In Georgia, like most of the South, college football is not a sport; it’s a religion. Yes, we manage to fill the stadiums and arenas for the Atlanta Braves, Hawks, Falcons, and Thrashers, and we pack the stands on NASCAR weekends, but true believers would not be caught dead anywhere but on a college campus when the Bulldogs or the Yellow Jackets or their favorite out-of-state teams are playing. Believe it or not, Georgia is home to alumni and alumnae from Clemson, Auburn, Florida, Duke, Wake Forest, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana State, and other schools besides Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia. Rumor has it that even some Notre Dame and Michigan fans are mixed in with the population.
Newcomers who are football and basketball fans get a bonus when they move to the state. If they’re Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) fans, they can go to Georgia Tech games. If they’re die-hard Southeastern Conference (SEC) fans, there’s the University of Georgia. Both Tech and Georgia have won national championships in football.
Each year, Atlanta is host to the SEC championship football and basketball games and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which pits an ACC team against an SEC team.
And if you prefer other athletic events, don’t worry. You can find almost any sport in Georgia, from tennis and golf to polo and ice hockey.
Atlanta has the big professional teams, including the Atlanta Dream of the Women’s National Basketball Association, but baseball fans soon will be able to watch tomorrow’s stars on the Gwinnett Braves AAA team at its new, intimate stadium.
Those who enjoy the roar of high-powered engines and the smell of gasoline fumes can head to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for one of the Sprint Cup races (including the Pep Boys Auto 500), Nationwide series races, Camping World truck series races, Legends races, or drag-racing events.
Golf enthusiasts can watch the best players in the world compete at the Masters Tournament in Augusta in April or the AT&T Classic in Duluth. AT&T tickets are easier to get than ones to the Masters. Only those who have inherited Masters tickets from relatives or who are willing to pay thousands of dollars to online sellers are allowed to tread the hallowed ground where Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and other greats have competed for the famous green jacket.
No matter which sport you love, you can learn about the state’s legendary athletes, past and present, at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon. More than 300 inductees are represented in exhibits, including baseball greats Ty Cobb and Hank Aaron, football figures John Heisman and Herschel Walker, NASCAR’s Bill Elliott, and golf champion Bobby Jones.
Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech football teams have not fared well in the past few years against their in-state rivals, the University of Georgia Bulldogs, but the Yellow Jackets have a proud history dating back to 1892. A member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Yellow Jackets (also known as the Ramblin’ Wreck) play their home games at Bobby Dodd Stadium at historic Grant Field in Atlanta.
Tech has won four national championships and 15 conference titles in football and still holds the record for the most lopsided victory in college football, a 222–0 win over Cumberland College in 1916.
The school has produced a number of coaching legends.
John Heisman, the man for whom the vaunted Heisman Trophy was named, coached Tech in the early years.
William Alexander, who became head coach in 1920, led Tech to a national championship in 1928, the Rose Bowl in 1929, the Orange Bowl in 1940, the Cotton Bowl in 1943, and the Sugar Bowl in 1944.
Bobby Dodd, for whom the stadium is named, led Tech to eight straight victories over UGA, its longest winning streak against the Bulldogs. In 1952, Dodd coached the Yellow Jackets to a perfect 12–0 season (including a Sugar Bowl win over the University of Mississippi) and a national title. Dodd was responsible for Tech’s withdrawing from the SEC in 1963 and joining the ACC.
The coaches who followed Dodd did not live up to Tech fans’ expectations. Finally, they pinned their hopes on Bobby Ross, who had coached the University of Maryland to three ACC titles. In 1990, Ross coached the team to an 11–0–1 season, a 45–21 victory over Nebraska in the Citrus Bowl, and a share of the national championship.
George O’Leary coached Tech to several winning seasons after Ross’s replacement, Bill Lewis, was fired. O’Leary left in 2001 to take the head coaching job at Notre Dame, but the offer was rescinded after some fabrications were discovered in his résumé.
Chan Gailey’s arrival in 2002 sparked Tech fans’ hopes of a return to the glory of Bobby Dodd’s days. Gailey had a couple of seven-win seasons before getting nine victories and the ACC championship in 2006. Gailey was fired in 2007 and replaced by Paul Johnson of Georgia Southern.
