Friday Afternoon Time Waster

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Afternoon all! We’re all Dawg fans here… right? Right? Absolutely! With fandom usually comes collecting. Fans love to show off their official and unofficial items related to their team. From stuff you wear, stuff you display, stuff you hang on the walls, stuff you put in drawers, cabinets, etc. We all have it. Some stuff is better than other stuff.

I’d have to say this helmet is at the top of my list. It came about when my family was going through a dark time, my son had just had a wreck and suffered a spinal cord injury. He was in the hospital portion of Shepherd Center at the time and we were still shellshocked and had no idea what lay ahead in the future. This was late 2023. The Dawgs were in Atlanta for the annual Wreck Tech game. A tradition for the team is to visit Shepherd’s and visit the patients. It was announced a few days ahead that they were coming. So, the day we found out, my best girl and I went to a sporting goods store and bought 2 UGA children’s football “outfits” complete with helmets. My son and I each took a helmet and Sharpies in to the gathering and got autographs. Here’s the results:

Everyone has some prized possessions that they would never part with, things they envision passing on to their kids and family. So tell us, what’s your most prized Dawg possession?

Go Dawgs!

23 thoughts on “Friday Afternoon Time Waster”

  1. Two 1929 Yale game tickets and a copy of the Red & Black for that week.
    HW items including game programs, tickets, autographs.

  2. I have too many to limit it to one. I wish I knew how to post pictures.

    1) Grandfather’s old school bulldog head on a 20×15 plaque
    2) confetti from the 2021 national championship ship that blew in my seat
    3) 8’x4’ hand painted sign my dad received as a gift in 1978 reading “The Junkyard Dogs Are Back”. The painting is a replica of Jack Davis artwork.
    4) 2 1929 original Yale vs Georgia tickets
    5) My dad’s 1970s red and white mesh trucker hat with a block black G.

    I could type hundreds more, I have way too much junk. I’m still pissed tickets are all electronic vs paper.

  3. My daughter was working at the Office of Special Events as a student worker in 2021-22. They got some of the limited edition national championship posters that were going out to big donors, and she was able to snag one. My wife had it framed as a late birthday present. It’s on the wall behind my desk in my home office.

    It isn’t signed or anything like that, so it’s probably not valuable. That thing will never come down at this point.

    I also have a UGA Nike football (not a game ball) signed by Nick Chubb that was given to me by a colleague who knew Nick while she was at UGA. That also has a prominent place in the home office.

  4. It’s currently in storage, so no pics. But- right after moving to Georgia, my dad got to be friends with All- American DT Jimmy Payne who serviced my dad’s business. Still too new to town to truly appreciate it, but Jimmy gave us his tix to the 10 year anniversary game in honor of the 1980 Dawgs. Turns out the seats were with almost the whole team. A guy next to me grabbed my gameday magazine, signed it, then made sure it went up and down every row. Bonus point- I was sitting right behind Erk!

  5. First off, I hope that your son has fully recovered.

    My prized possession is a signed Herschel Walker Heisman Trophy program. My father was a member of the old NYC Downtown Athletic Club in the 80’s and went to the awards banquet every year. I got to attend a few times (HW, Doug Flutie & Tim Brown). Got autographs of several trophy winners. Parents took me to a private UGA reception after Herschel’s dinner where Sonny Seiler handed 12-year old me Uga’s leash and said “young man, will you puh-lease wahlk this Dawg for me while I talk to Coach Dooley.” That dawg dragged me all over the hotel for half an hour and I just wish someone had gotten a picture of it.

    • Posted this, and then I saw the previous post about Uga. Payin’ attention ain’t my thing…

    • Thanks NBP, but, alas, still in recovery mode. Slowly making progress but, it’s a long road. Eats up a lot of my time chauffeuring to medical visits, therapy, etc. By the time a day is done, all I want to do is sit down and not use my brain.

      • Sending up prayers for him and your family. Makes me appreciate the time you put into keeping us idiots entertained even more.

    • Its not UGA memorabilia but I won the 2004 National Heisman Trophy trivia contest. Suzuki Motors and the DAC brought me up to NYC for the award ceremony and dinner. I have football signed by the 30+ award winners in attendance that weekend.

      Alas Herschel was at some of the activities on Friday but he left prior to our arrival so his signature is not one of them.

