I got several very nice e-mails in response to my “Why we’re here” post of last week. One of those mentioned something that piqued my interest:
… 1954 was the year he and my mom started dating. Makes you wonder how many other long term relationships have started out between the hedges?
It does. So those of you out there who have tales of romance that were sparked by Georgia football, how ’bout sharing them today?
Get The Picture 
Oh my, young love in Athens. Let the healing begin. Will come back to this later. Need more time!
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First date with my wife was the Baylor game in 1989. Neither of us went out with anyone else again. Three years later we got married and have been for 21 years.
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Nice!
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I’m not married but my boyfriend of 7 years and I reconnected at the Western Kentucky game in 2006. He was drunk and late to the game and needed a place to stand of course so we let him squeeze in with us. He and I had been friends before but lost touch over the summer. After the game I invited him to a party that night. We’ve been together ever since. He’s been instrumental in my Georgia football fandom. It’s a lot more fun when you actually understand what’s going on and I credit him for that.
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I transferred to UGA for my sophomore year in 2002. I tagged along with a high school friend on a road trip to Columbia to see us beat the Gamecocks (pollack’s crazy Int happened about 30 feet from our seats). This talk redhead was on the trip as well, and we cheered and talked the whole game. I was hooked, but didn’t have the guys to tell her. We became very good friends, and hung out nearly every day. She even changed her major to the same as mine (Social Science Ed) and I still couldn’t bring up the courage to ask her out. End of October, we took another road trip, this time to Lexington to see the Dawgs whip UK (Tony Milton laid the best block I’ve ever seen on a blitzing UK safety on a PA TD pass by Greene…we sat in the top row of the stadium, and I heard the hit like I was on the field). That night, I finally asked her out…she of course had known how I felt for a month, and was just waiting on me. We graduated in May of 2005, and were married in July of that year. She hasn’t been to a game since…turns out she just came for me the whole time.
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Another nice one!
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First date with my wife was the Tennessee game in 96. Proposed on the bridge overlooking the stadium 2 years later (not on a game day) and will be married 14 years in February.
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My (now) wife turned down a basketball scholarship to GASouthern to be a majorette at UGA. We started dating that first Fall she arrived at UGA and I can still remember myself and friends finding her on the field at halftime. It was easy – she’s 6’2″.
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Didn’t meet my wife at a UGA game but I did meet her in downtown Athens on New Year’s Eve and our first date was a Drive-by Truckers concert at the 40 Watt.
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Romance between the hedges?
Ahhh, yes….he was a muscle bound soft spoken country boy…legs and a posterior that would make any man swoon…a Jewish given name and an English surname…I knew he was the love of my life when he demolished a host of defenders or launched over the line itself toward the end zone before gently handing the football to the referee.
Go you Herschel Walker!
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Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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I had a mad crush till Ole Miss when he did the somersault thing…then I knew it was real love. 🙂
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I fell in love with the man when he ran over(future teammate) Bill Bates. Still my favorite Herschel play!
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I had been dating a young lady for about 6 months. I conned her retired Sgt. Major father into letting her go to New Orleans with me to see UGA play PSU in the Sugar Bowl. I didn’t have tickets, and while trying to buy 2, she told me she would rather hang out downtown and people watch than actually attend the game. We went to the car, drove home, and I never went out with her again. Glad I found out early!
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Winner.
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yup.
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vs Auburn Nov 12 2005. Mutual friends had never introduced us…almost didn’t come to the game…me “who is the girl in the red velvet pants?!” friend “you never met ___”…Me “Nooo!, why not?”
Married in Athens in August this year.
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Another one…who knew?!
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I grew up the son of a UGA letterman. My girlfriend (now wife) was born and raised in Gainesville, FL (the daughter of a UF man). We met in college (not UGA) and began dating at the beginning of our freshman year. Her first ever college football game was 2008 UGA-Central Michigan (the Knowshown hurdle game) and she quickly became infatuated. I went on to graduate from that college where we met and she ended up loving the Classic City so much that she transferred up to UGA (I was soon to follow and we haven’t thought of leaving Athens since). Our engagement pictures were taken in Sanford stadium and we had a full-on red and black bulldog themed wedding. We have attended three WLOCPs together (2011,2012, 2013) so you have her to thank for our recent streak (I myself am 5-1 in Jacksonville, not to brag).
