Hairy Dawg’s Origin Story: An Oral History

Tom Sapp – Creator of Hairy Dawg

I remember asking Stan not to talk while wearing the costume. He went and I saw an interview that he did on television when he got down there where they stuck a mic up inside his head and of course he talked (laughing).

Which was fine, it all worked out great. I’ve got a great picture of him on the field before the game. And the clock is all zeroes. There’s no score on the board. It’s just Georgia, Notre Dame. And that was his first moment on the field. I love that photograph.

Dr. Stan Beecham – the Original Hairy Dawg

I remember walking around in the costume, the eyes were such that it really had no peripheral vision, you couldn’t see very well.

So, the TV camera truck that would go back and forth on the sidelines, it wasn’t really a truck, it was just kind of a moveable platform, but it was motorized. I kept getting run over by that thing, cuz I couldn’t see it coming and it’d keep banging me in the side.

The other thing I did is for the kickoff of the game, I walked out to the coin toss and stood out there, like I knew what the hell I was doing.

And Coach Mike got mad at me, he’s like, you can’t be standing out there in the middle of field for the coin toss. And I was like, you can’t tell Hairy Dawg what he can and can’t do (laughing).