Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Larry Munson, UGA announcer from 1966-2008

There's already been a bunch of articles relaying to everyone the sad news that Larry Munson, the voice of the Dawgs, has retired. As I was reading over a few of them over on ESPN, I found myself getting goose bumps reading through some of the plays he called. He had a voice and a vocabulary that really brought the game alive. Here are three of my favorites.

This call came in 1980, UGA's championship season. We were playing Tennessee.
"We hand it off to Herschel. There's a hole. Five, 10, 12. He's running over people. Oh, you Herschel Walker! My God almighty! He ran right through two men. Herschel ran right over two men. They had him dead away inside the 9. Herschel Walker went 16 yards. He drove right over orange shirts just driving and running with those big thighs. My God, a freshman!"
This also came in 1980, as we were trailing Florida in Jacksonville, 21-20 in the 4th quarter.
"Florida in a stand-up five, they may or may not blitz. Belue third down on the 8. In trouble, he got a block behind him. Going to throw on the run, complete on the 25 to the 30. Lindsay Scott 35, 40. Lindsay Scott, 45, 50, 45, 40. Run Lindsay! 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott! ... Well, I can't believe it. 92 yards and Lindsay really got in a foot race. I broke my chair. I came right through a chair. A metal steel chair with about a five-inch cushion. I broke it. The booth came apart. The stadium. ... Well the stadium fell down. Now they do have to renovate this place. They'll have to rebuild it now. This is incredible. You know this game has always been called the World's Greatest Cocktail Party. Do you know what's gonna happen here tonight? And up at Saint Simons and Jekyll Island and all those places where all those Dog people have got those condominiums for four days? Man, is there going to be some property destroyed tonight! 26-21, Dogs on top! We were gone. I gave up, you did too. We were out of it and gone. Miracle!"
The following call came back in 2001. It's probably become Munson's most famous call. I remember it very clearly. I was a sophomore and over at a friend's apartment. We had the TV on but muted, and Larry was bringing us the action. We were on the road at Tennessee and trailing by 4 in the 4th quarter. Tennessee scored and left us with about 50 seconds and one timeout. After going the length of the field, we only had time for one more play:
"Ten seconds. We're on their 6. Michael Johnson turned around asked the bench something. And now, Greene makes him line up on the right in the slot. We have three receivers. Tennessee playing what amounts to a 4-4. Fake and there's somebody. Touchdown! My God, a touchdown! We threw it to [fullback Verron] Haynes. We just stuffed them with five seconds left! My God almighty, did you see what he did? David Greene just straightened up and we snuck the fullback over! Haynes is keeping the ball! Haynes has come running all the way across to the bench. We just dumped it over, 26-24. We just stepped on their face with a hobnailed boot and broke their nose. We just crushed their faces!"
Also, check out Marisa's blog for a great video montage that is played before each home game that has Munson narrating.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:44 AM

    i thought he had died when i first got to your page.

    ReplyDelete