Georgia Tech has excelled in other sports as well. In 1985, coach Bobby Cremins led a team starring Mark Price, John Salley, and Bruce Dalrymple to Tech’s first ACC championship and to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament. Tech made it to the NCAA tournament nine straight times under Cremins, who became the school’s most successful basketball coach, claiming 354 wins against 237 losses. Cremins’s successor, Paul Hewitt, led Tech to the 2004 NCAA Final Four before losing to the University of Connecticut.
Tech’s baseball team, under coach Danny Hall, has advanced to three College World Series and won four ACC regular-season titles and three ACC tournament titles. Tech players who have made it to the major leagues include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Brown, Mark Teixeira, and Jason Varitek.
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia Bulldogs have won 35 national championships in baseball, football, golf, equestrian competition, gymnastics, swimming and diving, and tennis. They have also won 128 Southeastern Conference championships in various sports. But the sport that counts most in the hearts of Dawg fans is football.
Georgia football fans have always been loyal, but their enthusiasm reached a fever pitch during the Herschel Walker days, when the Heisman Trophy winner led the Bulldogs to a national championship in 1980. Bulldog Nation has yearned for another national title ever since. Only a series of defeats to the Florida Gators under Coach Steve Spurrier and a few other unexpected losses have kept them from the elusive goal.
UGA has been fielding a football team since 1892. Its coaches have included Glenn “Pop” Warner, George Woodruff, Harry Mehre, Wally Butts, Vince Dooley, Ray Goff, Jim Donnan, and Mark Richt. Butts, who coached from 1939 to 1960, led the team to its first consensus NCAA 1-A national championship in 1942, following a 9–0 victory over UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Star players on that team included Charley Trippi and Frank Sinkwich. The Bulldogs finished first in one national poll in 1946.
Dooley, who served as head coach from 1964 to 1988, led the team to six SEC titles and a national championship in 1980, when the Bulldogs defeated Notre Dame 17–10 in the Sugar Bowl. Star players on that team were Herschel Walker, Buck Belue, and Lindsay Scott. Dooley, who held the post longer than any other Georgia coach, finished with a 201–77–10 record.
Under current coach Mark Richt, Georgia has won two SEC championships and three SEC East Division championships. The Bulldogs defeated Hawaii 41–10 in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. Richt began the 2008–2009 season with a record of 72–19.
Georgia Southern University
When Dale Lick took over as president of this small Statesboro college in 1978, he realized something was missing: a football team. The school had fielded something resembling a team from 1924 to 1941. The Blue Tide, as they were known then, had only four winning seasons.
Lick reinstituted football and jump-started the Georgia Southern Eagles by hiring Erskine “Erk” Russell, a UGA defensive coach, to run the team. Competing against other NCAA 1-AA teams, the Eagles won six national championships between 1985 and 2000. The 1989 team, the last coached by Russell, finished the season at 15–0.
Atlanta Braves
The Braves have been called “America’s Team” because their games were televised nationwide via satellite on Ted Turner’s “Superstation,” WTBS, in the days before widespread cable channels.
The oldest continuously operating sports franchise in America, the Braves began in Boston as the Red Stockings in 1871. The name was changed to the Beaneaters, Doves, Rustlers, Bees, and, finally, Braves. The team moved to Milwaukee in the 1950s and to Atlanta in 1966.
The Braves struggled over the next 25 years. During the team’s dismal seasons, embittered fans sometimes stuck their unused tickets under the wiper blades of parked cars. Getting a choice seat behind home plate was not difficult.
One bright spot was the historic night in 1973 when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record by hitting his 715th home run. For a brief moment, Atlanta baseball fans had something to brag about.
Things began to change for the better in 1991, when the “Miracle Braves” went from worst to first and won the National League pennant. The Braves then went on a streak that included a World Series championship over the Cleveland Indians in 1995.
