History of the Rivalry: South Carolina
When considering whether a team is a rival of the Georgia Bulldogs, you can look at a number of factors. Does the team reside in a state bordering Georgia? Have they played UGA for over a century? Have they kept the Dawgs out of national and/or conference title contention and vice versa? Were they coached by Steve Spurrier? While two schools fit that bill, today we’re going to focus on the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.
The “rivalry”
The UGA vs. South Carolina rivalry prior to 1975 could be described as dubious at best. A rivalry tends to be competitive, and the first 80 years of this series were anything but: the Gamecocks won 4 of the 29 games they played against the Bulldogs over that span.
And while there wasn’t a sudden shift in the series beginning in 1975 (South Carolina has won 15 of the 44 since then), that year did mark the arrival of USC head coach Jim Carlen, who recruited arguably the greatest Gamecock in program history: running back George Rogers. Rogers, a Georgia native, got to Columbia in 1977 and quickly became a star, rushing for 1,006 yards as a sophomore, 1,681 yards as a junior and 1,781 as a senior.
That senior season in 1980 earned him a Heisman Trophy, but not before he encountered another stellar RB from Georgia.
A Tale of Two Heismans
When Georgia played South Carolina in 1980, something like a passing of the torch – let’s call it one torch lighting another – happened. George Rogers had run roughshod over the Gamecocks’ opponents for the last four years, and in his senior season, most expected him to do the same. But the Bulldog team that George Rogers, Jim Carlen, and the USC squad encountered turned out to be a team of destiny, led by Buck Belue and featuring a freshman phenom named Herschel Walker.
UGA won the day, with Herschel running for 219 yards, but Rogers finished with 168 of his own, a good enough showing to bolster the season that would win him South Carolina’s first and only Heisman Trophy. Herschel would, of course, go on to win his own Heisman two years later, and strangely enough, a very similar passing of the torch would happen that year in the Georgia-Auburn game…
And things were going so well…
From the post-Herschel 1980s into the mid 2000s, Georgia’s dominance remained in place, with the Dawgs going 13-7 from 1983 to 2004 (the series went dormant in 1990 and 1991, before South Carolina joined the SEC in 1992). The last Gamecock victory during that span came in 2001, Mark Richt’s first year as head coach of the Bulldogs. Following that loss, Richt would reel off five wins in a row, including one in 2002 that featured the play that introduced David Pollack to the nation.
But in 2005, South Carolina was in need of a new head coach after Lou Holtz’s retirement, and they hired former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Stephen Orr Spurrier. It took Spurrier three years to get his first win in the Georgia vs. South Carolina series, but from that point forward, he became a menace to the Bulldogs. He went 5-4 against Georgia from 2007-2015, including three consecutive wins from ’10-’12 that concluded with UGA’s worst ever defeat against USC. He wasn’t as omnipotent as he had been at Florida, but the fact that he did this with the formerly lowly Gamecocks made it all the more frustrating.
But Spurrier retired in 2015, Kirby was hired in 2016, and things have returned to normalcy—other than… that one thing. South Carolina has entered a new era under head coach Shane Beamer, who took the Gamecocks to a surprising 7-6 finish (with a bowl win) in his first year and finished 8-5 last year, closing the regular season with wins over Tennessee and Clemson. Quarterback Spencer Rattler, in his final year, still has game-changer talent, and true freshman wide receiver Nyckoles Harbor could be a one-of-a-kind player, but South Carolina has a ways to go before they can catch up to Georgia. But given time, Beamer may yet reignite the Border War, and this year’s game may provide some sparks…
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History of the Rivalry: Tennessee
Larry Munson is one of the all-time greats in college football commentating, and his legendary career covering the Georgia Bulldogs—from 1966 to 2008—made him as central to UGA’s football history as Vince Dooley. Munson’s highlight reel spans decades and includes dozens of teams, but two of his most legendary calls signaled the start of new eras of Georgia football. And they came against the same opponent: Tennessee.
Munson’s calls made those games legendary, but even without a freshman “running over people” or a “hobnail boot,” games in the Georgia-Tennessee series were destined to have iconic moments. After all, we’re talking about the second and third winningest football programs in SEC history.
A Coronation in Knoxville
Perhaps the strangest thing about this rivalry is that, despite having played each other since 1899, despite being founding members of the Southeastern Conference and despite the schools’ campuses being separated by less than 150 miles, the Dawgs and the Vols have only met 50 times. Compare that to Georgia and Auburn, who started playing each other in 1892, but have met 126 times.
By 1980, the Bulldogs and Volunteers had only met 17 times, with Tennessee holding a one-game lead in the rivalry: 8-7-2. Georgia went to Knoxville to open the 1980 season, and the hopes they had to tie the series faded quickly. The Dawgs found themselves down 9-0 quickly, and their offense couldn’t sustain a drive. Vince Dooley knew his team of upperclassmen was strong at a number of positions, but tailback wasn’t one of them, and the early results here had proven that. So, he made a change.
The impact of that decision wouldn’t become clear until the second half, when Tennessee extended their lead to 15. No one knew it then, but that was the end of their scoring, and the beginning of Georgia’s season. Freshman Herschel Walker, who had spent the second quarter feeling out the defense and getting up to game speed, broke out in the second half and announced himself to the world with the Bulldogs’ first touchdown of 1980, immortalized by Larry Munson.
A safety and another Herschel touchdown later, UGA stunned the Knoxville crowd, pulled even in the series with the Vols and began their march to a national championship.
