28 November 1916: See Georgia Play Alabama!

On this day in 1916, the Seaboard Railroad advertised this round-trip deal to see the University of Georgia football team take on the University of Alabama football team in their last game of the season on Thanksgiving Day: 

(click to enlarge image)

Georgia won 3-0 in a game that ended on a last-minute turnover when a Georgia player scooped up an Alabama fumble from inside the 5-yard line. Alabama had won its first six games of the season, but ended 6-3 after the loss to Georgia, who also ended the 1916 season at 6-3.

By the time the next season would have begun, most of the Georgia football players, as well as Coach Cunningham and Assistant Coach Dave Paddock, were engaged in World War I; five would not survive the war, and only two of the lettermen, Owen Gaston Reynolds and Arthur Pew, Jr., would return to the gridiron.

The 1917 and 1918 seasons were cancelled, and Georgia did not play football again until October 4, 1919, in a win over the Citadel. Coach Cunningham returned in 1919 to coach Georgia to a 4-2-3 season, but then left college athletics to pursue a career in the United States Army, where he reached the rank of General.

When Memorial Hall was opened in 1929, it was dedicated to the 47 University of Georgia men who died in the Great War.


Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Nov. 1916 - Mar. 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• The Red & Black Historic Newspaper Archive collection on the University of Georgia Libraries website.
• The Atlanta Constitution in the Fold3 database via GALILEO.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the general collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History by Thomas Dyer in the general collection.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• University of Georgia Football History web pages on the UGA Athletic Association website.
• University of Alabama Football Archives web pages on the UA Athletic Department website.

25 October 1892: "There has always been too little interest in Athletics among Southern colleges..."

On this day in 1892, the Banner newspapers advocated for the students who were "very desirous of entering into collegiate games of football."

 

Football was a relatively new sport, and was seen as a way to ensure young men did not become soft while gaining their education. Physical strength was seen as the basis for mental and moral strength as well. 

Adapted from rugby, football was primarily a running game (the forward pass was not implemented until 1906, as a safety concession), and players wore little padding or other protection during the course of the game.

At the time, Georgia had club and fraternity teams that participated in a variety of sports, including a campus Field Day with races, but also such events as "greased pig chases." Sports had faculty advisors, similar to the way high school sports often operate today. There was a football team that had played two games in the winter of 1892, beating Mercer College 50-0 at what is now Herty Field on North Campus, and losing to Auburn 0-10 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. 

In 1893, the school had its first real football season with a five-game schedule that ran from November 4th to December 9th. Georgia went 2-2-1.


Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Jul. 1892 - Dec. 1893 on Microfilm in the Heritage Collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football by John J. Miller via PINES.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• What It Means to Be a Bulldog by Tony Barnhart  in the general collection.
• A Whole New Ball Game:  An Interpretation of American Sports by Allan Guttmann in the general collection.
• A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era by Steven J. Diner in the general collection.
• Walter Camp biography on the Walter Camp Football Foundation website.
• History of Athletics at the University of Georgia page on the Georgia Athletic Association website. 

17 October 1914: Georgia Tech Band Plays for Georgia Game

On this day in 1914, Georgia Tech provided both a marching band and the location of Grant Field for Georgia football game with North Carolina in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets, as they were already known, were playing Alabama in Birmingham, and did not need the field.

Kickoff was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and admission cost $1. At the time, Grant Field seated approximately 800 people with no seats in the endzones. Both teams had won the previous week, and in their meeting in 1913, Georgia had won, 19-6.

However, it was not to be Georgia's day, losing 41-6 to the Tar Heels; Georgia even lost the coin toss. The Atlanta Constitution noted that North Carolina "have a 'real' football team. There is no getting away from that fact. They have a machine that looks far superior to any football team that has performed in Atlanta in the past six or seven years." 

In the Athens newspaper, it was noted that while Georgia fans appreciated the efforts of the Georgia Tech band, and therefore sympathized with them for their 13-0 loss to Alabama, their rendition of "Glory" wasn't so much a fight song as "a dirge." And that from now on, maybe going without a band at all is a better option than using Georgia Tech's.

Georgia would not win another game that year, losing their next four games (including to Tech) before tying Auburn 0-0 in the season closer, to end 3-5-1. Tech ended the season 6-2. North Carolina went 10-1, losing to Virginia by 17 points in their last game.


