It’s any late Thanksgiving afternoon in the Deep South in the 1950s or 60s and the annual family/neighborhood touch football game is in full swing.
The family feast is three hours in the past but mom’s famous desserts await as dusk approaches.
Down by five and time for one more play, Johnny the quarterback draws up the play in the dirt and gives out instructions.
“Bobby you line up left and go to the bare spot about 10 yards down field and do a button hook. Charlie, you are my left half, delay a few seconds and go down the field. I’ll pass to Bobby who will lateral to you and hopefully you can get loose for a touchdown.”
As any good Southern football-loving kid playing in a game with an odd number of players understands … the defense always calls out – “One Mississippi, Two Mississippi” – before rushing the quarterback.
The two-count is all Johnny needs as he rolls left, hits Bobby with the pass who then pitches to a wide open Charlie who then out races a few defenders and the neighborhood golden retriever a good 30 yards for the winning score.
The victors get the first choice of desserts as Johnny has the first plate and biggest smile.
‘Bama-Georgia 1965 - Move to Sept. 18, 1965 in Samford Stadium as Georgia hosts the defending national champion Alabama in the season-opener for both teams where the stakes are a bit higher than a Thanksgiving afternoon dessert.
Late in the fourth quarter and the Dawgs are down 17-10 after leading 10-0 early on and time for one more drive.
It’s first and 10 at the Georgia 27 and the play came in from the sideline to run the “flea flicker”.
“I was the quarterback in the game after starter Preston Ridlehuber pulled a muscle earlier in the half,” said then junior Kirby Moore and a current attorney in Macon.
“We had practiced the flea flicker or better known as the old hook and lateral in practice a couple of times, but with no success so I was a bit skeptical.
“So I roll left and throw a pass to end Pat Hodgson who had gone down field about 10 yards and curled in who in turn laterals to trailing fullback Bob Taylor.
“I am laying on the ground after being hit by a couple of defenders after I passed to Pat, but hear the roar of the home crowd and look up to see Taylor running down the sideline for a touchdown.”
It’s one of the greatest plays in Georgia football history, but the Dawgs still trailed 17-16.
2-Point Conversion: In a football culture-changing call, coach Dooley called for a 2-point conversion play which was successful, Alabama then missed a game-winning field goal attempt in the final seconds and Dooley’s Dawgs had shocked themselves and the college football world with an 18-17 victory against Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide.
“Many people have forgotten what happened after the hook and lateral touchdown play,” said Hodgson who had led the SEC in receiving as a sophomore in 1963, played two years in the NFL, coached another 10 in the NFL and nine years on Dooley’s staff.
“Coach Dooley called for the 2-point conversion play which, in contrast to the touchdown play, we had run in practice several times.”
Moore would roll out and could either run for the two points or look for one of three receivers.
“He told me, ‘Pat, get open in the back of the end zone’ which I did and the play worked, Alabama’s David Ray missed a field goal attempt and we won a huge game,” Hodgson stated.
Moore points to that game as a great victory which had a lasting effect on the program as a whole.
“Coach Dooley could have had (Chattanooga Central grad) Bobby Etter kick the extra point and end the game tied with the defending national champs which would have been a great accomplishment for a 33-year-old in his second season as head coach in the Southeastern Conference,” said Moore.
“When we went for two, made it and won I knew the atmosphere around Georgia football had changed.”
More Forgotten Plays: Georgia took a 10-0 lead in the second quarter on an Etter field goal and a George Patton 60-yard interception return for a touchdown
“One of our defensive ends, Jiggy Smaha (former Ga. HS AAA player of the year), hit Sloan just as he was about to pass and Patton, who was a high school quarterback, intercepted it for a touchdown,” Moore stated.
The Hook and Lateral in Practice: “It was last practice of the pre-season and at the end of practice Dooley wanted us to run this play he had seen Ga. Tech run against Auburn,”
To say, the execution of this new play went poorly is an understatement.
“The first time we ran it, I overthrew Pat and the second time he drops the pass. And on the third try, Taylor fumbles the pitch from Pat so I am thinking this will never work in a game and kind of forgot about it,” Moore stated.
“So in the Alabama game, Sloan had just scored late in the fourth quarter to give them the lead at 17-10 when Dooley called for the ‘flea flicker’ on our next possession. I looked at everyone and asked if they remembered what to do. I took the snap and the rest is history.”
Georgia was SEC champs and Orange Bowl winners in 1959 under junior quarterback Fran Tarkenton, but had three straight losing seasons (1961-62-63) before Dooley (an Auburn assistant coach) was hired after the 1963 season.
