1980 Dawgs -Revisited
From the website for 1980 Dawgs – The Inside Story of The National Championship Season™: A new documentary film produced in a 2 DVD, Collector’s Edition set. Contains over 3 1/2 hours of behind the scenes stories, including some never heard before and exciting game footage that fans will treasure. Over 25 Players and coaches relive the season with emotions that bring that special season back to life. more…
SEC Storied – Herschel
Dawg Fans will be glad to know, that next week on Wednesday, September 7th the first installment of a news series, SEC Storied will air. Our favorite son Herschel Walker is the first subject. I was fortunate enough to join Herschel and a contingent of my team mates at an advance showing last evening. Coach Vince Dooley and other members of his 1980 staff were there as well. The show will air on ESPNU and there were ESPN representatives as well as SEC Commissioner Mike Slive in attendance. This was a bigger deal than I had imagined.
The documentary was very well done, with many of the highlights we’ve all come to know and love and will never tire of. But, there were some new clips I had not seen and re-enactments of childhood scenes of trauma suffered at the hands of classmates. If you read Herschel’s book BREAKING FREE, you know some of those details. This trauma/abuse was the catalyst that brought about a certain rage that has fueled Herschel in almost everything he does. The struggle to feel ‘good enough” and find healthy outlets for his rage.
Football was that outlet for many years, but when his football career was over, problems arose.
I won’t reveal any more details and risk ruining the actual documentary for you. It is must see TV for any Dawg fan. Again, it airs next Wednesday at 8:00 PM on ESPNU.
TEAM me…One More Time
The motto TEAM me started with Coach Erskine Russell of course, but the meaning and attitude lives on in Roswell, Georgia. Two weeks ago I attended a fundraiser for Roswell Youth Football and Cheer Associations. Coach Vince Dooley spoke to the group of kids and their parents.
You may remember the names Matt McCormick and Heather Stepp McCormick. Both are DGD’s from way back. Matt played football and Heather a gymnast. Heather put the fundraiser together and was responsible for Coach Dooley being there. I don’t know how often Coach Dooley invokes the TEAM me as one of the catalysts for our 1980 success, but with Jim Broadway and I in attendance he referred to many of our fondest memories. TEAM me being one of the greatest.
The story was not lost on the 3rd grade Green Hornets and they called me to see if history could repeat itself. I delivered 22 TEAM me shirts in time for the first game today and the picture is below. By the way, the Green Hornets won 32-0!
What an awesome lesson in sports and in life…just one more time.
Thanks Coach Russell!
Brian Kelly to Notre Dame
Twenty-nine years ago the Georgia Bulldogs almost experienced what the Cincinnati Bearcats are feeling today. Coach Vince Dooley was temporarily drawn by an offer by Auburn University, his Alma mater. Ultimately he decided to stay in Athens, but even the idea of losing your coach when you are preparing for a Sugar Bowl and potential national championship, was very difficult. As a 21 year old kid, it’s hard to fathom a coach leaving. As a 50 year old kid, I totally understand the forces at work. The whole team was upset back then and there is plenty of evidence that the Bearcat players feel that way now.
Here is an excerpt from an article last night:
Receiver Mardy Gilyard, one of the last players to arrive at the banquet, said in an interview that he was upset Kelly had accepted the Notre Dame job after telling him and other players before their last game that he was staying.
“I don’t like it,” said Gilyard, the Big East’s top receiver and kick returner. “I feel there was a little lying in the thing. I feel like he’d known this the whole time. Everybody knows Notre Dame’s got the money. I kind of had a gut feeling he was going to stay just because he told me he was going to be here.”
I also follow Isaiah Pead, Cincinnati’s great running back on Twitter. Isaiah was pretty upset last night also. “Action packed day..but I guess not every1 can be pleased..all good things must cum to an end sumtime..I just think its all bull****”. Here they are playing in the Sugar Bowl against Florida, and this happens. I believe Cincinnati has a chance to be really competitive vs. the Gators. I hope they can keep it together in the interim.
This brings up that whole issue of players having to sit out a year if they transfer(see Ryan Mallett), even when their motivations are related to a coaching change. That’s another blog for another day.
Hey, It’s Throwback Thursday! Yeah…Yeah…Yeah…Yeah!
Georgia Bulldogs fans ask me about the 1978 Kentucky game more than any other game. I understand why. It’s the only game I made a kick at the very end of a game to help my team win. Oh yeah, Larry Munson had a little something to do with it too. In fact, this game is memorable because of Larry and I feel very strongly that his call of the great comeback of the 1978 Wonderdogs is why this game is high on some people’s list of great Georgia games.
This particular season we were expected to be a very average team but at this point were still unbeaten in SEC play. This game was where the name Underdogs to Wonderdogs was born.
Many of you have heard the call of the 29 yarder that beat the ‘Cats, and that’s all well and good. What you may not realize is how great a comeback this really was. After spotting Kentucky 16 points, we began chipping away at the mountain we had to climb. This was in Lexington at night, another tough SEC setting we had to deal with.
