Well it’s about damned time.
Georgia football is recognizing a legendary assistant coach from its past by naming an area in Sanford Stadium for him.
The program’s lettermen club will now be called ‘The Coach Erk Russell Football Lettermen’s Club,” for the coach established the culture of ‘Junkyard Dawgs’ defenses.
The change was approved by the University System Board of Regents at its meeting on Thursday Aug. 13. The lettermen’s club is located on the east end of the stadium off East Campus Road.
GATA.
Well deserved honor.
The practice of holding up four fingers at the end of the third quarter was originated by him when he came to UGA. Now every team in the country does it and I think of him every time I see it. He spoke to our Bulldog Club when the coaches went out around the state to do this after recruiting signing day. I was president that year and arrived at the banquet hall about an hour and a half and he was already there. He and I talked for over an hour, just the two of us. What a great memory of a great coach and a great person!
Also a great Kappa Sigma…even if he did go to Auburn. We all have our cross to bear.
I was an Atlanta Kickoff club member and Erk would pack the house when he was the speaker.
“If you don’t have the best of everything, make the best of everything you have”…GO DAWGS!!
Was one the all time greatest coaches ever. He helped make Vince what he was. Should be in Hall of Fame! Just a players and fans coach. Will always remember that bloodied head before ballgames. Loved me some Erk!!!
A Georgia legend appropriately acknowledged! I didn’t play for Coach Russell, but I worked with him as assistant SID at Georgia Southern 40 or so years ago. He had a greater impact on me that perhaps anyone other than my father. His best advice, “Today is another day in which to excel.”
Thank you for sharing
Well deserved. Especially as the Lettermen he led are aging out. Erk remains a big part of a DGDs DNA. I don’t even trouble myself when Statesboro Southern celebrates him, he’s large enough to be loved by both fan bases.
They (GSU grads) seem to hate that we still embrace him and claim him as one of our own. They believe GATA is something they own when he came up with it while in Athens as a shot at the trade school. GTAA to GATA.
It’s so little brother of them.
As a Dawg-Eagle (UGA ’98 BAJ, GaSou 01′ MS) I can say that Erk is a legend for Georgia fans, but he’s nearly God-like in Statesboro. Building the program from the ground up and winning Natty’s gave him the keys to the town. It was as much his as the Mayor’s.
On the other hand, there’s a lot of nuances I can say that were odd for me when I worked in the Sports Marketing department there. Like they had a guy who took pictures but made them proprietary, and when we moved to have some of the posters he created for the AD only and put them into programs (first time we sold out of all programs for every game…ever, yes, I did that) he lost his mind. The other was we could never be “GSU”. That was Georgia State, so we were forever GaSou and couldn’t be Southern because that was associated with someone else. Another one was the furor over “we’re not D-II we are I-AA”. I argued that getting into these debates with casual fans didn’t do us any favors, let’s just say we’re Georgia Southern and let everyone enjoy a unique and successful football experience. Embrace the niche and enjoy it.
I’ll go down as saying I still like the I-AA football playoff format more than any other out there. They had it right, IMO.
I think the problem is many Georgia Southern undergraduate alumni now seem to have this enormous chip on their shoulder when it comes to UGA for whatever reason. I remember Erk winning those I-AA titles in Statesboro. UGA fans and alumni were happy for them and for Coach Russell in particular. When Fish Fry took over after Erk retired, that’s when it seemed the divide started.
As much as we make fun of him, I was pissed when I heard Johnson was going to coach Tech. He did have a distinct hatred for Georgia when he was at Southern and he was also a pretty good coach. Weight rooms and recruiting did him in, but he was brilliant with the offense he ran and it was perfect for a team that was undersized and underresourced like Tech, Navy, Army, etc. Say all that to say I respected him as a coach, hated him as Tech’s head guy, for sure.
I, too, didn’t like Fish Fry going to Tech not only because he hated us but he had the line on Georgia High Schools and could steal a couple guys from us.
They ought to name the stretch of railroad tracks by the stadium after him also.
Do believe you just might be on the right track, that idea is something I could get behind real easy….GO DAWGS!!
About time something was done. When I found out Erk had died I wept and I was fifty+ years old.