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If your wife ever finds herself without a ticket to the WLOCP, just let us know. I’m sure we’d all chip in to make sure she gets there. Gotta keep the streak alive!!!!
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First one did not work out all that well, although I got a really good daughter out of it…second one, however had great portents when she agreed we could spend part of our short honeymoon in Atlanta.
At Grant Field for the Tech game….we won and so did I.
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While working at the same office in Columbia, SC in 1987, my wife to be, heard I was a UGA graduate. She attended Georgia (graduated from the College of Charleston). In her introduction to me, she gave me a personalized Larry Munson autograph she obtained during Larry’s stop to the Charleston Bulldog Club. One of our first dates was to hear Vince Dooley speak to the Columbia touchdown club.
My wife reminded me this morning, today marks 25 years since our engagement.
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Dunno if this story technically qualifies, but after the 2008 Georgia-Tennessee game I called Holly and sang “Rocky Top, you’re 0-and-3/ Iiiiin the SEC…”
A year later, of course, I had to sit around and wait for her to call me and crow about 45-19. Regardless, I think we knew by then that we were the only two people in the world who’d have each other. Gettin’ married in July!
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Seeing y’alls banter on Twitter, you two are no doubt made for each other. Best of luck on the nuptials!
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I met a pretty, sweet girl after the homecoming game in 1986. The next week she didn’t have a ticket to get in the game at the WLOCP so my buddy and I sold our tickets to tailgate through the game with her and her friends outside the stadium. We listened to Munson (RIP) and the crowd noise while doing our part to keep up the reputation of the annual get together. A few years later she became my Bride. (We got married in the Spring, NOT during football season.) We have attended most every home game together since. She has even joined me for the WLOCP since the kids outgrew halloween!
By the way, we tailgate two groups down from Jon and his crew. While I don’t know Jon, I do know Ralph and the video is 100% accurate!
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After spending her entire undergrad not interested in football, being begged and cajoled by her father (a Miami grad) to, at least, try it, I was able to trick her into watching a few games out of the corner of her eye while we were roommates. Now, after nearly ten years of wedded bliss (married in the UGA chapel, naturally), the only thing she openly hates me for is every time her heart is rent from her chest after we lose. She only wears her #34 jersey when she feels like she really needs to
he serious mojo… needed every stitch of it for the Tech game this year. Love that girl. ❤
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Should have read “… needs the serious mojo…” I have no idea what happened there.
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Miami (FL) or Miami (OH)?
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First official date with my wife of almost 4 years was Kentucky, Nov. 23, 2009! It was the Letterman’s game that year. I wore a bow tie for the pre-game and halftime festivities for the Letterman’s club. My best friend asked if it was a little soon in the relationship for the bow tie and red pants. I told him she better get used to it now. I will never forget the look on her face when I picked her up, she was stunned to say the least. I actually proposed at our tailgating spot 4 months later. Still going strong, however I think I still blame her for that loss!
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I met my wife while walking from Harry Bissett’s to Gus Garcia’s in the winter of 1995. We can accurately say we didn’t meet inside a bar… it was on the street outside a bar… which makes all the difference. I was with the incomparable Andrew Rothschild and but for him being friends with her friend, we would have likely passed like two ships in the night. Our first date was the Barrister’s Ball a couple of weeks later. Then about one year later I proposed on the steps of the UGA Chapel. Married in December of 1996 and celebrated our 17th anniversary last Saturday. In all those years, I have been able to drag her to about 10 games. It’s not her thing (she always says “Don’t waste a ticket on me.”) BUT… she has always supported MY support of the Dawgs for which I am eternally thankful. And best of all, together we have created two young Dawgs who both share my love for the Dawgs.
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This post begs the question: How did you get Rothschild to leave Bissett’s?
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No kidding! I will always be grateful to Andrew for his recommendation of that place.
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Jay… sometimes the “grass” appeared greener over at Gus’s. Sometimes not.
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George Davis (RIP) started both those restaurants. He really helped downtown through some growing and development pains.
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Didn’t know George started Gus’ I thank him for many great nights.
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So, after months of finding reasons to “hang out” with each other (including UGA tailgates), my wife and I’s first official date was the 2006 Sugar Bowl at the GA Dome (year of Katrina). As you recall, you can drink at the game and we sat directly across from the WVU section and it was contentious as hell.
