The 1964 Georgia-Florida game, quite a story

One Old Dawg has been pigging out on barbeque ribs and pulled pork since the Arkansas game, but says he’s getting tired of it. He’s decided some fried gator tail would be real tasty.

In 1964, Georgia went to Jacksonville for the Georgia-Florida game having only won two of the last ten games there. What would happen that day still stands as one of the most amazing victories Georgia has ever enjoyed. Georgia beat ninth ranked Florida and rose to second in the SEC behind Alabama. It’s quite a story.

One Old Dawg says this, “The days before the ’64 Florida game were just electric in Athens. We’d had a couple of strong victories over Kentucky and North Carolina, and had only lost by a few points against Florida State, which was a powerhouse. Florida was 4-1 in the SEC and had lost to Alabama by only 3 points. Alabama, of course had beat us 31-3. It was by far our biggest challenge in conference play. We had nothing to lose when we played our first game of the season with Alabama—but now our stock had come up a little bit with our impressive early season. It was a big game, not to mention Florida had an up and coming star in their quarterback, Steve Spurrier. This was for many of us, our first trip to play the annual Florida game, and it would be a challenge for us to turn the tide after a string of losses to Florida.”

It didn’t start well. Florida dominated the first half by being the first to score and amassing forty offensive plays to Georgia’s twelve.

One Old Dawg remembers what happened at half time. "Defensive co-ordinator, Erk Russell, pointed out the obvious to us, that Florida had kicked our rears, but we were only down seven points. He said we could turn this around. We could beat this team, that we needed to get out there, do our jobs,and cut them off. If they can’t score, they can’t win, he said. The emotional turn in the game in my opinion for the defense was at halftime when Erk in his usual fashion made it clear that we had not done our best, but we had it in us to beat these guys.”

In the second half, when Bruce Bennett (One Old Dawg’s teammate from Valdosta high) signaled for a fair catch on a punt, a Florida player hit a Bulldog without cause. Moments later, that same gator found himself the object of a fierce tackle, and he fumbled. Ray Rissmiller (All-American, Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Buffalo Bills) recovered. And thus began an intense second half struggle, of which Preston Ridlehuber(Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets) , Bob Taylor, George Patton (All SEC, All American, Atlanta Falcons),Vance Evans, Wayne Swinford, Frank Lankewicz, and Doug McFalls(All SEC, Chiago Bears)  were all key players. Ultimately, it was One Old Dawg’s roommate, Fred Barber, who carried the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. Bobby Etter(Atlanta Flacons, Memphis Southmen) kicked the extra point and tied the game with thirteen minutes and eleven seconds left in the game.

 



One Old Dawg with Fred and Julie Barber at the '64 reunion

Florida fumbled on the ensuing kickoff and the dogs drove the ball to the Gator’s five-yard line. On fourth down, Barry Wilson (All SEC, Captain of the team,  Coach at Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, Tampa Bay Bandits, Duke, Florida) held the ball for kicker Bob Etter, but the snap was low, and Wilson somehow managed to move the ball towards Etter, who recovered it and  raced into the end zone, scoring the decisive touchdown. Atlanta Journal Constitution sportswriter, Furman Bisher, wrote, “It was the first time in his whole life that he (Bob Etter) ever carried a football, except to get it pumped up.”

One Old Dawg with Bob Etter at the '64 reunion

 One Old Dawg says, “That first half, we were a bit like a deer in the headlights. There were a lot of people there and the game was loud. We were a little star struck and didn’t play as well as we were capable. Even though we got pushed around, we were able to hold them to one score and that was a good thing. Our defense was bending, but it had not broken. We had gotten some breaks and made some breaks. Erk convinced us that we could stop them. He was right.”

One Old Dawg notes "The Gators are not off to a great start this year (3-3; 2-3 SEC), but that makes them very dangerous. I was raised in South Georgia and I’ve been around gators all my life. They lie still, submerged in the water; they look like they’re dead. But they’re just waiting for something eatable and dumb to get close enough to grab.

They remind me of the wicked man David described in Psalm10:9: 'He lies in wait like a lion in cover; he lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off into his net.' Any Gator would love a Dawg for supper, so we’d best be smart and alert. These Gators ain’t dead yet, but I’m confident our coaches will have the Dawgs outfitted, alert and ready for swamp fighting. When it’s all over but the shouting, there will plenty of fried Gator tail for the whole Bulldawg nation."

 

And that, friends, is classic One Old Dawg. One Old Dawg won't be at the game, but he's sent his son to cheer on the Bulldogs and make sure they bring back the win.

 

Join us here, again, next week for the Kentucky game and more mostly true Bulldog lore.