11 years, 11 points and a lot of praying
In 2000, Jim Donnan was in his fifth season as UGA head coach and in the proverbial hot seat. At most schools, a record of 32-15 doesn’t put you in trouble. But at Georgia, when that 32-15 contains a 5-11 record against Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and Georgia Tech, your record against everybody else means a lot less. Nevertheless, UGA started the 2000 season with a 3-1 record heading into a home game against Tennessee, who owned a nine-game winning streak over the Dawgs.
Tennessee was 2-2, with losses to no. 6 Florida and an unranked LSU team. This was out of character for the Vols, who were just two years removed from a national championship, and their ranking tumbled to 21. Still, they had no fear of the no. 19 Bulldogs. After spending nearly every year of the 90s beating Georgia, why would they?
They found the why by halftime, when Georgia took a 7-3 lead into the locker room thanks to a stifling defense. After the half, Tennessee scored to take the lead, 10-7. But Georgia answered with a Jasper Sanks rushing TD, then ended the discussion in the fourth quarter with a Musa Smith touchdown and Tim Wansley’s second interception of the day with less than two minutes remaining.
The feeling of impending victory over the Vols, foreign to Bulldog fans for over a decade, was too much for many in attendance. The raucous crowd began to spill onto the field after the game-sealing interception, and play had to be halted until the crowd could be removed. Security kept the fans under control until the final whistle.
It was dramatic, it ended Tennessee’s dominance over UGA and it marked the only time the goal posts were torn down in Sanford Stadium’s history. But many may not remember this game, because by season’s end, there was much more this game did NOT do than what it did do. It did not spark a magical season for the Dawgs. It did not save Jim Donnan’s job. It did not herald the arrival of a new era.
Bulldog fans would have to wait a year for that.
“Another Hobnail Boot?”
Richt’s tenure at Georgia wouldn’t be quite as dominant as the Tennessee streak that preceded him, but he certainly leveled out the rivalry before his 2015 departure: Richt went 10-5 against the Vols from 2001 – 2015, bringing the all-time series record to 21 Georgia wins, 22 Tennessee wins, and 2 ties.
When Kirby Smart arrived in Athens, Knoxville had been in disarray for some time. Lane Kiffin’s ignominious midnight exit, Derek Dooley’s poor results and Butch Jones’ big game struggles all kept the Vols from coming close to their former glory. But in 2016, Tennessee was fresh off a bowl win over the no. 12 Northwestern Wildcats, they had brought in a top-20 recruiting class, and it looked as if they might finally be pulling things together.
They were 4-0 coming into a week 5 game in Athens, including a win over no. 19 Florida the week before. Georgia was 3-1 and had just been blown out by Ole Miss, a loss that nearly saw them fall from the top 25.
Smart had prepared his team well, taking a 17-7 lead into halftime. But in the second half, the Volunteers outscored the Dawgs 21-7. After multiple miscues, Georgia finally managed to string together a drive as the final minute wound down, and with 10 seconds left, down 28-24, Jacob Eason found Riley Ridley for a 47-yard touchdown pass that gave the Bulldogs the lead.
A short kickoff was returned by Tennessee to midfield, and with four seconds left, the Vols turned a heart-stopping Georgia win into a heartbreaking loss.
This one stung for Georgia fans, and it stung even more when Tennessee rattled off three consecutive losses after this: no. 8 Texas A&M, no. 1 Alabama, and unranked South Carolina, who Georgia would beat in week 6.
That sting lasted exactly one year. Because in 2017 and every year since, the Bulldogs have beaten the Volunteers by no fewer than 23 points. This is the most dominant stretch of games in the history of this rivalry, which now stands at 26-23-2 in the Bulldogs’ favor.
So, if we understand a “Hobnail Boot” play to be one that signifies a dramatic, come-from-behind game-winner that ushers in a changing of the guard, then when Gary Danielson called Tennessee’s 2016 Hail Mary “another Hobnail Boot,” he did Mr. Munson a great, great disservice.
Today, Josh Heupel is the Volunteers’ head coach, Tennessee’s sixth in 15 years. Last year, UT came into Athens with all the hype in the world, fueled by the potent offense of Hendon Hooker, Jalin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman. But from the first whistle, the Bulldogs figured out the dynamic offense that felled Alabama and earned lavish national praise and extended the Dawgs’ win streak in the series to a record six—surpassing a win-streak record that had stood for just under a century.
Just a few short years ago, the UGA-UT rivalry was barely significant, but national spotlights are shining on these contests once again. For now, the Bulldogs maintain a firm grip on the series, but with a resurgent program igniting the long dormant Volunteer fan base, we’re going to see the best shot Tennessee can muster when the Dawgs enter a raucous Neyland Stadium on Nov. 18. Hopefully, this trip goes as well as the one 21 years ago.
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History of the Rivalry: Georgia Tech
“The Red River Showdown,” “The Game,” “The Iron Bowl:” these are the kind of titles given to historic college football rivalries. They embody the region the teams share, the historically high stakes of the match, or a unique characteristic of the rivalry.
If the UGA-Georgia Tech rivalry fits into any of those categories, it might be the last one. Because the “Clean Old-Fashioned Hate” these two teams and their fanbases have for one another, stretching back even before they played one game of football, is unique indeed.
