Right about the time your favorite SB Nation weblogs are becoming more mobile, I’m putting on my Knowshon Rockwell Moreno blackout jersey and heading up to the Classic City to catch up with a few friends and, oh, yeah, take in a football game while I’m there.
This, of course, is your weekly game day open comment thread, in which you are invited to share your observations regarding the day’s action, your reflections and reactions regarding tonight’s consequential collision between Georgia and Alabama between the hedges, and, heck, your thoughts on "College GameDay" and what you might have seen on the screen in front of my old dorm, Myers Hall. (If my old G.R. heard me call it a "dorm," she’d correct me and tell me it was a "residence hall," but I have no patience for uptight dormitory Napoleons.)
It also is time to name this week’s honorary game captain. To find today’s honoree, we have to go way back to 1920 to locate one James P. "Buck" Cheves. Cheves was the quarterback of the undefeated Southern Conference championship squad which was the first to be known by the nickname "Bulldogs." As chronicled by Cale Conley in his book War Between the States, Cheves played without a helmet because he claimed the headgear impaired his hearing.
On November 20, 1920, Xen Scott’s unbeaten Alabama club (8-0) rolled into Atlanta to face Herman Stegeman’s unbeaten Georgia club (6-0-1) with the S.I.A.A. title on the line. In the course of the showdown between two Southern powerhouses, a ‘Bama drop kick attempt was blocked and Cheves returned the ball 87 yards for a score.
Cheves’s return set a school record for the longest punt return for a touchdown in Red and Black history. The high water mark set in 1920 would remain the Georgia standard for nearly 30 years and it remains today the fifth-longest punt runback for a score by a Bulldog.
Georgia beat ‘Bama that day by a 21-14 final margin en route to an undefeated season and a conference crown. Here’s hoping the spirit of Buck Cheves is present in Sanford Stadium tonight.
Go ‘Dawgs!