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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > September > 26 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USEvergreen memories, brown turf
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With another home game approaching Saturday (the last until Troy comes for homecoming in November), I got to thinking about how gameday has changed for me over the years. I’ve been a season ticket holder (sitting in the same seats!) since 1975, and I was in the student section during college, but before that I used to have different ways of getting in (including once when a cop my Dad knew let us in free at the main gate).
That freebie was a one-time thing, though. When my son and I were leaving the most recent home game, I pointed out the spot near the North end of the bridge that used to be the gate where cheap “high school” tickets to the games were sold early on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. Those tickets put you in the old end-zone bleachers but were only a dollar, as I recall.
However, after Vince Dooley put the football program on the rise, the high school tickets weren’t always available for sold-out big games. I needed a more sure way of getting inside the stadium, and as a junior high school student, the cost of a full ticket (about five or six bucks by then, I think) was more than my allowance could swing. I was kinda young for the crowd that sat by the railroad tracks back then, and the view from Sanford Bridge left a lot to be desired.
But my Dad was friends with the man who was in charge of distribution of souvenir programs at UGA games, and so I got on the list of kids (all boys at that time, I believe) who peddled the programs at home games.
It was a sweet deal. You actually got PAID to go to Georgia football games! Well, really, you got in free and you earned 10 cents for every program you sold (the price was a dollar, which was twice was the programs had sold for the previous season). Technically, after you’d finished selling for the day (only a few die-hards continued after kickoff), you were supposed to sit on the grassy hill on the North side. But many of us preferred to try and find an empty seat somewhere in the stands, and it usually wasn’t too hard. I managed to see some games from the 40- or 50-yard-line of the lower level that way!
You’d pick up your programs the afternoon before the game at the gate next to Memorial Hall. The programs were bound in cellophane in packets of 25 and you could take as many as you thought you could sell (and wanted to lug around). Generally, I’d take 50 for regular games and 100 for Homecoming or a game against a big rival. (Some sellers took many more than that; you turned back in any you didn’t sell.) The routine was that my Dad would drop me off in the vicinity of the stadium mid-morning Saturday (this is when game time was 2 p.m.) and I’d sell until just before kickoff. I usually managed to sell out, but that wasn’t the main point of the exercise. It was to get in to the games!
By then, the UGA programs were entirely locally produced and seemed to have more interesting articles in them than the ones today that go for six times the price. In earlier years, the programs mostly had featured generic football artwork that probably appeared on hundreds of game programs around the country. But by the mid-1960s, the Georgia programs had nice full-color pictures of UGA players and coaches on the covers, like they do now.
All of which ties in to the new Vintage Georgia Football 2008 Calendar from Asgard Press that I got the other day, featuring a different cover of a vintage UGA football program for every month. I’d been buying the usual UGA calendars (featuring recent players) for years but by accident stumbled across the 2007 Asgard calendar in an Athens bookstore last year. Its eye-catching cover sported the cover of the program from the Sanford Field Stadium (as it was called at the time) dedicatory game with Yale (complete with bulldog mascots for both teams). There also were programs from the 1930s on up to the 1964 game against Kentucky, which had a pretty cheerleader and Uga I on the cover.
The programs come from UGA’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and each month’s 11” x 14” cover is perforated at the top so you can remove it and frame it if you like. This year’s calendar doesn’t have any games quite as notable as the one against Yale, but it does have the program from the 1979 game against LSU that marked the stadium’s 50th anniversary (and incorporated those matching bulldogs from the original cover). Other games include Texas in 1957, Stetson in 1934, Clemson in 1945, Boston College in 1951 plus regular SEC opponents and the program cover from the 1929 game against Tech. A new addition this year is a notation of the date and place of each game (one from Jacksonville is included) and the final score of the game that day.
Alison Trimble of Asgard tells me the 2008 calendars are available in several Athens area stores, including the University Bookstore on campus. You also can buy them or get more information at www.vintagedawgs.com.