Throwing rocks and stealing girlfriends
Before Georgia Tech even had a football team, they hated Georgia. The two schools had met several times on the baseball diamond and established their rivalry prior to 1891, but tensions began to escalate that year. Students from Auburn and UGA were set to play a game of football in Athens, and some Auburn students invited Georgia Tech students to come root for Auburn. Tech students happily accepted, devised some Tech-specific cheers on the way to the game, and dotted the stands with old gold and white, cheering not necessarily for an Auburn win but certainly for a Georgia loss.
Two years later, Tech had their football team, then known as the Blacksmiths, and they had a game set up with the Bulldogs. Among the Tech team’s preparations were coaxing, cajoling or otherwise swaying a number of students from a nearby all-girls school to wear old gold and white to the Georgia game at Herty Field. When these women, some of whom were current or former romantic interests of UGA football players, showed up to the game in Tech colors, the stage was set for a dramatic contest.
When all was said and done, Tech won 28-6 and Georgia fans showed their dissatisfaction by chasing the Tech team back to the train station with rocks, knives, whatever they could get their hands on. The next day, an Athens journalist accused Georgia Tech in the Atlanta Journal of liberally mixing in professionals with their students on the team.
It’s a romantic origin for this rivalry, but it’s hard to know how much of it is actually true. Sources differ on essentially every point of the preceding stories. But whether or not the Tech team sweet-talked the students at Lucy Cobb and whether or not Tech students went to a Georgia game just to boo the Dawgs, the powerful distaste underneath these stories is undeniably true and deep-rooted. There’s a reason not one but two cherished Tech fight songs include lines like “to hell with Georgia” and “drop the battle-axe on Georgia’s head.”
It runs deep
The depth of the enmity between Georgia and Georgia Tech can often be found in the unique ways the teams and their fanbases antagonize one another. Here are a just a few of the ways this disdain has been expressed.
- During World War I, UGA, like many schools, lost a majority of their able-bodied male students to military service, forcing them to suspend their football program. Georgia Tech, however, was a military training ground, so, with no lack of athletes, they carried on playing football during the war. When Georgia revived football in 1919, the students held a parade to celebrate, and a pair of floats created a scandal: one was shaped like a tank, with a banner that read, “UGA in Argonne;” the other was a donkey dressed in yellow with a banner that read, “Tech in Atlanta.” Georgia Tech was furious and severed athletic ties with UGA, resulting in, among other things, no regular season play between the teams until 1925.
- Georgia and Georgia Tech were among the 13 charter members of the Southeastern Conference at its creation in 1932, but in 1964, Tech exited the conference following a feud between GT coach Bobby Dodd and Alabama coach Bear Bryant over scholarships and student-athlete treatment. Eleven years later, Tech mounted a campaign to return to the SEC. This required a vote by conference members, and that vote failed. Legend has it that one school in particular marshaled the “no” votes that blocked Tech’s re-entry. You get one guess as to who that was.
- Legends of thievery abound on both sides of the rivalry. Tech fans claim that Dawg people are responsible for two incidents where their Ramblin’ Wreck was stolen. Georgia fans say that Yellow Jackets have stolen the Chapel Bell before. And there’s strong evidence to suspect that Georgia Tech students were behind the theft—and subsequent scavenger hunt to recover—the bulldog statue in front of Memorial Hall.
What Dooley started, Richt perfected
From 1893 to 1963, the series was fairly level: 27 Tech wins, 26 Georgia wins and five ties. However, the Yellow Jackets owned the mid-century era thanks in part to their hall-of-fame head coach Bobby Dodd. From ’43 to ’63, Tech had 14 wins to Georgia’s seven, which included an eight-game winning streak for GT that still stands as the longest win streak in the series.
But following the 1963 season, which saw the Bulldogs go 4-5-1 with losses to Alabama, Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech, UGA made a change at head coach, releasing Johnny Griffith and hiring Auburn assistant coach Vince Dooley. The turnaround was nearly instantaneous. After losing three in a row, the Bulldogs rattled off five consecutive wins over the Yellow Jackets. And Dooley’s dominance wouldn’t fade: he would build a 19-6 record against Tech over the course of his legendary career.
Even in the Ray Goff and Jim Donnan eras, Georgia held an advantage in the rivalry, winning seven of the 12 games played. Still, Tech won a national championship in 1990—Goff’s second year—and Tech won three consecutive games in Donnan’s final years, perhaps leading some Yellow Jackets fans to think they had turned a corner.
Then Mark Richt came to Athens in 2001 and spent 15 years owning this rivalry in a way few coaches have ever owned a Division I football rivalry.
Richt’s 86.67% winning percentage in the series (13-2) became not just the best among Georgia coaches, but the best of any coach who coached five or more UGA-GT games. In fact, if you look at the record of every coach who spent five or more years involved with the historic rivalries mentioned at the beginning of this article—Oklahoma-Texas, Michigan-Ohio State, and Alabama-Auburn—Richt’s win percentage against Georgia Tech is eclipsed by only Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, who went 9-1 against Michigan.
What had been a one-game lead for Tech in this series when Vince Dooley set up shop in Athens became a 25-game lead for the Dawgs by the time Mark Richt departed.
Kirby Smart has only strengthened UGA’s stranglehold on this series by going 5-1 since his arrival, including five consecutive, dominant victories. And while Tech’s fortunes haven’t improved in the past few years and Georgia appears poised to grow their series lead for years to come, it remains vital that the Dawgs not take the Yellow Jackets likely.
Why? Ask any Bulldog who was around in the ’50s or who lived through Tech’s national championship or who was in the stands for GT’s 2008 win. Georgia Tech fans would love nothing more than to go 1-11 if that one win meant they could spend 365 days lording it over the Dawgs.
