Like a lot of folks, I have a game-day routine, whether at the stadium or at home, and at least some of it is due to superstition. Where I sit, what I wear, how I celebrate UGA scores — it all tends to be the same, game after game.
And, at the stadium, there are certain things (standing for the pre-game “Krypton,” hollering “Dawg food” as the opponents take the field, pointing at the solo trumpeter at the start of the “Battle Hymn” — that I always make sure to do.
I know from years of swapping Bulldog tales that it’s the same for many of you. You have something that you swear brings good luck to the Dawgs.
A lot of fans eat the same meal before a game, wear the same shirt, have a special pair of shoes …
My brother Jonathan mainly watches games at home now, and he has a list of game day musts: “The first game has the biggest tailgate spread … peanut M&M’s for every game … whatever I wear for the first game, I wear every game … I have two hats. I wear one and hold one until we get behind, then I have to switch. … And I can’t go to anyone’s house to watch an SEC game; I have to be at home.”
My other brother, Tim, occasionally watches games with me, but when he watches at Jon’s house, he said, “I have to sit in the same spot on the couch. If the game gets tight, I pace behind the couch.”
Also, Tim said, “I use only Georgia koozies to keep my beer cold. And, for most big games, I wear my jersey.”
When he watches at home, he added, “I’ve been known to change shirts and hats at half time. And since I got them, I only wear my red shoes!”
My daughter, Olivia, has just one game day must: She listens to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” on Spotify before every game. “I still haven’t gotten over them no longer playing it” during the Dawgs’ warm-ups before home games, she said.
I asked UGA broadcaster Jeff Dantzler, a lifelong Dawgs fan who co-hosts the post-game call-in show with Georgia legend Kevin Butler, about his game day routine. “I am out-of-control OCD every game,” he admitted. “I will switch seats, use different pens (go from black to blue ink), change the order of who I am sitting next to. When I had tickets, I would fold them over and over and over.
“When watching on TV, I’ll change shirts, pullovers, several times. My wife, Emily, will sit in a different room if we are doing well. It’s a severe OCD/jinx/superstition/love for the Dawgs!”
In fact, he claimed, during the 2002 Georgia-Auburn game, “I burned a $150 Georgia golf shirt, a hat, and two pieces of furniture when it was going bad.”
Sounds like a tale that has grown over the years, but you get the point.
I told Jeff I can relate to his switching pens. I always insist on using a black pen and a red notebook while taking notes during Georgia games!
UGA fan Kevin Whaley said his game-day routine “consists of grabbing a chair from the dining room and placing it squarely in front of the TV in the living room. I can’t sit back in the couch and relax. It’s too stressful, at least until we build a five-touchdown lead. I usually stick with the same chair, as long as we’re winning, but I have been known to switch after a loss.”
Kevin added that, “My wife, a former high school cheerleader, is not allowed to do the UGA cheer routine anymore. She celebrated our late score against Tech in 2014 with that, only to be burned a few minutes later by a long field goal and overtime misery. She knows now not to break it out — ever.”
Other fan superstitions include Patsy Ivey Freeman insisting on having her grandson to her left at games, and Jeff Ingram never again wearing any shirt he wears during a Georgia loss. “I bought a lot of shirts from 1989 to 2000,” he noted.
T.J. Baldwin said that the Dawgs have lost to Tech every time he was in attendance since 1999, so “I will never attend another Georgia vs. Tech game!”
Bulldog Nation thanks you, T.J.
Cole McCannon is like my brother Jon: “Whatever I wear on the first Saturday of the season, I’ll wear every Saturday of the season.”
Speaking of being obsessed by what you wear, Georgia basketball superfan Jesse Kenney, known to the crowds at Stegeman Coliseum as Sweaterman, always wears his red sweater with the black chevrons. Although he doesn’t attend Georgia football games as religiously as he does basketball, he said, when he does, “I have T-shirts that look like the sweater.”
Jim Ortiz’s routine includes barking before the kickoff at the start of each half, though he insists that’s for pride, not for luck. For the latter, he has an old T-shirt he wears for big games.