TURF ALERT: I was disturbed to read the Athens Banner-Herald report earlier this week that, in keeping with a strict watering ban that went into effect Sept. 17 in Athens, UGA groundskeepers no longer will water campus lawns and athletic fields, including the one at Sanford Stadium. North Campus already is hurting from all the tailgating that’s moved up there in the past couple of years, and barring enough rain, Sanford groundskeeper Paul “Waldo” Terrell said the stadium’s green turf could start to fade by this Saturday’s game. By the next game in November it could be a brown, torn-up mess. Not only will it look bad, Terrell told the ABH, its playability will be affected. The field’s base is sand, and without water the sand gets dry and loose. So turf could start coming out in chunks as it’s played on and compromising players’ footing. If the field gets torn up too badly, the entire turf may have to be replaced by next season, which could cost about $100,000. I’m all for UGA showing solidarity with the Athens community, but that seems a mighty expensive proposition. Surely someone in President Michael Adams’ office can get a waiver from the watering ban to prevent having to replace the entire field!
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Comments
By JB
September 26, 2007 4:31 PM | Link to this
Uh, yawn……Buy some water in a tractor trailer water truck and WATER THE DAMN FIELD… GEEZ
By STephen
September 26, 2007 4:59 PM | Link to this
SURELY Michael Adams would find a way for the field to be watered.
I HATE HIM
By Wes
September 26, 2007 5:10 PM | Link to this
Do we not have a game on Saturday? The most important thing to talk about right now is grass?
By Wozzo the Wonder Dog
September 26, 2007 5:24 PM | Link to this
If you had Mike Adams lie down on the field, hundreds of thousands of dawgs would be glad to water it — but that would kill the grass even faster.
By Ft Worth Dawg
September 26, 2007 5:26 PM | Link to this
All this talk about grass makes me think this is a Georgia Tech football blog.
By bug
September 26, 2007 5:50 PM | Link to this
good one….worthless dog
By Cuz
September 26, 2007 6:14 PM | Link to this
Get a pump, get a fire hose. After almost falling in Sanford creek at the USC fiasco, pump the sucker dry and water the dang grass. This is Agronomy not Rocket Science, save that for the Flats.
By Greg
September 26, 2007 7:00 PM | Link to this
That field has already been showing some disturbing signs in the first couple of games. Huge chunks of sand and grass were getting kicked up at times.
By Greg
September 26, 2007 7:00 PM | Link to this
That field has already been showing some disturbing signs in the first couple of games. Huge chunks of sand and grass were getting kicked up at times.
By Buck in the NW
September 26, 2007 7:50 PM | Link to this
This has all been very interesting, you know, watching paint dry, grass turn Brown…..This must be our open week-end, right?
By Cuz on the Savannah
September 26, 2007 8:31 PM | Link to this
Okay poser, you are not Buck. You could do better if you followed him more. Guess you are the same guy who poses as General Neyland. You pathetic piece of trash. Go back to your Brittney Spears watching.
By Buck in the NW
September 26, 2007 9:08 PM | Link to this
cuz, was it that bad? The column didn’t give us mush to talk about and that was my point. Great Lordy, I’m really slipping! I’ll still be at the “Party”, rib and all
By AllenWaters
September 26, 2007 9:39 PM | Link to this
Why is the UGA - Ole Miss game not televised? Georgia beat Alabama and the Rebels fell just short of the Gators. No pay per view either? I look forward to being in Sanford Stadium this Saturday!
By Clay
September 26, 2007 9:54 PM | Link to this
I guess UGA was passed over after the SC loss and the win last week was too late to change things. There is no Pay-Per-View because—with the SEC TV contract—each team only gets one daytime Pay-Per-View per season and UGA used theirs on Western Carolina. UGA could have night time Pay-Per-View, but Georgia does not like night games. I will be in the stadium myself, so hopefully those who don’t make it in will be able to keep up on the radio.
