Tony Barnhart - Southern Fried Football (Revised): The History, Passion, and Glory of the Great Southern Game

To my mother, who taught me the love of reading and writing;

To my father, who taught me the love of athletic competition;

To Maria and Sara Catherine, who have given me all the wealth I have, and all that I will ever need.

Contents

Foreword by Keith Jackson

College football, as played in the Southern region of the United States, defies absolute definition. The mechanics and techniques are much the same as in other regions. Hats, pads, and socks are the same. Its somewhere in that mysterious area of fervor that we probably should seek the difference.

But what is the point of doing that? Isnt it more fun to just enjoy it? Jump at every chance to be part of it?

If you are like me, with white growing under your cap, Tony Barnharts Southern Fried Football will be a memory jogger.

If youre waiting for your first mortgage, you will learn something about the history of football in the South and the games evolution.

Long before the Falcons, Dolphins, Jaguars, Saints, Panthers, Ravens, Redskins, Oilers, and Buccaneers came along, the old game was doing nicely down in Dixie.

Yale played Georgia. Vanderbilt was a powerhouse under McGugin. Centre and Sewanee took no guff from anybody. There was a Paladin over at Furman long before Richard Boone ever set a horse.

Folks were eating fried chicken, potato salad, and white cake under the shade tree long before Henry Fords folks gave us the station wagon and created a new buzzword, tailgating ! My Grannie never did trust that word!

Coaches were characters and at least feudal barons, if not kings. There has been one general who actually coached more wins when he was a mere major. He gave the profession a list of 10 basic principles of coaching, but I like the 11 th unwritten one the best. On game day he reminded his troops that touchdowns follow good blocking, just as surely as night follows day.

Keith Jackson, ABCs voice of college football for 40 seasons (19662005), grew up in Roopville, Georgia. Photo courtesy of ABC Sports/ESPN.

There was a Notre Dame quarterback who was head coach at Alabama for 16 seasons.

There was the Auburn guy who coached forever at Georgia (Vince Dooley) and the Georgia guy (Pat Dye) who was a big winner at Auburn. In college football winning has always been the bridge over troubled waters...leading occasionally to forgiveness and acceptance.

For six decades Ive lived and loved college football. Good games, bad games, good people, and bad people. I think I have heard every preachment and parable from the coaches. I think the best one defining the game of football came from Wallace Wade: Nobody ever wins a football game...somebody loses it.

Enjoy!

Keith Jackson

Editors note: Keith Jackson, one of the most decorated announcers in television history, became the voice of college football for ABC in 1966. He officially retired after the 2006 Rose Bowl.

Acknowledgments

A Toast to Friends No Longer with Us

As I was doing the research to update Southern Fried Football a couple of things quickly became clear: (1) a whole lot has happened in Southern college football over the past eight years, and (2) in that same span of time we have had to say good-bye to a lot of people who were responsible for making the game what it is today.

When Southern Fried Football was first released in 2000, I wasnt sure if I would ever write another book. I wanted to thank everybody who had ever helped me in my life and career. The list was long. I want those folks to know that I will always be grateful for their support.

This time I want to raise a toast to a number of peopleplayers, coaches, writers, broadcasters, and sports information directorswho made a tremendous contribution to college football before they left us. Some of them left us much too soon.

This list is far from complete, but everyone on it helped to make college football the greatest game in the world. Many were my personal friends. All of them will be missed.

Ray Beck: An All-SEC guard on Georgia Techs great 1001 team of 1951. Beck was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997 and died on January 10, 2007.

Bob Bradley: The longtime Clemson sports information director died on October 20, 2001, after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Bradley worked 502 consecutive football games for Clemson. He was 75.

Bob Bradley, seen here with a friend, served as Clemsons sports information director from 1955 to 1989. The press box at Clemsons Memorial Stadium is named in his honor. Photo courtesy of Clemson University/Sports Information.

Al Browning: Award-winning sportswriter whose books include The Third Saturday in October , which is the definitive work on the Alabama-Tennessee football rivalry. He died in April 2002.

Otis Boggs: The radio voice of Florida football for 43 seasons (193981). He died in August 2002, at age 82.

Jerry Claiborne: Head coach at Virginia Tech, Maryland, and Kentucky. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Claiborne died in September 2000, at age 72.

Paul Eells: The radio voice for Vanderbilt and Arkansas football for a total of 39 seasons. Eells, 70, was killed in a traffic accident in July 2006.

John Ferguson: For the better part of 42 years Ferguson was the radio voice of the LSU Tigers. He died in December 2005, at age 86.

Jim Fyffe: He was the voice of Auburn football for 22 seasons (19812002) before his sudden death in May 2003. He was 57.

Marvin Skeeter Francis: Francis was the longtime director of media relations for the ACC and was given credit for moving that league into the modern era of communications. Francis died in July 2004, at age 82.

Coach Bill Hartman was an All-American at Georgia who developed a generation of great kickers for the Bulldogs. Photo courtesy of the University of Georgia/Sports Information.

Bill Hartman: Coach Hartman, as he was affectionately known, was an All-American at Georgia in 1937 and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He served as a volunteer kicking coach for Georgia and produced several All-Americans, including Kevin Butler. Hartman died March 16, 2006, on the day before his 91 st birthday.

Kim King: One of Georgia Techs greatest quarterbacks, King was tabbed the Young Left-hander by radio voice Al Ciraldo. King died in October 2004, after a long battle with cancer. He was 59.

Kim King and his wife, Gail, were honored at Georgia Techs October 2, 2004, game against Miami. His son, Beau, is in the background with athletics director Dave Braine. Just 10 days later King passed away. Photo courtesy of the Georgia Institute of Technology/ Sports Information.

Kathy Lumpkin: She was the first female member of the Alabama Sports Writers Association and daughter of legendary sportswriter Bill Lumpkin. She died November 29, 2007. She was 63.