CFP National Championship Game Tale of the Tape

The 2017 season’s College Football Playoff National Championship game will feature two teams from the Southeastern Conference.  This year marks the first time two teams from the same conference will meet in the title game in the short history of the CFP.  The combatants are the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and the University of Georgia Bulldogs.  Each team has a rich history.  The following contains some facts about each school: first football season, overall record, national championships (Awarded by the Associated Press and/or the designated coaches’ poll at the time. Claimed titles while on probation do not count.), conference titles, consensus All-Americans (players voted first team, second team, or third team by the Associated Press, American Football Coaches Association, Football Writers Association of America, the Sporting News and the Walter Camp Football Foundation), players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame, and Heisman Trophy winners.

 

  1.  Alabama

First Season:                                                    1892

Overall Record:                                               890-327-43

National Championships:                             16

Conference Titles:                                           30

Consensus All-Americans:                            69

College Hall of Famers:                                  23

Heisman Trophy Winners:                            2

 

2.  Georgia

First Season:                                                    1892

Overall Record:                                               808-419-54

National Championships:                             2

Conference Titles:                                          15

Consensus All-Americans:                            33

College Hall of Famers:                                 17

Heisman Trophy Winners:                           2

 

The game will feature head coaches that know each other very well:  the teacher (Alabama’s Nick Saban) and the pupil (Georgia’s Kirby Smart).  Smart worked for Saban as an assistant coach for 11 years.  The odds makers have made the Crimson Tide a 3.5 point favorite, and the game should be an old fashioned donnybrook.  Make no mistake about it—blood, sweat, and tears will accompany this game.  Fierce battles will take place in the trenches. Spectacular plays will be made on both sides of the ball.  The coaches will be on edge and quick to anger.  The tension will mount with each play as the game progresses.  Only one team will walk away victorious.  Will it be the Crimson Tide or the Dawgs?  Whoa Nellie! Let’s bring it on!

 

UGA, The Goat and Other Interesting Facts about the University of Georgia’s Nickname and Mascots

Courtesy of Beussery at English Wikipedia

The University of Georgia’s official nickname is the “Bulldogs,” and has a live bulldog named “UGA” that roams the sidelines during football games.  However, the school, during its athletic history, has had several different monikers and live mascots.

Some people believe that the University of Georgia took its nickname from the Yale University Bulldogs. Georgia’s first president, Abraham Baldwin, graduated from Yale, but no definitive evidence can be found that Georgia adopted the bulldog moniker from Yale. Before 1920, University of Georgia sports teams had nicknames such as the “Crackers,” the “Wildcats,” and the “Bulldogs.”  Morgan Blake is credited with the call for the “Bulldogs” as the permanent nickname for the school.  In a November 3, 1920 article in the Atlanta Journal, Blake wrote, “The Georgia Bulldogs would sound good because there is a certain dignity about a bulldog, as well as ferocity.”  Several days later in the Atlanta Constitution, Cliff Wheatley used the name “Bulldogs” five times in his piece about the Georgia-Virginia game that ended in a 0-0 tie in Charlottesville.

The UGA live bulldog story began in earnest in 1956 when Georgia alumnus Frank “Sonny” Seiler took an English bulldog to the first home football game that season.  Apparently impressed with the dog, Georgia coach Wally Butts asked Seiler if he would allow the dog to become the school’s official mascot.  From a suggestion from a college friend, the dog became known as “UGA.” That dog took the official name of UGA I and Mr. Seiler has provided the dog’s offspring to serve as the official UGA mascot since then.  Currently, UGA X roams the sidelines.

UGAs that have passed on have their remains placed in a mausoleum located at the southwest corner of Sanford Stadium.  A eulogy and a brief description of a dog’s time as UGA are etched on a plaque under each dog’s respective tomb.  A bronze, life-sized UGA statue guards the entrance to the mausoleum.

UGA can be seen at every home football game and some road games, as well as other sporting events and school functions.  The dog normally wears a spiked collar and a red jersey with a “G” on the front.  The jersey is made of the same material as that of the human jerseys.  However, the school, which has played football since 1892, has had a few other live mascots over the years.

The first was “The Goat” in 1892.  The animal first appeared at the Mercer game on January 30, 1892 and the initial Auburn game on February 22.  The Goat donned a black coat with red letters “U. G.” on each side.

Trilby, a white Bull Terrier, owned by student Charles Black, Sr. came to games in 1894.  After Trilby no animal earned the distinction of “official mascot” until the 1944 season.

From 1944-46, Mr. Angel, a brindle-and-white English bulldog, assumed the official mascot reins.  Butch and Tuffy, English bulldogs, took over in 1947.  Tuffy passed after the Kentucky game in 1948, after which Butch manned (dogged) the sidelines until after the 1951 season.  Keeping with the English bulldog tradition, Mike assumed the official mascot mantle from 1951-1955, then handed the scepter (bone) to Frank Seiler’s UGA I the next season.

The University of Georgia has a proud athletic tradition and one that includes a goat, a bull terrier, and a litter of bulldogs.  Go Dawgs!