Football

My earliest childhood memory is from 1980. I was two. We were in Winter Park, FL, and Georgia had just won the National Championship in football. Dad was the president of the Central FL Bulldog Club at the time. He was playing one of his Georgia records those old school fans will remember "when you meet the Georgia Bulldogs, there's gonna be a Bulldog bite..." Run. Herschel. Run.
It was January in Florida and he was wearing shorts and a Georgia shirt as he almost always did. He was holding me and dancing. Singing. Rejoicing. It was pure JOY.

I am trying to wrap my mind around a football season without my dad. It's basically like how the first Christmas would be for other families. This is a man who couldn't go to Jacksonville one year for the annual Georgia- Florida game, and he couldn't get it on the radio. So he did what any self- respecting Georgia fan would do. He asked one of his friends who could get the game on the radio to play it and just leave the phone receiver next to the radio so he could listen. To the whole game. He paid the long distance bill.

Georgia football is spiritual in my family. Starting with my grandfather and spilling all the way down into all of our veins is the red, red blood. It runs deep on both sides.
It is spiritual in the sense that it is sacred, holy. It is at the very core of what holds us all together. The extended family I mean. We may not all keep in touch or all agree on life. But come Saturdays in the fall, we are all on the same side, wearing the same colors, yelling and screaming at the same people on the field.

Today I am fairly sure we will all pause. Even if its for a minute. To remember one of the greatest Georgia fans I've ever known. Second only to the Legend Larry Gaither.

I like to think of Dad rejoicing today. With an even greater JOY. Because no matter who wins today, he will not be disappointed. Ever again.

So in honor of Dad, "Give 'em Hell Georgia!"