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History of the Rivalry: Florida
The University of Georgia Bulldogs once kicked off from their own 8-yard line. This wasn’t at a time when the rules of football were dramatically different, nor was it the result of player error. The Dawgs kicked off in the shadow of their own goal posts by choice.
It was so important that they thumb their nose at their opponent and break the rules of the game that they said, “Fine. Put the ball wherever.”
What drives a team to this point? Winning at this level of college football requires scratching out every last tiny advantage, but UGA was willing to give up nearly 30 yards of field position in the first quarter of a game against a hated rival.
Why? It’s a long answer, over a century old, but it’s the reason the Georgia-Florida rivalry is one of the best in sports. And while there are dozens of moments one could point to, we’ll isolate three pivotal snapshots in the series.
Our villain’s origin story
It’s 4th and 8 for the Gators. Down 20-10 against the Bulldogs, they’re on their own 25 with time running out. Stephen Spurrier is under center, the senior quarterback responsible for so many great Gator moments. Just last week, he had mounted a heroic, fourth-quarter drive against Auburn and kicked the game-winning field goal himself, practically cementing his place as the 1966 Heisman frontrunner.
The seventh-ranked Gators needed some of those heroics now, but Spurrier was having a bad day—multiple sacks and three interceptions—and he had always struggled in Jacksonville, having gone 1-1 against the Bulldogs, who were on the rise under third-year coach Vince Dooley.
Florida’s first undefeated season, a shot at their first SEC Championship, and the pride of having conquered the hated Bulldogs all hung in the balance for Spurrier on this fourth down.
The ball is snapped, and almost immediately Georgia’s pass rush is in his face. But Spurrier spots a receiver dashing for the first down marker. He finds his man two yards from a new set of downs and a sliver of hope. In an instant, three red shirts appear and topple Florida’s hopes.
Just like that, it was over: no undefeated season, likely no SEC title, and a losing record for Spurrier in his playing career against the Bulldogs.
In a post-game interview, Spurrier said, “I’ve never had a good day in the Gator Bowl and I guess I never will. It’s a jinx place for me.”
The Bulldogs couldn’t know it then, but embarrassing the hyper-competitive Spurrier here planted a seed. What grew out of it, nearly a quarter century later, would give the Gators everything they ever wanted and give the Bulldogs an archnemesis for the ages.
Reasons to destroy some property
After Spurrier left Gainesville, the Dawgs took control of the series, going 16-6-1 from 1967 – 1989. The Gators were no pushovers during this stretch: Ten times in those 23 games, the Gators came to Jacksonville ranked, and only once did they walk away with a victory. This run included perhaps the most well-known moment of the Georgia-Florida series.
But in 1990, Florida called their Heisman winner home, and the impact was immediate: The Gators went from 7-5 in 1989 to 9-2 in 1990. Meanwhile, Georgia was in its second year under Ray Goff, who had been named head coach after Vince Dooley retired in 1988. In ’89, Goff’s Dawgs could only reach 6-6, but they did get a win over Florida.
That was Goff’s last victory over the Gators. Spurrier and his Florida teams began their ascent, and Georgia—despite going 9-3 in ’91 and 10-2 in ’92—got swallowed in the Gators’ wake. And in 1995, it all came to a head.
In the mid-90s, Jacksonville’s stadium was being rebuilt to prepare for the Jacksonville Jaguars, so the Georgia-Florida game moved to each team’s home stadium for the ’94 and ’95 seasons. The 1994 game was played in Gainesville, where the Gators romped, winning 52-14. In 1995, things didn’t look much better. The Gators, back-to-back SEC champs, came to Athens with two wins over top-10 teams, while Georgia had not beaten a ranked team since January 1993.
So, on October 28, 1995, the Gators walked into Sanford Stadium for the first time in 63 years, and things played out exactly as you’d expect. Future Heisman-winner Danny Wuerffel threw 5 touchdowns before leaving the game in the third quarter. His backup would throw two more and bring the final score to 52-17.
It remains the record for points allowed by the Bulldogs at home. Legend has it that Spurrier stated after the game that he had wanted to “hang half a hundred” on Georgia because “we heard no one had ever done that before.”
This account is disputed by Spurrier, but whether it’s true or not, he exacted humiliating revenge on the Bulldogs that night, a highlight for his Florida coaching career, which ended in 2001 with 6 SEC titles, a national championship and an 11-1 record against Georgia.
“And here comes the entire team!”
The 2001 season began with a new head coach for UGA, Mark Richt—formerly the offensive coordinator for some of Bobby Bowden’s best Florida State teams—and it ended with Steve Spurrier’s departure from Florida.
Richt would quickly re-establish UGA as a contender, winning the SEC in 2002 and 2005, but he could not find consistent success against the Gators. This was especially frustrating for Georgia fans who watched Ron Zook, Spurrier’s successor, win no more than 8 games every year.
Things became even more frustrating when, after Richt’s first win against Florida in 2004, the Gators fired Zook and hired Urban Meyer, who immediately returned UF to their Bulldog-beating ways and won a national title in year two.
This brings us back to the start of our story. By 2007, Richt had more SEC titles (2) than he had wins against Florida (1). And with a trip to Jacksonville to play the defending national champions looming, Richt and every other Bulldog on Earth was well aware that the Dawgs were 2-15 against Florida since 1990.