Learn More:

• Athens Daily Herald, Jun. 1914 - Nov. 1914 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Atlanta Constitution, 1868 - 1923 in the Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives via GALILEO.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: A Gridiron Grudge Since 1893 by John Chandler Griffin via PINES.
• Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate by Bill Cromartie via PINES.
• Schedules Archive on the Georgia Tech Official Athletic Department website.
• Georgia Football History page on the University of Georgia Athletic Association website.

12 June 1901: Summertime in Athens Means Talking About Football

On this day in 1901, less than a decade since the introduction of football to Athens, the Banner ran the following story about prospects for the Georgia football team in the coming season, which would not begin for another four months:

Despite high hopes published throughout the summer and early fall, Georgia's final record in 1912  1901 (thanks for the correction!) would be 1-5-2. The game schedule would also be altered by the time the season rolled around in mid-October, including replacing the Tech game in Atlanta with a meeting versus South Carolina in Augusta that would be Georgia's only win (10-5) that season. 


Georgia traveled next to Tennessee, where "the red and black" played two games in three days, losing both 0-47, first to Vanderbilt on Saturday, then again to Sewanee on Monday. The Banner started its story about the road trip with "The Georgia boys got it in the neck again yesterday," before pointing out later in the story that "Three of Sewanee's touchdowns were made by pure luck."


The first game in Athens that season came against Clemson on the 26th, and spirits were high until Georgia lost, 5-29. The headline the next day simply stated that "Clemson Won Football Game." Though daily papers exist through the month of October, the Banner seems to have mostly exhausted its enthusiasm for reporting on football in 1901 at this time. Even in the weekly papers, there is little talk of football of any kind, not just Georgia, but even for teams in the region. The Atlanta Constitution, however, continued to follow the team.


In the days leading up to the November 2nd meeting with North Carolina in Atlanta, UGA alumni in Atlanta sent a letter to the University requesting Georgia cancel the game. This request was refused, with the "physical director of the University," Professor A. H. Patterson noting that the three losses had come to teams that were "heavier" than Georgia, and the newspaper said that "the Atlanta alumni may yet see some good playing that they evidently do not expect to see." The alumni did not; Georgia lost to North Carolina, 0-27.


Georgia's next two games received no notice in the Athens newspapers, even those weekly editions published the day of or the day after a game. November 9th, Georgia tied Alabama 0-0 in Montgomery, then fell again in a 6-16 loss in Athens to Davidson College. 


The last game of the season was against Auburn on Thanksgiving Day in Atlanta.  The days leading up to the meeting had students showing up to cheer the team at practice, and energy and spirits were high. According to John F. Stegeman, however, "Georgia fans gasped" upon seeing an Auburn team take the field that was so much taller and heavier than the Georgia players. Georgia played hard, but was unable to score, including having a touchdown called back near the end of the game because the player's foot stepped out upfield. 


The game ended in a 0-0 tie, and both the team and the fans felt victorious since Auburn never crossed midfield. Spectators celebrated in Atlanta, and in Athens, "The chapel bell has been kept ringing, and the entire campus is aglow from three bonfires."  The team was met at the railroad depot that night by "a huge crowd and escorted by torchlight up College Avenue , through the town, and to the campus arch." The party continued until dawn, and ringing the chapel bell became a Georgia tradition.




Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1901 - Oct. 1901 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Atlanta Constitution archive in Fold3 database via GALILEO.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Georgia Bulldogs Football History pages on the UGA Athletic Association website.
• UGA Chapel Bell public service announcement from 2011 football season.
• Echoes of Georgia Football: The Greatest Stories Ever Told by Ken Samelson in the general collection.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.

21 October 1903: 44 Bushels of Apples to Clemson

On this day, news of a promise to the Clemson College football team by the University of Georgia football team was published in the Athens Banner:

Georgia had opened the 1903 season with a 29-0 loss to Clemson, then lead by legendary college football coach John Heisman. The following year, Heisman would leave Clemson to begin a 15-year tenure as the coach of Georgia Tech. 

This 73-0 victory remains Clemson's biggest win over Georgia Tech in the history of the two teams' meetings. Unfortunately, the surviving newspapers do not tell how long it took the Georgia team to make good on their promise.

