UGA players build solid foundation for Rose Bowl victory
The following is a continuation of Loran Smith’s column covering the Georgia Bulldog’s first trip to the Rose Bowl in 1943, which they won 9-0 over UCLA.
I often think of the country boys, small town boys on that team. They could have only gotten there because of the game of football, a circumstance still commonplace in the game today. In addition to Bill Godwin, there were players like wingback Racehorse Davis of Brunswick, Van Davis (no relation) of Philomath in Oglethorpe County and Red Boyd of Toccoa.
Racehorse, the wingback, had multiple long distance touchdowns in his career, including catching a pass from Sinkwich versus Auburn in 1941 and racing for the winning touchdown after the final gun had sounded. Racehorse almost returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in the Rose Bowl.
He came home after the war, played briefly with the Baltimore Colts and lived a modest life on St. Simons Island, working with Seapak. He was deeply indebted to his alma mater for an opportunity to play a game he loved. He always believed his life was enriched by playing for the winning team in the Rose Bowl. LORAN SMITH GUEST COLUMNIST
Van Davis became a high school principal and tried to teach young boys the values of sport, education, family and community service. His son, Andy, has in his possession a Rose Bowl ball, which was signed by all of Van’s teammates. Red Boyd wound up coaching at his high school in Toccoa. His teams experienced hardscrabble times in Class C football, but Red coached them up as best he could and always sent every worthy player to play for his alma mater.
There are others, all having their day in the sun in Pasadena clinging to those precious memories and never letting go. They were part of one of Georgia’s proudest moments. None of them, over the years, failed to honor their fallen teammates — such as Walter Ruark of Bostwick in Morgan County — who left Pasadena for the battlefields of World War II and never came home.
It is in order to reflect on how the Bulldogs got to Pasadena. In 1939, Coach Butts had recruited one of the best freshmen teams ever in that era when first year enrollees were not allowed to participate in varsity competition.
That freshman team, led by Sinkwich, was known as the “Point-a-minute Bullpups” for scoring an average of over 60 points per game for three outings, which was typical scheduling in those days. By their junior year in 1941, they were giving the community anticipatory thrills. These boys might just win Georgia’s first Southeastern Conference championship. They would in ‘42, but what they accomplished New Year’s Day 1942 in Miami was next to sensational.
They had gotten Georgia invited to a bowl game. After defeating Georgia Tech 21-0 in Atlanta in the regular season finale, the Bulldogs were invited to the Orange Bowl where they steamrolled TCU, 40-26.
This elevated the spirits of the town of Athens, which had long aspired for Georgia to get into the bowl business.
All the excitement about the Rose Bowl stadium is a reminder of a story with an interesting twist today. When the late Charlie Martin, Georgia’s one time business manager of athletics, was invited to travel to the Rose Bowl in 1927 with his counterpart at Alabama, Martin marveled at the red roses which ringed the playing field at the Rose Bowl.
He thought it would be good to plant roses around the playing field at Sanford Stadium as it was being built. However, when he recommended the planting of roses at Sanford Stadium, he was told by university gardeners that roses would not flourish in that setting. The move to plant English privet hedges then came about. Georgia has since been renowned for its beautiful hedges.
A few years ago, the Rose Bowl finally had to give up on maintaining roses at the Rose Bowl and switched to a shrubbery similar to Georgia’s hedges. This should lift the spirits of the thousands of Georgia fans who will be making the trip to Southern California for the game.
On Jan. 1, 2018, Georgia will play Oklahoma between the hedges.