Vince Dooley’s top five Georgia football upsets

Number 3: 1965 Alabama

Georgia opened the 1965 college football season by welcoming defending national champion Alabama into Sanford Stadium for the day’s only nationally televised contest. After out playing Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide squad for three quarters, Alabama fought back to take a 17 – 10 lead late in the game. With the ball deep in Georgia territory, Dooley instructed quarterback Kirby Moore to “run the flea flicker.”

After convincing the offense he wasn’t joking, Moore took the snap, threw a strike to Pat Hodgon who immediately lateraled to Bob Taylor. Taylor sprinted past a stunned Alabama bench for the 73-yard score.  A former Auburn War Eagle, Dooley saw no point in tying the Tide and elected to attempt a 2-point  conversion. With millions watching a Georgia football team for the first time thanks to the still novel magic of televised football, Moore hit Pat Hodgson in the end zone for the winning points.

Two for one

The “Flea Flicker” lives in Georgia football lore alongside “Appleby to Washington” and “Run Lindsay Run,” but it is an infamous moment in Alabama football history as Hodgson’s knee was clearly touching the ground before he lateraled the ball. Georgia fans scoff, then with a wink remind that Alabama football, after all, has had its share of breaks.

Alabama went on to win the national championship again. Dooley’s Dogs gained the distinction of downing both the defending national champions and the eventual national champions with a single blow. Georgia then traveled to Ann Arbor Michigan to prove it was no flash in a Southern skillet.