. . . All Hail to Dear Ol' UGA!

Believe it or not, THAT is the ending to Georgia's fight song, that's 'Hail to Georgia!' (bet you don't know the words or the tune--if you've played as a Redcoat you know the tune). 'Glory! Glory!' is nice and it gets the blood flowing, but there are all of four words in it. Of course, when you've had a few tailgating it's definitely easier to remember. I've always found it curious that 'Glory!' was written to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, particularly when most Southerners until recently would have refused to have anything to do with it as a 'Yankee tune.' But, that's neither here nor there . . .

'Hail to Georgia!'
I'm setting this up as a way to share my passion and love for my alma mater ('03-AB History, AB Political Science), both the school itself and things football related. As you may guess from my history degree, I'll several posts regarding the history of the school and the football and other athletics programs. I'll also post a good bit about miscellaneous college football debates and topics that I come across in conversations or on the internet. There will likely be some discussion of Big Eleven Conference topics as I went to grad school at Ohio State.

Before anyone asks, my loyalties are and ever will be with the Dawgs. In fact, my top favorite teams would probably rank something like this

1. UGA
2. UGA
3. UGA
4. anyone who beats UF
5. SEC (I generally find myself pulling against UF though--see my #4 team)
6. Ohio State
7. anyone who beats Michigan (yeah, I developed a hatred for 'that Team up north' while in Columbus)

And I could probably put UGA as 'all' of my top 10 favorite teams, but you get the idea. To steal from the old bumper sticker: My blood bleeds RED & BLACK with a high sUGAr content! I went to UGA football games in the womb, and Dad swears I was 'born barking, and had a relapse.' More on family connections in another post.

Now for a bit of explanation on the blog's name . . .

Iron Pillars

For the name of the blog, I wanted to touch on both the University of Georgia and athletics (read football). So for the 'Iron Pillars' part: it relates to the three pillars of the Arch, which has been at UGA as a part of a gate & fence system that was put up in the 1850s to keep the livestock from Athens & the surrounding countryside out of the University. Now, the joke goes that the Arch & fence keep the animals in (lame I know, but it comes from being a UGA Orientation Leader).

The Arch, before the 2007 Troy game.

The Arch itself once had gates in between the pillars and has served as the gateway to UGA since its installation. The Arch is borrowed from the State Seal of Georgia and the three pillars of the Arch represent Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation, and now is one of the most recognizable symbols of UGA.

I could go on with several traditions and stories about the Arch (and probably will later), Freshmen not being allowed to walk under it, many students choosing not to walk under it until they were alumni, it's status as a target for pranks by Teckies, etc.

That's for the Iron Pillars.

Silver Britches
For Dawg fans, this is really a non-requirement for explanation, but for those poor deprived souls. The Dawgs almost exclusively wore the Silver Britches until Dooley came in in 1964 and changed to white pants with a large red stripe. The Silver Britches made their reappearance in the 1980 Texas A&M game and we all know what happened that year. The Silver Britches didn't go away. Since then the Dawgs have worn the Silver Britches weekly on the gridiron with the exception of the following games and sartorial alterations (most of which have been a BAD idea)

Red Pants: 1980s Clemson (can't remember when) & 1988 S. Carolina. I'd actually love to see make a comeback for a big away game every now & then. Of course, the red pants are most famous for their appearance in Knoxville when as certain no. 34 made his college debut. I know there were other games when the Dawgs wore red pants before the Silver Britches made their 1980 comeback, one of which was the game in Lexington when Rex Robinson hit a FG to beat UK in the closing minute & Munson's call was 'Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea!' (apologies if there were a couple more 'Yea's' in there). Other than that I don't know. If anyone knows/remembers shoot me a message.

Black Pants: 1998 Wisconsin (Outback Bowl) & 1998 Cocktail Party. While the Black jerseys have been imprinted in the UGA fans memories forever, the pants were nice until the novelty wore off and we got the crap kicked out of us by UF, may they never be revived.

White Pants: 1999 LSU, UT, & 2000 Ga Tech. During the LSU game, they were worn in memory of offensive line coach Pat Watson, who had died the previous week after the UCF game. Coincidentally enough, Donnan thought having pants that looked like the Cream-cicles from Knoxville would help snap the then-10 yr drought vs. the Vols. We know how history worked there: 39-20 Vols and with similar results against the Gnats (27-15) in what would be Donnan's last game before being booted and the last loss that the Dawgs have had to endure against the Trade School. May the white pants be burned and never return.

So, all that said, the Iron Pillars are for the Arch, and the Silver Britches are for the 'britches' the Dawgs wear on Saturday.

. . . All for now
. . . And to HELL w/ GA Tech!

DCC
23 November 2007