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line coach, Sam Pittman, noted that he was greatly impressed with how well the “Georgia people traveled.” He saw it at South Bend in 2017, he saw it at Pasadena in the playoffs later in the season, and he saw it everywhere the Bulldogs played on the road. It didn’t shock him when he learned about the near full stadium that gathered on Saturday, January 15, to pay tribute to Georgia’s latest championship team.

Not sure about updated figures but three or four years ago, I saw figures where Georgia’s external revenue—merchandizing, logo apparel and the like, ranked second in the country, second only to the University of Texas. UGA was significantly ahead of Alabama, even with the Tide’s recent championship success.

You travel the backroads of this state and you see the connection with the University of Georgia reflected everywhere on mail boxes in places like Leary, Ailey, Racepond, Pocataligo, Adrian, Suches, Hahira, Rising Fawn and Ball Ground. Wrightsville, too.

When Dan Magill organized the Bulldog Club network in 1954, he was able to organize a club in every one of Georgia’s 159 counties, which caused him to remind everybody that, “we are the majority party in this state.”

Whenever I am out on the PGA Tour these days, which is not as often as it once was, I frequently see Bulldog caps in the galleries. When one of Georgia’s many alumni professional’s posts a birdie on a hole or takes the lead in a tournament, you hear, “Go Dawgs,” almost as much as you do on a Saturday afternoon in Sanford Stadium.

What I like most of all are the young kids with Bulldog images on their cheeks and tee shirts and jerseys on grandmothers, listening to vintage Larry Munson calls.

Maybe Kirby has awakened a sleeping giant.