Dowdle stepping down as sideline reporter
When Georgia opens the football season with a muchanticipated matchup with Clemson in September, Chuck Dowdle plans to be far away from the UGA sideline where he’s spent the past 11 seasons.
Dowdle will be at the house he’s moved to in Kennebunkport, Maine, that he’s owned as a summer home since 1995.
He’s stepping down as sideline reporter for the Georgia Bulldog Radio Network but plans to remain as analyst on the men’s basketball games.
“In February, I turned 72 and I started thinking I can’t do this forever,” Dowdle said. “This coming fall, my daughter (Christina) has a wedding in October that I was going to miss a game. I have not missed a Georgia football game since Mark Richt took over in 2001. I was going to miss one and I thought maybe now would be a good time to step aside.”
The house at the Georgia Club that he lived in with his girlfriend, Elaine, and their two dogs was sold earlier this year. After basketball season, Dowdle told associate athletic director Alan Thomas he wanted to walk away from the sideline position.
Dowdle first worked on the UGA football radio broadcasts doing locker room reports for a couple of seasons before taking over for Loran Smith who served as sideline reporter for 36 years until the 2010 season.
An Atlanta native who played basketball at UGA before transferring and graduating from Georgia State, Dowdle spent 25 years as sports director and anchor at WSB-TV in Atlanta.
Who might be picked to replace Dowdle? He’s not sure, but said he’d be in favor of a former player filling that role which is how many schools fill that spot.
“That’s what I would recommend to them,” he said. “They’re free to do whatever they’d like to do and Alan Thomas I’m sure in conjunction with the folks at IMG will come up with somebody. I’d think a former player would fit nicely into that. The trickiest part of that job is getting the medical information which I know you guys wrestle with up in the press box.”
There are several former Georgia players already in sports broadcasting in the area that could be interested.
“It’s a highly coveted position for sure,” former Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason, an SEC Network analyst last season, said via text message Sunday. “It’s always great to stay close to anything Georgia football related.”
Mason said he’s sorry to hear that Dowdle is stepping away from working the sideline.
“I’m sure every former current player and fan will miss him as he has added so much to what we all love listening to,” said Mason who co-hosts the “Buck and Hut Show” on 680 AM in Atlanta with another former UGA quarterback, Buck Belue, who also has a wide range of sports broadcasting experience.
Former Georgia and NFL cornerback Brandon Boykin said if he was contacted he’d “definitely be open to exploring it!”
Boykin was a co-host last season of the weekly “Thinking Out Loud,” on the SEC Network and has done work for WSB-TV as well.
Former Bulldog quarterback D.J. Shockley already co-hosts the “Shock and Ship,” podcast for UGA and has conducted video interviews with signees in recent years and done interviews with coach Kirby Smart and AD Josh Brooks. He’s also an SEC Network analyst and is on Falcons-related broadcasts.
“I am blessed to have a number of opportunities in the media and I’m already working on a number of projects,” he said. “I know the team at Georgia will work through the process and make a great addition to the broadcast team at the right time.”
One name that’s been bandied about by UGA fans is Jeff Dantzler, who co-hosts the first hour of the football pregame show and is the play-by-play voice for baseball and women’s basketball.