THE LAST TIME GEORGIA PLAYED MICHIGAN – A MEMOIR

By Mark Reed

On December 31, 2021, the University of Georgia Dawgs will play the University of Michigan Wolverines in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. This is a semi-final game of the 2021 College Football National Championship. The winner of this game will play the winner of the other semi-final match-up between Alabama and Cincinnati for the National Championship.

The last time the Dawgs played the Wolverines was on October 2, 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Wolverines were ranked # 7 at the time. The Dawgs were ranked # 10.

The Dawgs trailed 7-6 with 4:11 left in the game when QB Preston Ridlehuber threw a 10 yard TD pass to Pat Hodgson, and the subsequent two point conversion was unsuccessful. The Dawgs led 12-7. On the Wolverines next possession, Dawg DB Lynn Hughes intercepted a pass and took it to their nine-yard line. Kicker Bobby Etter kicked his third FG of the game to ensure the win with a 15-7 final score.

This win, following the unbelievable season opening 18-17 win in Sanford Stadium with the famous “Flea Flicker Play”over reigning National Champion Bama (they ended up National Champions at the end of the season) pretty much made Dawg fans go wild with unbridled celebration. It was an away game, but you could not tell that after the streets of Athens were filled with exulting fans and automobiles, horns honking with passengers hanging out the windows zoomed up and down every thoroughfare.

Every brother, with the exception of a single pledge, was packed into the TV room at the Sigma Pi house at 285 South Milledge (on fraternity row) watching the game. As soon as the game ended, they all poured out of the house screaming, whooping and hollering onto the sidewalk and street in front of the house, dodging traffic of celebratory drivers.

It was a heady time for Dawg fans. Except for one – that being that aforementioned single pledge of Sigma Pi. Said pledge did not get to watch the game. Said pledge was on the side street beside the Sigma Pi house washing and waxing the car of a fraternity brother. Said pledge missed the game and the celebration.

You can see said pledge in the attached photograph. He has his eyes shaded by his hand, watching his brothers celebrate, as he stands beside the car he is washing. That pledge? None other than yours truly.