Here’s a picture that might resonate with some of our older readers:
I’ve heard stories about the crowd on the tracks. Seems like it was a fun time, and that’s an understatement. It also sounds like it was the Athens equivalent of the seating area for Los Angeles Raiders (not Vegas, the old school rough and rowdies) diehard fans.
The thing that gets me the most about the picture is the simplicity. A KFC bucket, a brown bag, and I’m assuming a cooler for the beer.
No pop up tents, priority parking passes, HDTVs, buffets, and a full bar. Honestly, the beer is a simple selection before there were eleven million types and microbrews. It was just simple. Hell, probably even cheap. Oddly, everyone isn’t wearing the latest $100+ Georgia gear that abounds in our modern era.
The thing I miss the most in the new era of Georgia football – at least for attending games – is the simple tailgate experience. We tailgated for years in the dark days of the 90s under an oak tree across from the practice field by Butts-Mehre, in what I think was the Credit Union parking lot.
We could just park, take out a few folding chairs, eat Publix chicken and drink beer. You threw the trash in a black plastic bag at the end, threw the chairs and cooler back in the car, and you were done. We might’ve had a radio going or playing music out of the back of the Jeep, but aside from that, it was easy and we threw a football around for entertainment. For games being played elsewhere, you heard the scores on the radio.
And no freaking phones or tablets.
That’s my old man gripe for the day…but for today’s Wondering:
What do you miss the most about attending Georgia football games from the days gone by?
Day trip to Athens for 2 PM kickoff. Leave South GA at 6 AM. Arrive Athens 10 AM. Jump the curb and park on the sidewalk. Fried chicken, potato wedges, cole slaw and cold beer. Walk to Sanford and watch the game. No TV timeouts. Leave Athens by 5 and home at 9.
Ahhhhhhh, the memories.
As always….
GO DAWGS!!
You, Sir, are a giant amongst Dawgs!!!!
In college, we parked the night before at the corner of Jackson and Baldwin across a few spaces. Those spaces no longer exist. We would get there with the 2nd car the next morning with a spread. We had a total blast even though it was the late 80s/early 90s on the field.
Oh, the good times indeed.
I miss the souvenir stands featuring shakers and pennants of the opposing teams. And, of course, the rabbit’s foot key chains dyed in red and black!
Oh, and playing Space Invaders for the first time at Allen’s for the pre-game with Das.
That’s where I first played it, too. First place I saw frosted mugs. The cheeseburgers weren’t too shabby, either.
I never sat on the tracks but I’d go by on Friday night to party with some of them. I lived in Village Apts and would walk to class through the cemetery and along the tracks. On game day weekends, people would start staking out track space early on Friday, depending on how big the game was. Several couches.
The Engineering Club bought old rails and cut them into pieces, numerically stamped them, and sold them after the stadium was closed in. I still have my piece.
How about the red and black fuzzy footballs with the felt block G on them?
I was going to say I remember the days when the sidewalks were packed with parked cars or tailgaters. It gave game day more energy it felt like because the crowd was more condensed. We parked in the Journalism Psychology lot before they required some huge donation to have a pass there because they made the lot for the Sky Box crowd. We had a pass there for 20 years from when I was about 10 to about 30. Great memories with my parents and friends in the early 1980’s throwing the football and like others have said it did seem simpler. Lots of KFC was consumed and we listened to Leonard’s Losers on the way to Athens from Atlanta.
I remember watching the team unload off the bus by the railroad tracks and seeing the Track People before they closed in that end zone. I think I only experienced that one season though. My mom made a scrap book of newspaper and magazine clippings for the 1980 and 1981 seasons and I still have them. I think the 1981 season has an article about the Track People and includes a photo from the AJC of a group sitting on the tracks for the first home game once the end zone had been enclosed.
“Get off my tracks”….GO DAWGS!!
“Get me outta here, Percy!”
Ticket scalpers.
One of the reasons I never bought season tickets is I could always count on the young entrepreneurs to have tickets for any game I attended. One of the reasons I miss paper tickets, plus e-tickets are just a pain in the ass.
On the walk to the stadium we would obnoxiously play matchmaker between the scalpers: “You need 2??? Well it’s your lucky day, sir! This fine young man over here has 2 to sell. You guys should get along just swell. No, no need to thank us – just doing the Lord’s work here. Hey, that guy over there needs 4…”
My buddy and I would be at Aderholt at 0600, when they opened the gates. We’d set up the grill and put a couple of folding chairs in adjoining parking spots for when our wives and kids would join us later. The building was always open with the A/C on and restrooms on every floor. We didn’t know how good we had it.
We tailgated for a couple of decades in front of the tennis center. Good times watching the late band members running to pregame. Post game tailgating feeding players walking home.
They were Erk’s people so they’re alright with me. I feel a tad envious as they got to close their era out with a ring. I like to think we’re creating traditions now and don’t relise it but y’all are dropping memory bombs today. I’m gonna re-read some of these one evening with a stiff pour over an ice rock and remember: “It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog”!
Thank you, Refugees.
#GoDawgs
add pimemto cheese sam-itchez to your tailgate and it sounds about perfect
also miss not having an open beer and walking around hassle free
i meant walking around with a beer hassle free
In the early 80’s my dad and I would leave right after my soccer games and head to Athens, park in the poultry science parking lot, usually there was one or two spots left, friends and family would have a spread on a fold out table, and if we were lucky my great uncle Joe Carey from Lexington would make his famous BBQ sandwiches, for which he charged the richly sum of 1$! The team buses would go by, the radio was on, I loved catching Leonards Losers on the way up. Bathroom was right inside, and there was a giant sign of a cow with different cuts of beef on it.
then after the game, Dad would let the traffic “die down” and maybe have a cold canned beverage! I’d have my 13th coke! Classic!! Wish he was still here! He’d love to see his granddaughter graduate tomorrow ! Its great to be a bulldog!
