Undersea pursuits; adieu to anchoring

Name your favorite Gene Holloway story. Take your time. There are plenty to choose from.

There was the night in 1989 he brought in a host of Chippendales dancers to his SeaWolf restaurant in Homosassa Springs, much to the chagrin of Citrus County's religious elite.

Or there was the time Holloway faked his death and adopted a new identity in order to collect on an insurance policy. With the help of some cosmetic surgery, Holloway got away with it for a year before being caught and sent to federal prison for 40 months.

"That was yesterday's business," Holloway says today.

He has given up the restaurant game in favor of a full-time search for deep-sea treasure. "I'm really doing exactly what I probably should have been doing all my life. I absolutely love it."

The man who was once Tampa's most flamboyant restaurateur says his new calling is a perfect fit.

"Basically, I've always been a treasure hunter," Holloway said. "All of us who collect things and have things, at some point in our life we're going to have to give it up anyway. . . . I had a tremendous amount at one time, and I lost it, and I'm not unhappy about it. I'm just glad that I had it, and can look back on it."

In 1988, not long after his release from prison, Holloway opened his last SeaWolf restaurant. Within two years, though, he was in bankruptcy court. He lost the restaurant, as well as his million-dollar collection of art and Louis Tiffany windows.

So in 1992, Holloway started from scratch as a deep-sea treasure hunter. Operating out of New Port Richey, he has staked his claim to several sites in the Caribbean and off Florida's east coast, searching for Spanish silver, gold, jewels and artifacts sprinkled about the ocean floor.

About once a week, though, a former customer will come up to Holloway and reminisce about the SeaWolf. The art collection, the atmosphere, the affordability -- Holloway says no local restaurant will duplicate the standard set by the SeaWolf.

But the past is the past, Holloway says. "I owe no apologies to anyone. I guarantee you that if any one person besides Jesus has paid the price, it was me."

Suzanne Bates missed Tampa from day one.

The moment the former WFLA-Ch. 8 anchor stepped into her new job in Philadelphia in the mid 1980s, she was floored by the brisk pace of her new day-to-day life.

"Everybody was talking so fast," said Bates, who had worked at Channel 8 for three years. "I had trouble keeping up with the conversation for a while. It's one of the things that you love about working in a market like Tampa: People have time for each other."

A few years in Philadelphia led to a spot at WBZ-TV in Boston, where she anchored for 13 years, the last nine as the station's morning anchor.

But in 2000, Bates decided nine years of 3 a.m. wake-up calls was enough. She founded her own media consulting firm, Bates Communications Inc., which she runs out of her home in Wellesley, Mass. In the past two years, Bates has helped sharpen the media sensibilities of clients ranging from Fleet Boston Financial Corp. to Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift.

Every few months, the Illinois native visits her mother and sister in Palm Harbor and her brother in St. Petersburg.

"I fell in love with (Tampa) then; I've always been in love with it, and in some ways I've always wanted to come back," she said. "And I hope I will someday."

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