Archive for category: Football Feature

As generations of Bulldogs would tell you, there’s no line of shrubbery as iconic to sports as the hedges of the University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium. The Chinese privet bushes – Ligustrum sinense, taxonomically speaking – that frame Dooley Field have seen every Georgia home game since 1929. 

For the third time in UGA history, the hedges were removed this February. They’ll be revitalized off-site ahead of the 2024 football season, including a full soil replacement, irrigation, and drainage work. The hedges will be replanted with plants of the same lineage in time for the 2024 G-Day game. 

IN THE BEGINNING 

The hedges’ storied history began in 1926 at the Rose Bowl, when a UGA Athletic Department employee noticed the red rosebushes surrounding the field. Meanwhile, back in Athens, UGA’s president at the time, Steadman V. Sanford, had started construction on what he hoped would become the best college football stadium in the South. 

The employee suggested that rosebushes be planted around the field, and the idea was received well – with one caveat. Rosebushes wouldn’t thrive in Athens’s climate. Fast-growing, hardy Chinese privet given to the university by an Atlanta donor would be planted instead. 

In 1929, the university sent the governor’s son, who was a UGA student, and his ROTC instructor to Atlanta in a khaki-green military truck to pick up the bushes. The truck, owned by the ROTC department, was the only vehicle in the university fleet large enough for the job. As the legend has it, the truck’s headlights went out on the way back and the ROTC instructor crawled onto the hood of the truck to light the way, clinging on with one hand and holding a flashlight with the other while the governor’s son drove. 

Once the truck arrived at the stadium, workers planted the hedges overnight with hours to spare until the next day’s game against Yale. The 1929 Georgia-Yale game was the first one played in newly dedicated Sanford Stadium. It was the largest athletic event ever held in the South at that time, with 30,000 fans and the governors of nine southern states in attendance – a fitting crowd for Georgia’s first victory Between the Hedges. 

THE 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES 

Covering about 5,000 square feet around the playing field, the hedges take up a significant amount of sideline. This became an issue when Sanford Stadium was used to host soccer games for the 1996 Olympic Games held in Atlanta. Soccer fields are about 25 percent larger than football fields, so the hedges and a concrete walkway had to be briefly removed to create extra space. 

Healthy clippings from the hedges were taken to nurseries in Georgia and Florida run by UGA alumni, propagated into full plants and replanted after the Games in a ceremony featuring Georgia football legends and state politicians. 

“They’re the sons and daughters of the original hedges,” said the late coach Vince Dooley. 

The hedges were removed for a second time in 2017 for the construction of a new locker room and scoreboard on the West endzone. Each bush was numbered so it could be replanted exactly where it had been dug up. 

WHAT’S GROWING ON 

Five feet tall and five feet wide, the hedges – and the chain-link fence they conceal – have also served to protect the safety of fans, athletes and coaches over the years. Dooley Field has been stormed by fans only once, after a victory against the University of Tennessee in 2000. The hedges’ crowd control success has led to the installation of similar plantings at other stadiums around the country.

Today, maintaining the hedges is a labor of love. Chinese privet, considered an invasive weed in other parts of the country, grows at a rate of about three feet per year. A dedicated maintenance team, including students from the university’s turf program, work tirelessly throughout the football season to trim the hedges into their signature boxy shape. Armed with gas-powered trimmers, weed eaters and hand-held clippers, the job takes about two hours each time. 

When the hedges return to grace the sidelines of Sanford Stadium this spring, they’ll have been a Georgia football tradition for 95 years – you could say they’re some of the Bulldogs’ oldest supporters. 

Not sure what to make with all the apples you picked this fall? Try warm apple blondies with vanilla gelato. Filled with homemade cinnamon apples and brown butter for extra richness, these decadent desserts are sure to please a tailgate crowd–and you can make them again in place of apple pie at Thanksgiving! 

This recipe was provided by Wes Jones (BBA ’03), one of the co-founders of Honeysuckle Gelato. The company has been serving up Southern-inspired gelato at locations throughout the Southeast since it was founded in 2011. 

Apple Blondies

Apple Pie Filling 

Ingredients 

6 medium Granny Smith Apples   

½ cup light brown sugar  

2 tsp cinnamon   

3 tbsp butter  

2 oz water  

1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch   

1 1/2 cups roasted pecan pieces (optional)  

Directions 

1. Core and slice apples into 1-inch pieces.  
2. Melt butter and brown sugar in a thick bottomed pot over medium heat, then add the apples and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.  
3. Whisk cornstarch and water into a slurry and pour in, and then cook an additional minute.  
4. Remove the pot from the heat and let cool. The apples should be cooked through, but still retain their shape. Stir in the pecans, if you choose to.   

Brown Butter Blondies

Ingredients 

¾ cup butter  

1 ¾ cup light brown sugar (not packed)  

¼ cup skim milk powder   

1 extra large egg   

2 cups all purpose flour   

½ tbsp baking powder  

½ tsp sea salt   

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Directions 

1. In a thick bottomed pot, cook the butter over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, whisking frequently. Once it starts to foam and the color begins to darken, add the milk powder and stir rapidly for 30 seconds, then remove from heat.  
2. Combine the butter and brown sugar with a whisk or stand mixer and allow to cool.  
3. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.  
4. Sift in the remaining dry ingredients, one half at a time, and use a spatula to combine.  
5. Preheat oven to 375°F. Add the apple filling into small (4-6 ounce) ramekins, filling just over half of the container.  
6. Take 1 ½ tbsp of the blondie mixture, flatten into a disc just smaller than the circumference of the ramekin and place on top of the apples. Bake at 375° for 9 minutes.   
7. Let cool for 10-15 minutes, then serve with a scoop of vanilla gelato on top. 

If you’ve spent a lifetime in pursuit of the perfect game day bite, look no further: Ivy Odom’s spicy-sweet Bulldog Candy over a dollop of pimento cheese on a buttery cracker is unbeatable.

Ivy Odom (BSFCS ’15, AB ’15) is a senior lifestyle producer for Dotdash Meredith Food Studios and a member of the 2023 class of UGA 40 Under 40 honorees. You might recognize her from her Emmy-nominated lifestyle television program, the Southern Living show.

After completing her undergraduate degrees at UGA, Ivy graduated first in her culinary school program at L’Academie de Cuisine and completed an apprenticeship at an Atlanta fine dining restaurant. She started in the Time, Inc. test kitchen before taking on her current role at Dotdash Meredith and is an expert in all things Southern and delicious.

Bulldog Candy

Makes 1 cup

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

12 oz. jalapeños, thinly sliced (about 2 ½ cups sliced)

1 fresno chile, chopped

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 ½ tsp. apple cider vinegar

½ tsp. kosher salt

Instructions:

1. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan over medium high, stirring occasionally.
2. Reduce heat to medium low and cook until jalapeños have turned dark in color, and all sugar has turned into a very thick syrup, about 15 minutes.
3. Transfer to a glass jar and let cool to room temperature before storing in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

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 4^th 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.

Your one-stop shop for UGA football fandom is alumni.uga.edu/football! Check in every week for new football blogs and videos, information on UGA Alumni events, and more.