I got in a fight post-game in the stands. Not my finest hour. Probably should’ve been the last I saw of her.
Turns out, it was like the scene in Goodfellas where Henry pistol whips the neighbor across the street and Karen admits that it turned her on.
We were married at the UGA Chapel in 2012.
More proof that there truly is nothing finer in the land, than a drunk, obnoxious Georgia fan.
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I met a yankee girl in Tampa the day before the UGA-UT game, where I was living at the time in ’03, and she had just moved down a few days prior. We talked that Friday night about getting together the following evening, but the next morning I realized it was a night game up in Knoxville, so a Saturday night date with her was out of the question.
So I called her up around noon and explained the situation, along with the fact that I was a member of the Tampa Bay Bulldogs Club, in which we met at a local sports bar to watch all the games. Given she was from the north, I thought for sure she would think I was nuts or would have little to no interest in accompanying me to a UGA football viewing party for what would be our first date. Surprisingly she was excited, as she was a big CFB fan growing up and followed Penn St., and shyly asked if she could join me.
We had a great time and she fit right in with everyone, even though they teased her a bit about her ‘funny accent.’ Just before halftime, the now well known play in UGA lore happened—Clausen fumbles the ball as he’s trying to score, and Sean Jones picked it up and ran it back 92 yards for the score. The place went absolutely bonkers with 30-40 UGA people in attendance, and amongst the celebration we shared our first kiss. We later got married and have been together ever since.
It should come as no surprise that the play is our favorite UGA one of all time.
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My husband grew up in a non-sports family, and is a software developer (did NOT go to Tech, and can certainly afford gas money). He knew nothing about football, so the first game I took him to was the 1994 UT game. After the barking kickoff, he leaned over and said, “maybe I should have been a sociology major.” It was before we started dating, so he can’t say he didn’t know what he was getting into later.
When he proposed (we’d been dating a few weeks), I told him we couldn’t get married until after the SECCG, as if, under Goff, we had a chance at that. The same man who couldn’t believe how much a sofa cost the first time we upgraded from our college apartment furniture didn’t blink at the cost of getting season tickets in 1997; he said he knew we were going to buy the house we currently live in here in Athens when we got out of the car to see it the first time and could hear the Redcoats practicing a couple blocks away.
I had always considered the tickets to be my birthday gift–payment comes due around the same time. But he doesn’t, because going to games, walking to the stadium, talking to the people we’ve known for nearly two decades around us, is something *we* do. He learned about football for me, was able to care about Georgia Football because our athletic budget wasn’t cutting into academic programs (as it was at his alma mater while he was getting his grad degree). Our little spot in the stadium is truly ours. He stops what he’s doing on gameday, home or away, to tailgate, watch the game, listen to me talk about the Dawgs, the SEC, etc. He has shirts with the logo, even a baseball cap (though he doesn’t usually wear caps). It is how our autumn is planned, and is an active demonstration of love. (I have learned a lot about Dr. Who–it’s all good.)
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Great thread! I’ll play along.
My husband I met in the fall of 1995 at UGA as we both embarked on graduate degrees in statistics. He later claimed he saw me at the grad student orientation that August and knew he’d made the right decision to go back to school (having spent the previous 10 years as an accountant in Atlanta.) haha. He was super surprised when we both wound up at a the same department meeting as grad assistants later that afternoon. Two and a half years and every home game in between later we married. We would spend the next 4 years in Athens soaking up every bit of bulldog wonderfullness. Now 17 years later we are two PhDs and two daughters the better but I still tease him that he went back to school for a wife, not a career change. It goes without saying we are raising our girls right – to cheer for the red and black on Saturdays in the fall.
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My husband married me for my tickets, it says so on the “free ring” coupon I received as an offer of engagement. ..”offer null and void without said tickets”.
This was in 1984. We are still married, lo these many games ago.
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I’d been saying a girl from work for a few months in the fall of 2010, but we hadn’t committed to anything very serious. I invited her to come with me to the Vanderbilt game with me (she was not a UGA grad) and she immediately fell in love with the Classic City. Of course, I remember Aaron Murray and AJ Green going bonkers on offense in that game.
