Comments on: Our Georgia Football Traditions, “The Tracks”

By: Les

Les — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:03:44 +0000

I think the experience I remember most was in
’75 or ’76. We’re all sitting on the tracks and along comes a train, whistle blowing and all. Well we did what most people would do when you’re sitting in the way of an oncoming train…… we stayed put! The train stopped and after deciding they couldn’t go anywhere anyway, decided to watch the game too!
Some people even climbed on top of the train for the rest of the game.
It was a great way to kill a Saturday!

By: j bowers

j bowers — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:57:41 +0000

Rex- i did not know this was your site. Are their any places with more pictures?Someone does need to write a book of short stories with photos…i have some good ones of each..and not all of them are incriminating.

By: j bowers

j bowers — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:42:17 +0000

Attended tracks from 72 till closing. Highlights every game were: cleaning out the kudzu and tree growth the first couple of games, chipping out ‘seats’ with railroad stone and beer cans, admiring the hardy and beautiful women that could hack it on the hill, cheering the arrival of the Dawgs, booing the opposition (among other things), early on it was sofas and some chairs for the truely cool- then scaffolding for the death wishers, trains stopped running after one was uncoupled and people sat on the flat cars, some fights, a LOT of hippie lettuce, campus cops were actually cool back then and would look the other way unless you pissed them off, the graveyard was the restroom, bedroom, etc. etc., one game a member of the opposing side drove in front of the tracks-stopped his car and started cussin’ the hardcore who had been at it all night. The hail storm of railroad stone, bottles, shoes, sticks, small trees, was amazing. The fool was not hurt too much, but his car was pretty beat up. He was a glutton for punishment, because he stopped about 50 feet down the road and started in on the ‘trackers’ again. He found to his dismay that many of them had good arms. Nothing much funnier than someone VERY drunk rolling off the tracks to the street below. Rain games were a new challange altogeather. Athens game day has not been worth crap since they closed this fine seating area, pushed all parking miles from the stadium (except for the monied elite), and Adams turned into the trash czar. Stop outlawing fun and loosen up. Oh well….wishful thinking.

By: Danny Llewallyn

Danny Llewallyn — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:24:14 +0000

Schooly,

I’m sorry that I never made it out there with y’all. For some reason it just didn’t sound like fun to me at the time. It seems like every home game weekend there were big and unique stories from you guys every Saturday night and Sunday after a night and day at the tracks. I knew I was missing out, but I was “technically married” as you know and already didn’t have the freedoms I needed at the time. I can state with fact that “You were there!” because of the things I heard afterwards.

Your forever friend,

Danny ’80

By: schooly

schooly — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:20:50 +0000

Hmm… I have a few memories. Well, maybe memory of memories. I attended GA from 76-80. I don’t recall being in the stadium often but I know I went to every single home game. So I guess I was there

My favorite experience occurred early one Saturday morning, just after sun up. We had spent the night partying on the tracks (what a night!) and were just waking up from our stupor, when an old car pulled up on east campus in front of everyone on the tracks, a old woman jumps out of the car, dressed in an old cheerleader outfit (or was it pajamas?), arm in a cast, hair disheveled, she then proceeds to lead everyone in a cheer! Don’t recall the details, but it might have been, “Give me G, give me E…” That was priceless!

I also recall that any fan from the opposing side that walked by did so at their own peril! I recall distinctly, everyone chanting “DOG FOOD! DOG FOOD!” to them.

Lastly I recall, the undercover cops arresting girls for peeing in the cemetery while the guys were left alone as we wouldn’t even bother to be that modest!

Someone needs to put a book together. There must be 100′s of these stories!

One last thing, I read elsewhere an article that portrayed the “track people” in a pretty negative light. Yes there was the occasional ruckus (worst I saw was some drunk fell from some height and landed on top of someone), but for the most part things were remarkably in check. That environment could never exist or be allowed to exist today.

