“What do I know about college football? I look like Orville Redenbacher. I have no business talking about college football.” – Gordon Gee, 2010.
Yet he kept at it. And now he’s out of a job, presumably one he loves. Smart guy.
The lesson that should be taken away from his retirement isn’t that Gee suffers from an incurable case of oral diarrhea. It’s that Gee and Michael Adams and others of their ilk have an oversized impression of their abilities as captains of sport. They act as if the revenue spurts their schools enjoy from college athletics are the result of their shrewd business acumen. The reality is that they’re simply people in the right place at the right time who do just enough not to screw up the bounty they’ve been handed.
In other words, Gordon Gee is little more than Jed Clampett in a bow tie.
The real shame is that Mark Emmert’s strategy over the past couple of years has been to empower the school presidents with significant input in fashioning the NCAA’s direction. Which explains a lot, when you think about it.
Get The Picture 
Peace Out, Bitches!
http://www.dispatch.com/content/graphics/2013/06/gee-retires/gee-01-620.jpg?__scale=w:620,h:550,t:3
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You’re getting old Senator. I had to google who Jed Clampett was!
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One of the great TV theme songs:
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The other great one…
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Bulldawg 165, I am so happy that you were too young to understand the Senator’s reference. One should not go through life not knowing Jed. Also, we have some, “oral diarrhea” posters here…..Not mentioning any names, cause you know who you are! :).
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Oh, God help me…
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Just out of curiosity, how old are you? I’m just trying to figure out where the generational divide is of knowing who Jed Clampett was (I’m 36, and grew up watching the re-runs, so definitely knew who he was).
It’s interesting how some things folks my age and older instantly recognize are totally foreign to kids today. Just as an example, somebody said something about Woody Woodpecker the other day, and my six year old asked me “Who is Woody Woodpecker?” I told her it was the cartoon woodpecker that does the laugh (and mimicked his laugh), and she just stared blankly at me. It suddenly dawned on me that probably 95% of the kids her age had never seen a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, they just aren’t on tv anymore. Kinda made me sad! But then I found some on Hulu, I think it was, so she watched those and at least will understand any pop culture references to Woody Woodpecker now. 🙂
Oh, and Gordon Gee sucks.
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I presented to a group of UGA freshman three years ago. One kid’s name was Steve Mc”something” and I called him Steve McQueen. No one in the room knew who Steve McQueen was. Granted, SM is probably not the most famous actor around, but still. This means they haven’t seen Great Escape or Bullitt. And that’s just bad parenting.
Still worse was the first year student from, again, three years ago, who did not know who JOHN WAYNE was. JOHN. WAYNE.
I wept for America.
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Or The Sand Pebbles, or Papillon, or The Thomas Crown Affair (the original), or The Towering Inferno, or Wanted Dead or Alive, or The Getaway (the original) or The Blob (again, the original). He was also a race car driver. Steve McQueen was one of the coolest guys who ever lived. I have been wanting to get around some current college kids and ask them to identify a few names like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire, Dean Martin, William Holden, Tyrone Power, and a few Presidents like Dwight Eisenhower, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding…I’m betting none will recognize any of those names.
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I hope you are wrong. It would be terrible if someone grew up not knowing the pioneering entertainers of our lives…..and Presidents 🙂
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Or The Magnificent Seven.
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My ten year old daughter knows who Jed Clampett and Barney Fife are, but that probably just means she watches too much TV with her dad. 🙂
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I’m 25. I’ve actually heard of the Beverly Hillbillies but I just didn’t know the name of the character. I know the overall story though
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Cool, wasn’t trying to insult you or anything, I was just curious. 🙂
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I didn’t take it as an insult. It was a fair question 🙂
I actually felt a bit out of touch whenever I googled it and saw who he was
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The Clampetts, a family from Bugtussle, a small town in Missouri, somewhere in the Ozarks.
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NO….they were from TENNESSEE. Remember the opening song? I know all the words. “Then one day he was shooting for some food and up from the ground came a bubbling brew….oil that is, black gold Texas T. Next thing you know old Jed’s a……….”
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Hmmmmm….. so where in your quote does it say Tennessee?
Now Bulldawg169 may have never played Trivia Pursuit but it was big at Augusta Medical College when my wife was there. So, whenever I visited, I was forced to play it instead of poker. And Jed was from the Ozarks according to the game. The Ozarks had plenty of hillbillies as my mom (an Okie) use to call them.
“Bug Tussle
The Beverly Hillbillies was a TV sitcom about a hillbilly family living in Southern California of the 1960s.
The patriarch strikes oil while hunting on his land near a fictionalized hamlet called Bugtussle in the Ozark Mountains. He then listens to the advice of friends, neighbors and extended family members, and moves with his family to Beverly Hills, California, with the resultant wealth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies“
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Found this http://www.slipups.com/items/13566.html while searching for info… some people will talk about anything 🙂
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Well, it looked like Tenn. to me as a child. Once again I must defer to the older and wiser Gentleman Lawyer from Athens, GEORGIA
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LOL. Madame you do me proud but I am no consigliere. However, I have tried to play one on more than one occasion, much to my attorney’s disdain and rebuke. When you’re in the development business a good attorney is sometimes worth the butt chewing you will receive for speaking out of turn during any negotiations he/she is in charge of. And you must remember to be polite at all times……. something I struggled with when I thought I might be getting the short end of things. 😉
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Aha! You are a developer. Phil Mulkey, MDIC and I used to write our own contracts and send them to our Attorneys. We would tell them to put it in their own word monger jargon. We developed Santa Rosa Towers on Ft Pickens Road @ Pensacola Beach. We also developed the Emerald Dolphin next door. That Santa Rosa Island Authority is a bitch to satisfy. We made out ok….
