“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
_____________
#####
“Y” Boys: Playing in Sanford Stadium Before the 1962 Georgia-Georgia Tech Football Game
You don’t have to be a Georgia football fan to enjoy reading this article: “Georgia vs. Georgia Tech distaste, with a little Lewis Grizzard love for Tech”.
If you don’t know anything about Lewis Grizzard, you can google him. Some of his books are fantastic. For example, these books stand out in my mind:
- They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat
- Elvis Is Dead and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself
- My Daddy Was a Pistol and I’m a Son of a Gun
My family moved to Athens in 1961. I was 11 at the time, and my brother and I joined the “Y”. I was one of Kelley’s Boys, but most of the kids my age who were “Y” boys knew Kelley a lot better than I did. They had been going to the “Y” since they were much younger.
This is not about the “Y”, though. I needed to mention it as a backdrop to my story about the day we played football in Sanford Stadium before the Georgia-Georgia Tech football game. It was in 1962. Tech won that game.
From time to time, “Y” boys played football in Sanford Stadium before Georgia home games. We would march down Lumpkin Street dressed in our football uniforms and play until the college teams came onto the field. I played in only one of those games. By happenstance, it was the Georgia-Georgia Tech game.
I have one lasting memory from that game. We were on defense, and the guy I was covering pulled out like he was going out for a pass. I tracked him, and he did receive a pass. It was a race to the sideline. I got to him as he was making his turn up field. I had to lay out completely to make the tackle. Hitting the ground knocked the breath out of me and stretched my stomach muscles. I wasn’t hurt badly, but I didn’t get up right away. I needed to catch my breath.
While I was lying face down on the ground, I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder, and I heard a man’s voice. He said, “Son, are you okay?”
I rolled over and looked into the eyes of Bobby Dodd, the Georgia Tech coach. They were making their way onto the field, and he saw the play. I said, “I’m fine.”
“Nice tackle,” he said.
That was my only personal encounter with Bobby Dodd. To this day, I remember him as a kind-hearted soul.
After the “Y” boys finished playing, we stayed and watched the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. Turns out Katie, my future wife, was at that game, too. Her parents were big Georgia fans, and her father helped Georgia recruit Atlanta kids. She and her sisters were there with them. She remembers watching us play, but we didn’t meet until we were in college.
#####
_____________
#####
Clean Old Fashioned Hate. pic.twitter.com/ye94uKVuqW
— DawgPost (@Dawg_Post) November 26, 2021
#####
_____________
#####
“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
