ATHENS -- A lot has grown in the 30 years since Georgia’s national championship. The tales are taller, the stories are more exaggerated and the players are bigger, in more ways than one.
“Where’s [Eddie] Meat Cleaver [Weaver]?” former defensive end Freddie Gilbert said Saturday. “He went from 5-11 when he played to 6-feet now. All of a sudden. How’d that happen?”
There was plenty of reminiscing and ribbing this weekend as the players on Georgia’s 1980 football team got together for a reunion at the Atlanta Marriott Northwest on Friday night before being honored at halftime of Saturday’s game against Idaho State.
Herschel Walker, who is training for another MMA fight in San Jose, Calif., and defensive back Terry Hoage, who both were freshmen in 1980, were two of the notable absences, but Frank Ros said they usually have about 96 percent attendance at their reunions.
“The whole purpose of this is to bring all the guys back,” said Ros, a senior linebacker and team captain in 1980 who is now a Coca-Cola executive. “It’s a very special team and to be able to bring them together ... it’s a great time for us. We all revert back to being 22 again.”
The attendees Saturday included quarterback Buck Belue, receiver Lindsay Scott and offensive tackle Nat Hudson, all of whom were key figures in the biggest play of the season -- Belue’s 93-yard touchdown pass to Scott, set up by Hudson’s block, with 1:04 remaining -- that sent the Bulldogs past Florida 26-21.
Monday is the 30th anniversary of that game.
Georgia then defeated Auburn, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl to finish 12-0 and finish No. 1 in the polls.
“It’s an honor to be able to come back and reflect back on the memories with people we don’t see much,” said Belue, who hosts a radio sports talk show in Atlanta. “That’s special to me. And to be able to do it here is special because this is hallowed ground.”
Ros said: “It’s always special to be back between the hedges. To us, it’s very special because we won the only national championship that the University of Georgia has ever had.” (A championship in 1942 is recognized by the NCAA, but was not the Associated Press title.)
Friday night’s dinner and reunion provided plenty of time for the former teammates to get re-acquainted and see how much each had aged since their last get-together.
“I can believe it’s been 30 years because I was wondering how I was going to look, but everybody looks about like me. About 50,” said Tim Crowe, a sophomore defensive lineman in 1980 who is a firefighter in Athens. “We had a great time [Friday] night, and I can tell we’re getting older because we didn’t hang out as long. We all made it back to the rooms.”
And when the tales became too rough for young ears, Jeff Hipp, a senior safety who now runs a recruiting service in Columbia, laughed when he said he had to escort his 11-year-old daughter from the room.
“I’ll keep it clean, but the stories get a little bit more exaggerated and a little bit more PG-13,” he said.
Even though this year’s Georgia team is 5-5 after Saturday’s 55-7 victory, Hipp said he has a surefire way to shut up the South Carolina fans he’s had to put up with this fall.
“I just show them my [national championship] ring,” he said.
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