For the University of Georgia, playing a football game on Thanksgiving Day was once a thing.
Indeed, in 36 seasons from 1893 through 1930, Georgia played on Thanksgiving Day 30 times—mostly against Auburn (15 games) and Alabama (8) and rarely at home (only five games in Athens). After more than four decades of not playing on the holiday, the Bulldogs resumed the tradition by playing at Georgia Tech four times on Thanksgiving (all four games televised by ABC-TV) over the next 25 years capped off with memorable meetings on the Flats in 1993 and 1995.
Georgia’s latest Thanksgiving game was one of the program’s most celebratory moments of the 1990s. The Bulldogs trailed 14-0 midway through the third quarter and 17-7 midway through the final quarter before they rallied for the one-point win. The kick made by the late Kanon Parkman, a fifth-year senior at the time playing in his final regular-season game, was far from pretty—but it was true.
Quarterback Hines Ward, who passed for 242 yards against the Jackets, gave Ray Goff the game ball. Goff, who had been recently fired, was on his way out after an injury-filled season and an adversity-filled coaching tenure. The head coach had tears running down his face when he said following the game, “If I’m going to go out at Georgia, I couldn’t go out with a better group.”
Goff then directed his attention to receiver Chris McCranie, who had lost his mother to cancer a few weeks earlier, and said, “If you need me, I’ll always be there for you.”
Appropriately occurring on Thanksgiving, it was a special moment—and somewhat of a contrast to what had resulted on the same holiday on the same field two years before.
The 1993 Georgia-Tech game on Thanksgiving Day in Atlanta had been “tighter than a tick,” according to Larry Munson during the radio broadcast, before the Bulldogs ran away with it. Merely leading the Yellow Jackets 13-10 at halftime and 16-10 early in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs then scored four touchdowns in less than a dozen game-clock minutes to rout their hosts.
The fourth touchdown, an Eric Zeier-to-James Warner scoring pass, was the nail in the Jackets’ coffin—and led to the infamous brawl between the rivals.
There were many rumors as to why, and how, the fight on the Flats from 30 years began. But it reportedly all started when two Georgia Tech players pinned Georgia freshman offensive tackle Resty Beadles down on the ground and began hitting him promptly after Warner caught the touchdown. Soon, two Jackets became four or five on top of Beadles. Zeier rushed to his teammate’s aid.
“I looked like Evander [Holyfield], didn’t I?” Zeier asked the media with a smile following the game. “I went in just to try to get them off of [Beadles]. Next thing I knew, they were all on me and both benches cleared.”
One fight turned into several before the melee concluded after an estimated four-to-five minutes of brawling. In the end, there were those individuals who were appalled by the fight. Legendary sportswriter Furman Bisher thought both head coaches, Goff and Georgia Tech’s Bill Lewis, should be embarrassed, adding, “What has been an honored series over the years suffered serious deterioration in this one. In a final summation, it was the most unrewarding match between Georgia and Georgia Tech football teams that most of us can remember.”
For others, the game—including its fight—was a shining moment and point of pride. This included senior linebacker Mitch Davis (on ground at end of clip) who, playing in his final game as a Bulldog, was pinned against a fence during the fight while he was kicked in the stomach by a Tech linebacker.
“We beat ‘em on offense. We beat ‘em on defense. And we kicked their [butts] in the fight,” Davis declared.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Indeed, in 36 seasons from 1893 through 1930, Georgia played on Thanksgiving Day 30 times—mostly against Auburn (15 games) and Alabama (8) and rarely at home (only five games in Athens). After more than four decades of not playing on the holiday, the Bulldogs resumed the tradition by playing at Georgia Tech four times on Thanksgiving (all four games televised by ABC-TV) over the next 25 years capped off with memorable meetings on the Flats in 1993 and 1995.
Georgia’s latest Thanksgiving game was one of the program’s most celebratory moments of the 1990s. The Bulldogs trailed 14-0 midway through the third quarter and 17-7 midway through the final quarter before they rallied for the one-point win. The kick made by the late Kanon Parkman, a fifth-year senior at the time playing in his final regular-season game, was far from pretty—but it was true.
Quarterback Hines Ward, who passed for 242 yards against the Jackets, gave Ray Goff the game ball. Goff, who had been recently fired, was on his way out after an injury-filled season and an adversity-filled coaching tenure. The head coach had tears running down his face when he said following the game, “If I’m going to go out at Georgia, I couldn’t go out with a better group.”
Goff then directed his attention to receiver Chris McCranie, who had lost his mother to cancer a few weeks earlier, and said, “If you need me, I’ll always be there for you.”
Appropriately occurring on Thanksgiving, it was a special moment—and somewhat of a contrast to what had resulted on the same holiday on the same field two years before.
The 1993 Georgia-Tech game on Thanksgiving Day in Atlanta had been “tighter than a tick,” according to Larry Munson during the radio broadcast, before the Bulldogs ran away with it. Merely leading the Yellow Jackets 13-10 at halftime and 16-10 early in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs then scored four touchdowns in less than a dozen game-clock minutes to rout their hosts.
The fourth touchdown, an Eric Zeier-to-James Warner scoring pass, was the nail in the Jackets’ coffin—and led to the infamous brawl between the rivals.
There were many rumors as to why, and how, the fight on the Flats from 30 years began. But it reportedly all started when two Georgia Tech players pinned Georgia freshman offensive tackle Resty Beadles down on the ground and began hitting him promptly after Warner caught the touchdown. Soon, two Jackets became four or five on top of Beadles. Zeier rushed to his teammate’s aid.
“I looked like Evander [Holyfield], didn’t I?” Zeier asked the media with a smile following the game. “I went in just to try to get them off of [Beadles]. Next thing I knew, they were all on me and both benches cleared.”
One fight turned into several before the melee concluded after an estimated four-to-five minutes of brawling. In the end, there were those individuals who were appalled by the fight. Legendary sportswriter Furman Bisher thought both head coaches, Goff and Georgia Tech’s Bill Lewis, should be embarrassed, adding, “What has been an honored series over the years suffered serious deterioration in this one. In a final summation, it was the most unrewarding match between Georgia and Georgia Tech football teams that most of us can remember.”
For others, the game—including its fight—was a shining moment and point of pride. This included senior linebacker Mitch Davis (on ground at end of clip) who, playing in his final game as a Bulldog, was pinned against a fence during the fight while he was kicked in the stomach by a Tech linebacker.
“We beat ‘em on offense. We beat ‘em on defense. And we kicked their [butts] in the fight,” Davis declared.
Happy Thanksgiving.
