Wednesday, October 30, 2024

One Old Dawg's Tailgate with Mack Faircloth

Welcome back to One Old Dawg’s Tailgate. This week we’re interviewing another senior on the 1964 University of Georgia football team as we celebrate their sixtieth anniversary. Get comfortable as we chat with Mack Faircloth.



Tell us how you got started in football and your high school career?

I started playing football in Moultrie, Georgia when I was a junior. When I was in the tenth grade P.E.,  the football coach was the teacher. As the quarterback in a game we were playing, I threw the ball about forty yards on a play. The coach came over and said, “I didn’t know you could do that.” I said, “Not a big deal. I can kick it further than that.” He asked me to come out for football. I told him I’d give it a try. I went out for spring practice and made first team defense. I didn’t know the plays, but I knew how to make a tackle. (Mack laughs here). I was blessed to get a college scholarship to Georgia, and when I got there, I was fifth team. But after the second freshman game, I moved to the second team. As a freshman I crushed bones in my left hand and wrist, which hampered me from playing defense. Then I cracked my shoulder blade. I never regained my strength in that shoulder, so my last two years,  I was a first-string punter.

What is your most memorable play from the 1964 season?

In the game with Georgia Tech, I was able to break away and tackle a guy that really helped save the game. Also, in the game against Florida, we were ahead 7-0. With three or four minutes left, a ball I punted died inside the five. They didn’t have time to win the game. I was MVP in a couple of games as a punter. One of my most memorable punts is my last kick of my career in the game against Georgia Tech. Usually I try to kick the ball forty yards and give the guys a chance to cover it. As a punter the drop is everything. Instead of kicking it high I sent a line drive right over their heads sixty something yards which didn’t help Tech at all.

What is one important lesson you learned from your time as a college athlete?

Don’t ever give up. The game is not over until the last second when the whistle blows. You just have to find a way to make it. In business, you have to do the same thing in a smart way.

Who were your inspirations or role models in your college career?

A guy from Moultrie, Jimmy Vickers was a senior at Georgia when I was being recruited. He was not a big guy, but he was a tough guy playing defensive end. He played his heart out. I used to watch another guy from Moultrie who played at Georgia, Gene Littleton, when I was a kid— a really big inspiration. Ray Mercer, who wound up going to Auburn, was my next-door neighbor and also inspired me.

What advice would you give to someone just beginning their college football career?

When you go away from home, you don’t have your mom and dad for advice. So, I guess, just don’t get involved in drinking and partying. Study. Don’t be led astray from the way your family raised you. I was twenty or twenty-one years old before I drank a beer because I didn’t want to embarrass my parents.

What are your thoughts on the Dawgs this season?

There’s a lot of guys out there with big hearts.

I was talking to Leroy Dukes one day. I said, “Leroy, can you imagine playing against these three hundred pounders?” Leroy said, “Mack, you can only play during your time.”

I’ve watched these guys. They are not quicker than we were, but the game moves a lot faster. It’s interesting to watch.

We didn’t just beat Texas in the score, we beat them physically. And the score was not an indicator of how well the defense played. The defense won the game.

Do you think they can go all the way?

I don’t see who can beat them.

Thanks so much Mack, for sharing your insights and memories with us today. Here at One Old Dawg, we don’t see who can beat them either. And now, One Old Dawg weighs in:

I can’t move on to the game this week without looking back over the last few weeks. We find these words in the book of James 1:2-4:Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Mack said in the interview above: “We didn’t just beat Texas in the score, we beat them physically.” I think that loss to Alabama shook our faith in ourselves, but rather than wallowing in despair we chose to persevere, to stay at it, to work harder, to get better. Perseverance paid off in Austin, and I think we are now a more mature and complete team than we were in Tuscaloosa. That is a valuable lesson and an inspiration to all of us in whatever difficulties we are facing as we attempt to navigate the treacherous waters of a fallen world. Persevere, stay the course, give opportunity to God to work for our good regardless of the circumstances.

Now about those swamp lizards we tangle with this Saturday. We’ve owned the Gators for the last three years, winning each game by at least twenty points. While that is something to be proud of, it should also make us nervous. Let’s not think too highly of ourselves. They’ve lost three games but to top ten teams, and they have some good wins. We need to be at the top of our game, and I believe we will be. When it is all said and done Saturday, the Gators will again have to take the long, sad trek from Jacksonville to Gainesville with another L on their schedule.

Thanks, One Old Dawg. We’ll be counting on it.

Join us again next week for more “mostly true Bulldog lore.”

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.  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...