After getting back home to Atlanta, we made our relationship official and never looked back. We got season tickets beginning with the 2011 season and have gone to nearly every game together since then. We were married almost four months ago. I think the fact that the arc of our relationship from dating to marriage is tied to the four years Aaron Murray spent at UGA is what helps make him one of my favorite Dawgs of all time.
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My father was raised in athens and went to most games for several decades, but soon after he and my mom started dating he took her to the WLOCP. In 1980. That proved to be a good start and theyve been together for 30+ years now. Go dawgs.
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My parents got married while at UGA. I remember playing under the bleachers at Sanford stadium (before the double deck) while they watched the games. (early 60’S) I remember being mad because they didn’t take me to the Alabama game in ’65. Their marriage and our lives growing up revolved around church and UGA football (and later basketball). Still going strong at 80 and 62 years of marriage. They don’t go to games anymore but my Dad and I talk immediately after most every game. Dogs on top!
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Oh, and i raised two Bulldog boys, despite their mother being a booger eating gator (since jettisoned)
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I was with my first Fiance’. We were going to my first live GEORGIA Game . He was going to sit with us at the game. Love at first sight….he was so cute. Lost his contact during the game. I was more interested in being down looking for his contact than I was in the game. That’s it….circa 1974 in front of University Gardens.
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Senior year, was having a tailgate at my house for the first home game of the season (USC, 41 – 37 W). My roommate’s little sister shows up. We meet, get to talkin’, and end up walking to Sanford together from five points and stand next to each other for the game in the student section (Sec. 112).
Married her two and a half years later. Go Dawgs.
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I started dating a girl named GEEF about 10 years ago. Shortly after, we married and she changed her name to Hartman. IT has been a solid relationship, but we have had our share of ups and downs. We have have disagreements from time to time (mostly about money and what away games I am allowed to go to), but all in all she’s the prettiest gal in the conference.
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I first noticed her out on the town the night before the Music City Bowl in 2001. Engaged during the Tech game in 2004. Married in the Chapel in 2006. Season tickets are in her name, so together forever.
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I had been hanging out with this cool girl from south Georgia during the summer of 2001, but at the start of the fall season my ex-high school girlfirend was starting her freshman year and wanted to rekindle our relationship. I was in a bit of a jam with this one, because I only broke up with my high school girlfriend because I was going to college. And now I had this new thing going. So, I ended up taking my ex to the Arkansas State game and things went well. But I could not get this new girl out of my mind. She stopped taking my calls after seeing me with the ex. Until I saw her driving through five points on Lumpkin, and I actually chased her down and ask her out. A week later, I took this cool girl from south Georgia to the South Carolina game and fell for her. I popped the question in our favorite eatery, Speak Easy, graduation night in December 2004. We got married in the summer of 2005. Every Saturday is dedicated to the Dawgs, and we go as much as we can. Our three year old little girl has been to the G-Day game, but we both look foward to having her see the real thing next year.
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That’s a nice story. We’ve always taken our boys (almost 5 and 1.5 yo) to every G-Day. But I’m committed to making them beg to get to go to a game. I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend my live football time babysitting! Girl, maybe that’s different, but I’ve got two budding Sir Edmund Hillary’s on my hands.
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Met my eventual wife when I went to Athens for the Tech game in 03. She was getting her Master’s there and teaching. We got married in Athens, and had the rehearsal dinner at the Georgia Center on campus. My wife is from Peru, and is now almost as big a football fan as I am.
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I met my bride in HS. So no chance for hedges romance. But, over the last few years our house has served as the meeting place for my sons and their friends on game day. We aren’t that far from the stadium and we are leaving as they are arriving. They park and then take our van. It is ok to have a van . Randal Bramlett drives a Honda Odessey. My oldest son’s girlfriend brought a girlfriend as a guest that took a shine to his younger brother. She’s in grad school here and not so much of a football fan. Apparently she hung out in the same crowd that shared similar events. College kids travel in packs. I ran into her at Kohls and said hi and she asked me point blank how to get my youngest son to ask her out. Gee that’s different. Anyway, I told her to go to all the home games and make sure you go to the WLOCP and see him there. If you know anything about late model mustangs that’s a help and read some football blogs. GTP and Bernie’s Dawg Blog are in his staple of must reads. That was last year. They dated all of this year. She was with him at both the Vandy and the Auburn game. I got no complaints.
