Georgia Bulldogs Countdown to Kickoff: 97 Days
The countdown to kickoff has begun as we are less than 100 days to kickoff of the 2022 football season for the Georgia Bulldogs, who take on Oregon September 3rd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. To pass the time before then, DawgsHQ is going to give you a day by day rundown, telling you why that number is important in the program’s history. It could be a player – current or past – that fans have fallen in love with. It could be a game, a play or any number of reasons why that particular day is special in Georgia Football history. We continue today, 97 days away from kickoff, with the No. 97.
No. 97 – Georgia’s Uga named the nation’s best college mascot in 1997
There are the hedges, the battle hymn, “Teenage Wasteland”, and any number of traditions that surround the Georgia football program that fans cling to, but is there any figure (maybe Kirby Smart is gaining ground) in Georgia lore more beloved than Uga?
It was in ’97 that he finally received his due from the rest of the world, with Sports Illustrated bestowing a major honor upon the canine face of the program and declaring him (Uga V, at the time) the nation’s best collegiate mascot.
From the UGA Small Business Development Center’s “The History of UGA (the mascot)”:
“UGA V had been perhaps the most well known of all the Bulldog mascots highlighted by his appearance on the cover of the April 28, 1997, Sports Illustrated which declared him the nation’s best college mascot. Rocketed to stardom, he also appeared in Clint Eastwood’s “Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil” – filmed in his hometown of Savannah, Ga. Uga V also presided over Georgia’s most successful collective sporting effort in department history as the Bulldogs claimed four NCAA team titles during the 1998-99 season – women’s swimming and diving, women’s gymnastics, men’s tennis and men’s golf – and placed second in the Directors’ Cup race. He died on Nov. 22, 1999, just over two months after his retirement.”
Since “Uga IV’s Magillicuddy II” (the proper name of Uga V), there have been five successors to the throne.
The current iteration, Uga X (“Cue”), has overseen the position since 2015 and was the first since UGA III to see the Dawgs win a National Championship.
Today, we’re honoring the No. 97 in Georgia lore with a nod toward the Damn Goodest of all Dawgs, and it was in ’97 that the world was put on notice of what every fan in Dawg Nation already knew.
How ’bout that mascot?