Atlanta’s vaunted pitching staff was the key to its success. In 1995, Greg Maddux won a fourth straight Cy Young Award, boasting a 19–2 record and an earned run average of 1.63. Mark Wohlers was a dominant closer, earning 25 saves. Braves hitters came through at the plate as well. Four players hit more than 20 home runs that year. Fred McGriff had 27; David Justice, 24; Ryan Klesko, 24; and rookie Chipper Jones, 23. In the final game of the World Series, Tom Glavine pitched eight innings and David Justice hit a home run to win the game 1–0.
No parade had welcomed the Braves when they arrived from Milwaukee in 1966, but hundreds of thousands lined the streets of Atlanta to cheer them as World Series champions.
The Braves continued their winning ways into the 21st century but never won a World Series again. Fans still pack the current stadium, Turner Field, to watch new stars Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann play on the same field with Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. They watch with dreams of the team’s glory years and the hope that this season, or maybe next season, will be the one.
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons made headlines in 2007, but not for anything they did on the playing field. After weeks of rumors, the team’s star quarterback, Michael Vick, was suspended for illegal dog-fighting activities on property he owned in Virginia. After Vick was sentenced to prison for 23 months, the Falcons tried to fill the huge vacancy he left with backup quarterbacks.
The Falcons franchise has had a spotty record since the team was formed in 1965 under owner Rankin Smith. Tommy Nobis of the University of Texas became the first Falcon when he was chosen as the number-one pick in the 1966 NFL draft. The team won one game the first season and only 12 during the 1960s.
The Falcons finally made the postseason in 1978 but lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional playoffs. They were back in the playoffs again in 1980 and 1982.
The Falcons had their best season in 1998 when, led by quarterback Chris Chandler, they upset the Minnesota Vikings for the NFC championship and headed for Super Bowl XXXIII. The miracle season ended with a 34–19 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Things began to look up in 2001 with the drafting of Vick from Virginia Tech. A scrambling, agile runner, Vick led the Falcons to the playoffs in 2002, when the team lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Bad luck reappeared when Vick broke his leg in the 2003 preseason and missed the first 12 games of the regular schedule. He returned the next year to lead the Falcons to an 11–5 record and another appearance in the playoffs. Once again, they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Things continued to go downhill in 2005 and 2006 with records of 8–8 and 7–9. Then the bottom fell out when Vick was suspended and sent to prison. Coach Jim Mora was fired, and Bobby Petrino was brought in as his replacement. But Petrino abruptly resigned after 13 games to take the head coaching job at the University of Arkansas. Emmitt Thomas, the Falcons’ secondary coach, took over as head coach for the final three games.
In January 2008, Mike Smith, a defensive coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, was hired as head coach. That April, the team drafted Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan. With a new coach and a promising young quarterback, Falcons owner Arthur Blank has promised fans an improved team. Die-hard Falcons supporters are optimistic. The rest of us will believe it when we see it.
Atlanta Hawks
Like the Braves, the Hawks began in another city and eventually moved to Atlanta. The team was born as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks in 1946 and became the Milwaukee Hawks in 1951. In 1955, it moved to St. Louis and stayed for 13 seasons as one of the NBA’s top teams, featuring superstars such as Bob Petit. Atlanta became the team’s nesting place in 1968 after St. Louis officials refused to build a new arena. The team played for four seasons at Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Stadium while the Omni Coliseum was under construction.
The Hawks began their stay in Atlanta with some top talent. Pistol Pete Maravich dazzled the crowds with his fancy dribbling and shooting. Teammate Lou Hudson was a solid superstar.
Ted Turner, owner of the Braves, purchased the Hawks in 1976 and brought in Hubie Brown as head coach. Four years later, the Hawks won the NBA’s Central Division. Following the addition of Dominique Wilkins and the hiring of Mike Fratello as coach in 1982, the Hawks became one of the NBA’s best teams. They were good, but not good enough to win it all, however, so Lenny Wilkins was hired to replace Fratello in 1993.
In 1994, Hawks management infuriated the fans by trading Dominique Wilkins, a crowd favorite and the franchise’s leading all-time scorer. Wilkins’s replacement, Danny Manning, left the team at the end of the season. After that disastrous trade and another season in which the Hawks failed to advance in the playoffs, many fans drifted away. Others accepted the notion that the Hawks were never going to make it to the NBA finals.
