Cemetery shows Bulldog fervor never dies

Athens —- Georgia football lettermen have always said, “Once a Bulldog, a Bulldog for life.” Now, it seems, that distinction can extend even into death.

The Georgia Football Lettermen’s Club is doing something that, insofar as anybody can tell, has never been done before even in the football-crazed Deep South. It will unveil to its membership Saturday the opening of “Bulldog Haven,” a designated area of burial plots within famous Oconee Hill Cemetery next to Sanford Stadium reserved for individuals who have lettered in football, UGA coaches and their families.

“Now a Bulldog can come full circle,” said Mack Guest, the club’s president and one of the founders of the project.

Longtime head coach and athletics director Vince Dooley was one of the first to sign up.

“It made [wife] Barbara and me finally make a decision,” said Dooley, who was born in Mobile and actually lettered in football at Auburn. “I never particularly wanted to talk about it, but after this opportunity presented itself, I couldn’t think of a better place to be. When you’ve spent 40-something years doing something, the idea of being with the people I was on the field with appealed to me.”

“Phase One” consists of 565 plots —- each plot is $1,500 —- and land is reserved for expansion. An elaborate entryway, known as Bulldog Haven Plaza, will include a rock wall simulating stadium steps, a scaled-down version of a football field, surrounding hedges, of course, and a replica chapel bell that is to be rung only on the occasion of a letterman’s passing.

The concept was the brainchild of Guest and several of his fellow lettermen. The inspiration came to them on March 16, 2006, as they attended the funeral of former Georgia great Bill Hartman in Oconee Hill Cemetery.

As part of Hartman’s interment ceremony, his family had an audio tape of Larry Munson re-enacting one of Hartman’s most famous touchdown runs played over the public address system of Sanford Stadium. Munson’s words were heard crystal clear in the cemetery just on the other side of East Campus Road. It was a stirring and emotional moment.

“That’s where it started,” said Guest, who lettered as an offensive lineman at Georgia and was team captain in 1978. “We were approximately 100 yards behind the stadium as a crow flies, and me, Andy Johnson, Leroy Dukes, Jack Davis and some other lettermen got to talking about how nice that he was laid to rest so close to the stadium you can hear the crowd on a fall Saturday.

“We thought, wouldn’t it be nice if every Georgia letterman had that privilege?”

Now they do.

Oconee Hill Cemetery, which opened in 1855, is one of the oldest burial grounds in Athens. Many of Georgia’s greats are already buried there, including Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich, Heyward Allen and longtime coach Wally Butts.

Dukes, a past club president, was one of the driving forces behind Bulldog Haven. He died this month and is buried in another area of Oconee Hill. Guest said Dukes’ family is considering having his remains moved to the lettermen’s area.

The project was made possible because of a unique partnership that existed between the Lettermen’s Club and the cemetery. They actually tailgate there —- at the front where there are no tombstones —- before every home game. The entrance to the Lettermen’s Club gathering room inside Sanford Stadium is just across the street.

So when Guest approached the cemetery’s board of trustees with the idea, they were more than happy to accommodate.

“Our relationship goes back years and years,” trustee Peter Hodgson said. “We operate on kind of a shoestring budget, and the lifeblood of a cemetery is plot sales. So when Mack came to us with the idea, we loved it. We’re all Bulldogs.”

The plots will be sold to lettermen, who can also purchase spaces for family members. The cost of $1,500 is about standard in this area of northeast Georgia. Of that, the cemetery will receive $1,350 for routine maintenance and upkeep. The other $150 goes to the club, which will apply it to the cost of building the plaza area. A landscape architecture firm, Beall & Co. of Watkinsville, came up with the plans for the memorial garden and has been retained for its construction as soon as the funds are available.

Kelin Johnson, a former safety who graduated from Georgia just last season, likes the idea but is not ready to commit.

“This is a great idea, a wonderful idea,” said Johnson, 23. “I’m from Florida, so it’s something I’d have to discuss with my family. I have to give them that respect. But being a Bulldog is an honor, just like a Navy SEAL or U.S. Army or something like that. It’s a good idea.”

Dooley had wrestled with the decision.

“I’m from Mobile and Barbara’s from Birmingham, so both of us are from Alabama,” he said. “But we decided a while ago that maybe it would be here. We’ve spent over 40 years here, raised our family here. But this forced us to make a decision not only to be here, but specifically where.”

Once a Bulldog, a Bulldog forever.

 SHANNON PEAVY / Staff
Map locates Oconee Hill Cemetery near Sanford Stadium. Inset map locates area of detail relative to Atlanta.