As the late great college football announcer Keith Jackson, who was from Georgia but didn't go to either school, so he could broadcast this game with no bias whatsoever, said, about this rivalry and many others, "These two teams just... don't... like each other!"
Before You Go. Being well south of New York, Atlanta is usually warmer than we are. It also gets rather humid. They don't call it "Hot-lanta" just for its nightlife. However, this being early March, heat and humidity shouldn't be an issue.
Check the website of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (used to be 2 papers, now 1) before you go. Temperatures are projected as being in the low 60s on Saturday afternoon, and the low 40s at night. Rain is predicted for the morning, but should stop before kickoff. You might need a light jacket for later in the day, but not during the game.
Although Georgia, a.k.a. The Heart of the South, seceded from the Union in 1861, it was readmitted in 1870. You do not need a passport, and you don't need to change your U.S. dollars into Confederate money. And it's in the Eastern Time Zone, so you don't have to fiddle with your watch or your phone clock. Do keep in mind, though: They think you talk as funny as you think they do.
Tickets. The one sport that you know people in Georgia will sell the stadium out for is college football. This is especially true at Grant Field, where the official capacity is 55,000. But it's also true at Sanford Stadium, which seats nearly 93,000.
At the University of Georgia, tickets sell out well in advance, so if you want to see a game there, it'll have to be next season at the earliest. Those seats that are not snapped up by students and alumni are $55. At Tech, seats in the lower level are $75 on the sidelines and $55 in the ends, while they're $35 in the upper deck.
Getting There. Keep in mind, this will be Thanksgiving weekend. The normal travel rules may not apply, due to demand reducing the available seats and jacking up prices.
It's 868 miles from Times Square in New York to Five Points, Atlanta's center of attention; and 826 miles to Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. Knowing this distance, your first reaction is going to be to fly down there.
Google Maps says the fastest way from New York to Atlanta by road is to take the Holland Tunnel to Interstate 78 to Harrisburg, then I-81 through the Appalachian Mountains, and then it gets complicated from there.
No, the best way to go, if you must drive, is to take the New Jersey Turnpike/I-95 all the way from New Jersey to Petersburg, Virginia. Exit 51 will put you on I-85 South, and that will take you right into Atlanta.
You'll be in New Jersey for about an hour and a half, Delaware for 20 minutes, Maryland for 2 hours, inside the Capital Beltway (Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia) for half an hour if you're lucky (and don't make a rest stop anywhere near D.C.), Virginia for 3 hours, North Carolina for 4 hours, South Carolina for about an hour and 45 minutes, and Georgia outside I-285 (the beltway known as the Perimeter, the Atlanta Bypass or "the O around the A") for an hour and a half.
Throw in traffic in and around New York at one end, Washington in the middle, and Atlanta at the other end, and we're talking 16 hours. Throw in rest stops, preferably in Delaware, near Richmond, near Raleigh, and in South Carolina, and it’ll be closer to 19 hours. Still wanna drive? Didn't think so.
To Athens: Go as if you were going to Atlanta. But instead of taking I-85 all the way into Atlanta, get off at Exit 164 in Georgia, and take Georgia Route 106 into Athens.
You'll be in New Jersey for about an hour and a half, Delaware for 20 minutes, Maryland for 2 hours, inside the Capital Beltway (Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia) for half an hour if you're lucky (and don't make a rest stop anywhere near D.C.), Virginia for 3 hours, North Carolina for 4 hours, South Carolina for about an hour and 45 minutes, and Georgia for about 45 minutes. That's about 14 hours, or 18 hours counting rest stops.
Take the bus? Greyhound has plenty of service between New York and Atlanta, and a round-trip fare is $330, but it can be as low as $234 with advanced purchase. It can be up to 24 hours each way. At least the station is downtown, at 232 Forsyth Street at Brotherton Street, by the Garnett station on the subway.
In Athens, the Southeastern Stages & Greyhound Bus Company station is at 4020 Atlanta Highway. Yes, the road the B-'52s were "headin' down" in that Chrysler that "seats about 20" in "Love Shack" is real, but it's about 7 miles west of downtown Athens, about 6 west of the campus, and you'd have to walk 10 minutes up Cleveland Road to the Georgia Square Mall to catch Bus 20 or 21 to get to downtown or the campus. So hurry up, and bring your bus fare money! Which would be the same as round-trip to Atlanta.
Take the train? Amtrak does not go to Athens. Its New York-to-New Orleans train, the Crescent, leaves Penn Station at 2:15 PM and arrives in Atlanta at 8:13 AM the next morning. Going back, it leaves at 8:04 PM (so you'd have to stay overnight) and arrives back in New York at 1:46 the next afternoon.
Because of the holiday, the Crescent leaving Atlanta on Saturday is sold out, so you'd have to stay overnight, and leave Sunday night and arrive Monday morning. The round-trip fare is $616, about twice what it would normally be, because of the holiday. It's as long as driving and riding the bus, and costs a lot more than the bus. The station is at 1688 Peachtree Street NW at Deering Road, due north of downtown. From there, take the 110 bus into downtown.
Perhaps the best way to get from New York to Atlanta is by plane? If you book now, United Airlines can get you from Newark Liberty International Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for under $500 round-trip. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Gold Line or Red Line subway from Hartsfield-Jackson to Five Points takes just half an hour.
(The airport is named for 2 Mayors. William B. Hartsfield served from 1942 to 1962, and got the airport built. Maynard H. Jackson Jr. was the city's 1st black Mayor, serving from 1974 to 1982, and again from 1990 to 1994, and he got a new terminal built at the airport.)
But Athens doesn't have direct regular airline service. You may have to fly to Atlanta and rent a car.
Once In the City. When you get to your hotel in Atlanta (and, let's face it, if you went all that way, you're not going down for a single 3-hour game and then going right back up the Eastern Seaboard), pick up a copy of the Journal-Constitution. It's a good paper with a very good sports section. The New York Times may also be available, but, chances are, the Daily News and the Post won't be.
Founded in 1837, and originally named "Terminus" because it was established as a railroad center, but later renamed because the railroad in question was the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad, Atlanta is a city of about 472,000 people (slightly less than Staten Island), in a metropolitan area of about 6.4 million (still less than 1/3rd the size of the New York Tri-State Area). The sales tax in Georgia is just 4 percent, but it's 5 percent in the City of Atlanta.
The State House
Be advised that a lot of streets are named Peachtree, which can confuse the hell out of you. Even worse, the city uses diagonal directions on its streets and street signs, much like Washington, D.C.: NW, NE, SE and SW. The street grid takes some odd angles, which will confuse you further. Five Points -- Peachtree Street, Marietta Street & Edgewood Avenue -- is the centerpoint of the city.
A building boom in the 1980s gave the city some pretty big skyscrapers, so, while it won't seem quite as imposing as New York or Chicago, it will seem bigger than such National League cities as Cincinnati and St. Louis. The building currently named Bank of America Plaza, a.k.a. the Pencil Building because of its shape, is the tallest in the State of Georgia, at 1,033 feet. It stands at 600 Peachtree Street NE at North Avenue.
The British Colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733, and named for the monarch at the time, King George II. The southernmost of the Original 13 Colonies, it was the 4th State to ratify the Constitution of the United States, on January 2, 1788; the 5th State to secede from the Union in the run-up to the American Civil War, on January 19, 1861; and the last of the 11 former Confederate State readmitted to the Union, on July 15, 1870.
ZIP Codes in Georgia start with the digits 30 and 31, with Atlanta and its suburbs using 300 to 307. The Area Code for Atlanta is 404, with 770 surrounding it, and 678 overlaid.
MARTA's 3-stripes logo of blue, yellow and orange is reminiscent of New Jersey Transit's blue, purple and orange. A single trip on any MARTA train is $2.50, now cheaper than New York's. A 10-trip is no bargain at $25. The subway started running with tokens in 1979, and switched to farecards known as Breezecards in 2006.
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Atlanta became majority-black in the 1960, and is now the 4th-largest majority-black city: About 51 percent black, 41 percent white, 4 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian. The northern half of the city is mostly white, the southern half mostly black. As a major center for both black filmmaking and hip-hop, Atlanta is, essentially, the Black Hollywood.
Both the Hispanic and the Asian populations of the city have more than doubled since 2000. And, with 12.8 percent of the population willing to classify themselves as gay or bisexual, Atlanta has the 3rd-highest gay percentage of any major city in America, behind San Francisco and Seattle.
