1977 Kentucky had a very good football year and eventually set a 10-1 record. After winning the SEC championship in 1976, 1977 was a less-than-good year for Georgia. The Dawgs finished 5-6, Vince Dooley’s only losing season.
This author was a sophomore UGA student participating in this game. Lewis Grizzard also attended, with a rather remarkable array of experiences. What day in the life of Lewis Grizzard included no remarkable experiences?
On October 22, 1977 the Wildcats No. 8 (5-1) came to Athens to compete against the 4-2 Bulldogs that were not ranked.
Only losing 10-0 at halftime, it was like Georgia fans knew the second half was going to get worse. Remember, the legal age in 1977 was 18 years.
UGA students throughout history always respect the legal age to consume adult beverages.
Georgia students and fans may have enjoyed some adult drinks by halfway through. Revered James Brown played “Dooley’s Junkyard Dawgs,” as he had done in several previous Sanford games. But this time the performance was started with a few boos.
We don’t know whether the Smatterers were angry that UGA was lagging behind, or whether they simply overwhelmed themselves, or whether they were actually tired of seeing James Brown.
The Sanford Stadium also had an unusual visitor that day. Maybe a lot of visitors. One could call this visitor the Lord of the Isles, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew and / or Duke of Rothesay. You’d be right every time. The visitor was all of this in one.
This visitor was also greeted with a few boos. We do not need to list again possible motives for these boos.
The highlight of the day was a completely unexpected event that “unfolded” from the top of Sanford Stadium quite late at half time after UGA fans stopped booing internationally famous people.
From this bridge, several bedsheets were sewn together to form a Jimongo banner with letters sprayed on it that read:
“Prince Charles is doing it doggystyle !!!”
The capacity of the Sanford Stadium was 59,200 in 1977. As with any monumental moment in world history, perhaps 71,253 people claim to have seen this 1977 banner. Maybe that includes 12,053 spectators from the train tracks behind the other end zone. None of those 71,253 will admit they booed that banner. In fact, there was quite a roar from the crowd. This writer was one of the screamers.
People in the stadium and on the tracks insist that they received a photo of the banner that they can no longer find after looking for relics that once carried cameras.
Nobody has publicly identified the banner maker since 1977.
Prince Charles didn’t know what the words on the banner meant, and a lackey lackey had to explain. He wasn’t amused.
Look for “vince dooley Prince Charles” to see Vince explain a clipboard diagram to Lord Earl Baron Duke. Vince could have drawn a left bootleg. Vince might have lost out and got him to draw something else.
Prince Andrew was 17 years old in 1977. He probably knew what the banner meant and would probably have been amused. There’s no time for that here as Andy never made it to Sanford, for which UGA students and their fathers should be grateful.
Fast forward to February 11th, 2020. This author spoke about the great humorist of the UGA, Lewis Grizzard, at a lunch meeting with a civic group from Northern Georgia.
The guy who invited this writer to speak stormed into the room at 11:45 am, followed by his friend who was and is a judge. The judge asked, “If you are Peter Stoddard, do I have news for you?”
In a 2019 book that this author wrote and published about Lewis, there is a chapter on the guy who went to the Kentucky game with Lewis in 1977. The chapter speculated that Lewis had something to do with the banner.
Over the 2019 holidays, the judge met with his extended family, including his younger brother, a successful lumberjack from the Augusta Georgia area. As the judge read parts of the Grizzard Book aloud, the lumberjack brother said, embarrassed to paraphrase, “I thought people had forgotten the banner I made and dropped off the bridge.”
This discovery changed this author’s grizzard talk in February 2020. The judge said he should tell the story despite a large number of real ladies in the civic group. There were some blushed real ladies after the conversation.
Within an hour of the meeting, the Augusta lumberjack shared his story and agreed that it was okay to share his name. Nevertheless, we have agreed to “leak” the news.
Fast forward to October 2020 when another version of the story surfaced. This version was almost identical to the first, and the speaker was the dean of the School of Business on a University of Georgia campus, but not the one in Athens.
The story in brief. The sheets were sewn together by roommates of the UGA students. Red letters were sprayed on the leaves. The perpetrators dragged the folded banner, a battered sofa and cooler with adult refreshments onto the bridge. At half time, the perpetrators unfurled the banner. It either hung there for 5 to 20 minutes before it was caught by unbelieving law enforcement officers. The perpetrators pretended not to know anything about it. They did not take a photo of the banner, it was not returned to them, and they did not face any trouble.