In 1903, six points was the most that could be scored on a single possession: touchdowns were worth only five points, with the modern one-point kick to add to the score.  Field goals, however, were also worth five points. They would not be lowered to the modern three-point score until 1909, and the goal posts would not be moved to the back of the end zone until 1927.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, May 1902 - Oct. 1903 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate by Bill Cromartie via PINES.
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: Gridiron Grudge Since 1893 by John Chandler Griffin via PINES.
• The Heisman: A Symbol of Excellence by John T. Brady via PINES.
• The Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Wittingham in the general collection.
• Southern Fried Football: The History, Passion, and Glory of the Great Southern Game by Tony Barnhart in the general collection.
• The Apple Cookbook: More Than 60 Easy, Imaginative Recipes by Nicloa Hill in the general collection.
• In Praise of Apples: A Harvest of History, Horticulture, and Recipes by Mark Rosenstein in the general collection.
• If You Like My Apples: A Simple Guide to Biodynamic Gardening by Clue Tyler Dennis in the general collection.
• Apples for the 21st Century by Warren Manhart in the general collection.
• A Place Called Sweet Apple by Celestine Sibley in the Heritage collection.
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures from the Table by Ruth Reichl in the general collection.

9 October 1897: Georgia Plays Clemson for the First Time

On this day in 1897, Clemson College came to town for their first ever game against the University of Georgia "Footballists:"

Clemson had started their football program the previous year, and came to Athens to play at the newly seeded and renovated Herty Field. This first meeting featured a 75-yard run for a touchdown by Georgia halfback J. T. Moore, and Georgia won the game, 24-0. 

Over the next 24 years, Clemson and Georgia would meet annually, with the exception of 1917-1918, when Georgia did not field a team due to World War I. Though the teams played one another only sporadically from the 1920s through the 1950s, the rivalry intensified during the 1960s and 1970s, with near-annual meetings. In the early 1980s the rivalry became even more fierce as both teams were often vying for the National Championship. The two teams have met a total of 62 times, with Georgia holding the advantage, 41-17-4. 

Since Southeastern Conference expansion in 1992, Clemson and Georgia have not met as regularly. However, the closeness of the two campuses, less than 75 miles apart, and decades of tradition have meant that the rivalry has only continued to simmer despite episodic play. 

Their next two meetings will be in Clemson in 2013 and in Athens in 2014 to start the football seasons.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Nov. 1, 1984 - Nov. 3, 1898 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football, edited by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• Echoes of Georgia Football: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, edited by Ken Samelson in the general collection.
• Game Day: Georgia Football (with an introduction by Larry Munson) in the general collection.
• My Forty Years at Georgia by Vincent J. Dooley in the general collection.
• What It Means to Be a Bulldog by Tony Barnhardt in the general collection.
• Georgia Football History page on the Georgia Athletic Association website.
• Georgia Bulldogs 2011 Media Guide.
• Highlights of the 2003 Georgia-Clemson game.
• Larry Munson's Call of Kevin Butler's Winning Field Goal over Clemson in 1984.

17 June 1906: Trustees Vote to Abolish Football at UGA

On this day in 1906, the following alarming headline and story ran on page 1 of the Sunday Athens Banner:

TO ABOLISH FOOTBALL AT THE UNIVERSITY

Trustees Pass Resolution Declaring That After This Year Football Must Cease at That Institution. 

This Action of the Board Will No Doubt Cause Considerable Discussion.

The wearers of the long hair and kickers of the pigskin will soon have to give up the fight in the University of Georgia. 

After this year there will be no more football played by the University students, unless the rules of the game are decidedly modified. 

That is the decision of the Board of Trustees and what they have to say on the subject is final.

The matter was brought up in the meeting of the board yesterday by Judge George F. Gober, and the resolution introduced by him was passed after very little debate.

The trustees will not interfere with the game this year, as the team has already contracts covering a number of games, but after this year all these games will cease. 

This action of the board is sure to cause discussion among those who favor the game but the sentiment of the board on the subject is quite pronounced.

News of such a decision would not have been a surprise in 1906. Earlier that year, trustees at Harvard and the University of South Carolina had made similar votes, banning the sport because of its "brutality" and tendency to be a distraction from intellectual endeavors. Though injuries and player deaths were the primary focus of criticism, the loudest voice against the new sport of football was more concerned by the moral hazards posed by the game.


