Georgia and Clemson met for the first time on the Gridiron in 1897 in Athens, and the Bulldogs won 24-0. The two teams have met intermittently through the years, with the Bulldogs holding a 43-18-4 lead.
In Sanford Stadium, the home team has only lost twice in 23 meetings, and the Red and Black enjoy an 8-7-2 record at Memorial Stadium. For neutral site games, Georgia has a 7-1-1 advantage, and they hope that trend will continue this weekend at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
In the old days, the Tigers’ Frank Howard and UGA’s Wallace Butts were great friends who were colorful after-dinner speakers. One night in the late fifties, the Touchdown Club of Athens was having one of its periodic meetings, and Frank Howard and Bill Murray, the head coach at Duke, walked in unannounced.
That caused the most considerable stir amongst the membership. They had come to enjoy a steak and an opportunity to show support for their friend, Wallace Butts. But having two well-known head coaches crash the party brought about head-turning excitement.
Murray later became a friend when the Coaches All-America game was held in Atlanta. Murray retired at Duke and became the Executive Director of this unfortunate game. I had the good fortune to serve as Publicity Director for the game, and a long friendship with Coach Howard came about.
Once, when I was living in Atlanta, I had a magazine assignment to develop a story about the Clemson coach who had just retired. I flew to Columbia, where Coach Howard picked me up. We drove to Dillon, which is near the North Carolina border. He was speaking to the Dillon Chamber of Commerce. The dinner was sold out.
At the time, Jimmy Carlen had just taken over as head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks and had struck a deal with his school that he would own the television rights to his Sunday coach’s show. He would sell the show, produce it, and then market it. He kept the net, which was somewhat innovative for the times.
Coach Howard noted that in his speech, saying that Carlen already had two big sponsors: Kentucky Fried Chicken and Schick Razors. They're going to call his show ‘The Chicken Schick Show,’” he exclaimed as the audience roared with laughter.
He was off the wall and had a classic feature to his personality. He could dish it out, but he could take it. He was never thin-skinned, although he once threatened to sue the fledgling Athens Daily News when the late Lewis Grizzard wrote an entertaining column, poking fun at Coach Howard’s tobacco-chewing enhanced dialect.
Georgia’s success in recruiting the best talent in the state of South Carolina, got under the coach’s skin, and he felt he had to defend himself. Although the legend was that he made Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate at Alabama, where he played for the legendary Wallace Wade, his homespun humor endeared him to audiences all over the country, particularly in the Southeast.
The Atlanta Touchdown Club was very influential and enthusiastically supported college football. Each January, the club held a weekend extravaganza at a downtown Atlanta hotel.
They paid a nice fee, which often attracted the national coach of the year, but the highlight was a Saturday luncheon when Coach Howard and his friend Peahead Walker of Wake Forest (and later the Montreal Alouettes) traded barbs that had the membership and visitors rollicking with laughter.
It was a no-holds-barred session, and one of their “victims” was often Noah Langdale, the President of Georgia State, who had played in the line at Alabama.
Coaches don’t gather socially during the off-season. They don’t poke fun at each other. They don’t mingle, and they don’t fish or play golf with one another. The big reason is that they are too busy and lack time.
You remember the story of Bear Bryant and Shug Jordan out fishing. Bryant decided to wade to shore and immediately began sinking in the water when Jordan reached out and pulled him to safety.
“Now, Shug, please don’t tell Alabama fans I can’t walk on water,” Bryant said. Shug replied, “No problem, Bear, if you won’t tell the Auburn fans, I kept you from drowning.”