Both the Hispanic and the Asian populations of the city have more than doubled since 2000. And, with 12.8 percent of the population willing to classify themselves as gay or bisexual, Atlanta has the 3rd-highest gay percentage of any major city in America, behind San Francisco and Seattle.
Which is not to say that Atlanta, and Georgia in general, have been free from strife. It's still the South. The Camilla Massacre in Camilla, southwest Georgia, on September 19, 1868 resulted in the deaths of 15 people, black and white alike, attempting to assist black people in voting during the post-Civil War period known as Reconstruction. Atlanta was struck by a race riot on September 22, 1906, killing 25 black people and 2 white people. A race riot struck Augusta, the eastern Georgia city that is home to the Masters golf tournament, on May 11, 1970, resulting in 6 deaths.
And, 15 miles east of Atlanta, Stone Mountain Park opened on April 14, 1865 -- 100 years to the day after Abraham Lincoln was shot, and that is no coincidence. In 1972, a sculpture was unveiled on its north face, showing Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on horseback. The carving of these 3 traitors to the United States of America is larger than that of the 4 Presidents on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
One thing that people tend to forget: The movie Deliverance, with its psychopathic hillbillies, is often thought to take place in West Virginia. In fact, it's set in Georgia, and was filmed on the Chattooga River, which separates eastern Georgia from western South Carolina, and on both sides of the river.
Athens is home to about 126,000 people, about 64 percent white, 27 percent black, 6 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian. The Area Code is 706, with 762 overlaid, and ZIP Codes start with 306. The sales tax in Georgia is just 4 percent.
Georgia Power provides the electricity. The Athens Banner-Herald is the daily newspaper. U.S. Route 78 (to the south of the city) and Georgia Route 10 (to the north) form a sort of a beltway. Broad Street divides addresses into North and South, and Lumpkin Street into East and West. Athens Transit runs buses, with a $1.75 fare. UGA Campus Transit is free.
Park Hall, UGa's administration building
The University's abbreviation is never "UG," always "UGa," which led to the Bulldog mascot being named Uga. Among its non-football athletes are 1940s Yankee pitcher Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler, Chicago White Sox infielder Gordon Beckham, basketball legends Dominique Wilkins and Teresa Edwards, and Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Missy Franklin. The school also produces sportscasters Chip Caray and Ernie Johnson Jr., both children of Atlanta Braves broadcasters. Notable alumni in other fields include:
* Music: Bill Anderson, Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, Michael Houser of Widespread Panic, and all 4 members of R.E.M.: Singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry.
* Acting: Sonny Shroyer, Kyle Chandler, Wayne Knight, Ryan Seacrest, James Michael Tyler, Josh Holloway, Tituss Burgess. So, Enos from The Dukes of Hazzard, Newman from Seinfeld, and Gunther from Friends.
* Politics, representing Georgia unless otherwise stated: Governors Howell Cobb, Herschel Johnson (later a Confederate Senator), James Johnson, Alexander Stephens (he had been the Confederacy's Vice President), John B. Gordon, William Y. Atkinson, William J. Samford of Alabama, John M. Slaton, Nathaniel E. Harris, Richard Russell, Eugene Talmadge and his son Herman Talmadge, Ellis Arnall, Melvin E. Thompson, Ernest Vandiver, Carl Sanders, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes and Sonny Perdue (current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture); Senators Russell (a major Senate Office Building is named for this powerful segregationist), Herman Talmadge (but not Eugene), Miller, William C. Dawson, Phil Gramm of Texas and Saxby Chambliss.
* Journalism: Charlayne Hunter-Gault (she and Dr. Hamilton Holmes, an orthopedist, were the 1st 2 black graduates of the school, Class of 1961), Lewis Grizzard, Deborah Norville, Deborah Roberts (a.ka. Mrs. Al Roker), Amy Robach and Julie Moran.
The Georgia Arch
The Georgia School of Technology was founded in 1885, opened in 1888, quickly became known as "Georgia Tech" for short, and in 1948 was renamed the Georgia Institute of Technology. Unlike UGa, which has only its campus in Athens, GT has its main campus in Atlanta and another in Savannah.
Tech Tower, the administration building,
on a rare snowy day in the South
Their notable non-football athletes include:
* Baseball: Del Pratt, Whitlow Wyatt, Marty Marion, Jim Hearn, Kevin Brown, Darren Bragg, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, Jay Payton, Marlon Byrd, Bruce Chen, Mark Teixeira, Micah Owings and Matt Wieters.
* Basketball: Mark Price and John Salley (shared a cover for Sports Illustrated's 1985-86 college basketball preview issue), Tom Hammonds, Dennis Scott, Kenny Anderson, Matt Geiger, Stephon Marbury, Jason Collier, Chris Bosh, Jarrett Jack and Iman Shumpert.
* Olympic Gold Medalists in track & field: Ed Hamm 1928, Antonio McKay 1984, Derrick Adkins and Derek Mills 1996, and Angelo Taylor 2000 and 2008 (but not 2004).
I could also have listed Bobby Jones, Larry Mize, David Duval and Stewart Cink, but golf is not a sport.
Notable graduates in other fields include:
* Business: Days Inn founder Cecil B. Day '58.
* Politics: Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. '33, Senator Sam Nunn '56, current Congressman Phil Gingrey '65.
* Military: General Leonard Wood, Class of 1894, hero of the Spanish-American War, and namesake of a U.S. Army fort in the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri.
* Astronaut: John Young '52, walked on the Moon on Apollo 16 in 1972.
* Architecture: Hugh Stubbins '33, designed Citigroup Center, the building with the ski-slope roof on 3rd Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
* Entertainment: Dance instructor Arthur Murray '23, Western movie star Randolph Scott '24, Mark Trail cartoonist Ed Dodd '25, music producer Dayton "Bones" Howe '56, comedian Jeff Foxworthy '79. Proving that if you graduated from a college specializing in science and technology, you still might be a redneck.
The oldest stadium in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A)? It sure doesn't look it, having been modernized several times since its opening over 100 years ago, on September 27, 1913. It originally had 7,000 seats, and was expanded to 25,000 in 1919, 30,000 in 1925, 44,000 in 1947, 53,000 in 1962, and 58,000 in 1967. Wider seats installed in 1986 brought it down to 46,000, and a 2003 expansion brought it back up to 55,000.
Grant Field in the 1940s
John W. Grant, an Atlanta banker and a Tech trustee, funded the original stadium's construction, and asked that it be named for his son, Hugh Inman Grant, who died in 1906 at age 11. Bobby Dodd, who played at the University of Tennessee and coached at Georgia Tech (first as an assistant to Bill Alexander, then as head coach), is one of only 3 people elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.
College football's Peach Bowl was played there in 1968, '69 and '70. The NFL's Atlanta Falcons played a game there on October 5, 1969, against the Baltimore Colts, because the Braves unexpectedly qualified for the 1st-ever National League Championship Series against the Mets, and had dibs on what became Fulton County Stadium. (Atlanta lost both.)
Grant Field/Dodd Stadium, with the skyline
of downtown Atlanta in the background
Georgia's Sanford Stadium opened in 1929 with 30,000 seats, was expanded to 36,000 in 1949, 43,000 in 1964, and 59,000 in 1980. The National Championship that season, boosted by freshman star running back Herschel Walker, led to an expansion to 82,000 seats, later to 86,000 by 1991, and the current 92,747 in 2004. The address is 100 Sanford Drive, about half a mile south of downtown. Bus M or O. Parking is $20.
Sanford Stadium, 1967. More than in a recent photo,
the hedges can be shown to completely surround the field.
Steadman Vincent Sanford arrived at the University of Georgia to each English in 1903. He became faculty representative to the athletics committee, and the stadium was named for him in 1929. And this was before he became president of the University in 1932, and then chancellor of the University System of Georgia in 1935, a post he held until his death in 1945.
Unusual among major college football stadiums, due to the path of the Sun, the field is more or less aligned east-to-west, a horseshoe open at the west end. Also unusual, the field has always been real grass, never artificial.
From the beginning, privet hedges have encircled the field, an idea based on the rose hedges at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Privet proved to be better for the Southern climate. Other Southern stadiums have copied this, but Georgia remains the only school to have hedges completely surrounding the field. And so, a game at Sanford Stadium is said to take place "Between the Hedges."
