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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > June
June 2008
R.I.P.: A damn good Dog!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Uga VI died Friday night of a heart attack, the Savannah Morning News has reported.
The paper reported burial is planned for Sanford Stadium on Monday.
Plans had called for the white English bulldog mascot, who would have turned 10 years old in July, to have continued serving as the official UGA mascot in the upcoming football season.
The biggest of all the Uga mascots at 65 pounds, Uga VI was the first full-grown dog to take over as mascot in 27 years when he participated in a changing-of-the-collar ceremony with his movie star father, Uga V, on Sept. 11, 1999 at the Georgia-South Carolina game.
No word yet from UGA about the official succession, but it had been reported that the Sonny Seiler family of Savannah, owners of the Uga line, have an heir ready to take over as Uga VII
It’s just too bad the Bulldog Nation won’t get to say an official goodbye to a fine mascot.
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Bulldogs vs. Bulldogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Making the championship final of the College World Series against that other bunch of Bulldogs from Fresno State already has marked David Perno’s 2008 Diamond Dogs as really special.
But the UGA baseball coach and players aren’t just winners. They’re a class act, as my old high school buddy Dan (who’s now a judge, by the way) discovered last week.
Dan and his son spent the week in Omaha at a 13U baseball tournament and, while there, got to attend three CWS games, including Saturday’s big win over Stanford. But the best part of the trip, Dan says, was Thursday night. The North Gwinnett Bulldogs were dining in Anthony’s steakhouse when the UGA baseball team arrived. As they walked in, the kids from Gwinnett gave them a big ovation.
A few minutes later, Dan says, Coach Perno came back to find out who the kids were and spent time talking individually with the boys. Later, several of the UGA players, including Matt Cerione and Gordon Beckham, stopped by to talk with the young players and wish them well.
“Coach Perno, who left the banquet room two different times to come talk to the boys, and the players could not have been more gracious,” Dan says, “essentially interrupting their meal to give twelve 13-year-old boys the thrill of their trip (and two of the mothers, who started fanning themselves when Matt Cerione came in!)”
Dan sums it up: “No surprise to you, but the UGA baseball program is one class organization.”
Indeed.
Big woofs to Perno’s Pups!
BULLDOG BITES: ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel has compiled a list of four coaches and four players who transcend college football and remain relevant long after they left the game. Again, no surprise here but Georgia’s Herschel Walker made the list, along with Red Grange, Archie Griffin and Tommie Frazier. As Maisel says, no one combined size and speed in as forceful a manner as Herschel, the first really super freshman to make an impact. Another well-deserved kudo to the player Dan Magill dubbed the “goal line stalker.” … Georgia’s two national champions (so far) this season, the Gym Dogs and the men’s tennis team, will be at the White House on Tuesday to meet the president as part of Championship Day. It’s been quite a year for UGA athletics. And it ain’t quite over yet!
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Give it up for Diamond Dave
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I realize that there’s a vocal faction in the online portion of the Bulldog Nation that doesn’t really care about any sport other than football, but I can’t imagine anyone who professes to be a UGA fan who could have watched the ninth inning of Georgia’s College World Series upset of No. 1 Miami live on ESPN Saturday night and not been whooping and hollering just as if Knowshon Moreno had just busted another long TD.
The only thing that would have made it better would have been if it was in front of the right-field crazies at Foley Field.
It’s nice to see that in the midst of this year’s run by the Diamond Dogs that coach David Perno is finally getting some media attention and respect. Maybe the bad-every-other-year nature of the Bulldogs in recent times has something to do with it, but up to now Perno has definitely been overlooked. Taking his team to a third College World Series in five years makes a serious statement, though, and merits Damon Evans and his boss shaking loose some of those big profits UGA athletics makes to reward Perno and provide his program with any upgrades it needs.
And while we’re at it, a tip of the cap to Ron Polk, who in his brief stay in Athens made UGA a force to be reckoned with in baseball.
SOME FOOTBALL INTERNET FUN: My brother Tim sent me this recently, and unlike most SEC sports-related stuff that gets forwarded around folks’ e-mail in-boxes, this one not only is suitable for reprinting, but manages to be funny and show some knowledge of the conference and world affairs at the same time. Hard to believe it originated in Alabama, but that’s what it looks like, though nobody seems to know who wrote it. It’s been bouncing around the Internet for several months now, but for those of you who haven’t yet seen it, here it is:
The SEC as the Middle East:
ALABAMA: Saudi Arabia. Once a proud kingdom, torn up by fighting and surrounded by Iran and Iraq (see below), with someone in Al-Qaeda hell bent on bringing them down.
LSU: Iran. Current superpower in the region but it will all come crashing down because they have a highly functioning retard as a leader.
