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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 19
Thursday, April 19, 2007
From Kelley’s Boys to Bulldogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While driving by the YMCA playing fields on Hawthorne Avenue in Athens recently, I saw where the Athens Y, the nation’s third oldest, is celebrating its 150th anniversary on Saturday.
The Athens Y holds a special place in UGA athletics history for a number of reasons, including being the original home of the Georgia swimming teams (back when it was downtown at Broad and Lumpkin, before moving the current location in 1967). But mostly the Athens Y served as a developer of football talent for old Athens High School, with many of those players moving on to UGA.
Under the tutelage of the late Coburn F. Kelley (known to a couple of generations of Athens boys as just “Kelley”), such future college and NFL players as Fran Tarkenton, Billy Gambrell (an exception in that he went to South Carolina instead of UGA), Jake Scott and Andy Johnson started putting on the pads and scoring touchdowns at the Y when they were as young as 6.
Former AHS coach Weyman Sellers, whose program was a powerhouse in the 1950s and ’60s, once said that Kelley often tipped him off to promising young talent years ahead of time. The Athens Y program was quite successful on the field, with the 12-and-under team that featured Jake Scott at halfback winning the Pop Warner League national championship in the late 1950s, beating a team from York, Pa.
And for many years fans arriving early for Bulldog games at Sanford Stadium got to see Kelley’s Boys, as they were known, making great memories by getting to play before the big game on the UGA field.
Chatting with Loren Smith last year for the Athens Banner-Herald, Tarkenton said he was “grateful for my Y experience. No YMCA or high school team ever had a bigger stage than we did by playing our games in Sanford Stadium.”
Saturday’s anniversary festivities get under way at 11 a.m. at the Y on Hawthorne, with an open house featuring tours, live music and food from the Varsity.
BULLDOG PRIDE: It’s not often you can find a connection between the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and UGA athletics, but this year’s prize winner, announced this week, is UGA grad Natasha Trethewey, now a professor at Emory University. Not only did she get her undergraduate degree at UGA, but she served as head cheerleader during her senior year. Let’s send a couple of big woof-woofs her way!
COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF: I got a note recently from former Bulldog Matt Stinchcomb: “Wanted to thank you again for helping us in promoting last year’s Countdown to Kickoff children’s charity event, and wanted to let you know it will be held on July 7 this year. I will have more specifics soon, but we are making it bigger and better, and have added another charity, Children’s Tumor Foundation. Thanks again Bill, we appreciate all that you did, and hope we can build on the effort again this year!” Last year’s event was a lot of fun (despite the brief thunderstorm in the middle of it), and was a great opportunity to chat with Bulldog players, past and present, and get autographs. Mark July 7 down on your calendar and plan a trip over to Athens to get yourself pumped for the coming season.
SIGNATURE EVENTS: A new outfit that two former UGA players are involved in, Sic ‘Um Dog Signatures, has held a couple of recent paid autograph signings and has plans to get into the sports memorabilia business. The company is co-owned by Dan Everett and former UGA running backs Des Williams and Danny Ware. I asked Everett, a Georgia Southwestern chemistry grad who now works as an engineer at Power Partners in Athens, how it came about. “Des, Danny, and I have been very good friends for about a year,” he said. About two months ago Des and I realized that we (especially himself and Danny) have so many connections that we could easily start a memorabilia business and could get really good deals since everyone who signed for us knows the two of them.” They began their online business (www.sicumdogsignatures.com) at the beginning of March and so far have had a couple of signings (including one with Kenny and David Irons of Auburn). The next one is Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Nordstrom wing at Mall of Georgia. Among those set to participate besides Williams and Ware, Everett said, are Quentin Moses, Tra Battle, Dan Inman, Ray Gant and Mario Raley. (Current players aren’t used because that’s against NCAA rules.) “We have approximately two to three signings per month scheduled,” Everett said, with former UGA QB (and current Falcon) D.J. Shockley set to sign at Georgia Square Mall in Athens on May 5 and again on May 26 at Mall of Georgia. Everett also plans to sell items signed by such Georgia greats as Herschel Walker, Fran Tarkenton and the two Davids (Pollack and Greene) on the Web site, and he hopes to open a retail location in Athens in August 2008.