1:30 kickoffs with no TV.
We set up on the curve along East Cloverhurst sidewalk – near the steps leading down to the old pool area. Gave it up in the mid 90’s because game times just got too unpredictable. Throw in the long drive and rise of huge HD screens. But it was a terrific time while it lasted.
And fuck Michael Adams- he ruined tailgating.
FTMF, the scheming turd that he was. Lackey to the monied class, he didnt care about your average UGA grad. But he loved living like a pasha on the dime of UGA. Good riddance.
Our dorm mate’s parents drove their RV up on Friday nights and fixed a spread for Saturday morning. Everything you can imagine including the Jim Beam and Wink soda. Each Homecoming Milledge and Payne would do a pregame bbq roasting the pig over an outdoor pit overnight. Them SOWGA boys stayed up all night just drinking beer and shooting the shit.
Did they park in the old rv lot by the tennis center. Lots of good times there.
As a student I only attended one game inside Sanford stadium. The rest I watched from the tracks. We’d go up on Friday night and Erk would usually drop by to smoke a cigar and maybe sip a bourbon. The crowds grew over the years and the tracks earned an unfortunately deserved reputation as a bit of a rough and tumble place. The last season before stadium enclosure was kind of nuts. We started building scaffolding to stay above the crowd. I did get interviewed by Larry Munson at the last game we ever sat on the tracks. That was fun.
Y’all have all hit me hard with the best memories. Can relate to all. One thing l wish l still had was my red cowboy hat, block G with old ticket stubs all around the hat band. When it rained the felt would bleed red down my face. No extra charge! Man, do l miss those times.
Lost mine on the field in New Orleans 1/1/81. Hate it but well worth it!
It died a hero!
We used to drive our RV to the games and park in the coliseum parking lot. Then they built a parking garage and moved us to east campus, then they built the dorms. We were then moves to the intermural fields and we had to drive our tow car to a parking lot on west campus. They made it harder and harder on the older crowd. I gave up my tickets 12 years ago.
Wait until you find out how toxic those $150 plastic polos are. I’ve probably accumulated $2k worth of them over the last 5 years and will likely never wear one again since reading about potential long term health implications.
preach on brother and make(Georgia grown) cotton great again!
I still miss the electric guitarist member of the red coats jamming to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”!
More than any of the fantastic things you all have listed (and Ai can relate to a lot of these memories)…
I miss going to games with my dad.
I feel your pain. Fortunately I have children that help ease it.
I showed up in ’96, well after the Track People. That said, I dormed in Creswell, which is where my friend group and I started tailgaiting, in the circular parking lot off of Baxter. We got ‘removed’ from there one year by some poachers (FUCK YOU GUYS, BTW), but ended up moving to the parking lot for the Bank of America building (I worked in there) that was at the corner of Broad and Lumpkin.
Access to bathrooms in the building was a plus, as was relatively unmolested parking. Just had to remind folks to put there beverages in a solo cup, else Sarge write you a ticket while he was on bike patrol.
That lot is now, wait for it, MOAR CONDOS!!!
LOL, we used to tailgate by Creswell. Any students that let us run extension cords through the window got full access to the tailgate offerings no questions asked and a thank you. Also, we had a hookup that dropped an “extra” porta-potty off by our spot. Much better than the Myers Quad money tents.
While in school we’d pull up Herty Drive like we belonged there and jumped the curb to park in the middle of a cul de sac behind the library. Drink until the beer was gone, then load up Beam in baggies and trek to Section 110/111 to chase off the frat pledges sent to hold seats for the brothers.
I liked parking wherever you could get on campus without worrying about it.
I also missed the plastic cup showers after anything good happened, followed by a second shower when the PA man warned us not to throw shit over the balcony.
I had season tickets from 91 when I graduated until 2014 and I would only “tailgate” if I was bringing my kids to a game when they got old enough (starting in about 2004.) It was almost always an early kickoff. We always parked off Jackson St near N Campus and the tailgate was simple – table, chairs and simple food like sandwiches, chips and drinks. When my middle kiddo was diagnosed with Celiac, it was just easier to walk up to Your Pie in Downtown.
If the kids were not along for the game, we would hit The Globe and maybe another Downtown spot before seeing friends if they had tailgate. Post game was dinner somewhere in Athens – favorite spots were Farm 255 and The National.
I guess I was just averse to dragging up tents, tables, chairs, canopies, electronics, grills, smokers, food, drinks, mixers etc for a few hours while being tied down to that one spot.
I grew up in the doldrums of the 90s going to games with my dad. Some of my best childhood memories. The fact that we weren’t ever that great made every win over a hated rival that much sweeter. First come, first serve parking, a football and some fried chicken is all we needed. In those days I never dreamed of either 1. the success we’ve enjoyed recently or 2. the farce the sport as a whole has become today. Good times.
This spot right here./Users/hrylandvest/Desktop/tailgate.png
Guy named Dale, and his wife Faye, would bump the curb and pull his RV into this spot for home games around Wednesday evening. We first met my sophomore year, was leaving a lab late around 6pm, was unlocking my bike he yelled over to me and said he had a whiskey with my name on it. Of course I took him up on that. Great people, fed me and any other students in the area like clockwork for every home game. By my senior year, they had an official chair they would put out just for me. Some of my best memories were hanging out with this couple who were more than double my age at the time after class on a thursday/friday. Hope this type of interaction still exists…
I miss tailgating on North Campus. We could park on Herty Mall and tailgate there. I loved having a picnic under the big oaks and people watching. When they kicked us out of there we migrated to the North Deck area. Then they kicked us out of there for high dollar Quad tailgaters to park, we moved North to the Classis Center.