One Old Dawg Remembers the 1964 Georgia Football Coaching Staff

 

Welcome back to One Old Dawg! This week and next,  Jerry Varnado will be remembering the coaches on the 1964 University of Georgia Football team. We wish we could sit down with them and get their firsthand accounts, but sadly, they are no longer with us. But they certainly live on in memory and in legacy. And now let’s hear from One Old Dawg: 

“As I think about the success the Bulldog Nation has and is enjoying at the present time, Hebrews 12:1 comes to mind. The writer enumerated a number of great heroes in the faith from the beginning until just before the New Testament era began; those who paved the way for the coming of Jesus and the New Covenant God made for humanity. Then we find these words in Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” I know the context is entirely different, but I believe there is a principle here that transcends context. As I look back at Georgia football during my lifetime there is a cloud of witnesses, including the coaches we honor today and next week, that laid the groundwork for the success I enjoyed while playing at Georgia and continue to enjoy as a fan. This is also true in virtually every dimension of our lives. There are those who have helped, encouraged and motivated us along the way. Let us be intentional about helping and encouraging others that  we may be included in their cloud of witnesses. 

“1964 was a pivotal year for Georgia football. In 1959 the Dawgs were 10-1, SEC Champions and ranked # 5 nationally . We fell to 6-4 in 1960, and long-term coach Wally Butts resigned as head coach but remained as Athletic Director. Nearly all the coaches were retained, and former player and head freshman coach Johnny Griffith was elevated to Varsity head coach.  Unfortunately, the Dawgs’ decline continued with three straight losing seasons which led to Butts retiring and Joel Eaves being hired as  Athletic Director. Eaves named Vince Dooley as head coach. Under Dooley and a mostly new coaching staff the Dawgs went 7-3-1 the first year, including a victory over Texas Tech 7-0 in the Sun Bowl.  This was the beginning of new era in Georgia football which led to a Conference Championship team in just two more years which was ranked # 4 in the nation. That era continued for twenty-five years until Vince Dooley retired as head coach in 1988. During that time Georgia claimed one  national and six Conference championships while amassing a record of 201-77-10.  Dooley became only the ninth coach in NCAA Division 1 history to win 200 games. We have interviewed a number of senior leaders on that pivotal 1964 team and have previously recognized Coach Dooley’s role in getting Georgia back to winning ways and keeping it there. But we have only mentioned the names of the coaching staff that set out with Coach Dooley to redirect the Dawgs back to winning ways. So, now, we direct our attention to members of the 1964 Staff.

 “Bill Dooley, Vince’s  brother, was the Offensive Coordinator and line coach for the first three years of Vince’s tenure. He was well loved and respected by everyone especially the offensive line. But Georgia could not keep him, he left in 1967 to take the head coaching job at North Carolina which had only three winning seasons and one bowl appearance in twenty years. In Dooley’s tenure UNC claimed three ACC Football Championships and went to bowls six of his last eight seasons. He was ACC Coach of the year in 1971, and he left with more wins than any coach in UNC history.  He then tackled rebuilding projects at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest with similar results. He held other prominent positions and received other numerous awards as well. Don Lawrence, a former UNC coach once said: “Bill Dooley turned ACC football around. He came into this league and worked around the clock to build a fine program. Everybody else started working overtime to catch up.” We are thankful for his contribution to UGA football.

“Erk Russell, Defensive Coordinator.  Coach Russell was a graduate of Auburn University where he earned ten varsity letters. He was the last four-sport letterman in the college's history—a true overachiever. He was without question a master communicator and motivator. His players loved him and would walk through fire for him.  In one of the early 1964 games, we were warming up and the defensive line was doing a circle butt drill. A player would step in the middle, break down in hitting position, and point to someone in the circle who would then charge and receive a head butt in the chest. After three times a new person would step in the middle. This helped loosen the neck and shoulder muscles. All of sudden Erk stepped into the middle, broke down and pointed one out who charge in. Erk butted him in the numbers, only he did not have on a helmet and left the circle with two bleeding wounds on his forehead from the lace gromets on the shoulder pads. Erk went the whole game with those dried blood streaks on his forehead. I’m not sure why but that fired up everyone on the team. It became an Erk trademark, he did it every game.