When the 1996 Olympics were held in Atlanta, Sanford Stadium, despite the distance, was chosen to host the soccer tournaments, won by Nigeria (men's) and the U.S. (women's). Because a soccer field is wider than an American football field, the original hedges had to be removed. But cuttings were taken, grown at a farm in Thomson, Georgia, and these "children" of the original hedges were installed in time for the 1996 season, and remain there today.
Food. This being the South, you could expect good eating and good hospitality. Unfortunately, Georgia Tech's website contains no information about concession stands at Dodd/Grant.
A website called SportsWhereIAm.com suggests that the west stand, where the Tech sideline is, has the best selection. This site and others recommend Sonny's Pit BBQ. They also recommend the Nutty Bavarian and The Malt Shoppe, and say that if you're on the east stand, "your options will be drastically reduced to Gridiron Grill or Domino's Pizza."
Georgia goes whole hog -- or should that be "whole Dawg"? -- when it comes to chain foods: Chik-fil-A behind Sections 101, 123, 137, 143, 314 and 323; Dippin Dots at 102 and 140; Sonny's BBQ at 106 and 323; Kong Ice at 109; Papa John's pizza at 123, 222 and 323; Edy's Ice Cream at 123, 222, 322 and 324; and Subway at 139 and 323.
The Florida-Georgia rivalry extends to brands: Gators, Domino's and Pepsi; Bulldogs, Papa John's and Coke. If I were deciding on this alone, I'd have to root for Florida. But Georgia won the National Championship when I was 10 years old, and I've had a soft spot for them ever since.
Team History Displays. Georgia won the National Championship in 1942 and 1980, each time with a running back that would win the Heisman Trophy: Frank Sinkwich, and freshman Herschel Walker, who went on to win it as a junior, and nearly lead them to another National Championship, in 1982.
They've won 15 Conference Championships. They won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1896 and 1920. They've won the SEC title in 1942, 1946, 1948, 1959, 1966, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 2005, 2015 and 2017. They've won the SEC East, but lost the SEC Championship Game, in 2003, 2011 and 2012; and tied for the Division title, but lost the tiebreaker for the Championship Game, in 1992 and 2007.
Georgia has won 31 of their 54 bowl games, including the Orange Bowl in 1942 and 1960; the Rose Bowl in 1943 and 2018; the Sugar Bowl in 1947, 1981, 2003 and 2008; and the Cotton Bowl in 1967 and 1984. They have not won the Fiesta Bowl.
They've retired 4 numbers: Sinkwich's 21, Walker's 34, the 40 of 1950s running back Theron Sapp, and the 62 of 1940s running back Charley Trippi.
The number retirement ceremony, 1985.
Left to right: Walker, Sapp, Trippi and Sinkwich.
There are 13 Bulldogs in the College Football Hall of Fame: Sinkwich, Trippi, Walker, 1910s running back Bob McWhorter, 1930s end Vernon "Catfish" Smith, 1930s running back Bill Hartman, 1940s quarterback John Rauch, 1950s quarterback Fran Tarkenton, 1960s defensive tackle Bill Stanfill, 1960s safety Jake Scott, 1980s safety Terry Hoage, 1980s placekicker Kevin Butler, and 1990s offensive tackle Matt Stinchcomb.
Trippi and Tarkenton have also been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At age 96, Trippi is the last surviving member of the 1947 NFL Champion Chicago Cardinals. Rauch would later coach the Oakland Raiders to the 1967 AFL Championship, losing Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers -- who adapted Georgia's oval "G" monogram as their own helmet logo. He returned to Georgia as an assistant with the Atlanta Falcons, and with a little irony, was one of Spurrier's assistants on the Tampa Bay Bandits. Stanfill and Scott would be teammates on the Miami Dolphins' Super Bowl VII and VIII winners.
Four of Georgia's head coaches have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Pop Warner (1895-96) and Jim Donnan (1996-2000), Bulldog bosses 100 years apart, were elected for coaching achievements elsewhere. But Wally Butts (1939-60, including the '42 title) and Vince Dooley (1964-88, including the '80 title) were elected for what they did for UGa.
Other notable Georgia football players include 1950s quarterback Zeke Bratkowski (later Bart Starr's backup on the 1960s Packers), 1950s guard Pat Dye (Tarkenton's former protector was an All-American before becoming Auburn's coach), 1990s running back Garrison Hearst, 1990s cornerback Champ Bailey, 1990s defensive tackle Richard Seymour, 2000s linebacker Boss Bailey (Champ's real name or Roland, and his brother Boss' real name is Rodney), and 2000s running back Knowshon Moreno.
Probably the most familiar names in Georgia football are that of Johnny Carson, an All-American end in 1953, and George Patton, an All-American defensive tackle in 1965. Not the longtime Tonight Show host and the World War II general: I said their names were familiar.
Actually, with Herschel Walker not having played a down of pro ball in over 20 years, the most familiar name of a Georgia Bulldog football player might be Bill Goldberg, a late 1980s linebacker who played 14 games for the Atlanta Falcons from 1992 to 1994, before becoming a professional "wrestler," an actor, and a TV show host.
The Florida-Georgia rivalry is known, due to the wide spread of cocktail parties in the Jacksonville stadium parking lot, as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." It's been played since 1915, and every year since 1926. Since 1933, it's been played in Jacksonville, except for the time of the stadium reconstruction there, and they traded home games: Gainesville in 1994, Athens in 1995.
Georgia dominated early on, going 21-4-1 from 1915 to 1948. From 1952 to 1963, Florida went 10-2. From 1971 to 1989, Georgia went 15-4. From 1990 to 2010, Florida went 18-3. Overall, Georgia leads the series 50-43-2. Since 2009, the schools have played for a trophy called the Okefenokee Oar.
Georgia Tech claims 4 National Championships, all undefeated seasons, all under a different coach: 1917, 9-0 under John Heisman, for whom the Heisman Trophy was named; 1928, 10-0 including the Rose Bowl, under Bill Alexander, for whom their arena was named; 1952, 12-0 including the Sugar Bowl, under Bobby Dodd, for whom their stadium was named; and 1990, 11-0-1 including a win in the Citrus Bowl, then the automatic destination for the Champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference, under Bobby Ross, for whom nothing major has yet been named at the school.
Bobby Dodd
Ironically, only the last of these, the only one without a perfect record, is anything close to official: United Press International (UPI), through its coaches' poll, chose Tech as National Champions, while the Associated Press (AP), through its sportswriters' poll, chose Colorado, who went 11-1-1. Neither the AP nor UPI chose Tech in 1952, though 3 minor polls did. And 1917 and 1928 were both before the AP and UPI polls began in 1936, but the Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively awarded them.
Tech has won 16 Conference Championships: 1916, 1917, 1918, 1920 and 1921 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA); 1922, 1927 and 1928 in the Southern Conference; 1939, 1943, 1944, 1951 and 1952 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC); and 1990, 1998 and 2009 in the ACC. They also won the ACC Coastal Division in 2006, 2012 and 2014, but lost the ACC Championship Game; and tied for the Division title in 2008, but lost the tiebreaker to get into the Championship Game.
Tech left the SEC in 1964, due to its refusal to properly discipline their meal-ticket school, the University of Alabama. Had they not been an independent, they could have won a league title in 1970, with Eddie McAshan, the 1st black starting quarterback at a formerly all-white school in the Southeast (although not in the SEC). Tech joined the ACC in 1982.
Tech has appeared in 41 bowl games, winning 23. These include the 1929 Rose Bowl; the 1940, 1948, 1952 and 2014 Orange Bowls; the 1944, 1953, 1954, 1956 Sugar Bowls; the 1955 Cotton Bowl; the 1991 Citrus Bowl (clinching their most recent National Championship); and, their most recent appearance, the 2016 TaxSlayer Bowl. They have never appeared in the Fiesta Bowl.
Tech does not retire numbers. They have never had a Heisman Trophy winner, their closest calls being 2nd place finishes for quarterbacks Billy Lothridge in 1963 and Joe Hamilton in 1999. Oddly, running back Clint Castleberry finished 3rd in 1942, when the aforementioned Frank Sinkwich won it.
Tech does not retire numbers. They have never had a Heisman Trophy winner, their closest calls being 2nd place finishes for quarterbacks Billy Lothridge in 1963 and Joe Hamilton in 1999. Oddly, running back Clint Castleberry finished 3rd in 1942, when the aforementioned Frank Sinkwich won it.
