Memories From the Florida-Georgia Football Bashes

Nov 5, 2019, 3:38 PM

I attended the Florida-Georgia bashes in Jacksonville before and after WW2 while a student at the Univ. of Florida. Florida was so bad during those years our record would make the Gamecocks current record look as though they were the national champions. Wally Butts was the coach at Georgia and if the Gators even so much as crossed the 50 yard line, we would begin singing, "We've got Wally worried".

I'll let the cat out of the bag and tell you right up front this story is about my wife kicking in the Gator Bowl, not once, but twice.

My wife and I were married on Sept. 3, 1947. She was attending FSU before our marriage and transferred to Florida. In early November of 1947 we attended the Florida-Georgia game along with my life-long buddy and his wife. Sitting behind my wife and I were two women who's words and actions was proof positive they had imbibed in something other than pink lemonade. The woman behind my wife keep kneeing my wife in the back and even after my wife had asked her in a nice manner to refrain from kneeing her, her words must have fallen on deaf ears or her request was being completely ignored.

Florida had two scat-backs, Hal Griffin and Loren Brodus, both of whom played back when Florida's opponent was punting. The weight of players on college teams of that era was much less than players on today's teams. Griffin and Brodus probably weighed no more than 140 pounds, They were always a threat to return a punt for a touchdown. The rule at that time prohibited members of the punting team from leaving the line of scrimmage until the ball had been kicked.

To add to the misery of having knees in her back during the game, my wife had to endure the constant yelling of "put Brodus in". Brodus was a local Jacksonville boy as were the two women behind us. It made no difference if Brodus was on the field or sitting on the bench, there was that constant "put Brodus in".

The final whistle blew, the scoreboard showing another Gator loss to the Bulldogs and we began to exit the stadium. As we were slowly following the crowd, a woman in front of me stops, turns around and her hand is coming toward me as if she is going to slap me. I must have had one of the most innocent looks on my face because her hand stopped about one inch from my face.

I looked over at my wife and she had a sly look on her face as if she had won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. I realized then that this woman was the one sitting behind my wife in the stands. I didn't know what she had done but it had to be something that made the woman want to slap me, thinking I was the guilty culprit. About that time there was a little space between my wife and her tormentor. Up came my wife's foot and she planted one squarely on her tormentor's behind. I grabbed my wife's hand and told we were getting out of there before she got me in deep trouble.

After we got back to the car, she told me she recognized her tormentor in front of her when we were coming out of the stadium. A sudden urge came over her when she saw she had enough room to kick her in the rear and the first kick was so much fun she decided to give it another try. And that's the story of my wife's kicking in the Gator Bowl.

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Memories From the Florida-Georgia Football Bashes

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