By Xenophon
September 26, 2007 11:04 PM | Link to this
Jesus H. Christ, King. You need to get a life. Get out more often. Travel. See Italy. Go to a museum or something. Whew!
By AllenWaters
September 26, 2007 11:27 PM | Link to this
Why is the UGA - Ole Miss game not televised? Georgia beat Alabama and the Rebels fell just short of the Gators. No pay per view either? I look forward to being in Sanford Stadium this Saturday
By fjf
September 26, 2007 11:45 PM | Link to this
Water the field…that is the MOST ridiculous thing I have ever heard.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 12:08 AM | Link to this
Somebody consult the college of Agriculture, they have been waiting patiently for this day to arrive. Go now brothers and prove your worth. The rest of you Arts and Science’s queens may think you are tuff stuff but the Ag baby aint no drag. Get on the good hoof.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 12:17 AM | Link to this
The reason Ole Miss and the Dawgs are not televised is that the Ole Miss band might play Dixie, Now we can’t have that, it might offend people of the Northern persuasion. And others of various offendend cultures.
Hey, I am a card carrying redneck. I get offended everyday, don’t care. It is not what you think of me, it is what I think of me that matters. Cast your slings and arrows, the Lord is my rock and refuge. And no, I do not think that skin color makes a dam where a person is concerned, content, content of character. Has anyone seen my old friend Martin, I saw him walking with Abraham, Bobby and John.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 12:22 AM | Link to this
If Mike Adams was just a little as smart as he thinks he is, he would have asked the College of Agriculture, I think they have gone PC and added Environmental in there somewhere, to solve the Sanford stadium dilema. Heck I figured it out three ways already, and I graduated over twenty-five years ago. All but one are legal. The illegal one has to do with Mike Adams and a flush toilet. Well at least he gets a nice hairdo before Homecoming.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 12:29 AM | Link to this
The problem is water. Get a permit to pull water out of the Oconee, run hoses to the stadium. Connect it to the sprinklers. So dam easy I could have done this in my sleep. Bunch of dam beaurecrats can’t figure out krap because they have to see what the manual tells them to do. Thank God I am private sector. Thirty years ago I was part of the UGA beauracracy, I got out because common sense was not common.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 12:33 AM | Link to this
What a bunch of Maroons. So sayeth Bugs Bunny. Guess I need to call the college of Agriculture tommorrow, Mike”the demi-god Adams won’t”. Get off your high horse, you aint that tall.
By BJOHNDAWG
September 27, 2007 12:37 AM | Link to this
Are we going to have to go to Sam’s Club and everybody buy a case of Desani or Aquafina or god forbid that nasty tasting Deer Park bottled water and deliver it to the Stadium?
Not watering the field.Jeez this sounds like some logic from Tech.
I am embarassed.Water the damn field for Pete’s sake.This is football damn it.We can worry about drinking water later.Hell we can just start drinking our bourbon straight for a change.
Just because we lost to Carolina does not mean we cannot be men.
And Please Bill. I know MR will not let you guys into practice, but do you have to fill your column with yesteryear tales of going to the game. If you do, then I am going to have to start blogging about having to walk 5 miles in the snow to get to school down in south Georgia.How my dad would not let me listen to the Ga games on the radio or watch on TV because he did not like sports so I had to hike through 10 miles of dense brush to get to the 7-11 to listen to Larry on the road. Dude…please do some journalism…some reporting.Give someone a bill to find out what is going on in practice.Hire a spy:>) Just kidding.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 12:45 AM | Link to this
Mike you are a dingbat. You do not know it all. Ask for advice when you cannot come up with an answer. That is how we make it in the real world. You would never make it in the private sector. Napoleans do not survive, they meet their Waterloo real fast. Call the Ag school and ask for help. Otherwise you will be giving flowers to the Homecoming Queen on a brown field. Brown does not accentuate your color. Don’t forget the photo op.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 12:55 AM | Link to this
BJohn, you pore soul. How many band-aids did you need to cover up the scars. And all I had to do was sit in the car with the windows rolled down to listen to the AM radio. When I was real young, I would nap in the back while the men in the front would pass around a bottle of adult soda, so they told me, and cheer the dawgs on. Please don’t tell me you had to fight off South Georgia gators also just to hear the precious words, Washington just got ten and we are knocking on their door. Precious memories, how they linger.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 2:07 AM | Link to this
Bill check out the Alzhimers ward at St. Marys. One of the first clues is that you can remember past memories clear as a bell but have no concept of the present. Read your last few blogs, you may understand or get someone to explain them to you.