Coaches Heisman, Alexander and Dodd have elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, which is located at 250 Marietta Street NW, 8 blocks south of Grant/Dodd and around the corner from Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the State Farm Arena. Elected as players: 1910s backs Everett Strupper, Joe Guyon and Buck Flowers; 1910s end Bill Fincher, 1920s center Peter Pund, 1940s tackle Bobby Davis, 1950s guard Ray Beck, 1950s centers George and Larry Morris, 1950s center Maxie Baughan, 1970s safety Randy Rhino (his real name, not a nickname), 1970s running back Eddie Lee Ivery, 1980 defensive end Pat Swilling, 1990s quarterback Joe Hamilton, and 2000s receiver Calvin Johnson.
Not elected to the College Football Hall, but elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, was 1950s guard Billy Shaw. Guyon, a pioneer of pro ball, was also elected to the Pro Football Hall.
Other notable Tech football players include 1940s quarterback and future Arkansas coach Frank Broyles, 1940s linebacker and football dynasty founder Clay Matthews Sr., 1950s quarterback and future Tech and pro coach Pepper Rodgers, 1960s center and future Packer and Colt Super Bowl winner Bill Curry, and 1980s tight end and future Arizona Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt.
Two old-time Tech football games are worth mentioning. On October 7, 1916, at Grant Field, Tech won the biggest blowout in the history of college football, defeating Cumberland College, 222-0. No, that's not a typo: Two hundred and twenty-two to zero.
Cumberland, a small Presbyterian school in Lebanon, Tennessee, now in NCAA Division III, should never have been on a big school's schedule, but needed the money, and Tech was willing to pay them to come to Atlanta and play the big boys.
Why the big score? Indeed, why even go for that many points? Because, earlier in the year, Cumberland had beaten Tech's baseball team, of which Heisman was also the coach, 22-0. In those days, sportswriters also tended to rank teams based on how many points they scored, which Heisman thought was ridiculous. He may have wanted to prove his point, as later sportscaster Warner Wolf tended to do when mocking gamblers and their obsession with point spreads. Had Warner and any form of broadcasting been around in 1916, he would have said, "If you had Cumberland and 221 points, you lost!"
Why the big score? Indeed, why even go for that many points? Because, earlier in the year, Cumberland had beaten Tech's baseball team, of which Heisman was also the coach, 22-0. In those days, sportswriters also tended to rank teams based on how many points they scored, which Heisman thought was ridiculous. He may have wanted to prove his point, as later sportscaster Warner Wolf tended to do when mocking gamblers and their obsession with point spreads. Had Warner and any form of broadcasting been around in 1916, he would have said, "If you had Cumberland and 221 points, you lost!"
And then there's the 1929 Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tech was playing the University of California. The winner -- if there would be one, as there had already been 2 tied Rose Bowls in the 1920s -- would be considered the National Champion.
Midway through the 2nd quarter, with the game still scoreless, Tech running back John "Stumpy" Thomason fumbled on the Tech 30-yard line. Roy Riegels, both the offensive and defensive center for Cal in those single-platoon days, picked the fumble up, and, started running the wrong way. He later explained that it was as a result of being hit during a pivot. He was tackled by a teammate -- Benny Lom, his own roommate -- at the Cal 1-yard line.
Cal decided to punt, but Tech tackle Vance Maree blocked it, sending it back through the end zone, for a safety. Georgia Tech led 2-0. In the 3rd quarter, Thomason scored a touchdown, and it was 8-0 Tech. The Golden Bears almost got out of it, scoring a touchdown. But 8-7 was as close as Cal got, and from New Year's Day 1929 onward, Roy was known as "Wrong Way Riegels." This may well be the only time in the history of sports where the words "Defense wins championships" actually came true.
So why is the Trophy for the college football player of the year named for Heisman? Born in Cleveland in 1869, he played football at 2 Ivy League schools, Brown and Penn; and coached football at 8 different schools, including now-FBS schools Auburn (1895-99), Clemson (1900-03), Georgia Tech (1904-19), Penn (1920-22) and Rice (1924-27). This included the building of 2 iconic collegiate stadiums: Grant Field in Atlanta (1913) and Franklin Field in Philadelphia (1922). He also coached basketball at Georgia Tech, and baseball at Clemson and Georgia Tech.
When the NCAA was founded in 1906, and sought ways to follow President Theodore Roosevelt's recommendation that football be made safer (with the implication of "or else"), Heisman was the man who suggested legalizing the forward pass, and dividing games into 4 quarters instead of just 2 halves.
All that is a grand legacy. But none of that explains why the Trophy is named for him. He left Rice in 1927 to become the president of the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. In 1935, for the 1st time, it awarded a trophy for "the best football player east of the Mississippi River." The 1st winner was Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.
Heisman died the next year, the trophy was renamed the Heisman Memorial Trophy (and that's still its full, official name), and the eligibility for itwas extended to players from the entire country. It was still given mostly to Northeastern and Midwestern players for a while: The 1st winner from west of the Mississippi was Davey O'Brien of Texas Christian in 1938. This also made him the 1st winner from a former Confederate State. Not until 1942 would it be given to a player from the SEC, Georgia's Frank Sinkwich.
Georgia and Georgia Tech first played each other in 1893. The Bulldogs lead the rivalry, a matchup known as "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate," 66-41-5. There is no trophy for that game. The game usually takes place on Thanksgiving Saturday, and has, at times, been played on Thanksgiving Day itself.
The 100th edition was played on a T-Day, November 25, 1993, at Grant/Dodd. Keith Jackson broadcast the game for ABC with Bob Griese, the former Purdue and Miami Dolphins quarterback, by saying, "This is the day when the waistline takes a whuppin' and ancient rivalries are replayed." And he did, at least twice that day, use the line, "These two teams just don't like each other."
The game was close for 3 quarters, with the Bulldogs leading 16-10. But the Dawgs scored 4 touchdowns in the 4th quarter, to make it 43-10, and Ray Goff, then Georgia's coach and also the quarterback who led them to the 1976 SEC title, ordered a two-point conversion. The Yellow Jackets did not like that, and decided to sting. It was a classless act by Goff, and the fight was ugly. The officials settling things down, the conversion was stopped, and 43-10 was the final.
Not to be outdone, Georgia won 48-10 the next year. In fact, this game has since become known for offensive explosions. In 1999, Tech won 51-48 in overtime. UGa won 51-7 in 2002, Tech won 45-42 in 2008, UGa won 42-34 in 2010, UGa won 41-34 in overtime in 2013, and Tech won 30-24 in overtime in 2014.
Midway through the 2nd quarter, with the game still scoreless, Tech running back John "Stumpy" Thomason fumbled on the Tech 30-yard line. Roy Riegels, both the offensive and defensive center for Cal in those single-platoon days, picked the fumble up, and, started running the wrong way. He later explained that it was as a result of being hit during a pivot. He was tackled by a teammate -- Benny Lom, his own roommate -- at the Cal 1-yard line.
Cal decided to punt, but Tech tackle Vance Maree blocked it, sending it back through the end zone, for a safety. Georgia Tech led 2-0. In the 3rd quarter, Thomason scored a touchdown, and it was 8-0 Tech. The Golden Bears almost got out of it, scoring a touchdown. But 8-7 was as close as Cal got, and from New Year's Day 1929 onward, Roy was known as "Wrong Way Riegels." This may well be the only time in the history of sports where the words "Defense wins championships" actually came true.
So why is the Trophy for the college football player of the year named for Heisman? Born in Cleveland in 1869, he played football at 2 Ivy League schools, Brown and Penn; and coached football at 8 different schools, including now-FBS schools Auburn (1895-99), Clemson (1900-03), Georgia Tech (1904-19), Penn (1920-22) and Rice (1924-27). This included the building of 2 iconic collegiate stadiums: Grant Field in Atlanta (1913) and Franklin Field in Philadelphia (1922). He also coached basketball at Georgia Tech, and baseball at Clemson and Georgia Tech.
When the NCAA was founded in 1906, and sought ways to follow President Theodore Roosevelt's recommendation that football be made safer (with the implication of "or else"), Heisman was the man who suggested legalizing the forward pass, and dividing games into 4 quarters instead of just 2 halves.