      Spurrier was out of coaching for that season and he showed up for the weekend on Saturday morning which was a big deal. Apparently he had declined to attend for a long time and he was picked as one of the speakers at the dinner on Monday night. The had a flag/banner of every school with a Heisman winner in the rafters of the Hilton ballroom – except one.

      After the dinner, I asked Fowler, who was the emcee of the evening, why there was a UGA banner. He ignored the question but one of the other guys up there who I guess was a DAC member said Spurrier would not agree to speak unless it was taken down. I thought he might be joking but it is Spurrier after all and he seems just petty enough.

  6. I was given a signed HW jersey, but my favorite is the free poster that came in the AJC of the Jack Davis cartoon Hairy Dawg for the 1980 championship victory over Notre Dame. Evokes a lot of great memories including loving all of the Jack Davis drawings over the years.

  7. Too many things to list, but here are a few of my favorites…

    1. Same as Grantham, I have the 2021 and 2022 Natty paper tickets delivered after the game sealed in glass cases.

    2. Kevin Butler autographed photo of him with my Dad and I.

    3. An actual campus Red n Black metal newspaper stand with the AJC 1980 Natty newspaper in it. I added the 2021 and 2022 AJC newspapers.

    4. UGA commemorative football autographed by Belue, Greene, Stafford, Murray, Zier, DJ, Bobo and a couple of other UGA QBs.

    5. Framed and signed artwork of Stafford dropping back to pass in the black jersey.

    6. 2017 Rose Bowl and Notre Dame paper tickets.

  8. For me it’s an old handmade plaque that must have been made in the 1970’s that hung in my great uncle’s auto body shop for as long as I can remember. Upon his passing his daughter gave it to me and I display it in my office. It’s low on monetary value but like Artemis II it is out of this world on sentimental worth.

    It just simply reads “How Bout Them Dogs”

  9. On October 7, 2000 Georgia defeated Tennessee in Athens. The fans rushed the field and tore down the goalposts. I was a student at the game and for a year or two after that there were panoramic pictures for sale in the local shops in Athens showing the fans on the field and the goalposts coming down. I was a broke college student and couldn’t justify spending the $150 for a picture. As an adult, I’ve searched for one, but have never been able to find one.

    If anyone reading this happens to have one of those panoramic pictures, I would love to make a copy of it. That game and the 2001 Tennessee game (the “Hobnail Boot” game) are two of my fondest Georgia football memories.

  10. I still have a piece of the bermuda grass from the Florida F when I was one of the throng of idiots who rushed the field at WLOCP in 1985. More recenlty I have a framed picture of Brock Bowers flexing after scoring a TD against Ole Miss in ’23.

  12. This could be a bit long, but it is a true prize. My DIL was a trainer for the 2007 team (Stafford & Knowshon). We met at the sugar bowl and she gave me a football signed by Herschel and Munson. I told her if my son didn’t marry her , I would.
    Well, I proceeded to get (no paying) the following autographs:
    Bill Stanfill
    Scott Woerner
    Fran Tarkenton
    Matt Stafford
    Jake Scott
    DJ Shockley
    Charley Trippi
    Buck Belue
    Kevin Butler
    Champ Bailey
    Loran Smith
    Vince Dooley
    Garrison Hearst
    David Greene
    Aaron Murray
    David Pollock
    Mark Richt
    Lindsay Scott
    Knowshon Moreno

    With this list I created a book describing where the signature was in the ball, the circumstances around the signing and a picture of each. I have it in keeping for my oldest grandson to have along with the book. An amazing list.

    My second is this. It is a real fire hydrant made at the fire hydrant capital of the world(Albertville,AL) where my kids grew up. I carried it on a hand truck(250 lbs. ) to picture day and got people like Thomas Davis, Pollock, Richt and others to sign.

    I can’t get the picture to paste. But it is a beautiful red and black for real hydrant

  13. I’ll try to paste the picture file: ///C:/Users/Robert/Downloads/IMG_2652.jpeg

  14. My favorite piece of UGA memorabilia is a 1980 NC Coke bottle. I actually have a few – two of them still have liquid but the favorite is empty.

    My Dad was an adman at McCann-Erickson who worked on Coke business.

    Clisby worked there too so they were able to get a bunch of the bottles before they put Coca-Cola inside. The put the bottles in a 2-3 inch thick brick of lucite. Not long after he retired, my Dad passed it to me when I started working in sports and I still have it

    It looks cool plus it can be used as a defensive weapon if necessary.

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