Leading the charge against football was Harvard president Charles Eliot, who felt the game taught students to be dishonorable, such as when a running back exploited the weakest point on the opposing team's line in order to advance the ball. He felt the passion around the game by spectators in the stands was divisive, as people tended to cheer for only their own team.  It should be noted that President Eliot also considered baseball "a game of trickery," citing the deception of the curve ball, and believed true sportsmen did not require umpires or referees for their activities.

Among the more ardent defenders of football on the national level was President Theodore Roosevelt, who believed that the "rough play and occasional injuries" built moral character in America's young men. Princeton professor Woodrow Wilson also defended the game, believing it "encouraged valuable qualities such as precision, decision, presence of mind and endurance." In a debate with a Cornell professor on the subject, Wilson said, "I believe it develops more moral qualities than any other game of athletics." 


On a more local level, newly elected University of Georgia chancellor David C. Barrow was a supporter of the game of football. Several weeks after his appointment by the same trustees who had originally voted to abolish the game if changes were not made to the rules, he told the Athens Banner that football was "a rough game" but that "more men are saved by the training than injured by the game," that there was far less fighting amongst the student population since football had been introduced in 1894, that it was "the best training in self control I know of, certainly for a young man," and that even those who don't play on the field "get behind the team" and learn lessons in loyalty that would be equally applicable to community, state, and country in their adult lives. 


Within a week after the initial vote, the trustees decided to leave any decisions in the hands of the faculty, provided certain changes were made to the rules of the game. Since these rules were already being adopted by the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, of which the University of Georgia and most schools they regularly played were members, the threat of losing football at UGA was never seen as inexorable. 


On a national level, more than a dozen new rules were enacted, including shortening the game to two 30-minute halves, defining "tripping" and "hurdling" and making both actions illegal, and introducing the forward pass as an acceptable form of ball advancement. However, for some, football reform was irrelevant. Football critic and University of California president Benjamin Wheeler told the New York Times in September, 1906, that game of football would soon die out, and be rightly replaced by the more established and honorable game of rugby. 




Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Mar. 1906 - Dec. 1907 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Red and Black Newspaper Archive collection on the University of Georgia Libraries website.
• Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Whittingham in the general collection.
• Oh, How They Played the Game: The Early Days of Football and the Heroes Who Made It Great by Allison Danzig in the general collection.
• Only a Game interview with author John J. Miller, 21 May 2011.
• The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football by John J. Miller via PINES.
• "Political Football: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and the Gridiron Reform Movement" by John S. Watterson in Presidential Studies Quarterly (Summer 1995) from ProQuest Research Library via GALILEO.
• New York Times 1851-1980 online archives.
• Georgia Football 1900s History web page on the University of Georgia Athletic Association website.
• Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris in the Biography collection.
• Woodrow Wilson by H. W. Brands in the Biography collection.
• David Crenshaw Barrow by Thomas Walter Reed in the Heritage and Biography collections.

30 January 1892: Georgia Is Victorious in First Football Game, Creates an Athens Obsession

On this day in 1892, "the Black and Crimson" welcomed Mercer University ("the black and yellow") to the University of Georgia campus for "the first intercollegiate football game in the Deep South." Kickoff was at 3pm, and more than a thousand people attended the game on what is now known as Herty Field on North Campus.

The Weekly Banner set the scene:

The Mercer boys came in at twelve o'clock and brought with them two cars full of students and citizens of Macon, Madison, and other places along the line of the Macon & Northern. They were taken in charge by the University boys and entertained at their different homes. The Mercer colors, black and yellow were seen on nearly two hundred breasts, and several young ladies from Macon were along to attest their faith in the Mercer boys. It was a fine delegation of young men and young ladies, and a nicer crowd never came on a visit to Athens.

The University campus was decorated with black and crimson and on the field one goal was decorated in University colors, the other in Mercer colors. Long before three o'clock the crowd began to assemble and the yells of the two colleges were alternately raised with a vim by the boys. The University goat was driven across the field by the boys and raised quite a ripple of laughter. At three o'clock there were over one thousand people on the ground, and the presence of so many young ladies from the city, the Lucy Cobb and the Home School added inspiration to the occasion.

Georgia dominated the game, and was leading 28-0 at the end of the first half. At the time, touchdowns counted for just four points, with two points awarded for the post-touchdown kick, and field goals were worth five points.UGA Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Charles Holmes Herty, brought the sport to campus and acted as the team's first football coach.