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Wait until it dawns on her that with a live rear axle, suspension movement on one side of the Mustang affects the suspension on the other side making tire-to-road contact parallel but unequal during tight, high-speed cornering maneuvers needed for optimal parking at ball games.
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Oh one more thing….Married two GEORGIA, (Atlanta) boys. But the one that I fell in love with at first sight….., also an Atlanta Boy….well he’s still around sometimes.
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The Watt’s Link and Panhard Rod… FIFY. 😉 For a Navy guy you still sometimes blow me away. Weber carbs and Mustang suspensions builds were taken… up/stolen on any given Saturday by my Father. Yep. Power of the Dad. His project … my time on task. My oldest put together a weber carb on a 68 Inline 6 mustang when he was in high school. Trip carbs on a inline 6. Yes I said that.
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We met marching in the Redcoats (incredible number of marriages from there!). I was Drum Major. She was a majorette. Stood beside each other at the start of her first show. She had on classic “Daisy Dukes” 1979 shorts with “Dooley’s” stitched on one back pocket and “Dawgs” on the other. I was done. I calculate we were on the field at Sanford Stadium over 30 times together. We still have season tix and go to many other events and have Athens date nights. Just celebrated 30 years of marriage to the love of my life.
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My wife was accepted to Harvard Business School, but decided to enroll at Georgia because she “wanted to attend a university where they play real football”. When we met, she impressed me early on with her passion for the sport and her deep knowledge of all things Georgia Football including stats that many guys didn’t know. I knew she was the one by the time we attended the 1981 USCe game together. One of her prized possessions is the threadbare remains of a red & black shaker from the 1980 National Championship Game. After all this reminiscing, I think I’ll go buy her flowers now.
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Thought I might cut back against the grain on this post…
Once upon a time, I was dating (for about 6 months) a girl from Atlanta who graduated from a different SEC school and was a big CFB fan. The summer was coming to an end and so was our relationship. But, we hadn’t had that talk yet. The season opener was about a week away when she asked if I was going to get around to inviting her to the game. We had the talk. The end.
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Nice. Not against the grain at all to me, knowing what won’t work is every bit as important as knowing what does. Saves a lot of heartburn and angst.
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1999 Kentucky game was my bride and I’s first date. She didn’t leave me after that, so I figured that beyond her obvious good looks she was a keeper. Or, at the very least, she’d put up with a lot of nonsense. We just crossed the ten year mark last May and decided to re-up for another 5 (our joke: every five years we pretend we get the option to renew. So far, so good.)
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Met my wife at a company picnic in 1994 … I was wearing a Dawg hat & she asked if I was a fan. Said yes and she said she had just bought season tixs for 2 and that she was taking her brother to the big TN game that year … I thought no she’s not. She’s taking me … She did and we’ve been together ever sense … the tickets are still in her name & I still have that Dawg hat.
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Not between the hedges, but the WLOCP. My Lady friend and I had been going out off and on for a couple of years and started really dating in 2007. I happened to see a banker friend of mine at a local watering hole one afternoon and he mentioned that his Dad and Mom would not be going to the game. I asked him for the tickets and he sold them to me at face value. My friend is a very good business woman and he said he would rather have Dawg fans in the seat and to tell my friend to see him about opening a line of credit at his bank. She wasn’t really a UGA fan at the time being born in Alabama and raised in Florida, her teams were Bama and FSU, but that trip and going to the Sugar bowl later made her into a rabid Dawg. I was going to put fan at the end of that sentence, but rabid Dawg suits her behavior better during a game.
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While my future wife and I were already dating and had even gone to several games on dates, the relationship solidified after my graduation in Spring of 80 when I was privileged to see the Fall of 80 season on my future wife’s date tickets for the grand sum of $5.00 for the whole season. I repaid her generosity by funding the trip to Jacksonville to see Lindsey Run. Went to that game with a group that inhabits this cite and have been going with that same group(and wife) for well over 30 years now. Couldn’t watch “Why we’re here” and not tear up if my life depended on it.
Our first serious fight after marriage was my simple and clear assertion that in the event of divorce the tixs were mine(i.e. you can have the kids, cat and house) but the UGA tickets are mine. It’s still a sore subject.
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Your name wouldn’t be Lump, nah just kiding!
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Man, what a great bunch of stories!!
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