Chip Towers wrote a nice in depth piece about Herschel’s first game… you know the one I’m talking about.
“You look at that first play against Bill Bates. This is the honest truth, you’ll see a hole open up that, no lie, you could drive a Mack truck through. They parted the Red Sea. I went straight up the middle, and Bill Bates happened to be right there in my sights.”
My Gawd, a freshman.
Get The Picture 
Coolest thing about that play is that he turned toward Bates in order to bulldoze him–when there was plenty of space to keep at an angle to avoid him.
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Didn’t he say afterwards the shortest distance between 2 points was a straight line?
After he decleats Bates, he splits 2 guys at the goal line. Man among boys …
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Didn’t bates say that he closed his eyes and prayed and then woke up on Monday….if he didn’t, he should have….
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It’s funny Bates isn’t known for having a long successful career in the NFL. He’s known for being the one flattened on Herschel’s first college TD.
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There’s a funny story about Herschel going to Dallas in. 1986. Bates was the Cowboy’s SS. First practice, in shorts, Herschel goes up the middle and Bates tackles him to the ground. Everyone is looking like “wtf?”
Herschel is just lying there laughing his ass off.
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A buddy played on the OL when Herschel came to Athens. They were not blocking worth a damn thinking they would make the new guy prove his worth. Cavan pulled Herschel aside and told him to RUN OVER any lineman that was just standing there. I won’t mention his name but Herschel nearly broke the guys back and knocked him 10 yards down the field. The guy couldn’t practice for a week or so and his entire torso was black and blue. They blocked from the day on.
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I was at that game as an 8 year old kid.
That’s how I became a Georgia fan.
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You realized all that orange was just a terrible look, eh?
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Get some….BA, ICYF.
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Man, I wish I could’ve seen Herschel live. I can’t imagine what that must have been like in person. Like seeing Randy Johnson pitch or Babe Ruth hit. Like seeing Gretzky skate or Jordan making it look easy.
A man among boys. If he’d have stayed at Georgia I think we win another SEC title and possibly a Natty (Miami was great, though). The big thing for Herschel though is he likely would’ve gotten a second Heisman,been drafted by the Patriots in 1984, had a chance to play in the Super Bowl, and had his entire pro career in the NFL, meaning he’d be in the Pro Football HOF. He should be in now, but it’s like those years in the USFL don’t count. I hate that for him.
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I saw all his home games in person, and he was just the best that I’ve ever seen.
But it was his ability to raise a team that impressed. They were all better because of him. That was his gift. A great teammate.
Imagine 40 years later fighting for your buddies with such passion as he did in that article. Or his admiration for a teammate who went into the service. He really was a good guy also, and that is what I remember about him.
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Like Sipwich, Trippi, Stanfill, and so many others before him, and like T. Davis, Champ, and Pollack after, I love that before everything else, before the glory and the fame, Herschel and all those guys are good men. They do Georgia proud. Can’t ask for more than that when they leave the Hedges and Arch behind for the wide world.
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To me he was the best I ever saw. My dad and I would argue Sinkwich/Trippi or Herschel and we finally agreed it was a different game. Gurley, Hearst, Henderson, Worley, Chubb, Michel, Swift – all Damned Good Dawgs but none surpass Herschel in my opinion. Of course, i expect others have a different opinion and that’s okay.
The one thing for certain is that UGA is and has been “Running Back U” for decades and decades. Oh, and #FTMF
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The University of Georgia — running the dang ball since 1892
(actually, I’m only posting to give this thread 34 comments!)
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I was lucky. I saw him play his whole career at UGA, even in the Superdome.
I do not know if they have named the field at Sanford Stadium, or are even considering it, but, if they do, Herschel’s name should be part of it.
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Dooley Field.
It was a big to do last season. You don’t remember?
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Which I guess, begs the question…due to 34’s accomplishments at UGA, what he says and does….which way do you go to honor him, in his lifetime….the stadium and field stay as named, do the stands get named after him are the end zones named after “the goal line stalker”…..
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He should have a statue in that big open area of the north side of the stadium, where Gate 2 is. You know, with the newest concessions? Our Heisman winners and National Title winning coaches should have statues there.
