Larry Munson: A life in photos

Sports

Larry Munson: A life in photos

The life and career of Larry Munson, the legendary radio announcer of University of Georgia football for more than 40 years.

Larry Munson, the radio voice of University Georgia football for more than 40 years, was one of the most beloved figures of "Bulldog Nation" because of his famous calls of some of the school's most memorable games.

"If you ask the average Georgia fan who best represents the spirit of Georgia football, it wouldn't be a player or coach," former Bulldogs quarterback and coach Ray Goff said. "It would be Larry Munson."

Munson's call of the end of the 1975 Georgia-Florida game on an 80-yard fleaficker touchdown play was was richly loaded with the kind of phrasing and descriptiveness that fans would savor over the years. "Appleby! The end around! Just stopped, planted his feet, and threw it! And Washington caught it! Thinking of Montreal and the Olympics, and ran out of his shoes down the middle . . . Gator Bowl rocking! Stunned! The girders are bending!"

Born in Minneapolis in 1921, Munson used GI benefits from his World War II service to go to broadcasting school, then made his way south to Nashville, calling minor league baseball and Vanderbilt football and basketball games.

He arrived in Atlanta in 1966 as part of the relocated Braves radio team, but he soon headed to Athens to call UGA games after Ed Thelinius left to join the Atlanta Falcons. "I had no idea then that he would become a legend," said UGA sports publicist and historian Dan Magill.

In 1980, Herschel Walker, playing in his first college game, set the tone for a magical season by the Bulldogs, punctuated by another famous call in a UGA win at Tennessee. "My God Almighty, he ran right through two men! Herschel ran right over two men! He drove over those orange shirts and is just driving and running with those big thighs! My God, a freshman!"

But perhaps Munson's most famous call was later in that year, when the Bulldogs again pulled out an improbable win over Florida, on a 92-yard pass play between Buck Belue and Lindsay Scott. "Run Lindsay! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott!" After a few moments, Munson might have incited already-delirious UGA fans in what would become a national championship season.

"This game has always been called the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Do you know what is going to happen here tonight and up in St. Simons and all those places where all those Dawg people have got these condominiums for four days? Man, is there going to be some property destroyed tonight."

UGA fans took to playing tapes of Munson's calls while tailgating before games. In the 1982 Auburn game that would result in an SEC title for the Bulldogs, Munson would rattle off enough lines to fill an album.

After exhorting the UGA defense to "hunker down" repeatedly, a scratchy-voiced Munson was exuberant, and relieved, as the Bulldogs carried coach Vince Dooley off the field following a win that clinched a Sugar Bowl berth. "Look at the Sugar falling out of the sky! Look at the Sugar falling out of the sky!"

Munson receiving a proclamation from then-Gov. Zell Miller on Larry Munson Day in 1997. "The great thing about Larry is that you never had to wonder where he stood or who he was pulling for," said Auburn radio announcer Rod Bramblett, who grew up listening to Munson. "The passion Larry has for Georgia you just can't fake. It's real and the Georgia people know it's real."

In the 2001 season, that passion flowed over famously again when the Bulldogs' Verron Hayes caught the game-winning touchdown pass at Tennessee with 10 seconds to play. "Touchdown, my God, a touchdown! My God Almighty, did you see what we did? . . . We just stepped on their face with a hobnail boot and broke their nose! We just crushed their face!"

Munson's head-scratching metaphor even took him by surprise, as he explained in a 2005 interview. "I didn't know what the hell a hobnailed boot was. It just came out. But then Furman Bisher [of the AJC] called and told me guys used them to climb trees. Who knew? I guess the Lindsay Scott call will always be No. 1, but I liked the hobnailed boot. That would be a close second."

Munson was an avid fisherman who had a fishing show when he was in Nashville. He called UGA basketball games from 1987-96 and from 1989-92 did double-duty during football season, calling Atlanta Falcons games the day after the Bulldogs played.

He was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and received the Chris Schenkel Award, which is given by the College Football Hall of Fame for career achievement in broadcasting.

Munson, here signing an autograph for Linda Hicks, said he never contrived any of the calls that endeared him to Georgia fans. "I didn't plan any of that stuff. It just came out. I was just calling what I saw and what I felt."

In 2006, Munson was the subject of a celebrity roast in Atlanta that included former UGA football coach and athletics director Vince Dooley, whose career in Athens closely paralleled that of the announcer. "I liked Larry but I never imagined at the time he would be with us for over 40 years. He had an incredible career."

In the 2007 season, declining health forced Munson out of the booth for the first time in four decades, as he called only UGA home games, with the exception of the game at Georgia Tech. He also missed his first Georgia-Florida game in 41 years.

In early 2008, Munson was unable to attend an Atlanta Sports Council event honoring him with the Furman Bisher Award for media excellence. "What can I tell you?" he said right before the dinner. "It's hell getting old."

"The thing I will always remember about Larry is the incredible bond he forged with the Georgia people," Dooley said. "There was a connection there that was hard to explain. I don't think we'll see another like him."

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Larry Munson, the radio voice of University Georgia football for more than 40 years, was one of the most beloved figures of "Bulldog Nation" because of his famous calls of some of the school's most memorable games.

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