In that year’s Cocktail Party, he memorably taunted Florida Chas Henry with a choke gesture before the punter (filling in as place kicker) made a walk-off field goal to give the Gators the 34-31 win in overtime.
Grantham would later switch sides in the rivalry. He was hired by Dan Mullen as Florida’s defensive coordinator in 2018. Grantham was on the UF side of 4 Florida-Georgia games before his firing, which preceded Mullen’s dismissal in 2021.
If anything can bring Georgia and Florida fans together, it’s a shared frustration of watching Grantham’s defenses.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
