One Old Dawg on Bulldogs vs. Ole Miss, Ripping the Rebels in 1966 and 2016

One Old Dawg’s son captured in a text what most Dog fans felt Saturday night as they watched the Georgia-Missouri game. “I think I had heart palpitations.”

And then some.

One Old Dawg says,” Wheeew! I’m glad that one is behind us! We learned two things in that game: those Mizzou felines are a handful, and Jacob Eason is the real deal! Our running game really soared against North Carolina and our passing game was flying high against Mizzou. Now, if we can just put the two together in the same game, it will be a sight to behold. We’re going to need it this week”

For our fourth game, we travel to Oxford to play the Ole Miss Rebels. Back in 1966, the fourth game of the season was also against Ole Miss, only we had them between the Hedges. They had a great team that year and came to Athens with two wins and their only loss to Alabama, the defending national champion.  This was one of the biggest games Georgia had played in recent years and it was a “must win” if the Dawgs wanted to continue their climb to the place of title contender.

And speaking of heart palpitations, sports editor Jim Minter of the Atlanta Journal said the game “began and ended a cardiac case.”

 

 

One Old Dawg remembers, “A Georgia fumble early in the first quarter put the Dawgs on their heels. But our defense held, forcing a field goal from 39 yards out which put the Rebels up 3-0.”

Early in the second period, Ronnie Jenkins who Minter called “the old woodchopper from Glennville” pushed across the goal line to climax a 56-yard drive.

The Athens Banner Herald summed up the ensuing action like this, “Taking the snap from center, quarterback Kirby Moore passed to end Billy Payne who pitched out to trailing tailback Randy Wheeler for 25 yards and a first down at the ole Miss 20.”

Then there was an exchange of penalties and some good runs by Kirby Moore and Ronnie Jenkins, “setting up Jenkins’ one-yard scoring plunge on the first play of the second quarter. Place kicker Bob Etter’s (Atlanta Falcons, Memphis Southmen) conversion capped the touchdown.”

This gave the Dawgs the lead 7-3.

The Athens paper concluded, “A safety scored by defensive tackle George Patton (All SEC, All American, Atlanta Falcons) assisted by end Jerry Varnado gave the Bulldogs their six-point lead

 

Under front page headlines of the Atlanta Journal sports section that read, “Bulldogs Muzzle Old Miss, 9-3,” Minter wrote, “A University of Georgia football team which obviously fears nothing and has nothing to fear but its own mistakes, stuck its foot squarely into Ole Miss’ big middle and also in the Southeastern Conference championship door here at Sanford Stadium Saturday afternoon. “

Minter made a point also to mention defensive players Terry Sellers (All SEC, Cleveland Browns), Mark Holmes, Lynn Hughes (All SEC, All American, New York Giants, Coaching positions Georgia and Vanderbilt) , Jimmy Cooley , Steve Neuhaus, Bill Stanfill (All American, Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl Team) , and Georgia Patton (All SEC, All American, Atlanta Falcons) as making significant contributions to the win.

One Old Dawg remembers, “It was another slug-fest like South Carolina the week before. Two hard-hitting teams going at it in the trenches. But this week I think it was a little different. The week before I felt like we were fighting to survive, but against Ole Miss, especially after the first quarter, I sensed a new level of confidence I had not experienced in a while. I think we believed this game was ours to take. It was still hard work, and they were hitting us as powerfully as we were hitting them, but somehow it started being fun. The fact that this was our first home game had a lot to do with it. The crowd was going wild, the atmosphere was electric and that kept our adrenaline flowing.

“I had felt this way the year before after winning our first four games, including wins over Alabama and Michigan. Then we hit a rough patch, riddled with injuries, we lost four games in the second half of the season. We had lost our mojo, but we got it back that sunny afternoon between the hedges when we took down the Ole Miss Rebels. It is also interesting to note that our win was not a fluke; Ole Miss did not lose another game that year until the Texas Longhorns gored them in the Bluebonnet Bowl.

“I’m reminded of Luke 9:51: ‘As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.’ Jesus was on a mission and he was nearing its culmination, which had to be in Jerusalem. Many did not want him to go to Jerusalem because that was the seat of his opposition and it would be dangerous for him to go there. But he resolutely set out. Resolutely means firm, determined and unwavering. Our goal for 1966 was the conference championship, not sure we had the faith to believe for anything beyond that. We struggled at times, had one setback, but we were resolute in our goal and kept our focus until we achieved it as well as being ranked number four in the nation.

“We need to resolutely set out for Atlanta to end our regular season the same way we started, with a win in the Georgia Dome. We need to be firm on this, determined and unwavering refusing to listen to the naysayers, even if we experience a setback along the way.” 

Now for One Old Dawg’s prediction about this week’s Georgia game. “Another thing we learned last Saturday is that if Mizzou is a handful, Ole Miss is a double handful. Yeah, I know they have only won a single game, but their two losses were to teams ranked at first and third in the country, and both games were close. We need to be hitting on all four cylinders to win this one―running, passing, defense and special teams. In 1966, Ole Miss threw seventeen passes (which was a lot in those days). They caught six and we caught five. We need that kind of defense on Saturday. Our turnover margin against Mizzou was plus four, we only need to bump it up one notch and I know we can do it. I don’t think you can keep Chubb under 100 yards three weeks in a row, so I’m confident Eason and Mckenzie will get a lot more help from the ground game this week as the Dawgs rip the Rebels for their third loss. Gooooo! Dawgs, Sic ‘em.”

