The annual Clemson-Georgia game in the 1980s was a rivalry at its best
The Ten-Year War between Ohio State and Michigan ended when Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes got fired for slugging Clemson nose tackle Charlie Baumann late in the 1978 Gator Bowl. It’s almost as if Hayes transferred something else, too: In the nine seasons that ensued, Clemson and Georgia picked up where Woody and Bo left off.
In nine meetings from 1979-87, Georgia won four games, Clemson won four games and they tied once. In those nine years, Georgia scored 153 points, Clemson 152. Only one of the games was decided by more than a touchdown. Only once did one team score more than 30 points (Clemson won 31-28 in 1986). Year after year, the Tigers and the Dawgs infused one early-season Saturday with tension usually found in November.
That’s remarkable for a non-conference rivalry that crosses state borders. Then again, the campuses of Clemson and Georgia are only 75 miles apart. The intimacy helped make the rivalry big.
It was a big enough rivalry that it spawned special gear. Georgia wore silver britches in those days. For the 1981 game, Clemson broke out its orange pants.
It was a big enough rivalry that it spawned jokes, the currency of southern football hatred. When Herschel Walker won the 1982 Heisman, Clemson fans suggested the award ceremony be held somewhere that Walker had never been – the Clemson end zone.
Walker rushed for 121 yards against Clemson as a freshman, 111 as a sophomore and, playing with a broken right thumb, 20 yards as a junior. He did not score a touchdown against Clemson in those three seasons, and neither did anyone else on Georgia’s offense. Yet the Bulldogs won two of the games, thanks to three special-teams touchdowns.
It’s difficult to describe the physical nature of the Clemson-Georgia rivalry in those days. Players are bigger and stronger and faster now than 40 years ago, sure, but football then was played in much closer quarters than it is now. The ball stayed between the tackles more often. That’s where Georgia coach Vince Dooley kept his bread and butter, especially a running back who wore No. 34.
Dooley described his philosophy to Tony Barnhart for his book “Always A Bulldog:” “When you play Georgia, you better buckle up your chin strap because you’re going to be in a battle. When you play Georgia, we are going to hit you for 60 minutes and the game is going to go down to the wire.”
Check and check.
Win the game, play for the title
Each season from 1980 through 1982, Walker’s three seasons, the Clemson-Georgia winner played for the national championship. In 1980, Georgia beat Clemson 20-16, thanks to two punt returns for touchdowns by Scott Woerner, and finished No. 1. In 1981, Clemson beat Georgia 13-3, thanks to nine(!) turnovers, and finished No. 1. In 1982, Georgia beat Clemson 13-7, with the Dawgs scoring their only touchdown on a return of a blocked punt. Georgia finished the regular season undefeated, but lost the Sugar Bowl and the title to Penn State.
The rivalry didn’t stop when Walker left Georgia for the pros. In 1984, Kevin Butler made a 60-yard field goal with 11 seconds left to give the Dawgs a 26-23 victory. If there is a signature kick in the career of the first kicker to be selected for the College Football Hall of Fame, that’s the one.
Two years later, David Treadwell kicked a 46-yarder as time expired, and the Tigers won 31-28.
In 1988, the SEC increased the number of conference games from six to seven, and Dooley decided to stop the Clemson rivalry after 26 consecutive seasons (he couldn’t exactly drop Georgia Tech, could he?).
In the past 34 seasons, Clemson and Georgia have made four home-and-home deals, and each time, the memories of the 1980s are dredged up, wiped off and enjoyed anew. The game Saturday is in Charlotte, a neutral site (another one is scheduled in Atlanta in 2024). Clemson is No. 3 and Georgia No. 5, so the competitive tension will be present in Bank of America Stadium. Because the schools are so close together, bragging rights are at stake, too.
What the game won’t have is the thirst for revenge from last season, or two years ago, or when Butler made that 60-yarder, or when Clemson forced nine(!) turnovers. Those memories are remnants of an earlier era. But as luck would have it, Georgia and Clemson will renew their rivalry on Vince Dooley’s 89th birthday. Dooley still lives around the corner from Sanford Stadium (and Vince Dooley Field), and he’s going strong. It would be nice to give him a good ol’ 13-7 game as a present.