Time Warner obtained the team in 1996, during its merger with Turner Broadcasting. The Hawks had a new home in Philips Arena, but the change of venue didn’t help them much. In 2004, a group of executives bought the Hawks from Time Warner. The new ownership failed to energize the team, which finished the season with only 13 victories. By 2007, the Hawks had played the most consecutive seasons of any NBA team without making the playoffs.
The acquisition of Mike Bibby from the Sacramento Kings in 2008 helped the Hawks make the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Although the team had only a 37–45 record, it took the Boston Celtics to a seventh game in the playoffs, stirring hope among fans for a better season in 2008–2009.
Atlanta Thrashers
Yes, Hotlanta has a professional ice hockey team. In 1997, the Atlanta Thrashers (named after the state bird, the brown thrasher) filled the void left by the Flames when that team left for Calgary in 1980. The Thrashers played their first NHL game in Philips Arena on October 2, 1999, losing 4–1 to the New Jersey Devils.
Owner Time Warner sold the Thrashers (and the Hawks) to a group of investors named Atlanta Spirit, LLC, on September 21, 2003. Eight days later, star forward Dany Heatley and center Dan Snyder were seriously injured when Heatley crashed his Ferrari. Snyder died six days later.
In memory of Snyder, the team wore black uniform patches bearing his number, 37. Heatley was traded to Ottawa at the end of the season for Marian Hossa. In 2007, Hossa, an outstanding offensive player, became the first Thrasher to score 100 points in a season. That same season, the Thrashers won the first division championship in franchise history and landed a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time. Unfortunately for the team and the fans, the New York Rangers swept the Thrashers in four games.
Georgia’s first Women’s National Basketball Association team, the Atlanta Dream, began its inaugural season in 2008. The team, coached by Marynell Meadors, plays its games in Philips Arena.
GOLF
Every golf fan knows that Georgia is famous for the Masters and Bobby Jones. The Masters, played every April at Augusta National Golf Club, is one of four major championships in men’s professional golf. It is arguably the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, and Jones is arguably one of the greatest champions the game has produced.
Jones and Clifford Roberts started the Masters. Jones created Augusta National Golf Club as a place to play after he retired. He and Roberts found some land in Augusta that seemed perfect for a golf course. Alister MacKenzie was hired to design the course in 1931, and Augusta National officially opened in 1933. The following year, Horton Smith won the first Masters, originally called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament.
The course was closed to golfers and used as a place to raise cattle and turkeys during World War II.
Augusta National and the Masters became famous in the 1960s and 1970s as the battleground of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. Those golfing giants won 11 times in 18 years.
Lee Elder became the first African-American to qualify for the tournament in 1975, but it would be another 15 years before Augusta National admitted a black member. Nicklaus set the record of being the oldest player to win the Masters with his victory in 1986 at the age of 46.
Augusta National became the center of controversy in 2003 when Martha Burk criticized the club for not allowing female members. Though the protest generated national publicity, the club refused to change its policy, and the Masters was played as scheduled.
If the 1960s and 1970s were the era of Palmer, Player, and Nicklaus, the era of the Tiger began in 1997 when Tiger Woods won his first Masters at the age of 21. He won his fourth straight major championship at Augusta National in 2001 and earned the prestigious green jacket again in 2002 and 2005.
Bobby Jones (1902–1971) is not only an icon to Georgia golfers but the greatest amateur golfer in history. Born in Atlanta, Jones grew up at a time when golf was a sport gentlemen played for the honor of winning, not for money—at least not for the hundreds of thousands of dollars professional golfers play for today.
An attorney by profession, Jones won 13 major championships in the 1920s, including three British Opens, four United States Opens, five United States Amateurs, and one British Amateur. He was the only golfer to win four major titles—the Grand Slam—in one season. Jones retired at the peak of his game at the age of 28.
Like Tiger Woods today, Jones inspired a generation of young golfers. One of them, Tommy Aaron of Gainesville, began playing at the age of 12. Aaron won the Masters in 1973 and was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1979.
