Annual G-Day Game evokes memories of Bulldogs from past
The spring game weekend, and leading up to the intra-squad scrimmage, had one and all whetting appetites for football — but learning very little about the Georgia team, much of that by design.
Network television is nice. It brings about enviable status. However, the last thing any coach wants is to do is disclose, even inadvertently, any wrinkle or sanguine information for prying eyes of the 12 opponents on the schedule. They all now have file copies of the G-Day game on ESPN. Georgia, by the way, has an opponent file, too.
More than 80,000 aficionados of the Red and Black sallied forth to fill Sanford Stadium proper. Were it not for the restricting of entry into the west end zone stands owing to construction, Saturday was a day which might have broken the record crowd of 93,000 to witness Kirby Smart’s first spring game in 2016, which confirms that the view of the loyalists is that the leader has the right stuff to move the Dawgs into a high-cotton football lifestyle.
This was a week for network cameras, either live or for creating stories to be told down the road. First, Paul Finebaum and the SEC Net- work were on campus to collect video for a special about Renaissance Man Billy Payne (‘Dog letterman 66-68, two SEC rings) for whom the Uniersity of Georgia will soon name its new indoor athletic facility, along with his late father, Porter: “The William Porter Payne and Porter Otis Payne Indoor Practice Facility.”
Naturally, you know what the football players and other studentathletes are going to say about that. No doubt it will be, “The House of Payne.”
No sooner than the SEC Network had exited the city limits that NFL Films arrived with a crew to do a story on Fran Tarkenton, a member of the college and professional football halls of fame. Interviews took place all over the lot.
The Athens Country Club became a venue for old home week, with the players of the late Wallace Butts gathered on Saturday morning for their annual reunion breakfast. Wally’s Boys’ membership, understandably, is in decline. However, friends of friends of Wally’s Boys help perpetuate the memory of Georgia’s longtime coach who got the Bulldogs in the bowl business and left his mark on UGA football with Heisman and Maxwell award winners and four SEC championship teams. More than 225 Butts enthusiasts and loyalists showed up. A lot of that was owing to the management of the association by Bill Saye, a dedicated former letterman.
With Tarkenton and Pat Dye participating in the program and providing insights for NFL films, it was a memorable day that drew countless luminaries to this signature event.