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There was no Agusta Medical College it was The Medical College of Georgia.
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Hah. Well you’re prob right and I don’t know, but one thing for sure….. it is what we all called it. My bride was there for a while and I spent a lot of hours traveling to see her. Not a very attractive city. It was ironic that I would rehab so many apartment complexes there when I swore to never go back after she was done.
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I love Augusta, I went to junior high and senior high there and moved back there as an adult. MCG was a great school since the reagents had their hands in it it is now part of Georgia Regents University.
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Not asking a lady her age but what year did you graduate from HS?
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1977
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Discusta….yuck! The only thing good about that city is Augusta National. Thank you Bobby Jones…..Love you MAN.
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There are lots of wonderful things about Augusta But I guess since you call Birmingham home now your opinion should not bother me. I have lived all over the world and Augusta has some of the best people around.
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First of all you know nothing about me. I never called B’ham home. I am third generation born in ATLANTA…..I lived is B’ham for a short period of my life. Have you ever looked at my profile picture? Do not post your “hear say” on GTP or should I say you presumptions. GOT IT!
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Joy I have seen your post after our loss to Bama and I gave seen your Birmingham posts galore. I don’t need your approval and having been in Birmingham I know I would much rather live in Augusta. You cast the first stone and love in a glass house house.
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Look…chicky poo…You do not want to get into a cat fight with me. I only do DAWG FIGHTS and not with women. I am so beyond your league. That is if they have leagues in Discusta……
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Time to bring this discussion to a close, I think.
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It is your blog Senator. I am just a guest. Done!
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Old? TBS ran “The Hillbillies” on a permanent loop for decades. It’s one of the greatest shows in TV history.
My fave episode is when Jethro becomes a professional pitcher using both his right arm til it gets tired and then switching to his left.
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We all had our favorites, but for a kid growing up jumping from AFB to AFB across the pacific with a father in SAC ….. this was very attractive to me.
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Extra credit question … what actor played Jethro? No cheating …
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Max Baer, Jr.
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Son of heavyweight champ Maxie Baer no less.
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Mr. Drysdale, where’s the money?
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Oh, great character that one. How bout the sexual tension between Mr. Drysdale and Ms. Hathaway? Nuclear physicist dream of recreating cold fusion like that!
My high school chem teacher was the spitting image of Ms. Hathaway. Everyday, Andy Lott would erase her name from the board and write “Ms. Hathaway”. Everyday she would erase and correct, without letting on if she got the joke or not.
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Mikey: We’re talking early 60’s here. She was MISS Hathaway. An old maid if there ever was one.
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“In other words, Gordon Gee is little more than Jed Clampett in a bow tie.”
+1
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But he looks more like Granny – and has her loose tongue.
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Dude had it made but he just wouldn’t STFU! One of the sports talk shows on XM said that between 2007 and today, Gee put over 8 million dollars in expenses on his university issued credit card. They also said the returns he brought in were in the billions. Just goes to show it is all about the Benjamins.
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I couldn’t agree more with this post. I wish UNC Chancellor’s outgoing remarks would’ve garnered more attention than they did b/c he said as much too.
Also, like my granddad told me, “never assume the adults are in charge.” Just because someone is in a position of power doesn’t mean they are good at it. It just means they are good at keeping their job.
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Of course he was well-loved at Brown.
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Exactly. Power does a number on people. Good riddance. Sadly there is always a next guy though.
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“Gee men, Revenueors, all a search where he made his brew”. Yeah Gee, you drinked way too much of your ego. Guess they do not teach humility, throughtfulness, and kindness in the realms of the elite higher educator class. Here is a message Gee and for your ilk…”best to be thought a fool, than to speak up and to remove all doubt”.
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I don’t know him so this could be off, but Jere Morehead strikes me as a guy who will NEVER be found dropping zingers on the rubber-chicken circuit and embarrassing UGA.
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Who is Jere Morehead? 🙂 Here’s to you Bulldawg 165 and your not being afeered to ask a question.
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He’s the reserve Tight End from Hahira. I’ll hang up and listen coach…
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I think you’ve insulted Jed Clampett. He was actually a wise and soft-spoken man.
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+1.
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Ya know at the end of the day this was a pretty fun thread to follow. There is a company from South Africa that wants to rehab strip malls and lifeless Walmart buildings into urban hydroponics and rooftop greenhouses in Athens. We need some new blood in this town for sure. They thought a lot of our football team and wanted to get “hooked into your vibe”. I sent them a link. Hope they are for real and get to know all the characters here at Get the Picture, that make for such a good blog.
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