COIN FLIPS turn out well for Georgia over years.
HOOVER, Ala. — Three coin flips in 1980 paid huge dividends for the University of Georgia.
Former All-American running back Herschel Walker, was torn between joining the Marine Corps and playing college football throughout that spring, he said Tuesday at SEC media days.
“I ended up flipping a coin and that’s how I ended up at the University of Georgia,” Walker said.
It wasn’t just one coin flip for the teen-aged Walker, who grew up in Wrightsville, Ga., and didn’t choose Georgia until late in the process.
“I love the military and thought I was cut out to be a Marine,” Walker said. “I couldn’t tell my mom and dad I didn’t want to go to college. On Easter Sunday in April, my mom said,
‘Bo — that’s my nickname, you know Bo Jackson wanted to be me — don’t you think it’s time for you to decide what you want to do?’ ”
“I flipped [a] coin to decide whether I was going to the military or going to college and it came up for me to go to college. I go ‘crap.’ Then I was not going to the University of Georgia because I was upset that God wouldn’t let me do what I wanted to do. So I flipped a coin between Clemson and the University of Georgia and Georgia ended up winning the coin toss.
“Then I said I’d love to go to USC out in California. So it was between those two schools and Georgia won that as well. This is no lie. I pulled the names out of a bag and I pulled Georgia. That time I said I was going to Georgia. You know, sometimes when you’re naive and stupid, God will take care of you.”
Walker led Georgia to the 1980 national championship while rushing for 1,616 yards and 15 touchdowns and finishing third in the Heisman Trophy race.
Walker finished with 5,259 career rushing yards and 52 total touchdowns in three seasons with the Bulldogs. He won the Heisman Trophy as a junior after being the runner up in 1981.