Richt knew the Dawgs needed something, anything, to shake off this bad juju and inject some swagger into their game if they hoped to compete with the Gator Goliath. In the week leading up to the game, he told his team: after our first touchdown, celebrate so much that you get a penalty.
So, when Knowshon Moreno leapt over a pile of bodies to score the first touchdown of the game midway through the first quarter, the entire offense celebrated in the end zone. Eleven Bulldogs quickly turned into 53 as the Georgia sideline migrated as one into the endzone.
Nearly every referee on the field hurled a yellow flag into the air as Georgia players jumped, screamed, danced, posed, chest-thumped and fist-pumped in the end zone.
It felt like a dam breaking. Decades of nerves, doom-saying and head-shaking all shaken off with one exuberant moment. The Gators answered back with a touchdown almost immediately, but it didn’t matter: the “Gator Stomp” was such an unexpected, audacious and spirited action that the Gators flinched, and Georgia knew that was all they needed.
UGA won, 42-30, and the brazen celebration launched them to finish the season as the no. 3 team in the nation. Even when Florida won the next three matches, often by a great margin, the Gators knew Georgia could no longer be counted on to dutifully suffer through their Jacksonville trip on the way to a 9-3 record and a good-not-great bowl game.
Florida knew now that if you weren’t careful, the Bulldogs would stomp you.
Since the Gator Stomp, the Georgia-Florida series has been close to even, with Georgia taking nine games to Florida’s seven. However, since Kirby Smart’s return to Athens in 2016, the Dawgs have taken seven games to the Gators’ two. Georgia is at the height of its powers after back-to-back national championship titles, and Napier is working to rekindle hope in the hearts of Florida fans, so expect a classic Georgia-Florida contest: a charged battle between two well-acquainted foes with championship aspirations.
One of whom wears jean shorts.
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History of the Rivalry: Auburn
The history of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry is brimming with incredible moments, stunning victories, and crushing losses, and this week you can make the difference against the Tigers. Join the Beat Week challenge at AUvUGA.com, and help the Dawgs win twice this weekend!
It’s 1889 in Baltimore. Two Johns Hopkins University graduate students—one studying history, the other chemistry—go from class to class. The difference in their fields of study makes it unlikely that they will cross paths, which is ironic given that they are from neighboring states in the deep south. In all likelihood, they are unaware of one another, and they certainly don’t know that in three years, they will launch a rivalry that will stretch across three centuries and regularly involve two of the best college football squads in the nation.
In 1889 Baltimore, history student George Petrie of Mongtomery, Alabama, and chemistry student Charles Herty of Milledgeville, Georgia, had no idea they would soon create the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
The birth of the rivalry
After graduating from Johns Hopkins, both Herty and Petrie returned to their home states in 1891 as university faculty and started building collegiate football squads—Petrie at Auburn, Herty at UGA. In 1892, both Georgia and Auburn fielded their first football teams. Georgia was the first to play a game, thrashing Mercer University’s team 50-0.
At that time, it was difficult to find people in the South who knew the rules of this largely Northern game well enough to officiate it. John Kimball, an Auburn graduate in Athens who followed the fledgling UGA team, asked Petrie, the Auburn coach, to come “umpire” the UGA-Mercer game (Petrie would send one of his players to officiate the game) and Petrie asked Kimball to extend an offer to Herty: to have Georgia and Auburn play in Piedmont Park in Atlanta as part of a three-day weekend celebrating George Washington’s birthday.
Herty accepted, and on Feb. 20, 1892, in front of a crowd of several thousand—each having paid 50 cents a ticket—Auburn played its first-ever football game, Georgia played its second, Auburn won 10-0, and the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry was born.
“It’s like playing against your brother”
Time was running out for the Bulldogs. Down 13-7 against eighth-ranked Auburn, Wally Butts’ 1959 Bulldogs team could see their last hopes of an SEC championship fading as Auburn drove to run out the clock. But when Auburn QB Bryant Harvard put the ball on the ground, it found its way into the hands of UGA lineman Pat Dye. A few plays later, as time expired, the Bulldogs jumped ahead 14-13. A few games later, Georgia claimed the ’59 SEC Championship and won the Orange Bowl against Missouri. A few decades later, Dye became Auburn’s head coach.
As if that weren’t enough, Shug Jordan, the Auburn coach in the 1959 game—who would go on to become the Jordan in Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium—had previously been an assistant football coach and head basketball coach at UGA.
Oh, and one of Jordan’s graduate assistants on the sidelines for that 1959 game? Vince Dooley.
A hallmark of this rivalry is the interconnection of the schools. Even beyond Dooley, Dye and Jordan, a great many players and coaches on one side started or ended up on the other side.
- Hugh Nall – played at Georgia 1976-1980, coached at Auburn 1999-2008
- Neil Callaway – coached at Auburn 1981-1992, coached at UGA 2001-2006
- Stacy Searels – played at Auburn 1984-1987, coached at UGA 2007-2010 and 2022
- Rodney Garner – played at Auburn 1985-1988, coached at UGA 1998-2012, coached at Auburn 2013-2020
- Will Muschamp – played at UGA 1991-1994, coached at Auburn 2006-2007, 2015, coached at UGA 2021-2022
- Mike Bobo – played at UGA 1993-1997, coached at UGA 2001-2014, coached at Auburn 2021
- Tracy Rocker – played at Auburn 1986-1989, coached at Auburn 2009-2010, coached at UGA 2014-2016
Firehoses, blackouts and revenge
The familiarity and ferocity of these two teams would be enough to create a litany of unforgettable contests, but add to that each school’s football pedigree and their fanbases’ demand for a high caliber football program, and you get unforgettable moments with championship consequences.