"In seventeen years as UGA defensive coordinator, he coached 192 games; our opponents  scored seventeen or fewer points in 135 of them. In seventy-four games, the other team scores were single digits including twenty-seven shutouts. Under his leadership the  Georgia defense allowed more than twenty-eight points just eighteen times in seventeen seasons. He left Georgia after the 1980 season to restart the football program at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro Georgia which had been discontinued forty years earlier. After three years as a club team the Eagles moved to Division I-AA in 1984 and won the national title in 1985, 1986, and1989. Russell entered the 1989 season as America's winningest coach, sixty-eight wins and fourteen All-America selections—all during a seven-year period. In 1989 Georgia Southern eclipsed Division I's longest home win streak from twenty-six to thirty-seven games, won a third national title and became the only 15–0 college team of the twentieth century. Russell retired after that season with a record of 83–22–1 (.788). Thank you Coach Russell for your great contribution to Georgia and College football. 

“Hootie Ingram, Defensive Backfield Coach. He was born in Tuscaloosa and of course played for Alabama where he was an outstanding running back, and particularly known for his play at defensive safety where he earned the title, the “Tide’s Honorable Thief” as he led the SEC in pass interceptions in 1952. He spent several years coaching high school football and then after short stents at several colleges, Coach Dooley hired him as Georgia’s defensive backs coach. He coached  at Georgia until 1967 when he took a job as an assistant at Arkansas and then landed a head coaching job at Clemson. After three years he left coaching and joined the administrative staff at the Southeastern Conference for eight years. He then served as  Athletic Director at FSU for three years and finally back to his Alma Mater, Alabama as Athletic Director until retirement in 1995. 

“It is easy to  see from the accomplishments of these men on Dooley’ s first staff, that among his many other gifts he was a master at recognizing talent and placing people in positions where they could prosper. It was a unique group that did a tremendous job in pulling Georgia football out of a downward spiral back into a place of national prominence. The purpose of this writing is to acknowledge the contribution of the original coaching staff under Vince Dooley that turned Georgia’s program around. Buit it would be a tragedy not to mention Joel Eaves who was hired as Georgia’s Athletic Director when Wally Butts retired in 1963. It was he who recognized the capabilities of the young man named Vince Dooley who was Auburn’s Head Freshman football  coach. It was a bold move to hire Vince instead of some established person with head coaching experience, but Coach Eaves thought Vince Dooley was the man for the job, and he was right. He gave sound, effective leadership to the Athletic Department from 1963 to 1979.

“It has been hard to give much thought to the next game, I’m having too much fun relishing that great win over Tennessee. But it is time to look ahead for a moment to the game this Saturday. UMass has had a rough go of it this year, they are presently 2-8 with the Dawgs and UConn left to play, and it has been pretty much the same for a number of years. I know something about what those players are going through.  In my first two years at Georgia, we were 3-4-3 in 1962 and 4-5-1 in 1963. It was hard to be excited about football, but I was having a great time being a student at Georgia and football is what afforded me that opportunity. I feel for the UMass players and staff and hope better for them in the years ahead. In our only meeting in 2018 we won 66-27 and considering all factors, this Saturday most likely will be more of the same, the Dawgs winning by a large margin.”

Thanks, One Old Dawg. We’ll be back next week with more on the coaches of the 1964 Georgia Bulldogs, so 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.

One Old Dawg moving on and getting the game ball

One Old Dawg’s comments last week were eerily on target. “Every year several big schools get beat by some smaller school underdog,” he observed and then said, “They have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and we’re just the opposite and that makes for a dangerous situation.” A dangerous situation, indeed. Georgia barely squeaked out the win 26-24.

