Bullard's Escort to UF Continues to Inspire Him
Saturday, September 20, 2014 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The most recent dream happened during Florida's preseason camp. It was different than the others.
The next day Gators junior defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard had to talk about it, so he called his mother, Monica Bullard, about his vivid memory of the images and emotions he experienced the previous night.
Monica and Jonathan, the middle of her three sons, had talked before about an occasional dream involving Joyce Robbs, Monica's mom and the boys' grandmother.
Monica doesn't recall dreaming about her mother over the past two years, but her oldest son, Nelson Bullard, and Jonathan have both told her about dreams they've had.
One of Jonathan's took place on his birthday and mawmaw -- that's what the boys call Joyce -- was there. As Jonathan celebrated and ate cake and talked to family and friends at the party, his grandmother sat alone in the corner of the room.
Jonathan looked over, surprised to see her. She smiled at him, never saying a word. That was the image that stuck in Jonathan's head.
In fact, his grandmother never speaks in Jonathan's dreams. She will look his way, perhaps wave, but never says anything. That's what made the most recent dream so striking.
The way Monica tells it, Jonathan was in a convenience store to buy something and when he walked out, there was Joyce outside pumping gas. As they met, his grandmother raised her arm and gave Jonathan a high-five.
And she spoke. Two words. They linger with Jonathan today.
“I'm back.”
Dreams are tricky for all of us. What do they mean? Why now? Why was that person there?
Monica tried her best to play mom and arm-chair psychologist at the same time. She offered some possible meanings and one seemed to resonate the most.
“Maybe she was trying to tell you football season is starting and she's watching,'' Monica told him.
Photos: Shots of Jonathan Bullard in Gators uniform (Tim Casey); photos of Joyce Robbs and Monica Bullard (Bullard family).
*****
For the majority of his life, 20-year-old Jonathan had no bigger fan than Joyce.
Same for Nelson, who was an all-conference defensive lineman at Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) University, and their younger brother Wesley, now a high-school sophomore.
“My mom and dad split up when we were younger,'' Jonathan said. “We just grew up around her. She was the one bringing me back and forth from football practice, her and my grandpa. She loved football.”
Joyce and James Robbs met in the 1960s, married and settled in their hometown of Shelby, N.C. Joyce got a job at a dry cleaners and while neither finished high school, they had the wherewithal to start their own business in town, a car wash named Robbs & Sons Detail Shop.
When they weren't working, they were usually at one of their grandsons' games. For a while, all three of the Bullard boys played baseball, basketball and football.
The coming and going rarely stopped.
By the time Jonathan became a targeted football recruit at Shelby's Crest Senior High, the same school that produced former UF linebacker Brandon Spikes, he knew exactly where to look to find Joyce on Friday nights: her favorite chair on the grassy bank that overlooked the stadium.
He would wave. She would wave back. Game time.
“She was the one who was picking them up in the evening, taking them to practice, picking them up, and helping with their homework,'' Monica said. “She was pretty much my backbone. That's the reason they are so close to her. None of us would be where we are without her.
“She was the family rock. She held us together.”
After Monica and the boys' father, Leonard, broke up, Monica needed help to raise the kids as a working mother. Nelson was 12, Jonathan, 8, and Wesley, 4.
Monica worked the night shift at the BMW factory about an hour away across the South Carolina state line. She usually left for work around 6:30 each evening to start her shift from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Monica arranged her schedule to get to as many weekend games as possible, but during the week it was Joyce who filled in the gaps, and the bond between her and Jonathan grew.
As a senior at Crest, Jonathan was offered scholarships from several FBS programs, but ultimately the decision came down to Florida and Clemson.
A major factor Jonathan considered while trying to decide on where to attend college was his grandmother's health. Joyce had been diagnosed with cancer twice before and had surgery to rid the disease from her body.
However, the cancer returned and Joyce was very sick as Jonathan pondered his decision.
