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cus and direction to his life.

Suddenly, Butch was socializing at the library. Not only did his report card show improved grades, but he was also enjoying a fulfilling campus experience. With academic enlightenment came love and marriage. In the days that followed, Butch returned to Augusta to enroll in the Medical College of Georgia, graduating in 1961. Following residency training, he began thinking of a community in which to settle.

Augusta would have been a good fit, so would Atlanta, but there was serious interest in Athens although his plans to become the first full-time orthopedic were not met with any enthusiasm in the Classic City medical community. One doc who welcomed him with open arms was Marion Hubert, the longtime Georgia team physician.

At the time, players who suffered serious injury such as anterior cruciate ligament damage had to journey to Atlanta for surgery. A former Bulldog player, Dr. Joe Boland, was an able physician and so was Fred Allman who followed. Players undergoing surgery in Athens and being able to recuperate in a more familiar environment fared much better. Butch’s timing was acutely propitious.

I’ll always appreciate Butch Mulherin for his many fine qualities as a person. His skills and expertise as a physician always brought high marks from his peers and his patients.

Road games when the Bulldogs journeyed out of town were great fun. Tennis matches, if a court were near the team facility, meals at the leading restaurants, and cold beers before dinner where story telling was a staple of the evening remain indelible in my memory. Butch loved a good joke and a good story.

I never saw him angry or mad. He had the countenance of your sagacious grandfather. He treated all the Georgia football players with the care that he would have underscored for his own son.

His sense of humor was ingrained in his personality. Once in the Herschel Walker era, the great running back’s ankle got twisted in a pileup. The master of playing hurt, Herschel hobbled to the sideline and was taken to a training table.

When trainer Warren Morris came over and asked, “What does it look like?” Butch said, “It’s broken.” The Bulldog trainer almost fainted as Butch grinned with a “just kidding” remark As the Georgia radio network sideline announcer, I told that sideline episode on the air. The entire South stands seemed to be listening in, and when I quoted Butch’s “just kidding” remark, there was a crescendo of grateful “Ahhhaaa’s” emanating from Bulldog fans.