One Old Dawg says, “The only good thing about last Saturday is we got a W; it wasn’t pretty but it’s still a W. I received a text from my Louisiana cousin, whose son is a Nicholls alum, and he politely abstained from gloating, but I could sense that inside, he was mighty proud. He said, ‘We Cajuns call Nicholls, Harvard on the Bayou,’ so those Thibodaux Colonels are not only tough but also smart. We found that out.

“You might try what I did― watch the replay of the North Carolina game to clear the Georgia mind of bad memories. The apostle Paul tells how he dealt with unpleasant things in the past in Philippians 3:13:  ‘But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead’. This is not true just in spiritual matters; it has a general application as well. If we are not careful, yesterday’s miscues can contribute to tomorrow’s failure. We need to forget about last Saturday and move on to the preferred future that is ahead.”

Now to the third game in the season against South Carolina back in that 1966 SEC championship year.

“We are going to have to play our best game in order to beat them,” Coach Vince Dooley said in an interview leading up to the game. In several news reports, apprehension was expressed about the match up as in this vintage account.

 

One Old Dawg remembers, “I feel I have to remind you young’uns that the Gamecocks were in the ACC not the SEC back in those days. However, we had played them regularly since 1900, so the rivalry was intense. They had lost their first two games to LSU and Memphis State so I guess we were favored― but not by much. The game was a slugfest. Our offense moved the ball up and down field, amassing 247 yards rushing but bad breaks and mistakes kept us out of the end zone.

"We held the Gamecocks to 115 yards rushing and 80 passing but more impressively, we shut them out. Kirby Moore and our offense rose to the occasion and drove it in late in the game for a touchdown, and we won the game 7-0. It was a memorable game for me for two reasons: I was named defensive captain for the first time in my career and at a team meeting the next week, Coach Erk Russell Defensive Coordinator (later head coach at Georgia Southern) gave me the game ball; pretty dawg gone special.”

Jack Davis was the offensive captain for the game. Later, news reports highlighted Kirby Moore, Craig Elrod, Bill McWhorter, Edgar Chandler (All American, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots ), Donald Hayes, Ronnie Jenkins, and Jack Davis on offense. On the defense, Happy Dicks, (All SEC, All American) Larry Kohn (All SEC), Dicky Phillips, Jerry Varnado, Jimmy Cooley, Bill Stanfill (All American, Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl Team) , and George Patton (All SEC, All American, Atlanta Falcons) made significant contributions to the win.

In fact, another Atlanta Journal article began, “’. . . you are a real All American football player.’ The speaker was Georgia end Jerry Varnado. The complement directed to George Patton.”

One Old Dawg has always been a big Patton fan.

The article continues with Patton’s response, “We all did it out there tonight.”

Dooley agreed when he was quoted in another Atlanta newspaper article after the game, “I want you to know that it took a fine effort to beat that South Carolina team.”

One Old Dawg offers his prognostication about this week’s upcoming game against Missouri.

“This Saturday we have to walk into the Missouri Tigers den which is a dangerous thing to do, even though we have been very successful at skinning these tigers in their own backyard. Since Mizzou joined the SEC, we are 2-0 in Columbia and 1-1 at home. This year they lost at West Virginia 26-11 but then walloped Eastern Michigan 61-21at home. At 2-0 with a win over a ranked team, I guess the Dawgs get the nod, but we all know none of that matters when you start barking in the Tigers ‘den. But I’m confident these young Dawgs are growing fast and at the end of the day their bite will prove to be as bad as their bark and Uga will have another Tiger skin to adorn his doghouse. Gooo… Dawgs! Sic ‘em.”

So that’s it for this week’s One Old Dawg, but we’re here again next week for the both the 1966 and 2016 games against Ole Miss, both the fourth game in the season.

A few pictures from this past week’s 1966 reunion events:

Happy Dicks and Jerry Varnado

Larry Kohn and One Old Dawg, Jerry Varnado

Wayne Ingle, Terry Osbolt, Jerry Varnado
 

 Go Dawgs!!