TENNESSEE: Iraq. Got a bunch of history but the country as a whole is going in the tank and they will kill themselves off before it is all over.
FLORIDA: Syria. Evil punks who will stoop to whatever level they need to win. No real history to speak of but thinks they are the cradle of civilization.
GEORGIA: Kuwait. Tons of riches and unrealized potential, but still vulnerable to Iraq.
AUBURN: Al Qaeda. No country, just a movement of disgruntled fanatics who live to blow up those who are more fortunate. No other goal in life than to bring down the House of Saudi Arabia. Terrorizing the Arabians for 6 years is the crowning achievement in their history. Signing day was a major setback to the movement. They will be looking for a new leader soon.
ARKANSAS: Palestinian territories. No one really cares or worries about them unless they can be of some use (i.e. winning a battle once in a while against Iran that causes a bit of shake up in rankings)
MISSISSIPPI STATE: Qatar. Where is Qatar, anyway?
OLE MISS: Afghanistan. Not much going for it, but hot women.
VANDERBILT: Israel. Just leave them alone for God’s sake. What did they ever do to you?
KENTUCKY: Morocco. Not really part of the Middle East. Has other things to do than fight (or play football)
SOUTH CAROLINA: Libya. Has a charismatic leader in a land of nothingness. Will rattle his sword but knows he does not have a whole heck of a lot to back it up with.
That’s it. Again, the writer definitely seems to betray a Crimson Tide orientation, but some of the entries are pretty clever. I don’t really think Kuwait is a suitable choice for UGA, though. I’d say United Arab Emirates would be closer: Rich in resources and home to a bunch of millionaires to be.
POOCH KICKS: I don’t think there was ever any doubt of this, but for those of you who need reassurance that the football Dawgs will be back in black, Mark Richt told the Greater Augusta Bulldog Club recently that although he gave last year’s black jerseys to the players after the bowl game, more have been ordered “so I’m sure we’ll see them again.” … Interesting to see Georgia State’s new football coach, Bill “Bring the cheaters to their knees” Curry, hailed as an inspired choice along the lines of Erk Russell. Curry has been a lot of things, including a good NFL center, a polished inspirational speaker, an apparently upright and honest man (though priggish and sanctimonious at times) … and a decent football coach, at least during a couple of years at Tech and at Alabama. But Erk Russell was a towering folk figure beloved at two schools who consistently managed to get more out of his players than anyone had a right to expect and who had a hand in several national championships. Bill Curry is no Erk Russell.
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Doing it the hard way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More random thoughts of a Bulldog nature …
• It’s almost bizarre the way David Perno’s Diamond Dogs continue to follow patterns: great teams every other year, a penchant for winning NCAA tournaments the hard way by losing early and then having to move up through the losers bracket. So they’ve done it again, and in the sweetest way possible, dispatching the rivals from North Avenue in a pounding Monday night where a mercy rule would have been in order.
Now it’s a Super Regional at Foley Field in Athens, with North Carolina State the hurdle between UGA and another trip to the College World Series. They play at noon Friday and Saturday and, as they say, if necessary at 4 p.m. Sunday. Hey, this is Georgia baseball we’re talking about. The odds are pretty good they’ll be playing Sunday.
• It was good to see USA Today run a feature this week on what a baseball talent hotbed the state of Georgia has become in recent years. The paper noted the way Perno has built the UGA program on mostly in-state talent, and prominently featured were SEC pitcher of the year Josh Fields, who was named 2008 national stopper of the year Wednesday, and big-hitting shortstop Gordon Beckham, who’s one of five finalists for the Golden Spikes Award, given to the top amateur baseball player.
The recognition is particularly gratifying for Fields, who turned down a chance to sign with the Braves last year in order to play one more year in Athens. If that happened more often, maybe UGA’s every-other-season success rate would skip the off years.
• You can’t sum up the current state of the athletic rivalry between the Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets (and the shift in state dominance in baseball) better than did a banner some students erected on the Kudzu Hill fence overlooking Foley Field Monday: “Give us your lunch money, nerds.”
• The Athens Banner-Herald had a story the other day on former Redcoat Band member Lloyd Winstead, who turned up a rare piece of sheet music for Georgia’s original school fight song, which is so old and forgotten that even Dan Magill and Fred Birchmore don’t remember it. It’s called “Red and Black March” and was written in 1908 by R.E. Haughey, who was director of what at the time was called the University Cadet Band.
Winstead, associate director of UGA’s Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts, said he sent a copy to the Redcoat Band’s director “to see if it’s something the band could play.” Well, one factor in its favor is that it doesn’t mention a certain former athletic director in the title, so perhaps it won’t get on Mikey Adams’ banned list like “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs.”
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