The Banner's description of the second half begins thusly:

By this time the game is irretrievably lost to Mercer, but the black and yellow were not tamed in their enthusiasm. They were true grit and when the time was called they lined up like men and went at the second half with a will.

The final score of the game would be 50-0, though later, Georgia right tackle A. O. Halsey said the team had scored another 10 points that were missed when the scorekeeper left the game to ensure he made it to the liquor dispensary before it closed at sundown.

After the game,

Enthusiasm was supreme, boys were riding around on a sea of shoulders, even the goat was ridden.

The Mercer boys took defeat very gracefully, and were escorted to the train by the University boys and went off amid the yells of both crowds.

Georgia's next and final game would be against Auburn in Piedmont Park in Atlanta on February 20th. The Black and Crimson finished their first football season with a record of 1-1.

Learn More:

• Athens Weekly Banner, Jan. 1891 - Jun. 1892 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Pictorial History of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• I've Seen 'Em All: A Half Century of Georgia Football by Charles E. Martin in the Heritage collection.
• Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Whittingham in the general collection.
• Chemistry at the University of Georgia by W. H. Waggoner in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Goat Handbook by Ulrich Jaudas in the general collection.
• Georgia Football History page on the UGA Athletic Association website.

4 December 1867: Charles Holmes Herty Is Born

On this day in 1867 in Milledgeville, Georgia, Charles Holmes Herty was born to Bernard and Louise Herty. He was raised in Athens by an aunt. As a chemist, he would revolutionize the turpentine and paper industry in Georgia, and in Athens, he would establish college football at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Herty graduated with a philosophy degree from UGA in 1886, then earned a doctorate in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1890. In 1891, he took a faculty position teaching chemistry with UGA, but also focused on the role of athletics at the college level. He was the University's first Faculty Director of Athletics, and started the first football squad in 1892. He coached the team that year, then went on to help create the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1894, a forerunner to the modern Southeastern Conference.

In 1902, Dr. Herty left UGA after a dispute with department head, Dr. H. C. White, and took a position with the Bureau of Forestry at the United States Department of Agriculture.While there, he created and patented the "cut and gutter system" for collecting turpentine. His system revolutionized the industry by extending the life of the tapped trees, collecting more and higher quality gum for turpentine creation, and preserving the tree so it could be used for lumber once it was tapped out.

In 1916, Dr. Herty took another research and teaching position at the University of North Carolina, and later became an industrial consultant in the late 1920s. In 1932, he established a pulp and paper laboratory in Savannah, where he proved that pine was a viable source for pulp that could be made into newsprint. Using pine for paper helped revitalize the Southern agriculture industry, still suffering from the devestating effects of the boll weevil and the Great Depression.

Dr. Herty received many honorary degrees over the course of his career, served as president of multiple scientific associations, and directed research divisions of the Georgia Department of Forestry. In 1933, the Georgia section of the American Chemical Society created the Charles H. Herty Medal, awarded to a researcher in the Southeast "to give public recognition to the work and service of outstanding chemists." In 2000, Dr. Herty was inducted into the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame, and in 2001, the American Chemistry Society designated his Savannah laboratory a National Historic Chemical Landmark. He even has a Facebook fan page in Chinese.

Charles Herty died in Savannah in 1938, at the age of 70. He is buried in Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville.


Learn More: 

• The University of Georgia under Sixteen Administrations, 1785-1955 by Robert Preston Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• Chemistry at the University of Georgia by W. H. Waggoner in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Turpentine Industry in the United States by Charles H. Herty in Volume 181 of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, via GoogleBooks.
• A Chemist's Discovery Breathes New Life into the Old South on the ACS website.
• Paper from Pine. Chemistry: A New Chapter in Papermaking on the ACS website.
• History of Baldwin County, Georgia by Anna Maria Green Cook in the Heritage collection.
• The Charles H. Herty collection at the Georgia Historical Society.
• The Centennial History of Forestry in Georgia: A Pictorial History by Robert Lee Izlar in the Heritage and general collections.
•  From Seed to Pine Tree: Following a Life Cycle by Suzanne Slade in the children's collection.
• Looking for Longleaf: The Rise and Fall of an American Forest by Lawrence S. Earley in the general collection.
• Herty Foundation Advanced Materials Development Center website.