Getting ready for Alabama

One Old Dawg is wearing a Georgia logo shirt at every opportunity this week preparing for the matchup with Alabama this week. He returned smiling ear to ear from the Athens Touchdown Club meeting Monday night (he’s the chaplain), and this served to further bolster his optimism about this weekend’s game. The 1965 team beat Alabama the first game in the season for an astounding win as Alabama was national champions in 1964 and went on to be national champions in 1965 as well, with Georgia being their only loss. We wrote about it HERE. As he pours coffee into his Georgia logo cup, and takes a seat at the kitchen table, One Old Dawg offers his thoughts on the similarities between what happened in 1965 at this point in the season and what’s happening this week.

 

“It’s finally here, what we’ve been waiting for since last January, the week the Alabama Crimson Tide rolls into town. Bama’s loss to Ole Miss two weeks ago will be a damper on the media hype for this game but that doesn’t change a thing for the Dawgs. This is a BIG game.

“As this game relates to the fiftieth anniversary of the 1965 team, there are some similarities. Back then, we were 4-0 and ranked # 5 in the nation. We were not facing a ranked opponent that week, but it was a dangerous one, Florida State in Tallahassee, at night. In 1964 the Seminoles whipped us 17-14, finished 9-1-1, including a Gator Bowl victory over Oklahoma, and were rank eleventh nationally in the UPI poll. Graduation had decimated their offense but their highly touted defense was still solid. We were entering the game minus several key players due to injury.”

 

One Old Dawg grimaces as he recalls the details, “It was one the longest, most miserable nights of my life. Our bench was right in front of the FSU student section. Many of the students were intoxicated and obnoxious. We could not take our helmets off on the sidelines because they were throwing ice and cups of ice at us all night. On one occasion, one of our players jumped the fence and went after a guy who was yelling profanity at us. Coach Russell had to drag him back to the bench. Bob Taylor, our running back and my former roommate, suffered a broken leg that ended his career. After a very rough, hard fought game, we lost 10-3. It was a long trip back to Athens and a sad day Sunday.”
 

One Old Dawg puts his coffee cup down and pauses a moment before continuing. “I was spiritually ignorant at the time and had no idea what it meant to turn to God or how one could even do that.  This was football and it had nothing to do with church. Reminds me of a story Coach Dooley told at a charity dinner I attended. He and his wife, Barbara, were at a dinner the day before Georgia played Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship in 1980. Being devout Catholics, they were excited to meet a well-known Notre Dame school representative. Barbara said to him, ‘I know you’ve got all the Catholics in America praying for Notre Dame tomorrow!’

 

“He, rather piously, responded: ‘No, my God doesn’t have time for football.’

 

“Barbara said, ‘Well that’s good, because mine does!’ We should take note that Georgia won the national championship that year.

One Old Dawg with Barbara Dooley at a Letterman's event

 

“I agree with Barbara, God is interested in everything we do, including football. Listen to Romans 8:28 (NASB):  ‘And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.’  Paul’s reference is not to just religious or spiritual things, but all things, good or bad, even losing football games. Somehow, it is easier for us to accept a setback and move on, if we know that this failure will somehow work for our ultimate good, and that is exactly what God does, if we will let Him.

 

“Our coaches didn’t quote the Bible to us but they did paraphrase it. Learn what you can from your failures and mistakes. Then forget them and move on. Don’t let today’s failure keep you from tomorrow’s success. So we tried to swallow our wounded pride to get ready to travel to Lexington for a fight with the Kentucky Wildcats the next Saturday.”

 

As One Old Dawg drains the last of his coffee, he wraps up his thoughts for this week. “There are also some significant DIFFERENCES between 1965 and now. The Dawgs are healthy and at the top of their game. We’re not traveling; we have the Tide between the hedges. All of you know in advance that I’m going to pick the Dawgs to win every week. If you don’t expect to win, why even bother to play. This is not just wishful thinking on my part, we have the goods and we can whip this bunch of Alabama pachyderms. It will be low tide at Sanford Stadium about 3:30 this Saturday and the Dawgs will roll that Tide right back to Tuscaloosa carrying with it the bitter taste of defeat . In fact, I believe this just might be the year of the Dawg. Gooooo Dawgs, sick ‘em, woof, woof, woof.”