Dooley’s Baptism By Fire: In Dooley’s first season of 1964, his welcoming into the SEC was a 31-3 loss to Alabama and Joe Namath in Tuscaloosa, but would re-group, go 7-3-1 and beat Texas Tech in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve in El Paso, Texas as senior running back Frank Lankewicz scored the winning touchdown. Georgia was 6-4 in 1965 and won the SEC in 1966, beating previously unbeaten Florida (with Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier) and Ga. Tech followed by beating SMU in the Cotton Bowl.
“After losing so bad to Alabama in 1964 in Dooley’s first game as a head coach, we dreaded going to the Sunday afternoon team meeting expecting to be chewed out and yelled at for such a poor performance,” Moore stated.
“But the atmosphere was completely different that Sunday as Dooley and his staff (including legendary defensive coach Erk Russell) didn’t yell and scream, but instead went over the mistakes and how to correct them as a way to get better.”
Aftermath of the Bama Upset: Georgia won its first four games in 1965 but suffering a few key injuries finished 6-4.
Winning in the Big House: Two weeks after beating ‘Bama – 50 years ago this weekend, Oct. 2, 1965 – the Dawgs traveled to Ann Arbor to take on undefeated No.7 Michigan.
Georgia’s Etter kicked three field goals and Ridlehuber passed to Hodgson for a fourth quarter TD and an SEC team had traveled to the Big Ten and won.
“We saw some of the Michigan players the night before at the movies and they made some off handed remarks about how we looked like a high school team,” said Hodgson.
But we had the last laugh as we wore them down in the second half and enjoyed a huge win.”
Winning reception: Moore remembers the flight home and the welcoming party in Athens.
“When our plane was approaching the Athens runway all we could see were cars lined up back towards town as several thousand fans turned out to help us celebrate the win. That was definitely a special moment in my athletic career,” Moore stated.
Two Prep Stars and Youth Baseball: Growing up, Hodgson in Georgia and Moore in Alabama, they had similar pre-Georgia sports career, both being all-state in football and baseball in high school.
Raised in a military home, Hodgson was born in Columbus, Ga., but attended Westminster School in Atlanta where he was all-state in football and baseball. In the mid-1950s, Hodgson was a Little League All-Star for Columbus which lost to eventual Little League World Series champion Monterey, Mexico in the district in Louisville, Ky.
Living in Dothan, Ala., Moore was also all-state in baseball and football in high school and as a 12-year-old led Dothan to the Little Boys Baseball World Series title in 1957. Moore won game two and threw a no-hitter in the championship game against Alexandria La., 3-0.
“One of my sports highlights was when we arrived back in Dothan after winning the Little Boys Baseball World Series in Columbus, Miss., many of the folks in town met us just outside of town and put us on a firetruck as we had an impromptu victory parade through Dothan. What a thrill for a bunch of 11 and 12-year-old kids,” said Moore who is a member of the Southeast Alabama sports hall of fame.
Bama’s Season: History does repeat itself as the 1965 Alabama team and 2014 Ohio State team had similar journeys to a national championship.
Ohio State lost to Va. Tech in the season opener, but ran the table and beat Oregon for the title.
In ‘Bama’s case, the Tide, led by Cleveland native Steve Sloan, would tie Tennessee and another young SEC coach in Doug Dickey, 7-7, but ended the season 8-1-1 and an invitation to the Orange Bowl to face unbeaten and No.3 Nebraska.
The SEC Rules: On New Year’s Day morning, the top five teams were 1. Michigan State (10-0), 2. Arkansas 9 (10-0 and had won 22 straight) 3. Nebraska (10-0) 4 Alabama (8-1-1) 5. UCLA (7-2-1).
Cotton Bowl: LSU (7-3) started things off with a 14-7 upset win of Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl as running back Joe LaBruzzo scored two, first half TDs and the Tiger defense held strong in the final 30 minutes. So No.2 was out of the way. About the time LSU finished its upset, Michigan State and UCLA kicked off in the Rose Bowl.
Rose Bowl: All the Spartans had to do was beat a 7-2-1 Bruin team led by future Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Gary Beban and the national title was theirs.
Note: Beban, known as “The Great One”, and his Bruins lost to Tennessee and QB Dewey Warren the “Swamp Rat” in Memphis on Dec.4, 37-34. Warren scored the winning touchdown with 39 seconds remaining. UCLA had beaten USC and Heisman Trophy winner Mike Garrett two weeks earlier to claim the Rose Bowl berth.
Michigan State was led by all-everything Bubba Smith and Gene Washington, plus Steve Juday (QB) and Bob Apisa (RB) and the Green and White scored twice late but a 2-pt. conversion run by Apisa was stopped short and No.1 Michigan State had lost, 14-12.
Orange Bowl: All eyes then turned to the Orange Bowl at night as the Nebraska-Alabama winner would be the national champs.
Sloan threw for 296 yards and a pair of TD tosses and receiver Ray Perkins had two scoring catches as the Tide won 39-28 and a second national crown. The Tide leaped over Michigan State, Arkansas and Nebraska to finish No.1.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net