Was fine for all we knew two months ago. Some bumps came up on his head. It was an aggressive form of skin cancer and tests revealed it had spread to his liver. Seems unreal that he was doing yard work and painting the house less than a month ago.
I am from Wrightsville. Daddy went to every Johnson County football game in 1979. I was six years old and the only thing I cared about were the Duke boys on Friday night on CBS. I went to the state championship game because I was made to and slept in my mother's lap the entire second half. We moved to a little town called Nahunta in early 1980. Pretty ironic considering SBIV would spend a good portion of his childhood growing up there.
On September 6th, 1980 I was in the living room of our home and noticed my dad wasn't there. My aunt, uncle and cousins had driven down for a visit and stayed the weekend with us. I asked mama where he was. She said "he's listening to the ball game in your sister's bedroom". I went to him and sat in the floor beside him and listened a little. I didn't really know what was going on, but I knew he was happy when they finally put "that kid out of Johnson County" in. We won. We almost always won when Herschel played. That was the way things were for the next three years and the way things were supposed to be.
At age seven to nine you can't really comprehend how incredibly lucky you are to have the greatest collegiate running back of all-time be from your hometown. But that's what happened as he'd go on to lead UGA to its first consensus national championship and a Heisman trophy two years later.
By the Florida game of that year I was a full fledged Bulldog fan. As UF scored the go ahead TD with hardly any time on the clock, my sister and I went to my parent's bedroom and cried. We couldn't bare to watch any more. But we soon heard shouting as the floor rumbled under us. "Do you believe in miracles?" Al Michaels had just been witness to another one and all was right in the world again and my dad was a very happy man.
From that time on I've been a major sports fan. He may have regretted it at times as I would watch any and every sporting event that was on TV while growing up. He loved UGA football, boxing and Braves baseball. He'd watch the NCAA tournament once it got down to the Final Four and any big time college football game. But he wasn't much into anything beyond that.
Just as I had given up on the Dawgs in Jax in 1980, he gave up on the Braves in 1992 in game 7 of the NLCS. He went to bed after the seventh inning. I kept giving him updates in the ninth and finally got him to come back for the finish after Bream was walked to load the bases with no one out.
He had a lot of Munson in him and the only big game I ever recall him not being worried about was the 2002 SECCG. Kind of shocking that he wasn't concerned about that one if you knew him. I tried to convince him TCU was about to get their skulls crushed and he used the old "Michigan destroyed OSU, TCU beat Michigan, we barely beat OSU" defense.
With the exception of 2009, wasn't able to watch a lot of football with him in the last three decades. Lived too far away. But nearly every Georgia game was always followed with a phone call to discuss it with my dad. It would be made soon after it was over if it was a win or maybe on Sunday morning if it was a loss. Breaks my heart to know the Orange Bowl was the last of such calls. Didn't think it would be so at the time.
He was 82. He was a Christian. He loved Jesus. He served in his local church. I'd be remiss not to mention those things when talking about his life as they were very important to him. He was a good man and a great dad. It's been two hours since he breathed his last and I miss him terribly. 'Til we meet again daddy. Go Dawgs!
I am from Wrightsville. Daddy went to every Johnson County football game in 1979. I was six years old and the only thing I cared about were the Duke boys on Friday night on CBS. I went to the state championship game because I was made to and slept in my mother's lap the entire second half. We moved to a little town called Nahunta in early 1980. Pretty ironic considering SBIV would spend a good portion of his childhood growing up there.
On September 6th, 1980 I was in the living room of our home and noticed my dad wasn't there. My aunt, uncle and cousins had driven down for a visit and stayed the weekend with us. I asked mama where he was. She said "he's listening to the ball game in your sister's bedroom". I went to him and sat in the floor beside him and listened a little. I didn't really know what was going on, but I knew he was happy when they finally put "that kid out of Johnson County" in. We won. We almost always won when Herschel played. That was the way things were for the next three years and the way things were supposed to be.
At age seven to nine you can't really comprehend how incredibly lucky you are to have the greatest collegiate running back of all-time be from your hometown. But that's what happened as he'd go on to lead UGA to its first consensus national championship and a Heisman trophy two years later.
By the Florida game of that year I was a full fledged Bulldog fan. As UF scored the go ahead TD with hardly any time on the clock, my sister and I went to my parent's bedroom and cried. We couldn't bare to watch any more. But we soon heard shouting as the floor rumbled under us. "Do you believe in miracles?" Al Michaels had just been witness to another one and all was right in the world again and my dad was a very happy man.
From that time on I've been a major sports fan. He may have regretted it at times as I would watch any and every sporting event that was on TV while growing up. He loved UGA football, boxing and Braves baseball. He'd watch the NCAA tournament once it got down to the Final Four and any big time college football game. But he wasn't much into anything beyond that.
Just as I had given up on the Dawgs in Jax in 1980, he gave up on the Braves in 1992 in game 7 of the NLCS. He went to bed after the seventh inning. I kept giving him updates in the ninth and finally got him to come back for the finish after Bream was walked to load the bases with no one out.
He had a lot of Munson in him and the only big game I ever recall him not being worried about was the 2002 SECCG. Kind of shocking that he wasn't concerned about that one if you knew him. I tried to convince him TCU was about to get their skulls crushed and he used the old "Michigan destroyed OSU, TCU beat Michigan, we barely beat OSU" defense.
With the exception of 2009, wasn't able to watch a lot of football with him in the last three decades. Lived too far away. But nearly every Georgia game was always followed with a phone call to discuss it with my dad. It would be made soon after it was over if it was a win or maybe on Sunday morning if it was a loss. Breaks my heart to know the Orange Bowl was the last of such calls. Didn't think it would be so at the time.
He was 82. He was a Christian. He loved Jesus. He served in his local church. I'd be remiss not to mention those things when talking about his life as they were very important to him. He was a good man and a great dad. It's been two hours since he breathed his last and I miss him terribly. 'Til we meet again daddy. Go Dawgs!