 

The year of the Dawg, indeed.

 

If that doesn’t get you pumped up for this Saturday’s matchup, we don’t know what would.

 

Join us again next week here at One Old Dawg for more mostly true Bulldog lore. And once more, Go Dawgs!

Big Chests, Big Wins, and Big Heads

One Old Dawg is going to have to buy new buttons for his Georgia logo button downs, because his chest is so swollen, he’s about popped all of them off. As he says, “All my teams won this weekend.” Our grandson, Walker, won his middle school football game on Thursday. One Old Dawg works with FCA in a volunteer capacity as a chaplain for the Athens Academy Football team, they also won a big game on Friday, and then, well, you know, Georgia beat South Carolina. Big Time. Although One Old Dawg was there to cheer the Bulldogs on to victory, he watched the recorded game again on television.

 

Someone asks him. “You just want to see Steve Spurrier’s face, don’t you?”

 

He grins and nods.

It really was a good weekend.

Now, he sighs as he makes a cat move out of his recliner and settles down to pontificate the fourth game of the season in 1965. He takes a big sip of his Coke Zero and begins. (He doesn’t even get anything for plugging Coke Zero. He just loves it.)

“In 1965 our fourth game of the season was Clemson between the hedges; we didn’t even know Southern University (The Bulldog’s opponent this Saturday) existed. Georgia - Clemson was a heated rivalry that began back in 1897. The close physical proximity of the schools had a lot to do with the intensity of the rivalry but along the way, the head coaches also fueled it. Wally Butts was Georgia’s legendary coach from 1939-1960. Frank Howard started at Clemson in 1931 as an assistant and was named head coach in 1940, a position he held until he retired in 1969. For you young folks who have no memory of these two men they were truly colorful characters of the highest order. Their bantering back and forth made the rivalry more than it really should have been since Georgia had dominated the series since 1920 (12-1-1)

“We had beaten Clemson in 1962, tied them in 1963 and won again in 1964. We were number four in the nation after beating Alabama, Vanderbilt and Michigan. Clemson had beat North Carolina State and Virginia but was nursing a wounded ego after falling to Georgia Tech 38-6 in Atlanta. They could just smell a big upset that would get their season back on track. And I confess we may have been a little bit big-headed.

“Anyway, Clemson was leading 9-6 in the third quarter. Jimmy Cooley, a defensive guard, who saved my bacon in the Michigan game, came in on special teams when Clemson was punting from their 38 yard-line. I’m not sure but I think Jimmy may have had one hand foam-padded and taped due to an injury. In any event, he broke through and blocked the punt and the ball shot back 38 yards all the way to the goal line where our other defensive end, Larry Kohn (All SEC) picked it up and rolled into the end zone for a touchdown. That seemed to awaken us from our complacent slumber and we went on win the game 23-9."

 

 

Furman Bisher in the Atlanta Journal Constitution also noted the contributions of quarterback Preston Ridlehuber (Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets), end Pat Hodgson (All SEC, Washington Redskins, Coach at San Diego Chargers, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets), and kicker Bobby Etter (Atlanta Flacons, Memphis Southmen). In a

separate account, writer Hal Hayes quotes Erk Russell who gave accolades to Lynn Hughes (All SEC, All American) as safety.

"His leadership has been most important. He has done an outstanding job in readjusting to defense after playing quarterback for so long." Erk continues with high praise for George Patton (All SEC, All American, Atlanta Falcons) "And certainly, George Patton turned in another of his typically brilliant games. He is the type boy who continually is making the big plays; just like he did against Alabama. And Saturday, he was just tremendous." Erk goes on with praise for Jimmy Cooley, Ken Whiddon, and Jerry Varnado. "Our boys kept a lot of pressure on Clemson passers all day and this was pleasant to the coaches' eyes."

