Georgia Bulldogs football

Conference affiliations

Georgia was a founding member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, one of the first collegiate athletic conferences formed in the United States. Georgia participated in the SIAA from its establishment in 1895 until 1921. During its tenure in the SIAA, Georgia was conference co-champion in two years, 1896 and 1920. In 1921, the Bulldogs, along with 12 other teams, left the SIAA and formed the Southern Conference. During its time in the Southern Conference, the team never won a conference championship. In 1932, the Georgia Bulldogs left the Southern Conference to form and join the SEC, where Georgia has won the third most SEC football championships, with 12, behind Alabama (24) and Tennessee (13).

Nicknames

The first mention of "Bulldogs" in association with Georgia athletics occurred on November 28, 1901, at the Georgia-Auburn football game played in Atlanta. The Georgia fans had a badge saying "Eat `em Georgia" and a picture of a bulldog tearing a piece of cloth"; however, it was not until 1920 that the nickname "Bulldog" was used to describe the athletic teams at the University of Georgia. Traditionally, the choice of a Bulldog as the UGA mascot was attributed to the alma mater of its founders and first president, Abraham Baldwin, who graduated from Yale University. Prior to that time, Georgia teams were usually known as the "Red and Black." On November 3, 1920, Morgan Blake of the Atlanta Journal wrote a story about school nicknames and proposed:

The Georgia Bulldogs would sound good because there is a certain dignity about a bulldog, as well as ferocity.

After a 0-0 tie with Virginia in Charlottesville on Nov. 6, 1920, Atlanta Constitution writer Cliff Wheatley used the name "Bulldogs" in his story five times. The name has been used ever since.

Traditions

Uniforms

Georgia's standard home uniform has not significantly changed since 1980, and consists of a red helmet with the trademarked oval G, red jerseys, and famous silver britches.

Wally Butts first introduced the "silver britches", as they are colloquially known, in 1939. When Vince Dooley became Georgia's head coach, he changed the team's home uniform to include white pants. The uniform was changed back to silver pants prior to the 1980 season, and has remained silver ever since.

Georgia's earliest helmet was grey leather, to which a red block "G" logo was added in 1961. The shirts were usually red, sometimes with various striping patterns. Their uniforms in the pre-World War II era varied at times, sometimes significantly. Photographic evidence suggests that black shirts, vests, and stripes of various patterns were worn at times over the years.

Vince Dooley was the first to incorporate a red helmet into the uniform in 1964, adopting the oval "G", a white stripe, and white facemasks. Anne Donaldson, who graduated from Georgia with a BFA degree and was married to Georgia assistant coach John Donaldson, was asked by Dooley to come up with a new helmet design to replace the previous silver helmet. Dooley liked the forward oriented stylized "G" Donaldson produced, and it was adopted by him. Since the Georgia "G" was similar to the Green Bay Packers' "G" used since 1961, Coach Dooley cleared its use with the Packers organization. Nonetheless, Georgia has a registered trademark for its "G" and the Packers' current, redesigned, "G" logo is modeled after the University of Georgia's redesign of Green Bay's original "G" logo. The helmet change was part of a drastic uniform redesign by Dooley, who also replaced the traditional silver pants with white pants that included a black-red-black stripe. The jerseys remained similar to the pre-1964 design, however, with a red jersey and white numbers.

Prior to the 1980 season, the "silver britches" were re-added to Georgia's uniform with a red-white-black stripe down the side. Since the 1980 season, Georgia has utilized the same basic uniform concept. The sleeve stripes, trim colors, and font on Georgia's home and away jerseys have varied many times, but the home jerseys have remained generally red with white numbers, and away jerseys have remained generally white with black numbers.

The most recent trim redesign occurred in 2005, when sleeve stripe patterns were dropped in favor of solid black jersey cuffs on the home jersey and solid red cuffs on the away jersey. Matte gray pants have also been used at times instead of "true" silver since 2004, mainly because the matte gray pants are of a lighter material.

One of the things that make Georgia's uniform unique is its relative longevity, and the fact that it has very rarely changed over the years. There have been occasions, however, when alternate uniforms have been worn.

Rivalries

The Bulldogs have three main football rivals: Auburn, Florida, and Georgia Tech. All three rivalries were first contested over 100 years ago, though the series records are disputed in two cases. Georgia does not include two games from 1943 and 1944 against Georgia Tech (both UGA losses) in its reckoning of the series record, because Georgia's players were in World War II and Georgia Tech's players were not. Georgia also includes a game against one of the four predecessor institutions of the modern University of Florida in 1904 (a Georgia win) that national sportswriters and Florida's athletic association do not include.

Georgia has long-standing football rivalries with other universities as well, with over 50 games against five additional teams. Since the formation of the SEC Eastern Division in 1992, Georgia has had an emerging rivalry with the Tennessee Volunteers. The Georgia–South Carolina football rivalry has been a game of increasing importance; South Carolina won the SEC Eastern Division Championship in 2010, Georgia in 2011 and 2012.

Seasons

As of the end of the 2016 season, the Georgia Bulldogs had played 121 seasons with an all-time record of 794–418–54 (a .655 winning percentage). A complete decade by decade list of game results can be found at Georgia Bulldogs football (all games). Note: Georgia was also the only Division I FBS program to win at least 8 games every season from 1997–2009.

Bowl games

The Bulldogs have played in 52 bowl games and have a record of 30–19–3. They have played in a record 17 different bowls. On the all-time lists, the Bulldogs are tied for the fifth most bowl appearances and tied for third for bowl game victories.

Recruiting

Georgia's football teams have benefited from strong recruiting classes. The table below shows their national class rankings since 2002.

Claimed national championships (2)

Years in which the Bulldogs finished with a number-one ranking in at least 3 of the final national polls recognized by the College Football Hall of Fame and included in the official NCAA Football Record Book:

Conference championships

Georgia has won a total of 14 conference championships, including 12 SEC Championships.

Conference affiliations:

Division championships

Georgia has won 7 SEC Eastern Division championships, and has made 5 appearances in the SEC Championship Game, most recently in 2012. The Dawgs are 2–3 in those games. Twice, in 1992 and 2007, Georgia was the Eastern Division co-champion, but lost a tiebreaker to appear in the championship game.

Overtime games

Following the 1995 season, the NCAA changed the rules to allow for overtime on games tied at the end of four quarters. Until that time, the Bulldogs had tied 34 times. Since then, Georgia has participated in 12 overtime games and has won seven of those games.

Other

All-Americans

The Bulldogs have had 68 players selected as All-Americans. Of those 68 players, 25 were consensus All-Americans, as so-designated by NCAA rules. While several players were selected in more than one year, only Frank Sinkwich, Herschel Walker, and David Pollack were selected as consensus All-Americans more than once.

The Georgia Bulldogs football players that have been selected as All-Americans are:

Current notable players

College Football Hall of Fame

Sixteen former Georgia players and coaches have been inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame. In addition, one former player, Pat Dye, has been inducted into the Hall as a coach for Auburn. The 16 individuals from Georgia inducted into the Hall are:

Head coaching records

The Bulldogs have had 26 head coaches:

Coaching awards

Non-division opponents

Georgia plays Auburn as a permanent non-division opponent annually and rotates around the West division among the other six schools.

Non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of June 17, 2015

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