Technically, I was brought into the world as a Dawg fan... but the first time I remember actually wanting to watch them play was after my granddaddy took me to my first game. I think I was about five years old. I remember he bought me a hugeee (or I remember it as huge.. may have just been regular sized) bag of m&ms and a bigggg (again, maybe it was normal sized. I was little) coke and told me not to tell my Mama that he let me have it. 😂 I remember thinking it was “band day” because the Redcoat Band played at halftime. I remember him getting me a pom pom on a stick. I remember him standing outside the bathroom to make me pee because we weren’t stopping on the way back from Athens. I remember him talking to the people sitting around us like they were old friends. In hindsight, I guess they were. He was a season ticket holder for a long, long time. I don’t remember anything about the game, just that they had on the color I loved, red.
After he got to the point he couldn’t travel to Athens, we watched games with him. He always muted the tv so he could listen to Larry Munson. He always wore his “go you silver britches” hat. It was worn out but he wouldn’t let you replace it and he insisted on wearing it for every game. He eventually was laid to rest in it.
After he passed on in February of 2011, my brothers, sister, and I carried on the tradition of watching the Dawgs, tv muted and Larry Munson on Dawg Radio. Larry Munson passed away that same year during the middle of the season.
I know I poke fun (and flat out talk shit because some of y’all are aggravating) but this team, these colors.. every time I turn the game on, it brings a piece of him back to me. When I teach my kids to do the Dawg chant, my first thought is how proud Jack would be. When I see them loving to watch the games, I think about how proud he would be.
He passed away before he ever got to meet any of my babies, but parts of him live on. Through my Mama, through me, my brothers and sister, and now my own babies. One of those parts is Georgia football.
I lost my mama two months ago to cancer. While our game day parties are missing someone down here - my mama and granddaddy are watching games together again and something in that is simultaneously painful and precious.
The distance between all of us now is hard as hell some days.. but the one thing that will forever keep them close to me… is Dawgs football.
— GO YOU SILVER BRITCHES.