 

 

One Old Dawg continues, "An interesting note is that advance scheduling resulted in a problem for Georgia. SEC teams were required to play six conference opponents each year. Georgia Tech had withdrawn from the SEC in 1963 and that left us only five conference games in 1965. It was impossible at that late date to change the schedule so the SEC designated Clemson as a conference game for us that year. So Clemson went 0-1 in its short SEC stay and Georgia moved into first place in the conference. We were still riding high.”

One Old Dawg puts his soda down as he thinks about the more serious lessons he learned from his experiences in 1965. “Spiritually speaking I’m thinking of what Moses told the Israelites over and over. When things are going well for you do not forget the Lord Your God. But they did forget, over and over again, resulting in God’s judgment which meant hard times. They would then turn back to God and repeat the process.

“Last week’s spiritual point was about pride and thinking too highly of ourselves. We were guilty of that in the 1965 Vanderbilt game after we jumped out to a 10-0 lead. I think we silently said to ourselves, “Yes, we are as good we thought we were.” But in an instant, Vanderbilt tied the game, and we realized we had a fight on our hands.  A big play got us back on track, and we settled down and went on to win the game 24-10. Then the big win over Michigan and just two weeks after Vanderbilt, we again had to overcome a case of the big head in the Clemson game. Will we never learn? I repeat Romans 12:3: ‘Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment….’”

One Old Dawg concludes with his thoughts about this week’s game. “I did a little research on Southern University and found the school was really quite impressive. However, it is still a small Division 1 school in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The 2015 Dawgs are good, maybe on the way to being great; so if we don’t get to thinking too highly of ourselves this week, the Jaguars should prove easy pickings for a pack of full-grown Bulldawgs.”

Thanks for joining us this week at One Old Dawg. If you’re receiving this by email and feel you may have missed a post, please click HERE to peruse the archives or see our most popular posts. We’ll be right back here next week for the Alabama game. One Old Dawg is going to have lots more “mostly true Bulldog lore.”

    

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.

 

One Old Dawg and bottling up the opponent

One Old Dawg has had a smile plastered on his face for days thanks to the Bulldogs decisive win over the Missouri Tigers last week.

Ahead, Georgia plays Arkansas on Saturday. In 1964, Georgia didn’t play Arkansas. But they did play North Carolina around this time in the season.

Finding commentary on the 1964 Georgia-North Carolina game has proved a bit of a challenge. It seems defensive coordinator, Erk Russell was one of the few who committed his thoughts to paper. In Erk, Football, Fans and Friends, he wrote, “North Carolina had one of its better teams in recent years led by Ken Willard, their All-American fullback. During our film study we saw that on Willard’s best play, a quick trap up the middle, the center always blocked back on our defensive guard so the trapping guard could pull. We told middle linebacker John Glass to see the center and when that happened, to simply step forward and tackle Willard. It worked. Willard wasn’t a factor and Glass must have made 15 individual tackles. On that day he was the All-American. We won, 24-8.”

 

One Old Dawg says this, “We were really concerned about Ken Willard and justifiably so; he was a leading rusher in the ACC and big for back in those days (6’1” 220 lbs). He was sure to get All-American honors at the end of the year. He was actually the number two pick in the NFL draft in early 1965 and had all-star career as a pro, so our concerns were not ill founded.

“But Coach Russell had convinced us we could stop anybody, particularly between the hedges, which is exactly where we had Ken Willard. All we had to do was play smart, fundamentally sound football. By fundamentally sound I mean that we would use the proper techniques in playing our position and in tackling. By smart, I mean we would study our opponents to find and exploit their weaknesses. 

 “Many of us studied game films of or opponents more than our school work. The defensive staff had us well prepared and came up with a great game plan so we were able to bottle-up Ken Willard and stymie that Carolina offense.

“We had learned the truth that fundamentals are critical to being successful which is also true in our spiritual life. Hebrews 5:12 (The Message) tells us :  “By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! “ We can’t live the Christian life successfully without practicing the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship and Bible study anymore than we can be successful at football without practicing the fundamentals of blocking, tackling and position technique.

“The Razorbacks have us in their Hog pen this Saturday and they would like to send us back to Athens with our tail tucked between our legs.

“When pigs fly!

