100+ photos once adorned bar dubbed ‘Hilton Head’s living room.’ How they made it home
John “Jump” Griffin thought he’d seen the last of his signature Hilton Head Island bar, once dubbed the “Green Bay Packers headquarters of the island.”
When the bar was open, Midwestern transplants who walked into Jump & Phil’s on the south end felt like they were entering a souped-up version of their grandfather’s basement bar back in Wisconsin.
A massive moose’s antlers sometimes were adorned with Christmas lights. Framed black-and-white photos decorated the walls. And hundreds of Green Bay Packers posters and pennants — some signed and dedicated to Jump and Phil themselves — were carefully hung throughout.
Last week, all the memorabilia showed up in a box set in front of him.
With the help of two Wisconsin natives and devout Jump & Phil’s patrons, Griffin’s memories from the bar’s walls were returned to him. On Friday morning, he reunited with the relics on the patio of the bar where he worked for 25 years.
As Griffin thumbed through graduation and baby photos of his longtime regulars and friends, he pointed out who was still around from “the good old days.”
“A lot of these guys are no longer with us,” Griffin said as he looked through photos of him with buddies who had met working at Harbour Town’s restaurant CQ’s in the 1970s. “Man, this is so cool.”
The end of Jump & Phil’s
After Griffin’s friend Phil Henry died, Griffin sold their joint venture to Lawrence and Lauren Powell in 2016.
He said goodbye to the bar dubbed “the island’s living room” and, along with it, thousands of pieces of Packers memorabilia and photos.
Since that sale, the Powells sold the place to John Mollica and his brother Tom, who overhauled Jump & Phil’s and created Brother Shuckers Raw Bar in the island’s famed Barmuda Triangle in 2019.
Until last week, all the photos and memories that once hung on the walls at the bar sat in John Mollica’s garage.
That’s when Mike and Jeanne Suminski, among the Packer fans who have been visiting the island together for 15 years, came to Hilton Head for vacation and contacted John Mollica about buying the relics from Jump & Phil’s, the bar where they caught countless Packers games over the years.
“It felt like home for us,” Mike Suminski said. “We came here every time there was a Packer game on. They looked people in the eye there.”
The Suminskis hauled the Jump & Phil’s paraphernalia back to their condo and immediately realized Griffin had to see the collection.
“We have wedding photos, baby photos, ... photos these people should have,” Mike Suminski told The Island Packet.
The Suminskis plan to bring the Packers posters and pennants back to their home on the southwest side of Milwaukee, but they knew the personal items belonged to only one man.
Returning memories
Last week, Mike Suminski returned Griffin’s collection of photographs, artwork, T-shirts and even the vintage black rotary telephone that Hargray employees fixed so the Jump & Phil’s crowd could make phone calls.
As Griffin poked through the frames, memories came rushing back.
“Ugh. She used to put us in our place,” he remembered as he looked at a woman’s black and white photo.
“This is John. He had a million jokes,” he said as he paged through graduation photos.
“He owns Sunset Grille now,” he said as he looked at a photo of Hugh Lockman.
“And he owns Palmetto Bay Sunrise Cafe,” he said of Paul Stewart.
Looking through the old photos brought back good times — along with occasions no one in the photos would ever have a shot of remembering.
One photo in particular, though, stood out. Not because of the wild night that led to the photo or the weird story behind it.
What had begun as a goal to return relics to Griffin ended up connecting the former owner with a treasured but long-lost photo.
“Oh ...” he said when paused at one framed photo of men in uniform serving in World War II.
“... There’s my Dad.”