Cathie Geisking Phillips wears Georgia earrings. “If they win, I wear them till they lose,” she said. “Then I get another pair of UGA earrings.”
And, a fan in Kennesaw named Joseph said his tailgate group drinks a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire before every home game, regardless of kickoff time.
“We are always at our tailgate spot at 7 a.m. and Jack Fire is always our first drink of the morning and our last drink before we head to the stadium. While other foods and beverages are also consumed throughout the day, it’s always our tradition and good luck charm for the Dawgs to have Jack Fire on hand at all times.”
Of course, superstitions about what’s worn on game day even apply to the team — with some Dawgs supporters having been gun-shy about those snazzy looking black jerseys ever since Georgia wore them in a big loss to Alabama in 2008. Of course, the Dawgs have won in those jerseys, too, but superstition never has been a slave to fact.
Whenever I think about sports superstitions, I’m always reminded of when I was a kid and watched one of those Disney TV sports serials — I think it was “Moochie of the Little League” — and the title character, whose team was on a winning streak, refused to have his “lucky” game socks washed, leaving them stiff and standing upright.
I’ve never gone to those lengths (though I’ve heard of some athletes who have), but I’ve had my own UGA sports superstitions over the years.
I remember when we attended the 1965 football season opener against Alabama, we had a rolled up sheet of plastic that my Dad brought along, in case it rained. It was a big upset win for Georgia, so, from that point on, until I started going to games on my own, I insisted on bringing that roll of plastic sheeting with us, just in case. At one game, another kid was taken with its charms (funny what appeals to you when you’re young) and tried to swipe it, but we got it back.
I don’t recall having any lucky charms for games during my college years, but then came the 1980 season. I started it off wearing a nice red and white pinstriped shirt that my wife Leslie had given me (this was when a dress shirt and khakis were still the norm for game wear, rather than today’s T-shirts and shorts). It became part of my game-day ritual to wear that shirt for the next three or four seasons, until I finally had to retire it because the collar was fraying.
Lucky shirts and caps have come and gone since then — a lot of them had brief runs before falling out of favor during the Ray Goff and Jim Donnan years — with a favorite being a gray GEORGIA T-shirt that saw us through the 2002 SEC championship season. When it wore out, I found a similar one to take its place. And then another. And so on. I always wear a gray Dawgs T-shirt, unless it’s a Red Out or Black Out.
At Sanford Stadium, I usually follow the same routine every game. I always buy a game program, I try to get to my seat about an hour before game time, and I do all of the things I mentioned back at the beginning of this post.
Back when my daughter was younger, and her brother had started sitting in the UGA student section, she became my good luck charm, because of a string of games she attended during which the Dawgs were undefeated. (There actually was a loss in there, but we didn’t count that, because she wasn’t wearing her lucky red top that we had gotten at the UGA Book Store.) Eventually, she moved on to the student section, too.
I have other game-day routines at home: I take a sip of a cold drink every time we score (after I clap my hands, of course). When our son Bill was little, he and I used to “bump shoulder pads” (chests) before every TV game.
Actually, I’m not as superstitious as I used to be. There was a time when I’d have to remain in whatever position I was in at the point Georgia turned around a big game. I remember, during the Auburn game in ’02, that my daughter and I were on our feet in front of the TV, yelling at the screen when Michael Johnson caught the pass from David Greene, and I remained standing for the last few minutes of the game.
For a time, way back when, whatever way I was sitting when we first scored, I stayed that way the whole game — even if that meant sitting with my left leg crossed over the other leg, or something equally silly. Craving comfort as I’ve gotten older, I’ve pretty much given up such things. Except my lucky chair.
I usually have a favorite place to sit for game-watching, though it has changed over the years. We got rid of my old game-day chair in a remodeling. Now, I sit on the couch in our downstairs den to watch all TV games, even though the living room TV upstairs has a bigger screen. You can chalk that tradition up to the den couch being the spot where Tim and I sat when Georgia beat Oklahoma in overtime in the Rose Bowl.
Yes, my lucky seat occasionally has failed me, but I’m sticking with it for now. And, if I change my mind about that, I’m sure I could find a roll of plastic sheeting somewhere …