By: Julien

Julien — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:33:33 +0000

Hey Rex,
I was a track fan! I have sat in the same seats (still do) for most of my life in the stadium! But, my years at UGA 77 – 80! I only sat on the tracks! Always had some “guys” do the camp out the night before. So, we always had a great spot! We were some of those that brought Mom-ers old sofa there for comfort. And we had a LOT of fun! Wouldnt give anything for the track experience! It was Great! There were plenty of consumables there for all to share or not! Good people! I have some pictures from the AJC, that were taken at that last game!
Go Dawgs!!! Julien

By: Rex

Rex — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:51:12 +0000

Chris,

Thanks for sharing your memories. Where are you now?

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:41:35 +0000

I attended many games on the tracks from ’77 through ’80. We would sell our student tickets for booze and go to the tracks…I don’t remember much but in my mind this is where the freaks went, not the greeks. It was definitely a party place and I mean HARD partying, mucho booze, rowdyness, and general youth craziness, but not much trouble except the ocassional fall down the hill, or thrown bottle down onto the road (forgot name of the road)…if I remember the drinking age was 18 then….I spent the night there several times and got better spots but mainly arrived early in the am with stocked cooler and sat up near the top in the gravel, dirt, broken glass, cooler shards with my blanket and friends…much better than any seat inside! I would not trade these memories for any forgettable stadium seat! Some people would set up scaffolding with flags and other adornment for their “skybox” seats. Boy the memories….and I remember the sadness when they boxed Sanford in. I graduated, moved out of state and have not been to a game since the tracks!! Shame on me!!

By: Bryant

Bryant — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:58:14 +0000

Thanks for all of the stories, y’all. I wish I’d experienced the view from the tracks but I was a couple of decades late. Does anyone have any more pictures or videos either of or from the tracks?

By: AthensHomerDawg

AthensHomerDawg — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:32:57 +0000

The tracks were alot of fun…but one had to be careful and not just a little bit savy! Throngs of BullDawg faithful spending the night partying on the tracks the night before gameday got to be dicey at times. The Satuday that Dooley surprized “The Bear” between the hedges was one of them. A fairly drunken fan bounced a beer bottle off the head of my future wife (then a co-ed at Augusta Medical College)….precipationg a trip to Saint Marys for a few stiches. The culprit was dragged bodily down the side of that hill by surounding fans and turned over to security. He looked as if he had slid off a motorcyle at a high rate of speed. Fan juctice? I think at times the picnics at the cemetary were laid back affars … the kind of Saurday’s our Grandparents spent. The tracks were beginning to get rowdy and I believe The University was becoming concerned. But HEY it was great to be a Bulldog during that era!

By: NCRob58

NCRob58 — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:44:45 +0000

I have two different stories to share. The first is a build on the story from the ’76 Bama game. The crowd did indeed gather on Wednesday, and since I was living in Reed Hall we got to follow their antics up close. The most impressive thing I saw was a group that erected scaffolding abreast of the tracks to raise their sightlines by about 8-10 feet. As if that were not enough, they hoisted up a couple of recliners and a keg of beer to make it just like home.

In ’79, my girlfriend (now wife) had graduated and therefore could no longer get student tickets. We were too poor to buy a regular ticket, so we saw every game from the tracks. We’d get a case of PBR, park my ’66 Ford on River Road in some frat’s front yard and walk to the tracks. It was so crowded we’d watch the game standing on top of the cooler (all of about two square feet). We watched that whole miserable season from the top of that cooler, which we still have 30 years later.

By: Darrell

Darrell — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:13:51 +0000

I only saw one game from the tracks and I was a kid. My uncle a UGA alum wanted to see us play Auburn that had a QB named Pat Sullivan and a receiver named Terry Beasley. It was an impressionable day. The party was going on when we got there at about 7am (we lived in Macon so we left home at about 5am). I remember stopping in one of the small towns on the way and buying some boxes of home-made fried chicken. My uncle explained that once we got there we couldn’t leave for drinks or food. Initially our seats weren’t very good but as folks passed out or slid down the hill our position got better. Georgia played a heck of a game that day but couldn’t overcome the offensive combination. I remember how sick I felt after the game that we had lost but I felt a comraderie with all of the people on the hill because we had put so much effort in to trying to get our beloved Dawgs to win. It’s an experience I will never forget.