From Ag Dawg to Go Dawgs!

Our first taste of the “Go Dawgs!” spirit came before we ever made it to a game.

We had been invited to the Ag Dawg Kickoff and, truthfully, we weren’t quite sure what we were going to. The word “kickoff” immediately made us think of the beginning of the academic year, so we imagined something along the lines of the opening events we have back home. It wasn’t. It was an event organised by the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, where students could discover the different departments, clubs and all sorts of activities they could get involved in.

Atmosphere-wise, Ag Dawg Kickoff reminded us a little of our Boboc Fest back home: booths, student organisations, music, lots of people, and a chance to discover what university life has to offer beyond classes. Except here, the introductions came with free food and booths you rarely walked away from empty-handed: a sticker, a cap, a water bottle, something sweet, or at the very least, a “plant fact.” 😄

And then came the very American part: the marching band started playing, the cheerleaders appeared, and Hairy Dawg, UGA’s mascot, made his entrance right in the middle of it all. We had the classic movie image of cheerleaders too: university colours, pom-poms, choreographed routines and lots of enthusiasm. But it’s one thing to see it on a screen and quite another to find yourself just a few metres away, with the marching band playing behind them and everyone instantly getting into the Go Dawgs! spirit.

Except that, a few days later, we were about to find out that this had only been the warm-up.

93,033 People and the Two of Us

We already knew that football is serious business in Georgia. But it’s one thing to be told that and quite another to see what happens in Athens on game day. The first sign appeared right outside our own home.

But we had tickets to the game too. So we put our business on hold and headed towards the stadium. And that was when we discovered that Athens on a football Saturday is no longer the Athens we had come to know. Red and black everywhere, flags with the “G”, tents in front yards, and people dressed head to toe in team colours. Hours before the game, parking lots and front yards were already full: tables, grills, TVs, music, kids, grandparents — everyone was part of it.

We had been to plenty of soccer matches before, so we knew what a packed stadium looked like — the fan sections, the crowds, and all the excitement surrounding a team. But here we discovered something new: people were giving you free stuff everywhere. We stopped in a few stores for some last-minute shopping and found water, cookies and even Prosecco waiting for us. On the way to the stadium, we got more water from Starbucks, caps, towels, sunscreen and all sorts of promotional goodies. At one point, we were even invited to join someone for a meal. We had been to plenty of matches around Europe, but no one had ever fed and equipped us on our way to the stadium before.

The Game Starts Before the Game. We thought we were going to a football game. We quickly learned that, in Athens, the experience starts hours before kickoff. We also caught the Dawg Walk, when the players arrive at the stadium and make their way through the crowd, accompanied by the marching band, cheerleaders and, of course, Hairy Dawg. We had met Hairy Dawg before. But here, he was clearly in his natural habitat.

Then we entered the stadium. Sanford Stadium holds more than 90,000 people, and the official attendance for the game against Tennessee State was 93,033. For comparison, we come from a university where, even if we added up all the students, professors, staff, their relatives and probably a few neighbours, we still wouldn’t get anywhere close to 93,000. And all those people had come to watch a college football game. I think that was when we finally understood the scale of it all. We weren’t watching a professional team. We were watching two universities play each other. 93,033 people. And the two of us among them.

And It Was Hot. Very Hot. Temperatures reached 40°C (104°F), and in a stadium packed with more than 93,000 people, you could definitely feel the heat. Water quickly became one of our main concerns. Fortunately, there were refill stations where you could fill up your water bottle. Other than that, we were prepared: Bulldogs shirts, Bulldogs caps, Bulldogs shoelaces… Just a few weeks earlier, we were still learning what Go Dawgs! meant. Now we were dressed for it from head to toe. Cultural integration was going very well.

Oh, Right. There Was Football Too.

The Georgia Bulldogs were opening their season against the Tennessee State Tigers. It was the first-ever meeting between the two teams, and Georgia entered the season ranked No. 3 in the nation. We’re still trying to understand all the rules of American football. Fortunately, for this particular game, we didn’t need any advanced knowledge.

After the first quarter: Georgia 28 – Tennessee State 0. At halftime: 35–3. Final score: 63–3. Georgia finished with 660 yards of total offense, compared with 109 for Tennessee State, and seven different Georgia players scored touchdowns. Even we could tell who had won. We’re not sure that, after our first game, we can say we understand American football. Probably not. But we did understand why it matters so much here.

At UGA, football isn’t just about the few hours spent inside the stadium. On game day, the whole city changes: flags, tents and grills appear everywhere, people dress in red and black, families come together, and tens of thousands of people all head towards the same place.

And we, who had started the morning trying to make $30 from a parking spot, found ourselves a few hours later in the middle of 93,033 people, wearing Bulldogs shirts, caps, red-and-black shoelaces and carrying Bulldogs pom-poms. We still don’t know all the rules. But we already know what to yell: GO DAWGS! 🐶🏈

The opinions expressed on this blog are our own and do not reflect the official position of the Fulbright Program, the University of Georgia, or the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest

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