By shane
September 27, 2007 2:43 AM | Link to this
find the county agent from fulton that handles buckhead,i am sure those estates have nice green lawns.he will be glad to help,even though he is probably an auburn man.what do you get when you cross an auburn grad and a gorrilla?a hairy county agent!
By RTB
September 27, 2007 7:11 AM | Link to this
Your comments about GA programs stirred memories of when I sold programs at GA games in the 50’s. I would pickup the programs after school Friday afternoon from Mr. Whitehead in a building near the arch. After supper I would hitchhike to the Varsity where excitement was in the air with cries of those selling programs and pennants, badges, etc. I remember one game in particular (Maryland game) where I was selling programs at Five Points on the corner by Red Sailor’s Gulf station—right where fans arrived from down around Macon. A bus stopped, the door opened and someone yelled, “Do you want to sell your programs? We’ll buy all you got.” I got on the bus and they did buy me out. I rode with them to the stadium, walked up to the top of the north stands and picked up more programs from Mr. Whitehead. When I first started selling programs they were .25 cents each (I made 3 cents). Then the price went up to .35 cents (of which I made 5 cents). You would always look forward to the Tech game where you got rich. To me, Athens has never been the same since the downtown Varsity shut down.
By Carlton Powell
September 27, 2007 8:49 AM | Link to this
Water the damn field. I agree with Cuz. Hell, the stadium sits right on top of a creek which probably has a deep water table. Drill a 100’well, get a pump, and water the damn field. There, that solution took all of 5 seconds. The whole deal could be completed within a day, I bet. That’s if all the dumb-assed bureaucrats at UGA stopped “talking” about it, and “just did it.” My question is why isn’t the field currently being watered this way?? Bermuda is the turf of choice in our hot, humid weather. Bermuda turf does very well in a sandy-based soil,but it does require proper watering and maintenance. Quit talking and get to work. Cuz, are you in the turf business?? You seem to know a lot about these issues. Let me know. BTW, how’s your daughter??
By BigNCDawg
September 27, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this
Bill I grew up in Athens and love your mention of DAWG history on occasion.
Anybody that is a good DAWG is a friend of mine so go easy on Bill.
Ole Miss. will not score more than 17 points on us. If we can score 20 or more we win easily.
By ARdawg
September 27, 2007 10:21 AM | Link to this
I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination but I’m pretty damn sure it takes water to grow grass.Thats the way it is. I didn’t just make that up. Football is supposed to be played on grass. Why on God’s green (light brown) earth doesn’t someone take a hold of and rectify this trivial situation?
By gdawginkalamazoo
September 27, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this
Bill, reminds me of the game where Willie McClendon set the all time SEC rushing mark. My brother and I were sitting in the upper deck, our parents had lower level seats. Anyhoo, to make a long story longer, my brother and I shredded our program and flew paper airplanes off the upper deck the entire game. Must of been a VMI or Richmond game. Rememeber that Richmond spider mascot with the flourescent orange legs and blue gut? Since we are throwing old stories out there that would be my program story.