Heisman died the next year, the trophy was renamed the Heisman Memorial Trophy (and that's still its full, official name), and the eligibility for itwas extended to players from the entire country. It was still given mostly to Northeastern and Midwestern players for a while: The 1st winner from west of the Mississippi was Davey O'Brien of Texas Christian in 1938. This also made him the 1st winner from a former Confederate State. Not until 1942 would it be given to a player from the SEC, Georgia's Frank Sinkwich.
Georgia and Georgia Tech first played each other in 1893. The Bulldogs lead the rivalry, a matchup known as "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate," 66-41-5. There is no trophy for that game. The game usually takes place on Thanksgiving Saturday, and has, at times, been played on Thanksgiving Day itself.
The game was close for 3 quarters, with the Bulldogs leading 16-10. But the Dawgs scored 4 touchdowns in the 4th quarter, to make it 43-10, and Ray Goff, then Georgia's coach and also the quarterback who led them to the 1976 SEC title, ordered a two-point conversion. The Yellow Jackets did not like that, and decided to sting. It was a classless act by Goff, and the fight was ugly. The officials settling things down, the conversion was stopped, and 43-10 was the final.
They really, really don't like each other.
Not to be outdone, Georgia won 48-10 the next year. In fact, this game has since become known for offensive explosions. In 1999, Tech won 51-48 in overtime. UGa won 51-7 in 2002, Tech won 45-42 in 2008, UGa won 42-34 in 2010, UGa won 41-34 in overtime in 2013, and Tech won 30-24 in overtime in 2014.
Georgia's rivalry with Auburn has been played since 1892, and is known as "The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry." Georgia leads it 58-56-8.
(UPDATE: Through the 2019 season, Georgia leads Georgia Tech, 68-41-5, and Auburn 60-56-8.)
(UPDATE: Through the 2019 season, Georgia leads Georgia Tech, 68-41-5, and Auburn 60-56-8.)
Stuff. The Sanford Shop is at Gate 7, in the southeast corner of Sanford Stadium. The University of Georgia Bookstore is in the Tate Student Center, across Sanford Drive from Sanford Stadium's west end. There is no team store at GrantDodd. "The Georgia Tech Bookstore by Barnes & Noble" is at 48 5th Street NW, north on Techwood Drive and then a right on 5th, about a 10-minute walk.
In 2008, Patrick Garbin published About Them Dawgs! Georgia Football's Memorable Teams and Players. In 2006, Adam Van Brimmer published Stadium Stories: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. It remains the most comprehensive history of the team. And 2008 saw the releases of the DVDs Legends of the Georgia Bulldogs and The Legends of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
During the Game. As with any other college football game, especially in the South, and particularly so in rivalry games, stick with the home fans, and leave the visiting fans alone.
On October 6, 2017, Thrillist compiled a list of their Best College Football Stadiums, the top 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Grant Field/Bobby Dodd Stadium did not make the cut. Sanford Stadium did, ranked 20th:
The trademark hedges around the field make this one of the most easily recognizable stadiums in college football. But cramming 93,000 barking Georgia fans into this fully enclosed arena is what makes it a terrifying venue for visiting teams. Add in a bulldog cemetery filled with former mascots and the ability to walk down onto the field to get to the concession stands and restrooms, and you have a unique venue in the sport.
The trademark hedges around the field make this one of the most easily recognizable stadiums in college football. But cramming 93,000 barking Georgia fans into this fully enclosed arena is what makes it a terrifying venue for visiting teams. Add in a bulldog cemetery filled with former mascots and the ability to walk down onto the field to get to the concession stands and restrooms, and you have a unique venue in the sport.
"A bulldog cemetery filled with former mascots"?!? I'll get to that later.
Like some pro football teams (Philadelphia, Washington and Dallas come to mind), and at least 1 other major college team (Louisiana State), Tech frequently wears white jerseys at home. In fact, while I have seen them wear navy blue jerseys and gold jerseys, they now wear white for every game.
Georgia Tech has 2 mascots. Engineers from the school had built makeshift motorized vehicles to help them build things in the jungles of Central America in the 1890s, mostly out of old tractor parts. Other workers referred to these vehicles, and the men who built them, as "Rambling Wrecks from Georgia Tech.
Floyd Field, Dean of Student Affairs, had a 1914 Ford Model T, and drove it to and from class every day from 1916 to 1928. It was nicknamed Floyd's Flivver (Model Ts were called flivvers), and, by 1926, the Ramblin' 'Reck. By 1928, it was no longer driveable, and he bought Ford's successor car, the Model A.
In 1960, a later dean, Jim Dull, saw that Tech students were still fascinated by classic cars. He sought out an appropriate vehicle to be a Tech mascot. He bought a 1930 Model A from an airline pilot who was at Tech to watch his son compete in a track meet for Florida State. It became the official Ramblin' Wreck (no "G" on the end of "Ramblin'") in 1961, and has led the team onto the field ever since. No, it doesn't damage the grass. It's been restored a few times, most recently in 2007, after an accident with the trailer it was in and the Ford Expedition pulling that. The repairs cost $30,000.
The car has a period-specific "Ah-oo-gah" horn, running boards for the cheerleaders to stand on, and a rumble seat for Buzz the Yellow Jacket to stand on. A "Ride On the Wreck" is sometimes a gift for a special fan, much as Ohio State occasionally allows a celebrity to "dot the i" in their band's Script Ohio formation. Legend has it that, if a freshman touches the Wreck before the last day of classes in the Spring, they will receive bad luck for as long as they remain at Tech, and Tech will then lose to UGa the following Autumn.
It's been taken on the road many times, not always with good results. On a 1963 visit to Knoxville, Tennessee fans painted it orange. Tennessee's Athletic Department paid to repaint it white and gold. On a 1976 visit to Athens, Georgia fans tried to vandalize it, but the Tech student charged with keeping it safe pulled a gun, and that scared them off.
The Wreck was taken to the NCAA Final Four in Denver in 1990, and it's been to the Orange, Gator, All-American, Sun, Peach, Citrus and Champs Sports Bowls, and the ACC Championship Game. There have been many replicas made, but there's only one official Wreck, and no backups.
The navy blue and gold uniforms led someone to call Tech the Yellow Jackets as far back as the 1890s. In 1972, Judi McNair -- yes, the 1st one was female, a unique status among college mascots as far as I know -- wore a homemade yellowjacket costume (the actual insect is written as 1 word, Tech's mascot as 2), and was a big hit. In 1980, the character was named Buzz Bee, possibly after Governor George Busbee. He now rides onto the field on the Ramblin' Wreck with the cheerleaders.
It was written in 1908. When Tech scores a touchdown, the band plays "Up With the White and Gold" and then "Ramblin' Wreck." After a field goal or a safety, they just play "Ramblin' Wreck." The lyrics are nasty, sexist, and promote drinking. You know, classically collegiate. Some people think you're supposed to sing, "I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech, and a heck of an engineer," because "heck" rhymes with "wreck" and "Tech." No: It's "a hell of a, hell of a, hell of a, hell of a, hell of an engineer."
Supposedly, the reason Georgia's teams are called the Bulldogs is because the school had been founded by missionaries from Yale University, whose teams are also called the Bulldogs. Of course, both names are late 19th Century creations.
Frank W. "Sonny" Seiler, a famous trial attorney in the coastal Georgia city of Savannah, was a character in a 1994 nonfiction book that many people mistakenly thought was a novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. (Australian actor Jack Thompson played him in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film version.)
In 1956, Seiler was a student at the University of Georgia School of Law, and was given a white bulldog puppy, said to be the grandson of a bulldog that went with the team to the 1943 Rose Bowl, when they won their 1st National Championship.
On September 29, 1956, Sonny and his wife Cecelia brought the dog to UGa's 1st home game of the season. The game was no big deal, the Dawgs beating Florida State 3-0. But Dan Magill, the school's sports information director, told head coach Wally Butts that, since the dog was a bulldog, it should become the official team mascot. Butts agreed, and, through the original's descendants, an Uga the Bulldog has been at every Georgia football game, home and away, for 62 years.
Ever since, Seiler, now 85, has bred these pure white bulldogs, and personally transported them from Savannah to the game site. That's not easy: Athens is 220 miles northwest of Savannah, and that's just for home games. Uga has an air-conditioned doghouse at Sanford Stadium, and is provided with ice bags, as bulldogs are susceptible to heatstroke. (This is the South, after all.) For away games, Seiler and Uga stay at the same hotel as the players.