It would be nearly impossible to sum up all the memorable moments from the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry in the space of this blog. If you have some time, it’s worth it to scan the Wikipedia entry for the rivalry, just to see all the incredible moments that define Georgia-Auburn. Here are a few of our favorites.
- The 1986 Bulldogs walked into Jordan-Hare Stadium as three-touchdown underdogs, coming off a 31-19 loss to the Gators the week before. They were without their starting QB, who was a late scratch due to a death in his family. Despite all this, Georgia fought their way to a 20-16 win over the no. 8 Tigers, and in the post-game hysteria, UGA fans stormed the field. The stadium’s sprinkler system and fire hoses were turned on these fans, but amid the chaos, the hoses were turned on fans (and the Redcoats) celebrating in the stands. Auburn issued an official apology for the response afterwards.
- Following losses to South Carolina and Tennessee, the 2007 Georgia squad nearly tumbled out of the top-25. A close win over Vanderbilt, a raucous upset of Florida and a surprising shootout victory over Troy gave the Bulldogs a swagger they had lacked earlier in the year, which they would carry into the Auburn game. Rumors began to swirl the week of the game that UGA might wear black jerseys, something they had not done since the ‘40s. The team wore their standard home reds for warm-ups, but when the team returned to the field for the game, they burst through the Super G banner clad in black. The stadium erupted, and the game was decided at that point: Georgia dominated from the opening whistle, winning 45-20 on their way to an overpowering performance against Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl and a no. 3 finish in the polls.
- Much like Richt’s second year, Kirby’s second year was a charmed run. The Bulldogs were 9-0 headed into the Auburn game and ranked no. 1 in the College Football Playoff Poll. The offense was potent and the defense was stifling, but 10th ranked Auburn had an answer for both: The Tigers crushed the Dawgs 40-17 at Jordan-Hare. However, both Georgia and Auburn would finish conference play at the top of their respective divisions, meaning the SEC Championship would be a rematch—one that would be an almost complete inverse of the previous game. Auburn scored first, but they would not score again. UGA scored 28 unanswered points and left Atlanta with the Dawgs’ first SEC title in 12 years, a ticket to their first Rose Bowl in 75 years and, eventually, a spot in the national title game.
There’s a certain level of chaos one can always expect in any Auburn game, doubly so in a Georgia-Auburn game. Yes, Georgia won a second consecutive national championship last year, and yes, Auburn’s still adjusting to new head coach Hugh Freeze. But it’s the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, so as usual, it’s anybody’s game.
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Three sisters united by a love of music
Barbara Bennett (BMUS ’74, MFA ’76), Sally Bennett Fillebrown (BM ’71, DMA ’89) and Susan Bennett Gallimore (BMUS ’83, MM ’85) may live across the country, but their mutual love of music keeps the three sisters in perfect harmony.
Barbara, Sally, Susan, and their late sister Carolyn (BMUS ’79) all graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in music performance, just a few years apart. Together, the Bennett women have earned eight total music degrees from UGA.
When they were searching for colleges, the sisters hoped to stay in their home state of Georgia to pursue a music education. The Hugh Hodgson School of Music, then just a single department, was considered the best college music program in the state. Sally, the eldest, was the first of the sisters to attend UGA. The rest soon followed suit.
Their mother, Betty Bennett (MFA ’74), encouraged them to attend UGA because she studied music there as well. She was a part-time flute teacher for the department and impressed upon her daughters an appreciation for UGA and music performance.
Sally said that one of the faculty members, Professor Egbert Ennulat, jokingly called the Bennett women “the dynasty” because for 20 consecutive years, at least one Bennett woman was involved in the Hodgson School as either a teacher or student.
(From left) Carolyn, Barbara, Sally, Betty and Susan pose after performing at a concert at the University of California, Riverside in 1998. (Photo: Steve Walag)
Because they all majored in music performance, the sisters had the unique opportunity of navigating their time at UGA as a family. During the times that more than one of the sisters was at UGA, they would be roommates. Barbara said that living together during college helped bring them closer together.
“When we got to Georgia, we became best friends,” Barbara said.
The Bennett sisters’ long history with the Hugh Hodgson School of Music means that they’ve watched it grow from a fledgling program to its own school, rich with opportunities for students and faculty.
“We contributed at least to the beginnings of that,” Sally said of the school’s growth. “It’s an honor to say I was there.”
Barbara said that the music program’s small community felt like a second family. Because it didn’t have a dedicated building yet, music students would gather in buildings across campus to practice and perform.
Sally said that performing in ensembles with other music students helped contribute to the school’s supportive, tight-knit environment.
“It’s kind of the nature of musicians to build a family,” she said, remembering her close friendships with fellow music students.
Inspired by their family’s connections to the Hodgson School, the sisters donated to establish a merit-based scholarship called the Bennett Family Scholarship for Orchestral Performance.
Barbara led the sisters’ efforts to create the scholarship. She said that although their father wasn’t a professional musician like their mother, he was extremely supportive of the sisters’ music education and was at every one of their concerts he could manage to attend. Barbara chose to name the scholarship after the whole family rather than just the Bennett women so that he would also be recognized in their gift.
They had the opportunity to meet one of their scholarship recipients on a video call and were delighted to see that their gift had made an impact on a student.
“I’m proud to have Georgia in my background,” Barbara said. “I’m glad to be able to give back to the university.”