So, here’s hoping for no cardiac cases, few heart palpitations and a big win for Georgia.

Join us again next week for more mostly true Bulldog lore and the 1966 team’s matchup against Miami as this year’s Bulldogs face Tennessee.

Until then enjoy this piece about One Old Dawg written in the Atlanta Constitution about this time in the season back in 1966. It calls him the "Mighty mite from Valdosta" and the team's Holler Guy. (By the way, this article didn't account for the fact that One Old Dawg couldn't play in 1965 due to a back injury for which he had to have surgery.)

 

 

 

 

One Old Dawg moving on and getting the game ball

One Old Dawg’s comments last week were eerily on target. “Every year several big schools get beat by some smaller school underdog,” he observed and then said, “They have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and we’re just the opposite and that makes for a dangerous situation.” A dangerous situation, indeed. Georgia barely squeaked out the win 26-24.

One Old Dawg says, “The only good thing about last Saturday is we got a W; it wasn’t pretty but it’s still a W. I received a text from my Louisiana cousin, whose son is a Nicholls alum, and he politely abstained from gloating, but I could sense that inside, he was mighty proud. He said, ‘We Cajuns call Nicholls, Harvard on the Bayou,’ so those Thibodaux Colonels are not only tough but also smart. We found that out.

“You might try what I did― watch the replay of the North Carolina game to clear the Georgia mind of bad memories. The apostle Paul tells how he dealt with unpleasant things in the past in Philippians 3:13:  ‘But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead’. This is not true just in spiritual matters; it has a general application as well. If we are not careful, yesterday’s miscues can contribute to tomorrow’s failure. We need to forget about last Saturday and move on to the preferred future that is ahead.”

Now to the third game in the season against South Carolina back in that 1966 SEC championship year.

“We are going to have to play our best game in order to beat them,” Coach Vince Dooley said in an interview leading up to the game. In several news reports, apprehension was expressed about the match up as in this vintage account.

 

One Old Dawg remembers, “I feel I have to remind you young’uns that the Gamecocks were in the ACC not the SEC back in those days. However, we had played them regularly since 1900, so the rivalry was intense. They had lost their first two games to LSU and Memphis State so I guess we were favored― but not by much. The game was a slugfest. Our offense moved the ball up and down field, amassing 247 yards rushing but bad breaks and mistakes kept us out of the end zone.

"We held the Gamecocks to 115 yards rushing and 80 passing but more impressively, we shut them out. Kirby Moore and our offense rose to the occasion and drove it in late in the game for a touchdown, and we won the game 7-0. It was a memorable game for me for two reasons: I was named defensive captain for the first time in my career and at a team meeting the next week, Coach Erk Russell Defensive Coordinator (later head coach at Georgia Southern) gave me the game ball; pretty dawg gone special.”

Jack Davis was the offensive captain for the game. Later, news reports highlighted Kirby Moore, Craig Elrod, Bill McWhorter, Edgar Chandler (All American, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots ), Donald Hayes, Ronnie Jenkins, and Jack Davis on offense. On the defense, Happy Dicks, (All SEC, All American) Larry Kohn (All SEC), Dicky Phillips, Jerry Varnado, Jimmy Cooley, Bill Stanfill (All American, Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl Team) , and George Patton (All SEC, All American, Atlanta Falcons) made significant contributions to the win.

In fact, another Atlanta Journal article began, “’. . . you are a real All American football player.’ The speaker was Georgia end Jerry Varnado. The complement directed to George Patton.”

One Old Dawg has always been a big Patton fan.

The article continues with Patton’s response, “We all did it out there tonight.”

Dooley agreed when he was quoted in another Atlanta newspaper article after the game, “I want you to know that it took a fine effort to beat that South Carolina team.”

One Old Dawg offers his prognostication about this week’s upcoming game against Missouri.

“This Saturday we have to walk into the Missouri Tigers den which is a dangerous thing to do, even though we have been very successful at skinning these tigers in their own backyard. Since Mizzou joined the SEC, we are 2-0 in Columbia and 1-1 at home. This year they lost at West Virginia 26-11 but then walloped Eastern Michigan 61-21at home. At 2-0 with a win over a ranked team, I guess the Dawgs get the nod, but we all know none of that matters when you start barking in the Tigers ‘den. But I’m confident these young Dawgs are growing fast and at the end of the day their bite will prove to be as bad as their bark and Uga will have another Tiger skin to adorn his doghouse. Gooo… Dawgs! Sic ‘em.”

So that’s it for this week’s One Old Dawg, but we’re here again next week for the both the 1966 and 2016 games against Ole Miss, both the fourth game in the season.

A few pictures from this past week’s 1966 reunion events:

Happy Dicks and Jerry Varnado

Larry Kohn and One Old Dawg, Jerry Varnado

Wayne Ingle, Terry Osbolt, Jerry Varnado
 

 Go Dawgs!!