Fifty Years of Georgia’s ‘Dawgs’
As the story goes, approximately 50 years ago, the Georgia Bulldogs’ renowned shortened nickname—“Dawgs”—was first recognized and adopted by Georgia football players and fans. Subsequently, a number of high school, college, and professional teams from across the country, including the University of Washington and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, have used “Dawgs” to identify their programs, organizations, or fan bases.
For the full story regarding the dawning of Georgia’s “Dawgs” from a half-century ago, UGASports reached out to the individual credited with modifying “Dogs” to the more widely accepted nickname, while evidently helping spark a nationwide trend.
A Dawg named Blue
“I should’ve patented ‘Dawgs’ back when I first used it in the ‘70s!” Gene “Blue” Robbins jokingly declared in a distinct Mid-Atlantic accent. “It now seems like I see that nickname everywhere—sports teams, businesses, everywhere.”
Nicknamed during his youth for always wearing blue jeans, Blue is a 72-year-old retiree residing in Greensboro, Maryland. Closely associated with the Georgia football program for several seasons during the mid-to-late 1970s, he has since maintained a long-distance yet unique connection with the “Dawgs.” On a recent family trip to Nashville, Tennessee, Blue was asked to pose for a photo with a young boy wearing a Georgia hat, a stranger, after the child’s parents discovered this connection.
“I’ve had a couple of articles or stories written about me coming up with ‘Dawgs.’ And there are some Georgia players from the mid-70s who’ve said the first time they saw it spelled ‘D-A-W-G-S’ was by me,” Blue said. “Some of my family and friends up here in Maryland get a big kick out of it all. And a couple of them will tell you the entire story if they find out you’re a Georgia fan.”
Blue’s story began in Cambridge, Maryland. Growing up, he was close friends with the late Steve “Shag” Davis, a quarterback-turned-wide receiver at Georgia in the mid-1970s. A few years after graduating high school, Blue, who was enlisted in the Navy and stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, started to trade off his Naval duties to free up his weekends in the fall to visit Davis in Athens.
Blue had the knack for warming up to all kinds of people, becoming fast friends—he still does. By the 1975 season, he had not only become close friends with other Georgia players besides Davis. He had also become acquainted with members of the coaching and support staff.
In a short time, Blue had been seen so often around the Georgia team that no one questioned whether he was part of the program.
During the Bulldogs’ 1976 season, Blue even ate dinner a couple of times with an assistant coach and his family at their home in Athens. For every home game, he was allowed on the sidelines with the team, and not once had a sideline pass. For a road game, Blue somehow worked his way onto a chartered flight out of Atlanta without a plane ticket. The plane was carrying a group of UGA’s elite, including the team’s cheerleaders, big-money boosters, and school President Fred Davison.
“Blue was like dog sh-t after the snow melts—everywhere,” said an offensive tackle on the ’76 team. “I’m surprised he didn’t get his ankles taped by the trainers.”
On Sundays after games, the team usually met at the Georgia Coliseum, where it would split up into position meetings. Every time, Blue was there in the arena’s parking lot to bid farewell to the team. After doing so, he would drive back to Charleston.
Just before driving away in a distinct white Ford Pinto with wood paneling, Blue usually shouted Georgia’s familiar battle cry of “Go Dogs!” Except when expressed by him, the cheer sounded very different than when anyone else articulated it.
Blue’s sharp Maryland accent, coupled with an exaggerated attempt at a southern drawl, made his cheer sound more like, “Go D-aaawwwgggs!”
“A few of the players would rib me about my accent, saying I talked funny,” Blue said. “But, to me, because of their southern drawls, I thought that some of them talked funny. So, I just exaggerated ‘Go Dogs!’ to make it sound more southern.”
After Blue shouted “Go D-aaawwwgggs!” in the Coliseum parking lot one particular Sunday afternoon in 1976, it seemed even Georgia’s acclaimed head coach, Vince Dooley, had accepted his presence.
“Steve, who is that?!?” Coach Dooley asked Davis as Blue was leaving the parking lot. “I see that guy everywhere!”
A new nickname in New Orleans
Georgia completed the 1976 regular season as SEC champions. Bound for the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the Bulldogs were set to face undefeated and No. 1-ranked Pittsburgh. At first, Blue wasn’t able to secure a ticket to the game. No matter, he would not be denied cheering on Georgia in the newly constructed Superdome with a chance of the Bulldogs winning the national title.
“I had talked to Shag while I was on Christmas break from the Navy. So, I knew when Georgia would be leaving Athens and about what time they’d get to New Orleans,” Blue recalled. “So, from Charleston, I first drove to Athens about five to six days before the game. There, as the team was getting ready to leave for the Atlanta airport, I yelled out my usual ‘Go D-aaawwwgggs!’ to them. I wasn’t in Athens long before I then drove straight through the night to New Orleans.”
After arriving in New Orleans on December 27, Blue parked his car across the street from the airport at an airplane viewing area. He decided he would try to get some sleep before the team was expected to land. But first, he affixed a homemade sign to his car in support of the Bulldogs.
“I had made a big sign at home before I left for Athens. I taped it to my Pinto before I laid down for a nap in the car,” Blue said. “Suddenly, I was awakened by the sound of a bunch of buses pulling on an access road heading towards I-10. Based on the time, I figured it had to be Georgia on those buses. So, I started up my Pinto and got the heck out of there. I wanted to try to catch up with the buses as fast as I could.”
Several chartered buses filled with Georgia players and staff had departed the airport’s tarmac. They headed to the team hotel, the Hyatt Regency, for a nearly 30-minute drive. Accordingly, a boisterous ride, at least on the bus where Coach Dooley was seated up front, had faded into a moderate chatter halfway to the hotel. Suddenly, a faint honking sounded outside the bus window. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere was Blue in his Pinto, driving alongside the buses with his window down. He was honking hysterically.
“There he is again!” Coach Dooley was overheard blurting out. “I see that guy everywhere!”
Also visible to the Georgia procession was the homemade sign Blue had taped to his car. It said just two simple words: “Go Dawgs.”
For some of the on-looking Georgia players and staff members, surely they wondered why the peculiar spelling of “Dogs.” However, for a handful of players, the reason for the alternative spelling was clear, given the car’s driver.
Whether they knew the reason why or not, it was apparently the first time anyone aboard the buses had ever seen “Dogs” spelled “D-A-W-G-S.”
Evidently, “Dawgs” spread quickly at Georgia.
According to Jason Hasty, the UGA Athletics History Specialist at the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, “the first time in the Red & Black (UGA student newspaper) that ‘Dawgs’ is used explicitly as a reference to our teams” was in an edition in late September of 1977. Also, according to Hasty, just a few years later, the 1980 national championship season seemed to have solidified the use of “Dawgs” among Georgia fans and the media. We’ll add that, by then, it was already more commonplace to say, “Go Dawgs” than merely “Go Dogs.”
And, nowadays, as Blue said, it seems like you see “Dawgs” being used everywhere.
“Georgia has one of the top histories and traditions in all of college football,” Blue said. “And to be kind of associated with that history, even if it’s unofficial and may have started as a joke. It’s a huge honor. And it’s also made me a huge follower and fan of Georgia football for more than 50 years now…
“Go Dawgs!”