“I saw something in the Missouri game that makes me think we will keep the Hawgs grounded, wallowing in the mud. I saw a lot of fundamentally sound football from the Dawgs; aggressive defense as it is supposed to be played, and brutal offense that demoralizes the opposition. Arkansas does have two backs that have over 500 yards rushing already this season and average more than six yards per carry. That should concern any wise student of the game, but I believe the Dawgs have a plan and will bottle them up – just as we bottled up Ken Willard in “64.

 “Woooooooooo, Pig ! Sooie!  Sic ‘em Dawgs, woof, woof, woof!!!"

 

 

Spelling and Grammar check has no suggestions for that last sentence from One Old Dawg, so we’ll just leave it as is and trust our readers get the idea.

 

The Bulldogs have a bye next week, so One Old Dawg is taking a week off, too. We’ll see you back right here at One Old Dawg in two weeks for the Florida game and mostly true Bulldog lore. Did anyone say “gator tail?”

Until then, Go Dogs!

Florida State, a turning point in 1964

Georgia plays Missouri this Saturday in what promises to be a challenging match. The 1964 team never played Missouri, but about this time in the season, they faced off against a similar opponent, Florida State.

One Old Dawg remembers, “In 1964, when we got to the Florida State game, we were 2-1-1, and it was still iffy about what kind of team we would have. We were still unproven. Florida State was going to be our biggest test since the Alabama game. They were supposed to beat us handily. Going into the game, Coach Erk Russell  repeatedly said things like, “They put their britches on the same way we do,” so we wouldn’t be intimidated by them.

“From our defensive perspective, Florida State had two outstanding players. Steve Tensi  was their quarterback, huge for a quarterback in those days, at 6’5”, and another player, Fred Biletnikoff, was an All American receiver. Both of them went on to play in the NFL. Biletnikoff would be a Superstar.

“We were playing between the hedges, and nobody knew what to expect except we were going to get whipped. But we played with them, except we couldn’t cover Biletnikoff. That’s not saying anything against our players. No one could cover Biletnikoff —in college or in the NFL. “

Erk Russell in his autobiography Erk, Football, Fans, and Friends, said, “We really didn’t have much of a chance. But we did, because our guys cared so much and wanted to win so badly. Preston Ridlehuber (Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets) scored on a punt return right at the end, and we would have won the game. But clipping was called and we lost, 17-14.”

Preston Ridlehuber, George Nowicki, Jerry Varnado, and Pat Hodgson at '64 reunion

One Old Dawg continues, “We fought hard and were terribly disappointed. After the game was over, you would have thought we won the game, though. The fans were ecstatic. They cheered, stayed in the stands, and then crowded around the steps when we left to go back to the locker room. We’d never experienced anything like that.

“My friend, Jimmy Denney and I later returned to our frat house arount 4:30 in the afternoon. We got out of the car and started walking up the driveway to the house, and all these guys come down, pick us up, and carry us into the house on their shoulders cheering. We said, ‘Wait guys, we lost the game.’ They didn’t seem to care.



Jimmy Denney calls out to One Old Dawg at '64 reunion

“I think, we were supposed to get stomped, and we played with them nose to nose. Everyone knew that something was happening in Athens, Georgia. Vince Dooley had affected change that was good, and Georgia was on its way to becoming a competitive football team."

One Old Dawg concludes, "Turning points are important in scripture. Luke wrote in Acts 3:19, 'Repent, then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord . . .'

"Repentance is a turning point where we turn away from sin to God. Turning points do not happen in a vacuum but are a part of faith and human decision making. In 1980, I believed I had reached a turning point in which God had changed my life. As I continued to believe, God actually did change my life.

"In 1964, we lost to Florida State, but it was a turning point. We believed something had changed in us and the bulldog nation, and as we continued to believe we demonstrated that something had changed. Except for a November hiccup against Auburn we finished the season unbeaten and untied. I believe last Saturday may have been a turning point for the dogs. A door of opportunity has opened. In spite of our one loss we could be a part of the first national playoff; if we win out. 'Everything is possible for him who believes.' (Mark 9:23).

