This shot of Legends in Belmont Shore shows both the old, 220-inch projection screen at left, along with the new, 326-inch projection screen, at right, that was installed about eight months ago. Photo by Ryan ZumMallen.

8:34am | Just a few years following its reopening after a fire gutted the popular Belmont Shore sports bar, Gene Rotondo, owner of Legends, has announced that he is selling the business.

Even more shocking than this news, however, is the revelation that the prospective buyer is a teaming of Eric Johnson, co-owner of the Auld Dubliner on Pine Street south of Ocean Boulevard, and original Legends owner John Morris, according to the Press-Telegram.

Morris, of Smooth’s Sports Grille fame, opened the Belmont Shore bar with former Los Angeles Rams player Dennis Harrah in late 1979. He remained until 1988, when he sold Legends to Rotondo. Two years earlier, Morris’ interests had headed west, landing him on Pine where he opened up Mum’s which would later be turned into Smooth’s. 

When Smooth’s shuttered last year, Morris landed at the marina, where he has spent the last few months heading up the team over at McKenna’s on the Bay as general manager. Though he plans to retain his duties at McKenna’s, it appears he will be returning home.

Legends has undergone some major changes since 1988, most notably its being nearly entirely rebuilt following a 2005 fire that gutted the popular tavern and kept it closed until about a month shy of 2008.

Morris told the PT that he hadn’t considered returning to where it all began 32 years ago until he learned that Rotondo had been considering selling the bar. He soon brought Johnson on board as a partner.

Rotondo told the PT that part of the reason for his decision to sell lies in his being “tired of fighting the battles at City Hall.”