“The biggest thing for him was getting her blessing for him to go away,'' Gators defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin said. “He needed her blessing, 'not only is it OK, but I want you to go where you want to go away to school and do you.' ''
Durkin, defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson, former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and head coach Will Muschamp all got to know the Bullard family during the recruiting process.
They really got to know Joyce, from eating her pumpkin pies to her latest opinions on the game. On Jonathan's official visit to Florida, Joyce came along.
“Really, if my mom had not approved of him going to Florida, he would probably be at Clemson,” Monica said. “He really would have. He didn't want to leave because he felt like if he left something would happen to her.
“She liked Florida and she liked Muschamp and all of them. Once she told him it was OK, and the coaches told him they would do everything in their power to get him [home] if something happens, he went ahead and made up his mind.”
*****
Bullard signed with the Gators and when Florida opened the 2012 season at home against Bowling Green, Joyce, James and Monica made the trip to Gainesville.
Joyce was undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and taking medications that prevented her from being in the sun for extended periods, so while Monica watched from a seat at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Joyce and James stayed back at the hotel, ordered in and watched on television.
When it was over they made sure to meet up with Jonathan.
“She wanted to be here when I got out [after the game],'' Bullard said. “She did what she could and I appreciate it.”
Soon after the trip to Florida, Joyce was admitted to the hospital, where she spent the next month. While in the middle of a season in which Jonathan earned All-SEC Freshman Team honors, his mind was often occupied with thoughts of his grandmother.
He made it home when he could, including the week of the Missouri game when Joyce was gravely ill and on a respirator due to pneumonia and other ailments. Bullard returned to UF the day before recording three tackles and 1 ½ sacks in a 14-7 homecoming win over the Tigers.
He earned added respect from his teammates for being able to compartmentalize his life during a difficult stretch, as a true freshman at that.
“Whatever he needed, he knew we were there,” former teammate Sharrif Floyd said after the game. “We just gave him our respect for coming back and playing the game for us. That's hard to lose a family member, especially if you're so close to her.”
Another week passed as Joyce fought for her life when Florida's coaching staff got the call from the Bullard family that the fight was over. On the morning of Nov. 10, 2012, feisty, quick-witted, prankster Joyce Ann Degree Robbs died. She was 65.
Bullard was delivered the news he knew was coming and returned home for Joyce's funeral four days later.
“That was a hard thing. I was the one who sat in the room and explained to him what happened. He knew that day was coming – she had been sick for a while – but when it actually happens, that was a struggle,” Durkin said. “That was emotional for him, for me, but you know what, again, his family is all close and they surrounded him and each other and that helped.
“He is where she wanted him to be.”
*****
The Gators travel to face No. 3-ranked Alabama on Saturday in their biggest game of the young season. Bullard, who has six tackles and one tackle-for-loss in the first two games, is expected to play a key role as the Gators will try to pressure first-year quarterback Blake Sims and limit Alabama's dangerous backfield duo of running backs T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry.
The passing of time has helped heal some of the Bullard family's heartbreak. Other ways have, too.
Jonathan recently got a tattoo of his grandmother on his chest to make sure she is close at all times.
“She was just a big part of my life,'' he said. “That just motivates me. I want to do the right things because I feel like she is watching me at all times. She was real supportive and she would give me her last. I just want to go through this and do it for her.”
Back home in Shelby, Monica continues to work at the BMW factory and raise Wesley. Nelson recently returned to North Carolina for new job. And Mr. Dobbs stays active at the car wash.
Of course, when they talk on the phone or get together for dinner or a ballgame, Joyce usually comes up. Two years later and they still miss her greatly.
Whenever Jonathan comes home, it never fails that at least once Monica asks where he is going and he'll reply: “To go see mawmaw.”
Jonathan keeps a picture of her headstone as a photo on his Twitter bio.
“He loves being with his family,” Monica said. “He loves it when we all get together and cookout and just hang out. Me and my parents have had our share of running around. I've had to do without a lot of sleep. But you know … I love football, I love watching them play, and I love my boys.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would.”
Undoubtedly, so would Joyce.
