One Old Dawg: Pressing on and Sending Old Smokey back to Rocky Top

After his beloved Bulldogs fell prey to the Ole Miss Rebels last Saturday, One Old Dawg remained positive. “In Philippians 3:13-14 the Apostle Paul told us how he dealt with past failures. ‘But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize . . . ’  Forget Ole Miss and press on! We’ve got them right where we want them,” he declared. “They have all written us off as contenders, so now we can slip up on them. All we have to do is win our next six games and we are in the Dome on December 3.”

 

 

Now, that’s the way to put a positive spin on a situation.

 

And when it comes to the Bulldogs, One Old Dawg aims to do just that.

 

Back in 1966, the Bulldogs faced Miami the fifth game of the season. Hopes were high, as the team boarded the two Southern Airways planes, a Martin 404 and a DC3 to head to Florida. In fact, the Atlanta Constitution ran an article entitled, “Bulldogs Roar into Miami.”

 

But in paragraph three, sportswriter Bill Clark wrote what turned out to be a foreshadowing of things to come, “Odds makers say it should be a fifth straight triumph for Georgia and a third loss in four games for Charlie Tate’s Hurricanes. But with that scent of oranges in Bulldogs nostrils, there is the threat that Georgia is ripe for upset.”

And that’s exactly what happened as Georgia suffered a 7-6 defeat.

 

One Old Dawg remembers, “The paper declared the temperature to be 80 degrees that night, but it felt more like 100. It was so muggy; breathing was like trying to suck a thick milk shake through a straw. We had stopped keeping oxygen on the sidelines at home games, because we hardly ever used it, but there was a tank on our bench at the Orange Bowl that night. We sucked it dry. It was one of those games where nothing seemed to go right, we just couldn’t get the ball into the end zone and had to settle for two field goals. A third field goal attempt was thwarted by a bobbled snap.

“Our defense had played well until their scoring drive late in the third quarter. They got the ball on their forty-nine and drove down to the goal.  We held inside the five and they went for it on fourth down.

“I had nightmares about that play for weeks. A man came in motion toward me, so I had to drop off the line into pass coverage. In that situation I was to holler “off” so the tackle would know to move a step to the outside to contain any running play around the end.

“The noise was so loud the tackle didn’t hear me, so he was a sitting duck to be blocked. The runner came outside and turned the corner. As soon as I saw it was a run, I dropped pass coverage and came up along with the linebacker, Tommy Lawhorne, and we hit him hard right on the goal line but he fell into the end zone for what turned out to be the winning score. It turned out to be the only blemish on our record that year, and I felt it was my fault we didn’t go undefeated, but that’s football."

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The players returned from Miami in a heavy rain at Ben Epps airport  to the applause of what the Athens paper called “the largest crowd assembled this year, even though it was the team’s first loss.” Some things never change, and that’s the faithfulness of Bulldog fans. 

 

"We were really encouraged to see those fans standing in the rain at the Athens Airport; they believed in us. So we all forgot about Miami and pressed on to win the prize, a great season and the SEC championship.”

 

The fiftieth anniversary celebration for the 1966 SEC Championship team is coming up this weekend with an event Friday night and during halftime on Saturday, the team will be recognized along with the 1946 and 1976 SEC championship teams. A big weekend. Nothing would be better than for Georgia to beat those Tennessee Volunteers. 

 

One Old Dawg says, “It’s all on the line this Saturday and will be for the next six games. We have six straight SEC games, and we can’t afford to lose another. Tennessee is 4-0 and flying high after a big come-from-behind win over Florida last Saturday. I mean ‘flying high’ as in they had 320 yards passing and another 178 rushing. 498 yards of offense is scary.

 

"As I mentioned last week, turnover margin is critical when playing against a high-octane offense. Turnovers stop drives and usually improve field position; we need a plus four margin this week. Come on Dawgs, we’ve got them where we want them― riding high, and that means ripe for upset, and we’ve got them between the hedges. Send Old Smokey back to Rocky Top Tennessee with his tail tucked between his legs. Gooo... Dawgs, Sic ‘em!"

 

We'll be right back here next week with more of One Old Dawg's mostly true Bulldog lore on the 1966 Kentucky game as well as his thoughts on the matchup between this year's Bulldogs and South Carolina.