Uga wears a red sweater with a black varsity letter G on it. In 1982, when Herschel Walker was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy (he won it), Seiler began the tradition of taking Uga (in that case, Uga IV) to the Heisman ceremony wearing a tuxedo. (Sonny wears a tux, or the dog?) Both. No, I'm not making that up. In 1997, Sports Illustrated named Uga the nation's best college mascot.
When an Uga gets to be too old for this, he is "retired" in a pregame ceremony, and Seiler removes his spiked collar, and puts in on the dog's successor, usually a son, sometimes a grandson, and the Georgia fans chant, "Damn good dog!" Not their usual catchphrase, which is, "How 'bout them Dawgs!"
And when an Uga dies, he is interred in a mausoleum in the southwest corner of the stadium, where a bronze statue of Uga I stands. Before games, fans are invited to leave flowers at the tomb of the mascot from their college days. Their epitaphs are as follows:
* Uga I, 1956-66: "Damn Good Dog."
* Uga II, 1966-72: "Not Bad for a Dog."
* Uga III, 1972-81: "How 'Bout This Dawg." Served during the 1980 National Championship season.
* Uga IV, 1981-90: "The Dog of the Decade." The one who got taken to New York, got a doggie tux put on him, and saw Herschel get the Heisman.
* Uga V, 1990-99: "Nation's Best College Mascot." That title was bestowed upon the Ugas by Sports Illustrated in 1997, and Uga V was put on the cover. (He didn't seem to suffer The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx, though. Nor did the team, which went 10-2 that year.) He's probably the best-known version, for reasons good and not so good. He portrayed his father, Uga IV, in the film version of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." In 1996, he lunged at Auburn receiver Robert Baker after scoring a touchdown, the only instance of an Uga attacking a person in 62 years. Other than that, the worst offense has been barking at other mascots who come over to see him. He also once injured himself jumping off his hotel room bed.
* Uga VI, 1999-2008: "A Big Dog For a Big Job, and He Handled It Well."
* Uga VII, 2008-09: "Gone Too Soon," as he was the briefest-serving mascot yet, until...
* Uga VIII, 2010-11: "He Never Had a Chance," as he developed canine lymphoma, and died after just 6 games, including an overtime loss to Florida and a shootout win over Georgia Tech.
* Uga IX, 2011-15: "He endeared himself to the Georgia people. His dedication to duty when called upon was exemplary." A half-brother of Uga VII, he had to fill in for his brother late in the 2009 season, and for his nephew Uga VIII on New Year's Eve 2010, as Georgia lost to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. After Uga VIII died, his uncle was "given a battlefield promotion," and went from backup mascot to official mascot for 5 years, until his own death.
* Uga X (pronounced "Ugga ten," not "Ugga the tenth"), the current mascot, a grandson of Uga IX.
Uga X. He's not a Nice Puppy, he's a Damn Good Dog.
Ugas I, II, IV, V and VI have each lasted 10 seasons. This seems to be the upper limit, as 10 years is the average lifespan of a bulldog.
In 1981, Hairy Dawg was added, named for the cheer, "Go, you hairy dawgs!" He's a guy in a costume, and he wears a Number 1 jersey.
Uga VIII didn't seem to mind.
Georgia is often called the Heartland of the South. So why does the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band play "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the Union song of the American Civil War? They don't. They use the melody -- which Julia Ward Howe had taken from "John Brown's Body," about the leader of a failed slave rebellion shortly before the war -- but the lyrics make it quite clear who the song celebrates: "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia."
The band is introduced over the public address system with, "Keep your seats, everyone: The Redcoats are coming!" They spell out "GEORGIA" (in ALL CAPS), play "Let's Go Dawgs," anD form an Arch, in honor of the campus landmark, the Georgia Arch, and then plays "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia," the Alma Mater, and the National Anthem.
The north stand shouts, "Georgia!" and the south stand answers "Bulldogs!" This repeats a few times. When this is done, a celebrity, often a former Georgia player, will lead the crowd in a chant: "Goooooooo Dawgs! Sic 'em!" Then the band forms an outline of the State, plays the official fight song "Hail to Georgia," stops so the pregame video "It's Saturday In Athens" plays on the scoreboard, and then plays "Glory, Glory" again as the team comes onto the field. They also play "Glory, Glory" after every 1st down and every score.
After the Game. If you're going to a Georgia Tech home game, you should have no trouble with the home fans on your way out. Atlanta does have a bit of a crime problem: While you'll probably be safe around the stadium and on the subway, you don't want to wander the streets late at night.
A good way to have fun would seem to be to find a bar where New Yorkers hang out. Unfortunately, the best ones I could come up with were all outside the city. Hudson Grille (sure sounds like a New York-style name), 6317 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs, is 15 miles north of Five Points. MARTA Red Line to Dunwoody, then transfer to Number 5 bus.
Mazzy's, at 2217 Roswell Road in Marietta, is the home of the local Jets fan club, but it's 20 miles north, and forget about reaching it by public transportation. The club also lists Bada Bing's, at 349 Decatur Street SE, just 1 stop east of Five Points on the MARTA Green Line (fitting), but they claim Mazzy's is their "perfect place." Meehan's Public House is also said to be a Jet fans' hangout. 227 Sandy Springs Place, at the CityWalk shopping center, just outside I-285. MARTA Red Line to Dunwoody, transfer to the 87 bus.
A Facebook page titled "Mets Fans Living In Atlanta" was no help. Your best bet may be to research hotel chains, to find out which ones New Yorkers tend to like, and meet up with fellow Metsophiles (or Metsochists) there.
A recent Thrillist article on the best sports bars in each State listed The Midway Pub as the best in Georgia. It's about 3 1/2 miles east of downtown, at 552 Flat Shoals Avenue SE. Number 74 bus.
A few steps away from Grant Field, over the North Avenue Bridge (over I-75/85) at 61 North Avenue NW, highlighted by a huge neon letter V, is The Varsity. No visit to The A-T-L is complete without a stop at The Varsity. Basically, it’s a classic diner, but really good. Be careful, though: They want to keep it moving, much like the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld and its real-life counterpart The Original Soup Man, and also Pat's Steaks in Philadelphia.
The place has a language all its own, and, when they ask, "What’ll you have?", being a Met fan, you do not want to order what they call a Yankee Dog – or a Naked Dog, which, oddly, is the same exact thing: A hot dog whose only condiment is mustard (which hardly makes it "naked," but that's what they call it). Check out this link, and you'll get an idea of what to say and what not to say.
For postgame dining, UGa recommends their Visitor Center, at 405 College Station Road, a mile and a quarter south of the stadium. Two of the more renowned Bulldog fan restaurants are Fuzzy's, a Mexican restaurant at 265 N. Lumpkin Street; and Bar South at 104 E. Washington Street. Both are downtown, about a mile north of the stadium.
If your visit to Atlanta is during the European soccer season, which is now moving toward its climax, you can watch your favorite clubs at the Brewhouse Cafe, 401 Moreland Avenue NE. MARTA Blue Line to Inman Park-Reynoldstown, then Bus 6 to Euclid & Moreland. Another option is Ri Ra, 1080 Peachtree Street, 2 miles north of downtown. MARTA Red or Gold Line to Midtown Transit Station. Another is Fado Irish Pub, at The Shops Buckhead Atlanta, 273 Buckhead Avenue, 6 miles north of downtown. Bus 110.
In Athens, it's The Royal Peasant, at 1675 S. Lumpkin Street, about a mile and a half south of downtown and a mile and a half southwest of the stadium.
Sidelights. When the Thrashers moved to become the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011, it marked the 2nd time in 31 years that Atlanta had lost an NHL team. They still have teams in MLB, the NFL and the NBA, plus a Division I-A college which has been successful in several sports, the annual Southeastern Conference Championships for both football and basketball, an annual college football bowl game, the Peach Bowl -- and, now, MLS.
But that doesn't make Atlanta a great sports town. All of their major league teams have tended to have trouble filling their buildings.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, 11 days after I first posted this, Thrillist published a list of "America's
25 Most Fun Cities," and Atlanta came in 9th.
* Hank McCamish Pavilion. The Georgia Institute of Technology (a.k.a. Georgia Tech) has played basketball here at "the Thrillerdome" since 1956. Originally named the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, for legendary football coach Bill Alexander, the building underwent a renovation from 2010 to 2012, funded in large part by a donation from the McCamish family.
