A Pep Talk from One Old Dawg

We couldn’t begin our post this week without remembering all of those who have been affected by Hurricane Helene this past week. We have friends and family who have been directly impacted by the devastation. If you are interested in contributing toward relief, consider donating to Samaritan’s Purse who does a wonderful job and now has five sites responding in greatly affected areas. 

As we waited for the Alabama-Georgia game to begin last Saturday, an introductory piece began about the storied history of the matchup. As the video segued from a man at a piano to shots of past seasons, One Old Dawg pointed and hollered, “That’s me.” We ran it back and sure enough there he was, #88 Jerry Varnado, in a picture taken we believe from the 1965 Alabama-Georgia game. But not only him but #8 Marvin Tootle, and  #74 Bill Harber. We began texting friends and family to let them know. Very exciting. 

Perhaps not as exciting was the game itself, but One Old Dawg is here today to give us a bit of a locker room pep talk. 

“Of Course I’m disappointed, all of us are. With Nick Saban gone, we wanted to finally squash the so-called Alabama jinx, but Alabama would not cooperate, so here we are again, disappointed. To begin with I don’t believe in jinxes, we just lost the game, period. In athletics, disappointment is inevitable, the very best teams are going to lose on occasion. To me the Bible gives the way to overcome disappointment. The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3:13b-14 (NIV): … 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 for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.

“We all recognize the importance of our ability to remember, and we admire and reward those who have good memories. But we frown on forgetfulness. Forgetting appointments, not to mention anniversaries, will get you in trouble. We should encourage each other to develop habits conducive to good memory, but we haven’t always recognized we also need a good forgettery. Memory enables us to relive yesterday; but that can be good or bad. Some things are better off forgotten. A police officer was called to an auto accident and questioned the driver about how the car came to be in the ditch. The driver said I don’t really know! I was looking at something in the rearview mirror and suddenly I was in the ditch. You can't safely move forward, if your eyes and mind are riveted on what's behind you. You will likely end up in a ditch. We need a good memory, but we also need a good forgettery. (Editor’s note: I thought One Old Dawg had invented a word, but Merriam Webster has a definition for it, “A faculty for forgetting.” Who knew?)

 

“Now by forgetting, I don’t mean removing it from our memory, which would require surgery, and we would lose part of our brain. Most of us don’t have that much to spare. Forgetting means we get that memory into proper perspective so that past hurts, failures or successes do not negatively affect present and future performance and outcomes. Paul’s reference in the text was to the sins of his past, and his stature in the past, but the principle is very applicable to other things including football. Whether you won or lost the last game, you need to forget about it to get ready for the next one. You can’t safely move forward, if you are focused on what is behind you.

 

“When I was a freshman in High School one of my good friends broke his leg in the first game of the season. It was an awful compound fracture. I was on the sidelines, and it happened right in front of me. For the next two years I was chicken, I couldn’t hit or get hit without flinching. The picture of him lying there with his leg making a thirty-degree bend just below the knee imprinted on my mind and haunted me, I couldn’t forget it and that memory kept me on the bench for two years; that’s how long it took me to get beyond it, to forget it. We need a good memory, but we also need a good forgettery. 

“In the 2015 Georgia – Missouri game we were tied 6-6. Marshall Morgan went in with 1:44 left in the game, to attempt a thirty-four-yard field goal. We had won our first four games but then lost two in a row—we were desperate for a win. He was two for three that day, but his last attempt was a chip shot he should have made, but he missed it. We lined up for the snap and Missouri called time-out to ice the kicker, but it backfired on them. As the teams huddled on the sidelines for last-minute instructions the TV camera zoomed in on this scene of Mark Richt with both hands on Morgan’s shoulder pads talking to him, eyeball to eyeball. Marshall made the field goal and after the game the side-line TV reporter asked Coach Richt what he had said to Marshall. His response was, “I told him I loved him whether he made that field goal or not and that his value was not determined by performance only. Go out there and give it your best shot, that’s good enough for me.” What happened in those few seconds is Coach Richt helped Marshall forget that missed field goal so the memory of it did not negatively affect the present outcome. 

“I’m not suggesting we should be “good” losers. My late friend and fellow Georgia letterman, Willie Fowler, used to say, “good losers usually do.” If losing doesn’t bother us we are in trouble. Losing should leave a bitter taste in our mouth that will motivate us to play harder and smarter the next time. But to hear some people talk, you would think we are 0-1, but we are 3-1 and that loss was by a mere seven points to one of the five best teams in the country. Our season is not over. Nothing has changed with respect to our goals except we can’t have an undefeated season. So, what! We can still win the SEC; we can still win the National Championship! 

“Forget last Saturday, we have the Auburn Tigers coming to town, we need to move on and going forward is hard if you are focused on the past. The word “Winner” is defined as one who wins. If we refuse to let a loss define us and grow from the experience of losing, we win even though we lost. It is a paradox, but it is true. So, let’s get our heads clear and get focused, It’s Homecoming, and we’ve got a Tiger to skin. Goooooo! Dawgs! Sic ‘em, woof, woof, woof!!!" 

Thanks, One Old Dawg, we feel properly pepped and ready for the game this weekend. 

We’ll be back next week with One Old Dawg’s Tailgate and another senior from the 1964 University of Georgia football team now in their sixtieth anniversary year. 

Until then, Go Dawgs!!!

Who is One Old Dawg?

Jerry Varnado played defensive end at the University of Georgia on Vince Dooley’s first three teams, which included an SEC championship in 1966, placing Georgia fourth in the nation. He helped coach the UGA football team while in law school, and practiced law for over a decade. Later, after a series of tragedies, he gave his life to Jesus Christ. After much soul searching, he left his law practice and has preached the gospel for forty years. He’s still at it every Sunday.

Inducted into the Valdosta/Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame, he is also the recipient of the Athens Athletic Hall of Fame Fosky Henderson Award for community service. He is a past president of The Athens Touchdown Club and is now the chaplain. He has been an FCA chaplain for the Athens Academy Football Team for ten years.

He is the proud father of four children, and one sweet girl now with Jesus, as well as Bapa to two of the best grandkids ever.

Check in every Wednesday through football season or better yet sign up to receive these posts in your inbox HERE. You don’t want to miss any of his mostly true Bulldog lore.