Georgia football: How I became a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs

This is the story of how I became a fan of the Georgia football team and how they helped me through the toughest time of my childhood.

Growing up I never watched sports. It was all cartoons, Dukes of Hazard, Knight Rider, Fall Guy, etc. Dad would occasionally watch wrestling, but that was the only “sport” we watched. So I didn’t know that Georgia football existed at the time. I was too busy playing with the toys from all the cartoons my brothers and I watched.

In June of 1988, when I was just eight years old, my dad and grandmother took me and my brothers out to Huddle House. While there, they asked us how we would feel about going to a home with other children. Right away my mind went to an open room with many beds and no privacy. I didn’t speak, I didn’t really know why I was being asked this.

Soon after this talk we went and visited a children’s home in Smyrna, Ga. The kids were very welcoming, even let us play with their Atari. We enjoyed our visit, but I was still confused about what was going on. Little did I know the six years I would spend in this place would change my life forever.

It was not until I got to the children’s home that I discovered sports, and most importantly of all, the University of Georgia football team.

Being away from family was tough, but Saturdays in the fall seemed to take that away. At first, I couldn’t watch the games but one of the house parents would listen to it on the radio and keep us up to date with the score.

That all changed in 1991 when I finally got to see some games on television. I will always remember that offense led by Eric Zeier that featured Garrison Hearst and Andre Hastings. That was a special group. That was the team that made me fall in love with the University of Georgia.

When Garrison Hearst had the ball in his hands the rest of the world seemed to melt away. All that mattered was number 5 and that “Power G” juking and running through the defense.

I was mesmerized by the moves he would make and the speed in which he ran. I felt like Georgia was unbeatable when he had the ball and an unrelenting smile would always come across my face when he got the ball. He was my first sports hero, my idol, everything I wanted to be. He is the reason I love the running back position and always wanted to wear that red helmet.

When I did get to go home on visits I made sure to rent Bill Walsh’s College Football on Sega Genesis. I would play that game for hours, mostly playing as Georgia going up against Florida. Hearst tore them up every time. Just another way I escaped my reality with the Dawgs.

In 1992 I got the opportunity to see the Bulldogs play for the first time. I remember it like it was yesterday. At the Athens line, there was a billboard that said: “Now entering Bulldog Country.” I was beaming ear to ear as I read it. I was finally in Bulldog Country, I had made it to Athens.

It was Georgia’s homecoming and they were playing Vanderbilt. I was there with a sponsor of mine from the children’s home that happened to be an alum from Georgia. We stopped off at a cookout on campus for lunch and then headed to the stadium.

We started down the road but stopped at a little stand and she got me a hat to wear at the game. It was white with the Bulldog logo on top of it. As we proceeded down the road, my heart began to race more and more as the sounds from the stadium got closer and closer. I couldn’t believe it, I was here in Athens, about to see my Bulldogs live.

Once we got into the stadium the atmosphere was simply amazing, I hadn’t experienced anything like it before or since. There is something truly special about being in Sanford Stadium on a Saturday afternoon in the fall. I was young and I didn’t know all the chants, but I was determined to learn and had most of them down by the end of the game.

I did not know it at the time, but the game I was at, against the Commodores of Vanderbilt, was the game where Hearst ran for 246 yards, the most yards of his career in a single game.

I noticed one song the band played that really stuck out to me, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. It had played on the radio in the car during the ride into Athens. That still sticks out to me today as if it was saying that Athens is where I belonged, and the Classic City has been calling to me since.

I have been in love with the Georgia Football team since those days. They have gotten me through some really rough spots in my life. I refuse to miss even one game if I can help it. I have gone seasons without watching my other sports teams, but not my Dawgs. I can’t go a fall without Georgia football. That is why, whether they win, lose or tie, it will be “Go Dawgs” until I die.