Wednesday, November 19, 2014

One Old Dawg on Auburn, Charleston Southern, Missouri, and memories of former Gov. Carl Sanders


With only two regular season games to go, One Old Dawg weighs in on last week’s victory over Auburn, “It was fine old time between the hedges Saturday night. The Dawgs not only took care of business they did it in a grand fashion. However, we're saddened over Gurley's injury and wish him the best.

 
“Now, we’ve got to refocus because there is still some business to take care of. Yes, Charleston Southern should be an easy W for us, but I can remember a number of times when those ‘easy games’ turned out to be not so easy. Get ready Dawgs! Don’t take anything for granted.

 
“And there is the matter of Missouri. They make the trip to Knoxville this Saturday for a night game against the Volunteers in Neyland Stadium which, as we well know, is a tough place to win. This may be our best shot at getting to the Georgia Dome on December 6 (Missouri’s last game is at home against Arkansas).  If Tennessee wins, we’re in. I know this is hard, but as soon as the Dawgs dispatch Charleston Southern Saturday afternoon, we need put on some orange and white and tune up to sing Rocky Top. Football can make strange bedfellows.

 
“On another subject, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the loss of one of our own, former Governor of Georgia, Carl Sanders who died last Sunday. He was a Georgia football lettermen and long time friend and supporter of all things UGA. You can read the newspaper to find out all the good things he did for higher education in Georgia but you can only hear this story from me.  

 
“On one occasion the Governor came to Athens to see the new Coliseum which opened in 1964. Someone thought it would be good for a football player to be among those showing him around and for some reason, which I do not remember, I was included in his entourage. He was one of the nicest men I ever met. He was gracious and humble and made me feel very important, which of course I wasn’t. I’ll never forget when I left, he handed me his card and said: “If I can ever help, you call me.”
 
It blew me away that the governor would treat a little peon like me with such grace and respect. Thank you Carl Sanders for being kind to me and for all you did to make the University of Georgia a top notch institution of higher learning.


I don’t know anything about Carl Sanders’ faith but as I remember how he treated me on that day I am reminded of these words of Jesus: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” To put it another way the Law and the Prophets simply tell in many different ways to treat people the way we want them to treat us. In light of Governor Sanders’ kindness to me that day I think that he was not only a nice man but also a godly man. How we treat one another is important regardless of age, position or social standing. If we could all live by just that one biblical principal, it would change our world."

Somewhere in One Old Dawg’s house, there’s a picture of him with Gov. Sanders, however, we couldn’t put our hands on it. Thankfully, Grace Chapman, administrative assistant in 1964 to both Athletic Director Joel Eaves and Coach Vince Dooley sent us several pictures from that year, one of which is a picture of Governor Sanders, Athletic Director Joel Eaves, and Coach Vince Dooley.
 

 
 
One Old Dawg will be back next week for the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. Hopefully, he’ll also get to spin a few tales about the 1964 Sun Bowl Game when the Dogs find out about their post-season destiny.

 
See you next week. Go dawgs!


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