The Pavilion hosted the Hawks from their 1968 arrival from St. Louis to The Omni's opening in 1972, and again from 1997 to 1999 while the State Farm Arena was built on The Omni's site. The WNBA's Atlanta Dream will play their 2017 and '18 seasons there, due to renovations at the State Farm Arena. 965 Fowler Street NW. MARTA Gold or Red Line to Midtown.
The old stadium hosted the World Series in 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996, the last 3 games there being the Yankees' wins in Games 3, 4 and 5 of the '96 Series. It hosted NFC Playoff games in 1978 and 1991, the Peach Bowl from 1971 to 1991, the 2nd legs of the 1968 and 1971 NASL Finals hosted by the Chiefs, and 2 matches of the U.S. national soccer team: A win over India in 1968, and a win over China in 1977. It also hosted the Beatles shortly after its opening, on August 18, 1965.
In the Green Lot parking area north of the park, where Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium used to be, there is a chain-link fence about where the left-center-field fence was, and, at the approximate location of where it landed, then the Braves' bullpen, is the marker that used to be on the wall behind it, honoring Aaron’s record-breaking 715th career home run, hit on April 8, 1974.
Fulton County Stadium was known as "The Launching Pad." Put it this way: If the field conditions there were the same as at Milwaukee County Stadium, Hank Aaron would still have hit over 600 home runs, but he wouldn't have gotten to 715. So the faraway distances at The Ted make it a balanced ballpark.
* Turner Field. The next home of the Braves is at the intersection of Capitol Street SE and Love Street SE, but the official address is 755 Hank Aaron Drive SE. Unfortunately, the MARTA subway doesn't get all that close to Turner Field. To make matters worse, the ballpark is separated from downtown Atlanta by the intersection of Interstates 20 and 75/85, so unless you had a hotel within a 10-minute walk of the ballpark, you weren't going to walk there. the Number 55 bus goes from Five Points Station, the centerpoint of MARTA, to Turner Field.
Turner Field opened in 1996, as the main venue for the Olympic Games held in Atlanta that year. After the Olympics, the north end was demolished, and replaced with the bleachers and main scoreboards, so that the 85,000-seat track & field stadium could become a proper 50,000-seat baseball stadium.
The Braves played the 1999 World Series there, and hosted the 2000 All-Star Game. But it never became as treasured as some of the other neo-retro stadiums, such as those in Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia. And, while much of it retained features from Fulton County Stadium (such as the blue fence with the yellow line on top, and the yellow distance markers), the Braves didn't build up the same kind of history there: 10 Division titles to 7, but only 1 Pennant to its predecessor's 4, and no World Championships.
Instead of being completely demolished, the stadium is, once again, being converted, into a 30,000-seat football stadium for Atlanta-based Georgia State University. Since they won't need as much parking, part of the parking lots are being converted into student housing and retail property. And the school's new baseball field is being built on the site of Fulton County Stadium, so that the Aaron 715 marker will be in the exact same place on the field that it was at the old stadium.
* SunTrust Park. The Braves opened their new 41,000-seat ballpark, named for a bank, in 2017, in Cumberland, Cobb County, Georgia. It's in Atlanta's northwestern suburbs. The Braves have tried to justify the move by saying that this is "near the geographic center of the Braves' fan base." (UPDATE: It was renamed Truist Park in 2020.)
This may be true. But the move also got them out of the majority-black City of Atlanta and into the center of mostly-white, Tea Party-country Georgia. Gee, I wonder if there's a connection, especially now that the famously inclusive Ted Turner no longer owns the team? (Ironically, Tea Party groups have opposed the building of the stadium, citing the taxes that would have to be implemented for it.)
It is northwest of the interchange of Interstates 75 and 285, on Circle 75 Parkway, 13 miles northwest of Five Points. MARTA Gold to Arts Center, then transfer to Number 10 bus. The Braves also use a "circulator" bus system to shuttle fans to and from the stadium.
* Mercedes-Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena, and the sites of the Georgia Dome and The Omni. They're next-door to each other, at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW and Northside Drive NW (another confusing street name).
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the new retractable-roof stadium for the Falcons, the SEC Championship Game, the Peach Bowl and MLS' Atlanta United, opened last Summer, just south of the Georgia Dome.
The new stadium hosted the College Football Playoff National Championship on January 7, 2018 (the "home field" did the University of Georgia no good, losing to the University of Alabama), and will host Super Bowl LIII on February 3, 2019, and the NCAA Final Four in 2020. It has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup. (UPDATE: It was approved as a venue by FIFA.)
The Dome has now been demolished -- like Turner Field and The Omni, remarkably soon after its construction. It was home to the Falcons from 1992 to 2016, and hosted the SEC Championship Game and the Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl). It hosted the 2006 Sugar Bowl due to the Superdome still being unusable after Hurricane Katrina.
It hosted Super Bowls XXVIII (Dallas over Buffalo) and XXXIV (St. Louis over Tennessee). It hosted the NCAA Final Four in 2002 (Maryland beating Indiana), 2007 (Florida beating Ohio State), and 2013 (Louisville over Michigan).
It also hosted the 1996 Olympic basketball games, several SEC basketball tournaments and the 2003 Women's Final Four. It hosted 7 soccer games, including a 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup loss by the U.S. men's team to Panama, a 2014 U.S. women's team win over Russia, and games by legendary club sides AC Milan, Manchester City and Mexican side Club America. And it was "home field" for Atlanta's Evander Holyfield when he defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World against Vaughn Bean on September 19, 1998.
The State Farm Arena -- known as the Philips Arena until this past August -- has been home to the NBA's Hawks since 1999, and was the home of the NHL's Thrashers from 1999 to 2011. It was built on the site of the previous Atlanta arena, The Omni, a.k.a. the Omni Coliseum.
That arena hosted the Hawks from 1972 to 1997, the NHL's Atlanta Flames from 1972 to 1980 (when they moved to Calgary), the 1977 NCAA Final Four (Queens native and ex-Knick Al McGuire leading Marquette over Dean Smith's North Carolina), a fight by Atlanta's own Evander Holyfield, defending the Heavyweight Championship of the World against Bert Cooper on November 23, 1991.
The CNN Center is adjacent to the arena, and the College Football Hall of Fame just to the north of that, at 250 Marietta Street NW. MARTA Gold or Red to GWCC-CNN Center Arena stop.
With the loss of the Thrashers, the nearest NHL team to Atlanta is the Nashville Predators, 247 miles away. Atlanta would be 10th in population among NHL markets, but don't count on them ever getting another team after losing 2 within 31 years.
* Site of Ponce de Leon Park. The Southern Association's Atlanta Crackers played at 2 stadiums with this name, from 1907 to 1923, and then, after a fire required rebuilding, from 1924 to 1964. The second park seated 20,000, a huge figure for a minor league park then -- and a pretty big one for a minor league park now.
"Crackers"? The term is usually applied to a poor white Southerner, and is, effectively, black people's response to what we now call "the N-word." It has also been suggested that the term referred to plowboys cracking a whip over their farm animals, or that it was a shortened version of an earlier team called the Firecrackers, or that it comes from the Gaelic word "craic," meaning entertaining conversation, or boasting, or bantering. (To make matters more confusing, the Negro Leagues had a team called the Atlanta Black Crackers.)
The team won a Pennant in 1895, before the 1st ballpark with the name was built. In the 1st park, they won Pennants in 1907, 1909, 1913, 1917 and 1919. In the 2nd, they won in 1925, 1935, 1938, 1945, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1960 and 1962. So, 15 in all. After that 1962 Crackers Pennant, Atlanta would not win another until the Braves finally did it 29 years later. All told, Atlanta has won 20 Pennants.
The park also hosted high school football and the occasional prizefight, including the last fight in the career of Jack Dempsey, in 1940, when he was 45 years old and beat pro wrestler Clarence "Cowboy" Luttrell.
The Southern Association, a Double-A League (since replaced by the Southern League) folded in 1961, rather than accept integrated teams. The Crackers, known (ironically, considering their location) as "the Yankees of the Minors," were accepted into the Triple-A American Association, and remained there until their final season, 1965, before the Braves arrived the next year. That last season, 1965, was played at what became Fulton County Stadium, its 52,000 seats making it the largest stadium ever to regularly host minor-league games, a record that would later be broken by the Denver Bears after Bears Stadium was expanded to 74,000 seats and became Mile High Stadium.
The Midtown Place Shopping Center is now on the site. Unlike the park, and the 1st shopping center that was on the site, before Midtown Place, the magnolia tree has never been torn down. 650 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE. MARTA Gold to North Avenue, then transfer to Number 2 bus.