Welcome, Class of 2027!
Freshman Welcome is among the first UGA traditions a student participates in when they arrive on campus. Held annually, typically on the eve of the first day of class, this special event invites all incoming students (yes, all 6,000+) to Sanford Stadium for a party, pep rally and class photo on Dooley Field. Oh—and did we mention they form the Power G?! The next time that many of these students will take the field is during Commencement four years later, book-ending their collegiate journey.
The UGA Student Alumni Council proudly coordinates this tradition, and are thrilled to welcome to campus the Class of 2027. Go Dawgs!
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UGA alumni business adds to the legacy of a Georgia Center tradition
This story written by Kensie Poor was originally published on Public Service & Outreach News on July 10, 2023.
A swirl of red and white atop a coconut crust, the iconic strawberry ice cream pie at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel has been a highlight of the menu since the 1960s. Adding to the legacy, an alumni business, Rock House Creamery, is now the supplier of the famous strawberry ripple ice cream central to the pie.
“I can’t begin to explain just how important this dessert is to so many people across the state of Georgia,” said Darrell Goodman, director of Food and Beverage at the Georgia Center.
The Georgia County Clerks Association (GCCA) has been holding its annual conference at the Georgia Center for over 40 years—and strawberry ice cream pie is always on the menu.
Rock House Creamery makes their homemade ice cream fresh using A2A2 grass-fed milk. (Submitted photo: Rock House Creamery)
“Every clerk looks forward to the famous strawberry pie when we are in Athens,” said GCCA President Amanda Hannah. “I have new clerks ask me if we are going to have the famous strawberry ice cream pie at the conference.”
The iconic dessert was created through swift problem-solving when an ordering mishap left the kitchen staff from the Savannah Room with 600 pounds of coconut instead of the required 60-pound quantity. The chefs found a recipe for a macaroon crust, topped it with strawberry swirl ice cream from the UGA Creamery and finished it with a meringue. Retired Savannah Room baker Luetrell Sims perfected the dessert and her influence remains in the double knife method she devised to slice the thick frozen dessert.
This year, the Georgia Center was tasked with finding a new source for the strawberry ripple ice cream when Greenwood Creamery in Atlanta closed. Greenwood had been the supplier since the UGA Creamery stopped ice cream production. When UGA actively sought a new ice cream partner, we found one right in our backyard.
The Georgia Center partnered with Rock House Creamery, a family-owned and operated business with strong ties to UGA.
The Jersey-Holstein herd at Rock House Creamery spends their time eating, resting and socializing. (Submitted photo: Rock House Creamery)
Keith Kelly, owner and operator of the Rock House Farm & Creamery, is a University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences alumnus and University of Georgia Foundation trustee. Keith’s wife, Pam, their son Brad, and Brad’s wife, Larkin, are all UGA alumni.
“We were excited by the opportunity to be a part of such a cool tradition and dessert for UGA,” said Brad Kelly, Rock House vice president of operations.
Rock House Farm was established in Leesburg, Georgia, in 2005 and the creamery opened in 2016 on a 1940s family dairy farm in Newborn. Today, they specialize in grass-fed beef, pork, and artisan dairy products such as creamline ice creams, old-fashioned creamline milks, and hand-crafted cheeses.
Keith Kelly walks with his grandchildren on the Rock House Creamery family farm. (Submitted photo: Rock House Creamery)
Working with UGA’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) over the years, the Kellys received support and resources from the center to help them with business planning, financial modeling, and benefited greatly from their expertise and assistance in rolling out their partnership with Farmview Market in Madison, Georgia.
“Local small businesses like us are good with what we know, but the Small Business Development Center at UGA really helps with filling in the knowledge gaps,” said Laura Rotroff, Brad’s sister and vice president of Marketing and Communications for parent company Kelly Products.
Both the UGA SBDC and the Georgia Center are units of UGA Public Service and Outreach.
“It’s rewarding to be able to utilize opportunities like this, to be nimble and partner with UGA in our community,” said Rotroff. “After all, the community is the lifeblood of small businesses.”
Kelly Cramer, a baker with the Georgia Center for Continuing Education adds ice cream to a meringue coconut crust to make Strawberry Ice Cream Pie. (Photo by: Peter Frey)
The continued partnership with UGA is a win all around.
“The strawberry ice cream pie is more than just a delicious dessert. It’s a symbol of the Georgia Center and UGA,” said Georgia Center Executive Chef Rob Harrison. “Rock House Creamery’s focus on using fresh, locally sourced ingredients aligns perfectly with our values, and the partnership between the two entities is a testament to the power of collaboration and community.”
Previewing the Georgia Bulldogs’ 2023 football schedule
As the College Football Playoff prepares to expand its field to 12 and the SEC grows its ranks to 16, the University of Georgia hopes to expand its championship tally in a historic way.
A third consecutive national championship would make Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs the first team with that distinction since the 1930s. But standing between them and college football history is a slate of teams eager to knock off the back-to-back champions.
UGA Alumni has got a LOT going on this season, so make sure you’re connected with us so you find out the latest on game-watching parties, exclusive Alumni content, and news from on campus and all over the Bulldog Nation.
University of Tennessee at Martin
Sanford Stadium – Athens, GA
Sept. 2 @ 6 p.m. – SEC Network+/ESPN+
The Skyhawks play in the Football Championship Subdivision’s Ohio Valley Conference, so this should be a nice tune-up for the Dawgs. Fun fact: a former UT Martin player, Ray Williams, currently holds the world record for heaviest drug-tested, raw squat at 1,080 pounds. That’s three UGA offensive linemen, with about 100 pounds to spare.
