The 2018 Georgia football season begins in 54 days.
Today, I’ve decided to go a different route with the countdown to kickoff. Normally, I take the amount of days left in the countdown, and I find something significant with that number. It could be a number a player wore, distance of a play, a year, etc.
But today is different. Because early July is an important in the countdown to any season. That’s when the Georgia football Media Guide is published and mailed out to members of the press, as well as season ticket holders.
The media guides are really important to me and my love of Georgia football. They are where my love of researching the history of the program began. My grandfather has purchased season tickets for over three decades now, but the university didn’t begin sending the media guides until 1992. He has a book shelf full of media guides from every year since then, and I’m sure the 2018 edition will wind up there in the next few days.
I’ve spent hours of my childhood, and even much of my teenage and adult life going through the media guides. That’s where I was introduced to Frank Sinkwich, Charlie Trippi, the 1920 championship team and so many other great players and teams. It’s how I learned who the current players were when I was young.
media guides contain all the basic information any Georgia football fan needs:
- They include rosters with a profile of each player.
- Profiles of every player who signed and enrolled on campus.
- A complete record book with almost any statistic you can think of.
- The history of Sanford Stadium.
- Starting lineups of every team going back to 1957.
- The record and schedule of every team in program history.
- A list of every player to play for the team.
- The record against every team Georgia has ever played
- So much more
In the middle of the media guide is the “Pride of Georgia” section where there’s information to, well, make you proud of Georgia. There are facts about the school and program. Quotes from media and former UGA students, players and parents. List of players who played in the NFL. Et cetera.
Most information is copied and pasted from year-to-year, but it’s always interesting to see the new additions and content that is exclusive to each edition. Especially after a great season, such as the one we just had.
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If you feel left out, don’t fret. You don’t have to be a member of the press or a season ticket holder to experience the media guides. You can buy them at many UGA stores around campus. The university also publishes the media guides on the website Issuu. Reading them digitally gives you the added bonus of viewing the media guides in color.