In 1979, Georgia State University bought the Auditorium, and converted it into their alumni hall, renaming it for alumnus Bill Dahlberg. Courtland Street & Auditorium Place SE. Just 5 blocks east of Five Points, and within walking distance.
Ty Cobb is buried in his family's mausoleum in Rose Hill Cemetery, in his hometown of Royston, 93 miles northeast of Atlanta. It can only be reached by car.
* Non-Sports Sites. There's the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum, 800 Cherokee Avenue SE, which tells the true story of that fire you saw in Gone With the Wind. At the other end of the spectrum, giving all people their equal due, is the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site at 449 Auburn Avenue NE, which includes the house that was Dr. King's birthplace and boyhood home, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he and his father Martin Sr. preached, and his tomb. The King Memorial stop on MARTA's Blue and Green Lines serves both the King Center and the Cyclorama.
The Carter Center, housing Jimmy Carter's Presidential Library and Museum, and the Carter Center for Nonviolent Social Change, is at 453 Freedom Parkway. Bus 3 or 16 from Five Points stop on MARTA. The Carters have announced that, unlike most recent Presidents, they will not be buried at their Presidential Library, but rather in their hometown of Plains, 158 miles south of Atlanta.
From 1924 onward, Franklin D. Roosevelt had a retreat at Warm Springs, which became known as the Little White House when he became President in 1933. He died there on April 12, 1945. 401 Little White House Road, 73 miles southwest of Atlanta.
Atlanta also has museums honoring Gone With the Wind author and Atlanta native Margaret Mitchell, Atlanta's native drink Coca-Cola, and Atlanta's native news network CNN. And there's the city's major shopping district, Underground Atlanta, in the Five Points area.
Both the Paramount and the Loew's Grand (which burned in a suspected insurance scam in 1978) have been demolished, and replaced by the Georgia-Pacific Tower. John Wesley Dobbs Avenue & Peachtree Street NE. MARTA Gold or Red Line to Peachtree Center.
In addition to the preceding, Elvis played 2 shows at the City Auditorium in Waycross on February 22, 1956. 865 Pendleton Street, 238 miles southeast, actually closer to Jacksonville. He played the Bell Municipal Auditorium in Augusta on March 20 and June 27, 1956. 712 Telfair Street, 148 miles east.
He played 2 shows at the Savannah Sports Arena on June 25, 1956. Since demolished, it stood at 2519 E. Gwinnett Street, 250 miles southeast. He played the Savannah Civic Center on February 17, 1977. 301 W. Oglethorpe Avenue. And he played the Macon Coliseum on April 15, 1972 (2 shows); April 24, 1975; and August 31, 1976 He was supposed to sing there again on April 2, 1977, but his lifestyle was catching up with him, and the show was postponed, and done on June 1. 200 Coliseum Drive, 84 miles south.
He played 2 shows at the Savannah Sports Arena on June 25, 1956. Since demolished, it stood at 2519 E. Gwinnett Street, 250 miles southeast. He played the Savannah Civic Center on February 17, 1977. 301 W. Oglethorpe Avenue. And he played the Macon Coliseum on April 15, 1972 (2 shows); April 24, 1975; and August 31, 1976 He was supposed to sing there again on April 2, 1977, but his lifestyle was catching up with him, and the show was postponed, and done on June 1. 200 Coliseum Drive, 84 miles south.
The Royal Peacock Club was a longtime hotspot for jazz and rhythm & blues. On November 29, 1964, soul singer Sam Cooke gave what turned out to be his last concert there. Now known as the Royal Peacock Lounge, it is billed as "Atlanta's oldest reggae club," in other words a dance club. 186 1/2 Auburn Avenue NE, at Piedmont Avenue, just northeast of downtown and a block north of the Georgia State campus. Bus 3.
From Sanford Stadium, it's 71 miles west to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena, a slightly more northerly 71 miles west to SunTrust Park, 94 miles southeast to Augusta National Golf Club, 195 miles northeast to downtown Charlotte, 306 miles northwest to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and 350 miles northeast to PNC Arena in Raleigh, home of the Carolina Hurricanes.
UGa's basketball arena, the 10,253-seat Stegeman Coliseum, opened in 1964, at 100 Smith Street, 6 blocks south of Sanford Stadium. The Bulldogs aren't nearly as successful in basketball as they are in football -- or as much as the Yellow Jackets are in basketball. They've won only 2 Conference Championships, in 1931 and 1990; only 3 Conference Tournaments, in 1932, 1983 and 2008; and reached only 1 Final Four, in 1983.
Their women's team has done better: 7 Conference Championships, 4 Conference Tournament wins, 5 Final Fours (1983, 1985, 1995, 1996 and 1999), and 2 losses in Finals (1985 and 1996).
Atlanta is the home base of actor-writer-producer-director Tyler Perry, and all his TV shows and movies are set there. The house that stands in for the home of his most famous character, Mabel "Madea" Simmons, is at 1197 Avon Avenue SW, 3 miles southwest of downtown. MARTA Gold or Red Line to Oakland City, then a 10-minute walk north. I think it's a private home, so don't bother whoever lives there. Especially if there's somebody living there who's like Madea.
From Sanford Stadium, it's 71 miles west to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena, a slightly more northerly 71 miles west to SunTrust Park, 94 miles southeast to Augusta National Golf Club, 195 miles northeast to downtown Charlotte, 306 miles northwest to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and 350 miles northeast to PNC Arena in Raleigh, home of the Carolina Hurricanes.
UGa's basketball arena, the 10,253-seat Stegeman Coliseum, opened in 1964, at 100 Smith Street, 6 blocks south of Sanford Stadium. The Bulldogs aren't nearly as successful in basketball as they are in football -- or as much as the Yellow Jackets are in basketball. They've won only 2 Conference Championships, in 1931 and 1990; only 3 Conference Tournaments, in 1932, 1983 and 2008; and reached only 1 Final Four, in 1983.
Atlanta is the home base of actor-writer-producer-director Tyler Perry, and all his TV shows and movies are set there. The house that stands in for the home of his most famous character, Mabel "Madea" Simmons, is at 1197 Avon Avenue SW, 3 miles southwest of downtown. MARTA Gold or Red Line to Oakland City, then a 10-minute walk north. I think it's a private home, so don't bother whoever lives there. Especially if there's somebody living there who's like Madea.
The most famous TV show set in Georgia was The Dukes of Hazzard. The State in which Hazzard County was located was never specified in the script, but the cars had Georgia license plates, and Georgia State Highway signs could be clearly seen. The first few episodes were filmed in Covington, about 37 miles southeast of Five Points. After returning from a Christmas break from filming in 1978-79, new sets were built in Southern California to mimic a small Southern town's courthouse square.
Years later, the TV version of In the Heat of the Night would also film in Covington. The movie version, like the TV version set in the fictional town of Sparta, Mississippi, was filmed in Tennessee and Illinois, as Sidney Poitier refused to cross the Mason-Dixon Line to film his scenes.
Atlanta has attracted the supernatural, including The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries and Teen Wolf. Much of Andy Griffith's ole-country lawyer show Matlock was filmed around the Fulton County Government Center and the State Capitol along MLK Drive, centered on Central Avenue.
But, for the most part, Matlock, like another Atlanta-based show, Designing Women, was filmed in L.A. The house that stood in for Julia Sugarbaker's home, at 1521 Sycamore Street in the show (the address does exist in neighboring Decatur), isn't even in Georgia: It's in Little Rock, Arkansas, hometown of series co-creator and writer Harry Thomason. (His co-creator and writer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is from Poplar Bluff, Missouri.)
The most famous movie scene ever filmed in Georgia wasn't any scene in Gone With the Wind (that was filmed in Hollywood), but the town square scene in Forrest Gump. That was filmed in Chippewa Square, at Bull and Hull Streets, in Savannah, 250 miles southeast of Atlanta. The bench has been moved to the nearby Savannah History Museum, 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Most of the movie was filmed in Beaufort, South Carolina, 42 miles to the northeast, 287 miles southeast of Atlanta, and 71 miles southwest of Charleston.
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So if college football is your game, and if you've got Georgia -- or Georgia Tech -- on your mind, then either school can be one of the great experiences. Just remember: They don't call it "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate" for nothing. Keith Jackson was right: These two teams just... don't... like each other.
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