Ball State
Sanford Stadium – Athens, GA
Sept. 9 @ Noon – SEC Network
This will be the first meeting between the Bulldogs and the Cardinals, who come from Muncie, Indiana. Ball State, a member of the Mid-American Conference, is coming off of a 5-7 season, so this game gives Kirby Smart and company one more chance to explore the roster and prepare for conference play in Week 3.
South Carolina
Sanford Stadium – Athens, GA
Sept. 16 @ 3:30 p.m. – CBS
The Gamecocks once again appear to be a solid team poised to take down an unsuspecting front runner or two. With quarterback Spencer Rattler returning for his final season, head coach Shane Beamer has a dynamic weapon who appeared to find his rhythm at the end of 2022. Pair that with a couple of young playmakers in the defensive secondary, and South Carolina could frustrate Georgia’s early season.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Sanford Stadium – Athens, GA
Sept. 23 @ TBD – TBD
The last contest in Georgia’s season-opening, four-game home stand brings the Blazers to Sanford Stadium. UAB’s last appearance in Athens resulted in a 56-7 win for the Dawgs in 2021. The Blazers will still be figuring out exactly what they’ve got in first-year coach Trent Dilfer, and the Bulldogs will take a deep breath before diving into the bulk of their SEC schedule.
Auburn
Jordan-Hare Stadium – Auburn, AL
Sept. 30 @ TBD – TBD
Last year, chaos in the program led the Tigers to a season to forget. New head coach Hugh Freeze brings in an offense that will give the Plainsmen a fresh look and, Auburn fans hope, the spark they need to get closer to even footing with their two championship-caliber rivals. The Tigers have bright spots—running back, offensive line, defensive backfield—but the ongoing renovation may lower their ceiling.
Kentucky
Sanford Stadium – Athens, GA
Oct. 7 @ TBD – TBD
Despite having a second-round draft pick under center, last year’s Wildcats underperformed. And while Will Levis is gone, offensive coordinator Liam Cohen returns to Lexington from the NFL and could provide a boost for Big Blue Nation. Also, Levis was replaced by Devin Leary, a transfer from North Carolina State and a talented, experienced QB. As is typical for Stoops’ Kentucky teams, the defense looks solid. Lots of things point to a bounceback year for the ‘Cats.
Vanderbilt
FirstBank Stadium – Nashville, TN
Oct. 14 @ TBD – TBD
Clark Lea is doing exactly what he needs to do in Nashville. No, they’re not contending for the crown in the east, but they are steadily trending upwards and, after last year, they’ve got a few impressive pelts on the wall. Vandy might be bowl-bound once again, but they’re still far from threatening the Dawgs.
Bye Week
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Florida
TIAA Bank Field – Jacksonville, FL
Oct. 28 @ 3:30 p.m. – CBS
Year one under head coach Billy Napier pretty clearly did not go the way Florida fans wanted. Napier has stressed again and again that rebuilding in Gainesville will take time, and that probably means more than two years. Yes, the Gators have racked up some recruiting wins of late, their running backs are strong, and they’ve retooled last year’s woeful defense. But the presumptive Anthony Richardson replacement is Graham Mertz, the former Wisconsin QB who was notoriously inconsistent, and their offensive line was hit hard by the draft and the transfer portal.
Missouri
Sanford Stadium – Athens, GA
Nov. 4 @ TBD – TBD
This feels like a do-or-die year in Columbia for head coach Eli Drinkwitz. Mizzou has been stagnant for years, save a few recruiting wins like defensive back Ennis Rakestraw and wide receiver Luther Burden. Without a dramatic improvement—and Tigers fans might regard a fourth-place finish as such—the Drinkwitz era may be coming to a close. If there’s hope to be found for the Tigers, it’s on the defensive side, where they return the vast majority of last year’s strong unit.
Ole Miss
Sanford Stadium – Athens, GA
Nov. 11 @ TBD – TBD
The last time Georgia played Ole Miss, the Rebels gave Kirby Smart the worst loss, by point margin, of his career. The Rebs had one of the most potent rushing attacks in the country last year, and most of that offense returns this year—led by impressive sophomore running back Quinshon Judkins and junior quarterback Jaxson Dart. Ole Miss’ defense is now led by former Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding, who many expect to improve on last year’s lackluster unit, but we’ll see just how well the players adapt to a new scheme.
Tennessee
Neyland Stadium – Knoxville, TN
Nov. 18 @ TBD – TBD
If the Vols and the Dawgs make it to this point in their schedule without a loss, this will be the game of the season—for all of college football. Expect to hear a lot about this one early on, and if Josh Heupel’s offense continues to blow past opponents, particularly with a new offensive coordinator and new quarterback Joe Milton, expect to hear about it all the way through the season. If the crowd in Knoxville can do this year what the crowd in Athens did last year, this could be a real test for the Bulldogs.
Georgia Tech
Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field – Atlanta, GA
Nov. 25 @ TBD – TBD
As of this writing, Tech fans seem satisfied with new head coach Brent Key. Granted, after Geoff Collins, he needed to do little more than be a thorn in Georgia’s paw to gain that satisfaction, but that’s exactly what he did in 2022. Flipping the script and taking a game from the Dawgs would be nothing short of miraculous. But rivalry games have a special kind of magic—even if the term rivalry is used generously here—so we won’t totally discount the possibility.
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