23 October 1897: Georgia Celebrates First of 60 Victories Over Georgia Tech Football Team with Shutout

On this day in 1897, Georgia Tech brought their football team to the Athens campus and lost to the University of Georgia team by a decisive score of 28-0. Three different players scored touchdowns in front of 600 fans gathered at Herty Field on North Campus. Kickoff was at 4pm, and admission to the game was 50 cents for adults, 25 cents for children.

The Athens Daily Banner proclaimed the game to be "a battle royal," noting the Tech players were "heavy and skilled" and Georgia's team "is in good shape for the fray." Georgia was coming off an undefeated (4-0) 1896 season, and had opened the schedule beating Clemson 24-0 the week before Tech came to town. It seemed a promising start to the first season for Coach Charles McCarthy, who had taken the reins from legendary coach Glenn "Pop" Warner that fall.

Though the 1897 game started slowly, luck went Georgia's way on some early plays, and they went into halftime with a 10-0 lead. The second half, however, was a rout, with Georgia steadily running through the Tech line to score 18 points. At the time, a touchdown was worth only four points, and point-after kicks were worth two.

It was the second meeting between the two teams, the first coming in 1893 when a brawl amongst the fans spilled into a fight on the field, causing the Tech players to eventually flee to their specially chartered railcars and locking the doors behind them. In the weeks following, allegations of cheating and other misbehavior filled the Athens and Atlanta newspapers, and it was thought best that the teams refrain from contests until tempers had cooled. By 1897, faculty and administration at the schools thought it would be safe for the teams to meet again.

The overall record for the game is in Georgia's favor, 60-37-5, with their biggest win so far a 51-7 victory in Sanford Stadium in 2002.


Learn More:

• Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate by Bill Cromartie in the Heritage and general collections.
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: Gridiron Grudge Since 1893 by John Chandler Griffin in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• Game Day: Georgia Football: The Greatest Games, Players, Coaches, and Teams in the Glorious Tradition of Bulldog Football (with introduction by Larry Munson) in the general collection.
• Echoes of Georgia Football: The Greatest Stories Ever Told by Ken Samelson in the general collection.
• Athens Daily Banner, Nov. 1894 - Nov. 3, 1898 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Weekly Banner, Feb. 1897 - Jul. 1898 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 2010 Georgia Bulldogs Football Media Guide on the Georgia Athletic Association website.

18 September 1901: Coach Harry Mehre Is Born

On this day in 1901, Harry Mehre was born in Huntington, Indiana. He would attend the University of Notre Dame from 1918-1922, playing lineman for legendary coach Knute Rockne, including undfeated seasons in 1919 and 1920. After a year of coaching and playing for the independent professional team, the Minneapolis Marines, Mehre was hired as an assistant coach at the University of Georgia by Bulldogs' head coach George "Kid" Woodruff. He started work in Athens on April 1st, 1924.

Former Notre Dame players for Rockne were in high demand in college football at the time, with many schools hoping to replicate the Irish's success using the Notre Dame Box, a variation of former Georgia Coach Pop Warner's single-wing formation that opened the game up for passing. It was, however, the Irish's defeat of Georgia Tech, 35-7, in 1923 that convinced Coach Woodruff to hire Notre Dame assistants, starting with Mehre in 1924, and followed in 1927 by Jim Crowley, one of the famous Four Horsemen.

After the 1927 season, Coach Woodruff left football to return to the business world and recommended Coach Mehre for the head coach position. Coach Mehre would lead the team for a decade, including the inaugural game at Sanford Stadium on October 29th, 1929 versus the Yale Bulldogs, a game called "one of the greatest football spectacles ever in the South." Southern governors traveled to Georgia for the event, and Athens was a city of celebration in the week leading up to the game. When the Yale team arrived, most of the city and student body was there to welcome them to town, and the Yale band marched up College Avenue, playing "Dixie" when they reached the review stand set up at City Hall. Georgia won the game 15-0.

During his tenure at UGA, the Bulldogs became a nationally known and ranked football team. They beat Yale five times in a row, and upset Fordham in 1936 when they were the favorites to play in the the Rose Bowl. A man of many talents, Coach Mehre filled in for Georgia's basketball coach, Herman Stegeman, in 1931, and handed revered University of Kentucky Coach Adolph Rupp his first loss as a Wildcat, with a 25-16 victory for the Bulldogs.