That McGarity won’t see that done is yet another stain on his career. All other SEC teams and teams in other conferences honor their best of the best in this way. That Georgia doesn’t, that we’re literally too cheap to do so when we’re the second-most profitable program in all of college sports, is a great embarrassment.
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Statue or road/street just isn’t enough for this person…yet I don’t know what really would honor him…everybody doing 100 push-ups and situps during commercials, cause when you mention UGA, Herschel Walker is there, when you mention Herschel Walker…UGA is there….both are married….kinda like Coach Russell, ga southern comes to mind a little bit
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We should have a statue honoring him as the Greatest College Football Player Ever at Any Position
It should also say somewhere: “Any argument that this claim may not be true is demonstrably stupid. The only reasonable question is “how far behind Herschel is whoever you put at No. 2?” Be advised: Anyone overheard, within 30 miles of this monument, arguing that Bo Jackson was a better college running back will be dealt with.”
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That statue should be 34 feet in height at a minimum….50 to 100 feet suits me down to the ground……for that….I will contribute
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I think every player and coach who has won a major award or had his jersey retired should have a statue honoring him somewhere in Sanford. Sort of like the monuments in Yankee Stadium.
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I don’t necessarily agree about “major award,” because there’s so many of them in CFB. A bronze plaque on the drab concrete pillars? Yes, of course. Statues should be reserved for Heisman winners and National Title-winning coaches. Just my opinion.
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David Pollack, Roquan, Champ and Bill Stanfill don’t get a statue only because they played defense? Charley Trippi (Maxwell) doesn’t get one?
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It should be extremely difficult to get a statue. Heisman and National Title winning coaches. That seems to be the general consensus.
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Defensive players don’t win the Heisman (Charles Woodson as the exception). The Maxwell is recognized as the equivalent of the Heisman (aka, the most overrated award in sports or in today’s world, the ESPN Media Darling Award). We don’t retire numbers any longer (of course, 3 of this list of guys have their numbers retired). The following guys should be honored at Sanford with something more than a plaque:
Sinkwich
Walker
Trippi
Champ Bailey
Pollack
Stanfill
Of course, Butts & Dooley
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Erk too.
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When you say NC winning coaches, I have to include the little round man, Wally Butts. I claim 1942, and DAMNED sure claim 1946 when we were 11-0 after beating Charlie “Choo-Choo” Justice and UNC in the Sugar Bowl while Army and ND sat home, both 9-0-1 because they tied each other and then wouldn’t play a bowl game.
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I do not keep up with this business like the vast majority of people who comment on this blog. More importantly, if it were not for Heschel, primarily, Dooley would never have won his one and only NC.
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Same here. Went to school with Herschel and Dominique. Amazing time to be a Dawg fan. Our time is coming again, boys!
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I see your Herschel and Dominique and raise you Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, and Frank Thomas. The Big Hurt is the only one without a statue on campus.
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Statue or road/street just isn’t enough for this person…yet I don’t know what really would honor him…everybody doing 100 push-ups and situps during commercials, cause when you mention UGA, Herschel Walker is there, when you mention Herschel Walker…UGA is there….both are married….kinda like Coach Russell, ga southern comes to mind a little bit
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The website’s still under construction, but here’s the complete-game audio highlights of the Tennessee game, and all the other 1980 games:
https://munsonvault.com/1980-2/
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For What it’s Worth:
Greater Person than just the best back to run between the Hedges.
It was a different time and a different game. Herschel would be JUST as GREAT today. He made everyone on the team better. That’s something that most 5* athletes do not have the ability to do in this day and time.
I know he had lots of differences of thoughts career wise. He was always searching, hunting to be better at whatever he chose. I am sure how he got out of Athens and on Trump’s plane to Florida for the weekend. I think Herschel really was innocent in thinking signing the contract meant he had one more fall in Athens.
I don’t know how Dooley wasn’t up on the Florida meeting. Unfortunately when he was called in to Dooley’s office, informed HE was through in Athens. It was all different no glitz and glimmer of today’s draft status “got it made Kids” just a few TV lines and a cover on SI.
Then Herschel was never one for glitz or glimmers, he was more straight to the point through you.
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Trump didn’t bought the Generals after Herschel signed.
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*buy
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