For all of you getting ready for the Belk Bowl, here’s our
final post for the year as One Old Dawg concludes his memories of playing on the 1964 Georgia
Bulldog football team.
After all the uncertainty of the 1964 season with new head coach,
Vince Dooley, a young team, and so much nay saying, all of those hardworking
Bulldogs captured a trip to the Sun Bowl.
From El Paso, Texas, Furman Bisher wrote of the game’s
beginning in the Atlanta Journal, “Wayne Swinford returned the kickoff from the end zone to Georgia
20, and the Bulldogs set out on an impressive offensive that left the crowd
agog. They ground out six first downs in the kind of strangling attack that has
been typical of the Bulldogs this season.”
Of the game deciding touchdown, Bisher wrote, “Ridlehuber .
. . flipped one . . . to Barber, who ran as hard as he can run down the west
sideline, but was grabbed from behind the Tech six . . . . The play, however,
covered 52 yards. On third down Frank Lankewicz crashed across the goal line
from the two, and Bobby Etter made the score 7-0 with 7:57 left in the half.”
Sadly, Fred Barber suffered a pulled hamstring in that 52-yard
run which would be the last run of his college career, but what a legacy he
left.
Bisher commented on how Texas Tech struggled to move into
Bulldog territory, and that “Mainly, this was because of tackle George Patton .
. . “ Of course, Patton went on to be All SEC and All American as well as
playing for the Atlanta Falcons.
Also
highlighted were Don Porterfield
, Bob Taylor , Jim Wilson(All SEC, All American, San Francisco 49rs, Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles
Rams) , Leon Armbrester,
Vance Evans ,
Lynn Hughes (All SEC, All American), George Nowicki, and Pat Hodgson (All SEC, Washington Redskins, Coach at
San Diego Chargers, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets) for their outstanding work.
The Sun Bowl win would help the Bulldogs complete the 1964
season with a 7-3-1 record.
Hidden away in the box of clippings One Old Dawg’s mama
saved, we found a small clip from an unidentifiable newspaper entitled, “Varnado
way well earned.” None other than a very young Lewis Grizzard who went on to be
a nationally known Southern writer and celebrity wrote it.
Grizzard writes, “Varnado, a native of Valdosta where he
played on two AAA state champions, came to Georgia without a scholarship.
However, his love of football, especially the defensive phase, enabled him to
get his grant-in-aid and become one of the Buldogs’ most promising ball
players.”
He quotes Jerry as
saying, “You should never let any runner get to the outside, and this requires
a lot of effort sometimes when they send two or three blockers at you. This is
the toughest part about defensive end, but it really makes you feel good if you
can do your job and make a good play that will stop the other teams offense.”
Grizzard goes on, “From the sounds that a mass from the
Georgia cheering section when the Bulldog defensive corps comes off the field, it
looks like Jerry Varnado is not the only one who feels good when the opposition’s
offense is thwarted.”
The truth is the fans would continue to rally around these young
players, many of whom would persevere and still be playing in 1966 when the Bulldogs won
an SEC championship for only the second time since 1948 and which ranked them fourth in
the nation. But it is this 1964 team which moved Georgia football into a whole new era. Each one of these players is truly a legend.
One Old Dawg concludes, “It has been a lot of fun sharing
bulldog lore with you these last few months and I want to be sure that you all
know that none of this would have happened if not for my incredible wife
Beverly. This was her idea, and she made it happen. Not only has she freely
shared her award winning writing skills with us but also spent many hours
researching, gathering, and organizing a lot of information she used to produce
these blog posts; and that’s in addition to putting up with me and my story telling
for all these years. Thank you Beverly from all Bulldawgs everywhere, but
especially us Old Dawgs, for remembering and preserving something of our story
and the part we were privileged to play in the history of Georgia Football.
"The Belk Bowl is fast approaching;
hunker down Dawgs; let’s close this season on a winning note and get on the
right track for next year.
"Hope to see you back next fall for more
“mostly true” bulldog lore from One Old Dawg."
And if you'll forgive a bit of author intrusion from One Old Dawg's wife, it has been my privilege to partner with One Old Dawg for this nostalgic trip back to 1964. It's been a joy to get to know many of you through the years, and the fiftieth celebration was a fabulous experience I and my children and grandchildren will never forget.
We end here in our traditional way with a great big loud, "Go Dawgs!"