But the dean of the commercial college did not recognize the name of the woodcutter. He agreed, that’s fine if he wants to claim the banner all these years later. The bridge was full that day and he could have sat next to us. The dean didn’t mind being called a perpetrator either. He said, to paraphrase, “Is the UGA going to fire a business school dean for a 1977 violation loved by many?”
Nevertheless, we have agreed to “leak out” the answer to a legendary mystery that is over 40 years old.
Back to Lewis Grizzard.
Lewis’ most frequent pal and driver from Atlanta was Dorsey Hill, whom Lewis referred to in his columns as the greatest Georgia Bulldog fan in the world. Dorsey was Lewis’ brotherhood, whose reputation among several was for persuading brothers in 1964 not to blackmail thin, geeky 18-year-old Hayseed Lewis from tiny Moreland, Georgia.
(That is this author’s observation, not Dorsey’s claim.)
A week before the game in Kentucky, Lewis Dorsey called with a great idea. “Let’s get on a bus at the Marriott and take it to and from the game. That way we can consume a lot more adult drinks. “
Dorsey protested that their seasonal parking lot was 5 minutes from Sanford, Dorsey would stay sober enough to drive, and for so many other reasons Lewis’ idea was sad.
Lewis, stubborn as a mule, agreed to Dorsey the bus.
A problem that led to several problems. When we arrived at the Marriott, there was only one bus in the parking lot. The blue Wildcat color code for the Kentucky Wildcats logo is Pantone: PMS 286. The bus was PMS 286, as were the colors of all passengers who boarded the bus except Dorsey and Lewis.
When it’s not clear, Lewis bought tickets for the Kentucky fan bus to and from Athens.
As they were consuming adult drinks, Lewis said loud enough for others to hear to paraphrase, “People are too friendly. So rarely is Kentucky good at football that their fans don’t know how to talk about the garbage SEC-style. “
Dorsey told Lewis to either be quiet or shut up. Lewis Grizzard was never good either. Large groups eventually paid Lewis $ 25,000 to open their mouths and speak loudly for two hours.
Kentucky knocked out the Dawgs 33-0. That seems almost secondary now.
While Dorsey and Lewis continued to sip adult drinks from a cooler in the parking lot where Dorsey’s car could have been parked with their friends who regularly huddled on the tail.
Dorsey then told Lewis it was time to get on the bus. Lewis told Dorsey to keep the bus waiting. Readers can see where this is leading.
Dorsey practically had to hogtie and drag Lewis with her cool boxes to catch the bus so they wouldn’t have to walk back to Atlanta.
On board the bus, Lewis asked the driver to stop at Athens Varsity before leaving town. At this point the driver and many of Lewis were tired.
The driver said something to Dorsey like, “If I hear one more peep from your oversupplied friend, I’ll drop you both off by the side of Highway 78 and pay a large ransom to get your coolers back if no one is both on your way back to Marriott kills. “
Dorsey managed to shut Lewis’ mouths so well that they didn’t get kicked in the buttocks.
The punch lines are like so many Lewis wrote in his Dorsey Hill columns. Lewis’ Kentucky match report told a very different take on Saturday reality:
Dorsey Hill …
… screwed up and got tickets for a Kentucky fan bus.
… Talked too loudly about Kentucky’s sad football past.
… was far too oversupplied.
… almost made us miss the bus back to Atlanta.
… demanded that the bus driver stop at The Varsity.
… almost kicked our asses.
“Without Lewis Grizzard’s courage, heroism and self-control, Dorsey Hill might not be alive today.”
Kentucky and Georgia first played soccer on October 21, 1939. The Wildcats beat the Bulldogs 13-6 in Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1938, an oversupplied Lewis Grizzard might have asked for a bus driver to stop at The Varsity, saying:
“And don’t try to tell me there’s no Gawd Kentucky varsity in Louisville. After this loss, I need a heaping plate of Chili Dawgs so that I can bark all night. “
Georgia has beaten Kentucky 60 times, lost 12 times and drawn twice. Georgia have won the last 11 games. This undefeated Kentucky 2021 team could be the best ever. Many Georgia fans would love to see Kentucky become the best SEC East opponent, routinely beating the Gators, Vols, and Cocks. As long as the Wildcats lose to the Dawgs.
This author’s prediction: UGA wins 42-9.