Coach Mehre's record at UGA was 59-34-6 when, in 1938, he took the head coach position at the University of Mississippi. In his first game as Coach, his Rebels beat the LSU Tigers 20-7 in Baton Rouge. During his eight years at Oxford, he won four games in a row over the LSU, a first for a Mississippi football team. In 1946, Coach Mehre retired from coaching and went into business. He later became a football analyst and sports columnist for the Atlanta Journal, and was a popular speaker at Touchdown Clubs around the south. He was known for his self-depreciating wit and ability to tell an hilarious story.

Coach Mehre wrote for the newspapers for 22 years, before going into retirement in the 1970s. He died on September 27, 1978 in Atlanta. On April 25, 1987, Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall opened on the University of Georgia campus, housing athletic offices, facilities, and a Bulldog sports museum that is open to the public.

Much thanks to Loran Smith at the Georgia Athletic Association for his assistance to the author in writing this article.

Learn More:

• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• Dan Magill's Bull-Doggerel: Fifty Years of Anecdotes from the Greatest Bulldog Ever in the general collection.
• Leading a Bulldog's Life by Jack Troy in the Heritage collection.
• Echoes of Georgia Football: The Greatest Stories Ever Told by Ken Samelson in the general collection.
• I've Seen 'Em All: A Half Century of Georgia Football by Charles E. Martin in the Heritage collection.
• History of the University of Georgia by Thomas Walter Reed on the Digital Library of Georgia website.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
  
• Rockne: The Coach, The Man, The Legend by Jerry Brondfield in the biography collection.
• Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Whittingham in the general collection.
• Oh, How They Played the Game: The Early Days of Football and the Heroes Who Made It Great by Allison Danzig in the general collection.
  
• Football for Young Players and Parents by Joe Willie Namath in the general collection.
• Football: Rules of the Game by Bryant Lloyd in the children's collection.
• Football Rules Illustrated by George Sullivan in the general collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, September 21 - October 31, 1978 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
  

20 February 1892: Georgia and Auburn Play First Football Game

On this day in 1892, the University of Georgia met Auburn (then the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) in Piedmont Park in Atlanta for a "game of foot ball [sic]." Each school sent a delegation of fans and players in decorated train cars, had a pep rally with each side giving "their respective college yells in grand style," then paraded to the grand stand at the park.

As Georgia Tech did not yet have its own team, the Athens Weekly Banner reported that "the Technological school was out in force wearing the colors of the University and aiding the lung gang by vigorous use of cow bells." The score was tied 0-0 at the half, and the second half, marked by heavy rain, produced a final score of Auburn 10, Georgia 0.

Football was a new sport in the South, having finally become more recognizable as a distinct venture from its roots in soccer and rugby in the 1880s. Much of the excitement attached to Georgia and Auburn fielding teams had to do with the status of football as created by Walter Camp at Yale and embraced by the other Ivy League schools. The game was arranged by Georgia chemistry professor Charles H. Herty and Auburn history professor George Petrie, who had each organized teams at their respective schools using Walter Camp's guidelines. They had learned the game while both were graduate students at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The February game was Auburn's first football game, and Georgia's second, the University having beat Mercer at Herty Field in Athens three weeks earlier by a score of 50-0. Between 2,000 - 3,000 people attended the game at Piedmont Park, with tickets 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children. It was Atlanta's first experience with college football, and in the weeks leading up to the meeting, the city's papers explained the new sport to their readers as well as hyping the game by noting that "Atlanta is wild over the matter."

The game is now "the longest continuous football rivalry in the South." With only a few exceptions, primarily due to player death or world war, Georgia has played Auburn every year since 1894, typically in mid-to-late November. It wasn't until 1959 that the game moved to alternating home campuses. In the 1980s, Georgia was coached by former Auburn player Vince Dooley, and Auburn was coached by former Georgia All-American Pat Dye; both are members of the College Football Hall of Fame. It is also one of the closest rivalries in the South: Auburn currently leads the series 53-52-8, but Georgia has scored 56 more points over the decades.

Learn More:

• Athens Weekly Banner, Jan. 1891 - Jun. 1892 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Southern Fried Football: The History, Passion, and Glory of the Great Southern Game by Tony Barnhart in the Heritage and general collections.
• Touchdown: A Pictorial History of the Georgia Bulldogs by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Oh, How They Played the Game: The Early Days of Football and the Heroes Who Made It Great by Allison Danzig in the general collection.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• University of Georgia Football History web page.