By Noyellowinthisblood
September 27, 2007 10:45 AM | Link to this
Speaking of old stories, I stopped betting college football when we lost to vandy in 1994. A poor college kid can’t afford to lose 100 on game day.
By gdawginkalamazoo
September 27, 2007 10:57 AM | Link to this
Bill, I am with NC Dawg I like the nostalgic stories. IN THE OFF SEASON. They help me get through the summer. We THIS SEASON to get us through the season.
By Cuz
September 27, 2007 11:23 AM | Link to this
Carlton, I just have an Ag degree from the University of Georgia. I worked on the family farm before, during and after college. Then I went to work for Gold Kist after I got blasted by the family for living in Athens, chasing slow women and being a supervisor for the bus department. A typical South Georgia farmer could solve this problem in half a day. Someone find a center pivot irrigation system to go along with my pump. Has anybody but me seen Sanford creek. It won’t hurt anyone to drain it.
Hello, is anybody in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences(I hated it when they added the PC krap to the name)listening.
By Bill
September 27, 2007 12:23 PM | Link to this
Great idea! Only thing, the Mighty Oconee has no water.
By Noyellowinthisblood
September 27, 2007 12:30 PM | Link to this
Speaking of old stories, I stopped betting college football when we lost to vandy in 1994. A poor college kid can’t afford to lose 100 on game day.
By Carlton Powell
September 27, 2007 1:10 PM | Link to this
Cuz, no such thing as “JUST” an Ag degree. That stuff is no joke. Took a couple of classes in Commodity finace in the College of Ag. Enjoyed them, but tough. Think we ought to put together a proposal to get the field irrigated?? I know a couple of guys with equipment sufficient to do the job. Find it unbelievable the “powers that be” can’t figure this problem out.
By WhiteAndGold
September 27, 2007 1:13 PM | Link to this
I have a solution! After all you ‘necks get drunk off of your Budweiser, you could p** it back on the field. You know the best thing about Sanford Stadium? IF you trimmed the “weeds” around the playing field you might just find a kiddie pool or a transmission or maybe a frame of a car on concrete blocks.
By Carlton Powell
September 27, 2007 1:26 PM | Link to this
WhiteAndGold, Have you NEVER been to Grant Field?? I remember the first time I went there, the floors in the restrooms were dirt. To make fun of Sanford Stadium just shows what a fool you really are. BTW, do all you techsters have to report early your freshman year to learn how to be so obnoxious?? Or, were you raised that way?? At one point in time, you might have had a spot at the “cool kids” lunch table for academics, but no more. Know it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but there it is. I hope you are a student at Tech and just being juvenille. If not, you’ve a rough road to hoe. Talk intellegently, not foolishly.
By Noyellowinthisblood
September 27, 2007 1:40 PM | Link to this
“Whiteandgoldylocks” that may be the most creative comment yor pea sized brain has ever come up with. Now don’t you have a comic book to read.
By ATL Dawg
September 27, 2007 2:27 PM | Link to this
Where can I watch the UGA / Ole Miss game? Clemson stomping Tech is on ABC but no one picks up the Dawgs…that’s insane. Someone give me some info on where I can see it, there has to be some pay per view options.
By 59bulldawg
September 27, 2007 2:31 PM | Link to this
LOL! Wozzo … too funny … man … too funny!
By WhiteAndGold
September 27, 2007 2:41 PM | Link to this
Clemson stomping Tech? Hardly! We’re going to blow out your redneck cousins in Orange this weekend. As for UGAy and Ole P**, I think ya’ll should win, but it will be very close.
By 1eyedJack
September 27, 2007 2:47 PM | Link to this
Maybe WhiteAndGold can get Tashard Choice aka Superman to fly out into space and bring back a small comet to water the field.
By WhiteAndGold
September 27, 2007 3:00 PM | Link to this
LOL 1eyedjack! That was pretty cute. Seriously, Tashard is going to run for over 200 on Clemson this weekend. His hamstring is healed with means disaster for the tigers. One day Knowshon Moreno might be as good as Tashard, but its going to take some time and better coaching.
