Why This Super Bowl Sunday Is a Big Day In Bulldog Nation
by T Kyle King on Feb 7, 2010 9:11 AM EST
in Football
4 comments
James Wallace Butts was a native Georgian and a direct descendant of Captain Samuel Butts, for whom Butts County is named. During Coach Butts's first season as the Bulldogs' skipper in 1939, the Bulldogs were facing NYU in Yankee Stadium when New York Times sports editor Robert Kelley approached Athens Banner-Herald sports editor Dan Magill and asked, "What nationality is Coach Butts?" Perhaps for the first and last time in his storied career as the definitive source of data for all things Bulldog, Magill did not know the answer, so Atlanta Journal columnist Edwin "Ole Timer" Camp interjected, "Why, he's a Georgia Cracker---that's what nationality he is."
Camp was right. Coach Butts served the University of Georgia as an assistant coach, as head coach, and as athletic director. His 22 years at the helm of the Red and Black football program make him the Bulldogs' second longest-tenured coach, behind only Vince Dooley. Coach Butts trails only Coach Dooley in victories, as well; between 1939 and 1960, Wally Butts compiled a ledger of 140-86-9 that included four SEC championships, shares of a pair of national titles, and wins in the Oil, Orange, Rose, and Sugar Bowls. Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy called Wally Butts "one of the greatest coaches of all time" and praised the Red and Black headmaster for the "beautiful but deadly flow of pass patterns, sound execution of fundamentals, and . . . hard-nosed style of play" that typified his Georgia teams.
Coach Butts opened recruiting pipelines to Ohio and Pennsylvania (the latter with the help of Keystone State Coca-Cola bottler and former Red and Black player Harold Ketron) and he coached three of the four Georgia players whose jersey numbers are retired (Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich and Maxwell Award winner Charley Trippi among them), as well as "Peerless Pilot" Fran Tarkenton. Following his sudden death in 1973, Coach Butts was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery, in the shadow of Sanford Stadium; prior to his passing, he had written weekly letters to Coach Dooley throughout the younger skipper's coaching tenure in Athens.
I mention such things about Wally Butts because he was born in Milledgeville on February 7, 1905 . . . 105 years ago today.
Enjoy your Super Bowl Sunday, Bulldog Nation.
Go 'Dawgs!
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My first
employer played for Coach Butts. I’m sure today is a special day for him. He loves that man. God bless the Butts family.
Coach Butts left a long legacy.
My parents have been getting season tickets to Georgia games since 1981 (yeah, I guess they’re bandwagon fans), and for about the last 10-15 of those years, we’ve been sitting next to the same family on our left. The pater familis of that family, who chats with my dad through the whole game, played for Coach Butts. Every time Coach Butts’ name comes up, he always talks about how he drove his players super-hard in practice (a la Bear Bryant), but he also talks about how he was always concerned about how his players were doing off the field and was making sure they were going to class and learning what it meant to be a good man and a productive member of society.
He always says that he learned more and grew up more while playing for Coach Butts than he did anywhere else in his life. And coming from a former player, that’s one of the highest bits of praise I can think of.
(Also, as a side note, our friend had a career day in Jacksonville during his junior year. He had 2 INT’s, one fumble recovery, and blocked an extra point for the Red and Black in a 14-13 win over the Gators. God, what a great Bulldog.)
Do you sit
near the 40 yard line on the visitors side all the way back against the wall?
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