Georgia football: Top four blowout victories at Herty Field

ATHENS, GA – SEPTEMBER 19: Cunningham/Getty Images) /

Construction on Sanford Stadium began 90 years ago. Long before Georgia football played in its current home, the team played on Herty Field.

Georgia football played its first game on January 30, 1892 against Mercer. The new team needed a place to host their first game. Head coach and founder of both Georgia football and baseball teams, Dr. Charles Herty chose the marching field in the center of campus.

Landscaping began in 1891 and the field opened later that year, just a few months before Georgia’s first football game. Herty continued making improvements to the field well after he gave up coaching the team, including installing bleachers in 1897.

The field opened as the Alumni Athletic Field, but the school renamed the field in Herty’s honor soon after. Georgia football and baseball called Herty Field home until 1911, when they moved half a mile south to Sanford Field.

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When it comes to the finding the best games played at Herty Field, there really weren’t any close ones. Only 12 games were decided by 14 points or less, and most of those games were still shutouts. The only truly close games were a 16-12 win over Dahlonega in 1905, and a 12-8 loss to Sewanee in 1894.

Between 1892 and 1910, Georgia played only 37 games at Herty Field. Their record in those games was 22-13-2. The total score of games played at Herty Field was Georgia-707, opponents-340. The average score was 19-9.

So since it’s impossible to do a real countdown of the best games played at Herty Field, we’re going to countdown Georgia’s best victories instead. I will take the opponent and margin of victory into account, with opponent being more important. So Georgia’s 101-0 win over the Locust Grove Institute isn’t on this list.

4. Georgia 50, Mercer 0 – 1892

Mercer football might not have been anything special in their half-century of competition, but on January 30, 1892, both Georgia and Mercer were on the same level. Both were playing in their first organized football game against another school.

As we all know, Georgia demolished Mercer 50-0 and they went on to be one of the better football programs in the state of Georgia and the deep south, while Mercer toiled around and rarely had a winning season before closing the program in 1942.

3. Georgia 35, Tennessee 5 – 1910

Much like in the 1892 when Georgia and Mercer were two developing programs, Georgia and Tennessee met in 1910 when both programs were at their lowest. Both had mediocre records in the 1900’s and both had new head coaches.

There was only one direction either program could go at that point, it was just a matter of which would ascend first. History has shown that it was Georgia that ascended first. That’s encapsulated in their 35-5 victory in 1910, as well as a 3-0 win in 1909.

Georgia, with new head coach William Cunningham finished the season 6-2-1. Tennessee however, with new coach Lex Stone ended the year 3-5-1. Tennessee went on to have an up-and-down decade in the 1910’s. Georgia, on the other hand, were consistently good. Though both programs would soon re-converge. Only then, they were powerhouses of football in the south.

2. Georgia 24, Clemson 0 – 1897

This game is important, not because of who Clemson was. It’s important because it was the first game played between the two schools. And Georgia put Clemson in their place early with a resounding 24-0 victory.

Despite this being the first game between the two schools, there was already some animosity because Walter Riggs, the founder of Clemson football, had played football at Auburn and was on the team that defeated Georgia 10-0 in their first game in 1892. making Georgia versus Clemson somewhat of an off-shoot of the Georgia versus Auburn rivalry.

1. Georgia 28, Georgia Tech 0 – 1897

Because who doesn’t love a clean, old-fashioned beat down of Georgia Tech? But this one’s more important. It was the second meeting between Georgia and Georgia Tech, and Tech defeated Georgia 28-6 at Herty Field in 1893.

This game was revenge and the beginning of a trend we all wish would happen again: six-straight shutouts against Georgia Tech. From 1897-to-1903, Georgia went 5-0-1 against Tech and did not surrender a single point. Four of those victories came at Herty Field.

Next: Potential commits for Georgia football

This is the beginning of a series of countdowns of the best Georgia football games in each of their home stadiums. Next is the top 5 games played at Sanford Field (1911-1928). Then we’ll have countdowns for each version of Sanford Stadium staring with the old stadium (1929-1948), then the first major renovation (1949-1966). And so on from there.

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