By 1eyedJack
September 27, 2007 3:20 PM | Link to this
WhiteAndGold I suppose if he transferred to Tech that would make him instantly better.
By WhiteAndGold
September 27, 2007 3:38 PM | Link to this
1eyedjack, despite popular belief, I hold Moreno in high regard. He’s a good back. Tashard is in a class of his own though. I think you’ll see it after he and the rest of the Jackets dismantle Clemson this weekend. I think Moreno is potentially the best back ya’ll have had since Hurst. But anyway, Clemson is getting ready to walk into an A*******WHOOPIN in the hive!
By JamieDAWG
September 27, 2007 3:48 PM | Link to this
Look nerd, Im not going to say this again. NO ONE GIVES A FLYIN F* ABOUT GEORGIA TECH. GO AWAY AND STOP TALKING ABOUT TECH CRAP ON A DAWG BLOG! YOU ARE THE BIGGEST DOUCHEBAG I HAVE EVER HEARD OF! Move your tech rhetoric to the TECH board and dont come back.
Thanks,
The Management
By 7mmDawg
September 27, 2007 4:26 PM | Link to this
White and Gold, “IF you trimmed the “weeds” around the playing field you might just find a kiddie pool or a transmission or maybe a frame of a car on concrete blocks.”
I’m quite embarrassed to admit, especially as a member of FOC after only two posts, that you are probably quite correct as stated above. We’d definitely find the transmissions and frames under our beloved hedges. But, that is all that’s left of the Yacket nerd wagon from the dismantlings in 2006, 2004, and my favorite “wreck” moment, the 2002 (the 6:09 game ((hint for you, final was 51-7))).
By Ringleader
September 27, 2007 9:32 PM | Link to this
Well, the question is not why is the game not televised, beat Carolina and it is, but why is the kickoff at the antiquated 1PM…..why not 3 or 4 to give you a day of tailgate…….AU now does their non televised at 6
By Ringleader
September 27, 2007 9:32 PM | Link to this
Well, the question is not why is the game not televised, beat Carolina and it is, but why is the kickoff at the antiquated 1PM…..why not 3 or 4 to give you a day of tailgate…….AU now does their non televised at 6
By Grass Man
September 27, 2007 10:29 PM | Link to this
For what it’s worth it rained today in Athens so y’all can calm down about the turf. Athens had, prior to today’s rain, a water supply of about 4 1/2 weeks. That would have meant no water for the Troy game ie no toilets flushing, no ice, no nothing. Which would have meant no game, or best case no one allowed into the stadium, but the teams would still compete in front of empty stands.
By Gen Neyland
September 27, 2007 11:37 PM | Link to this
To replace my lawn may cost a pretty penny too. Luckily, I’m on a well I bought, had drilled and paid for to tap into the natural resources that lay under my goat farm. But I won’t try and save the pasture grass ‘cause the electricity to run the well pump is still purchased from the co-op that serves my hilltop. All this aside, if the field needs replacing in the future, the fine Georgia residents won’t mind y’all using tax dollars to pretty it up…He11, spray paint it green or blue and go on…
By Pepperdawg
September 28, 2007 9:36 AM | Link to this
Anybody know if the game is on PPV this weekend?
By Cuz
September 28, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this
Carlton, I took the same commodities class. I had to take the lower and upper class. Big fun back in the days. My final fall quater was 25 years ago. Wow time flys.
By WhiteAndGold
September 28, 2007 10:54 AM | Link to this
Anybody know if ya’ll will have another man-spooning tickle pile session if you beat Ole P** this weekend? I know Fat Matt would love to.
By will
September 28, 2007 1:02 PM | Link to this
Mike Adams is a hypocrital liberal. Someone needs to go by his house to look to see if his sprinklers are coming on in the dead of night. I bet they are.