There were so many great plays by what turned out to be a great team. Jeff Pyburn, Willie McClendon, Ullysses Norris, Amp Arnold to name a few. A never say die attitude, “The Bulldog Way”, drove us to do what seemed impossible.
Kentucky missed a field goal with 4:03 to go in the game. The drive that ensued was one for the ages. The strong Kentucky defense that had been so tough all night was beginning to crumble under the pounding of our offensive line and the running of Willie McClendon. Larry Munson’s voice, not quite as gravely as it would ultimately become, was filled with emotion. His call was building up to a crescendo of unforgettable one-liners. There were some guys on Facebook last night doing some of them, since it’s Kentucky week.
We drove all the way down to the 12 yard line and called time-out with 8 seconds to go. One of the more memorable things that happened was Kentucky’s Fran Curci calling time out to “freeze” yours truly, the kicker. Little did he know we only had 10 men on the field and it probably helped us win the game.
Coach Dooley tells this part of the story quite often, Little Timmy Morrison, who was anything but little, was on the sideline praying for me to make the kick. You know, I really appreciated the sentiment, but a little blocking would have been great! Coach Dooley told Tim that his prayers had answered and to get his butt back in there!
With all this drama, the kick itself was the boring part.
This picture is from the Kentucky paper the next day…
Larry’s call was magical. He noticed before the kick that most of the Georgia fans were upside down but were trying to stand, Once I kicked it he uttered the memorable, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”! Later he said, “He kicked it not quite 87 1/2 yards across the cross-bar up toward the scoreboard…he kicked the whatchamacallit out of it”! He added, “the bench is unconscious”! Holy smokes I spoke to Robinson’s parents in the lobby of the motel today and he missed his first two tonight. But guess which one he hit?!
That was all great stuff, but my question is this. If you were around back then, where were you? Many people have told me where they were, all over the Southeast, listening on WSB Radio. The signal traveled a long way that night. A night I’ll never forget, but made memorable to all by the one and only Larry Munson.
Thanks again Larry!
Georgia Bulldogs – That 70′s Show
The Georgia Bulldogs were very fortunate to escape the confines of Home Sweet Hedges with a victory this past Saturday night. The South Carolina game final score was close as usual, but with some offense thrown in for a change. 41-37? That was supposed to be last weeks score at Okie State! Man, I’m confused!
Back in the day, we didn’t score 41 points in our two SC victories combined(28). That was strange. Something that did look familiar though is the bend don’t break defense, big plays on special teams and winning ugly. I felt like it was 1978 all over again.
I want to apologize on behalf of those late 1970′s and even the 1980 team. I hope you all will forgive us for putting you through such torture, such frustration and contributing to your collective drinking problems. I was at home watching that dang game Saturday night and even though Rennie Curran kept me among the living, I still lost several years off my life.
I never knew why people criticized Coach Dooley so harshly. Now I do. Heck, I’m even mad at him right now. Just kidding coach! I can’t tell you how many games we were outgained and seemingly outplayed but still found a way to win.
People said we were lucky.
Coach Russell said, “I’d rather be lucky than good”.
Coach Dooley said, “Luck is where preparation and opportunity meet”.
I sure hope we continue to court ‘Ole Lady Luck and treat her right and make her happy. I wouldn’t want to piss her off. I think we are going to need her.
Georgia Flights Not So Fancy
It was 1977 and it had been an awful season. After winning the SEC Championship in 1976, no one thought Coach Vince Dooley’s first and only losing season was at hand. As a freshman kicker I felt helpless much of the time and didn’t perform up to my own expectations. One of the away trips that typified the season from hell was the Florida game. I just read that the Dawgs will be taking direct flights back to Athens on away trips this year. That reminded me of the night we almost didn’t make it home.
It was November 5, 1977. This Florida Game was the only loss(22-17) to the Gators in my four years. It was the Wes Chandler Show, as he almost single handedly beat Georgia that day. It was a long day, but a longer night was in store. When we got to the airport to go back to Athens we boarded the plane temporarily only to deplane because of a red light that would not go off on the instrument panel. We waited about an hour and a half and finally the light went off. They thought some moisture had shorted it out or something. So we tried again.
About 15-20 minutes after leaving Jacksonville, there was kind of a shudder and the plane leaned left. The players on the right side of the plane started freaking out a bit. You see this was a Piedmont Turbo Prop similar to the one above, and we had just lost our right engine. Fortunately you can fly them with one engine, but not nearly fast enough when a hundred guys have all pooped their pants. Obviously we made it back to Jacksonville where we waited for another plane to come from Athens.
On the subsequent flight to Athens we learned that the weather was bad in Athens and we might have to divert the flight to Atlanta. And we did. At this point chartered buses had to come from Athens to pick us up at the Atlanta Airport. Then we rode the bus back to Athens, arriving in the wee hours, some 8 hours after the game was over.
If that had been my first plane trip,
I might have never gotten on a plane ever again.
Mark Richt’s 10 wins not enough?
Are you kidding me? Just put the bong down and walk away. No seriously. (more…)
Tell me what you really think!