Larry Nelson, a native of Alabama who grew up in Georgia, was a successful professional golfer as well. Nelson won the 1981 and 1987 PGA Championships and the 1983 United States Open and played on three Ryder Cup teams. He is a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame.
As a golfer at the University of North Carolina, Davis Love III of Sea Island was a three-time All-American who won the 1984 ACC tournament championship. Since turning professional, Love has won 18 PGA tournaments. He finished second at the 1995 Masters. Love was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.
Georgia also has produced some excellent female golfers.
Louise Suggs, born in Atlanta in 1923, began playing when she was 10. She won several amateur championships, including the North-South Tournament and the United States Amateur. Suggs won the 1949 United States Open in the year that the Women’s Professional Golf Association went out of business. She then joined a dozen other female players to form the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950.
Long before Tiger Woods charmed the media with his success at a young age, Dot Kirby (1926–2000) was setting a record in Georgia as the youngest golfer to win a state championship. She was 13. Like Bobby Jones, Kirby never turned professional. Golf was a game she played for fun. Kirby won the Georgia State Women’s Championship five consecutive times, two National Titleholders Championships, and the 1951 United States Amateur. Kirby was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 1989.
STOCK CAR RACING
Although Georgia does not have North Carolina’s storied history of stock car racing, some believe the seeds of the sport were planted in Dawsonville. Every racing fan today knows that Bill Elliott, nicknamed “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville,” is a native of the North Georgia town, but many may not be aware that a Dawsonville liquor-store owner named Raymond Parks was responsible for launching the careers of early drivers.
Stock car historians have confirmed that some of the best drivers have been moonshine runners. Two of these, Roy Hall and Lloyd Seay, were cousins of Parks who persuaded the liquor merchant to finance their careers. Parks provided cars fine-tuned by Atlanta mechanic Red Vogt. Hall and Seay burned up the dirt tracks in the years before World War II. Seay was shot to death during an argument with another cousin about a shipment of sugar (presumably for making moonshine), and Hall retired from racing.
Parks and Vogt were among the key players who organized the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1947. The Parks-Vogt team launched the careers of Bob and Fonty Flock, Gober Sosebee, Jack Smith, and Red Byron, who won the 1949 NASCAR championship.
The driver best known among contemporary race fans, however, is Bill Elliott, who in 1985 became the first driver to win $1 million in a race. He captured the Winston Cup Championship in 1988.
The only Georgia track still hosting Sprint Cup events is the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton. But Georgia fans think nothing of driving hundreds of miles to NASCAR events all over the South.
Cycling
The Tour de Georgia, a challenging bicycle event modeled on the Tour de France, takes cyclists 600 miles through the state in six days. One of the stages involves a steep climb to the top of Brasstown Bald, Georgia’s highest mountain. The race, which has an economic impact of an estimated $38 million on the state, was launched in 2002 by the Georgia Department of Industry and Trade to benefit the Georgia Cancer Coalition. Funds from the 2008 race were donated to the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Running
Every Fourth of July in Atlanta, more than 50,000 runners (and walkers) line up at the Lenox Mall in what has become the largest 10K road race in the world. The race attracts some 150,000 friends and fans, who line the 6.2-mile course to cheer on their favorites. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution Peachtree Road Race 10K started in 1970 with a group of about 100 runners. Winners get prize money, and others get T-shirts. Anyone can participate as long as they turn their applications in by the deadline. For more information, contact the Atlanta Track Club; its website is www.atlantatrackclub.org.
BOOKS AND RESOURCES
Green, Ron, Sr. The Masters: 101 Reasons to Love Golf’s Greatest Tournament. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2008.
New Georgia Encyclopedia. www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.
Rapoport, Ron. The Immortal Bobby: Bobby Jones and the Golden Age of Golf. New York: Wiley, 2005.
Smith, Loren. The University of Georgia Football Vault. Whitman Publishing, 2007.
Wilkinson, Jack. Georgia Tech Football Vault. Whitman Publishing, 2008.
