Fall football practice has begun, and the natives are restless — not with criticism, but with anticipation and expectations. This has been the way it is since shoulder pads were invented.
I, too, have those same “can’t wait” feelings and have been uplifted by the emotions that come with seeing my favorite team dressed out in red jerseys and silver britches.
You may be interested in how those colors became entrenched, which brings about a flashback to the Vince Dooley era.
The red jerseys date to the early 1900s, but it was coach Wallace Butts who introduced the silver britches in 1939 after becoming head coach.
Those uniform colors remained through 1960, when Butts retired, and were kept by Johnny Griffith during his short three-year tenure.
At least two National Football League teams have modeled their uniforms after Georgia, too: the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons.
Buck Shaw, the original coach of the San Francisco 49ers, told former Bulldog defensive lineman Marion Campbell that he thought Georgia’s uniforms were the prettiest he had ever seen. When Shaw chose the colors for his first 49ers team, red was his dominant choice, but he went with khaki pants.
When Dooley became head coach in 1964, he spent considerable time sorting out options for the team’s uniform. He made two significant changes: a red helmet to replace the silver ones of the past, plus an eye-catching addition.
Vince added the classic oval black “G” that would become one of the most recognizable symbols in college football. The first order of business was Joel Eaves, the athletic director, calling the Green Bay Packers to ask if they were OK with Georgia using the “G,” which was similar to the Packers’ logo. The original Packers “G,” however, was designed by their equipment manager and looked more like a block than an oval.
In the process, UGA backfield coach John Donaldson volunteered his artist wife, Anne, to come up with an image, which she did. She designed a “G” that fit the oval contours of the helmet, giving UGA one of the classiest decal designs in football.
Best I recall, there was not much carping or complaining about the uniform changes amid a deeply troubled time in Athens. UGA alumni were greatly divided as Butts resigned under pressure, while Eaves and Dooley kept to themselves. That was more of an issue than uniform changes.
When the new regime did settle in, they were not very sociable, mainly because they did not have time. Talk about keeping the nose to the grindstone — no one was ever more committed in that sense than the early Dooley staff.
It did not sit well with some of the old-timers, however, that Vince chose to replace the silver britches with white ones, though they were in the minority. Few people today even know why he made that decision.
It was natural that a popular cheer had developed among the fans: “Go, you silver britches.” And though Athens has never been a bastion of liberalism, and in those days there were not a lot of microphones around — and certainly no amplifiers — the cheer had become popular with a certain segment of the student body, who revised it to: “Go you sons of [expletive].”
Well, you get the idea.
Dooley was already familiar with it from his days as a scout for Auburn in the era when each team sent assistant coaches to scout opponents as many as three games in advance of their upcoming matchup with a particular school. Vince and Eaves were the main scouts for Auburn.
By implementing the white pants, Dooley eliminated the opportunity for the negative cheer.
Still, Vince was a man who appreciated tradition, and years later he actually brought back the silver britches. There was not much fuss made about it at the time.
And now, most traditional Bulldog fans appreciate the good look of the red jerseys and the silver britches, which certainly gives UGA one of the classiest uniforms in college football.