"I know the Midwest Tigers clawed our eyes out last year, but that was last year. They're leading the SEC East, but South Carolina is the only SEC team they've played and they lost to unranked Indiana. After that fluke loss to Carolina, the Dogs whipped Tennessee and Vanderbilt. We're on a roll and Saturday, Uga is going to get another Tiger skin rug for his doghouse to add to the one he got in the Clemson game."

One Old Dawg on Gamecocks, the General, Butt Drills, Ties, and Sacking Spurrier

When the 1964 team played South Carolina , it was not their second game of the season, but their third. They’d come off a 7-0 win against Vanderbilt.

Dan Reeves  quarterbacked for South Carolina and would later play for the Dallas Cowboys. He would end his college career as leading passer in Gamecock History and participate in more Super Bowls as a player and coach than anyone else in NFL history including his appearance with the Atlanta Falcons at the Super Bowl in 1999.

It’s good Georgia had lineman like George Patton (All SEC, Atlanta Falcons).

Dubbed the “General" by Dan Magill, Jerry remembers, “It was great to play with George Patton. We were close friends and did a lot of things together off the field. George was so tall, he could cover a lot of ground, which made my job as a defensive end a lot easier. My job was to turn everything in. Our opponents couldn’t push George around. He could stand strong, and he could cover a large area. We’d played together enough we could read each other’s mind. Very seldom would we have a mix up on play calls or stunts. It was a joy to play with George.”

South Carolina was an opponent to be reckoned with, but this young Georgia team believed they could beat them—a belief instilled in them in part by legendary defensive co-coordinator, Erk Russell. “Everybody loved Coach Russell from the start,” One Old Dawg says. One of the ways Russell won over the players was by participating in “butt drills.”

In the pre-game warm-up, players took turns in the middle butting the shoulder pads of three players in the circle. Russell would step in to take a turn without a helmet, leaving blood streaming down his bald head.

The match up with South Carolina proved to be a back and forth struggle. With Lynn Hughes (All SEC, All American) and Preston Ridlehuber (Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets) alternating at quarterback, Hughes got the ball to Bob Taylor who scored first for Georgia. However, South Carolina soon matched them making the score 7-7. All the points were scored in the second quarter, but neither Georgia nor South Carolina were able to break the tie during the second half. Other players who received press were Ray Rissmiller (All-American, Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Buffalo Bills),George Nowicki, Bob Etter (Atlanta Falcons, Memphis Southmen), Mack Faircloth, Leon Armbrester, Ken Davis, Fred Barber, Vance Evans , Joel Darden, Wayne Swinford (San Francisco 49rs), Jerry Varnado, and of course George Patton.

When asked what he thought about tie games, One Old Dawg said, “A tie is like taking a shower with a raincoat on. You don’t accomplish anything. Neither team suffers defeat or experiences victory. It all comes to nothing. I hate ties. I don’t know why we didn’t have the good sense to put in an overtime rule like we have now, so that we could resolve the game and have a winner.”

About this time in the '64 season, One Old Dawg says, "We were beginning to gel as a team, becoming friends, and realizing our need for each other. Ecclesiastes 4:12 comes to mind. 'By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three stranded rope isn't easily broken' (The Message)."

One Old Dawg predicts Georgia is going to win this Saturday.  “I read Texas A& M handed the Gamecocks their first loss in eighteen games in Williams Brice stadium. No tie game this weekend. The Dogs will beat South Carolina in regular time. The Gamecocks will come out fighting, but I believe we’re strong enough to beat them soundly on their own turf.”

Just for fun, we're including a couple of pictures which a fan had colorized from the Florida Times-Union and later gave to One Old Dawg. They now hang on our walls and are from the 1966 Georgia-Florida game where One Old Dawg had a chance to sack then Florida quarterback, now South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier.

Here Jerry, 88, comes after Spurrier.

And he's got him.

Go Dawgs!

Remember, you can always count on us at One Old Dawg for the finest, mostly true, Bulldog lore.