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Fall football practice has begun and the natives are restless; not with criticisms, but rather anticipation and expectations. This has been the way it is since shoulder pads were invented.
I, too, have the same “can’t wait” feelings and have been uplifted by the emotions that come with seeing my favorite team dressed out in red jerseys and silver britches.
You may be interested in how those colors became entrenched, which brings about a flashback to the Vince Dooley era. The red jerseys date to the early 1900s, but it was Coach Wallace Butts who came up with the silver britches in 1939 after he became head coach.
Those uniform colors remained through 1960 when Butts retired and were kept by Johnny Griffith in his short threeyear tenure.
At least two National Football League teams have modeled their uniforms after Georgia, too: the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons.
Buck Shaw, the original coach at San Francisco, told former Bulldog defensive lineman Marion Campbell that he thought Georgia’s uniforms were the prettiest he ever saw. When he chose the colors for his first 49ers team, red was his dominant choice, but he went with khaki pants.
When Dooley became head coach in 1964, he spent considerable time sorting out options for the team’s uniform. He made two significant changes: one a red helmet to replace the silver ones of the past, plus an eye-catching addition.
Vince added the classic oval black “G” that would catch on among the classic symbols of college football. The first order of business was when Joel Eaves, the athletic director, called the Green Bay Packers and asked if they were okay with Georgia utilizing the “G,” which was similar to the Packers’ logo, although the original Packers “G” was designed by their equipment manager and looked more like a block than an oval.
In the process, UGA backfield coach John Donaldson volunteered his artist wife, Anne, to come up with an image, which she did. She designed a “G” that fit the oval contours of the helmet, giving UGA one of the classiest decal designs in football.
Best I recall, there was not a lot of carping and complaining about the uniform changes amid a deeply troubled time in Athens. UGA alumni were greatly divided as Butts resigned under pressure and Eaves and Dooley kept to themselves, which was more of an issue than uniform changes.
When the new regime did settle in, they were not very sociable, mainly because they did not have time. Talk about keeping the nose to the grindstone, no one was ever more committed in that sense than the early Dooley staff.
It did not set well with some of the old timers, however, that Vince chose to replace the silver britches with white ones, though they were in a minority.
Few out there today even know why he made that decision.
It was natural that a popular cheer had developed among the fans: “Go, you silver britches.” And though Athens has never been a bastion of liberalism, and in those days there were not a lot of microphones prevalent (and certainly no amplifiers), the cheer had become popular with a certain segment of the student body, who revised it to: “Go you sons of (expletive).” Well, you get the idea.
Dooley was already familiar with it from his days as a scout for Auburn in the era when each team sent assistant coaches to scout the opponents as much as three games in advance of their upcoming game with a particular school. Vince and Eaves were the main scouts for Auburn.
By implementing the white pants, Dooley eliminated the opportunity for the negative cheer.
Still, Vince was a man who appreciated tradition, and years later he actually brought back the silver britches, but there was not a lot of fuss made about it at the time. And now, most traditional Bulldog fans appreciate the good look of the red jerseys and the sliver britches, which certainly gives UGA one of the classiest uniforms in college football.