Monday, July 21, 2008

No Larry Munson in 2008?

I saw on AJC.com that Damon Evans is anticipating Larry Munson to return in 2008 to call UGA home games...but Munson hasn't officially signed on yet.

I can't help but assume this might be Munson's final season calling games for the Dawgs. If I had it my way Larry Munson would call games until football was outlawed and rogue warriors defended the planet. Unfortunately all great things must come to an end, it's just a shame that the voice of the Georgia Bulldogs is having constant health problems and may call it quits soon.

Having multiple clots removed from his brain earlier this year probably isn't making life easier for the ageing broadcaster. After deciding to quit calling road games last year the Bulldog Nation slowly came to terms with the fact their radio hero might be on his way out.

My dream scenario, UGA goes undefeated this year. Munson calls the National Championship game, Dawgs win and another historical call is added to the archives. The next day Larry goes to the Athletic Department to record the audio for every pregame intro to be shown on the scoreboard in future games, then turns his resignation in to Damon Evans on his way out to see Deuce Bigelow 3 with the movie group. From there on out Larry spends the rest of his days fishing, drinking, chasing women, and watching movies as any good Dawg should.

I looked far and wide to try and find my favorite call by Larry Munson but I couldn't find it on YouTube. My absolute favorite doesn't involve Lindsay Scott, or Herschel Walker, it involves Kevin Butler the kicker for the Bulldogs in the early 80's. It was 1984 and the Dawgs were tied with Clemson as the clock was running out and Kevin Butler kicked a field goal "100,000 miles" to win it as time ran out.

You can find the link here and scroll down to Georgia vs. Clemson 1984 to hear the audio clip. It has the agony of Larry's pessimism, the glimmer of optimism to keep you interested, the outrageous comments to break the tension of it all, and as the ball sails between the uprights you hear Munson go absolutely nuts with excitement. The culmination of all of these is what I believe puts this on the same level as the Lindsay Scott call and begging the Dawgs to "hunker it down ONE MORE TIME!" at Auburn. I could watch these clips 1000 times and my eyes will water 1001 times, they are just that good.

So instead of putting my favorite up, I'll put up my favorite current Larry Munson call. This is from the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game in 2006 at Sanford Stadium. I think I love this clip so much because my wife and I were sitting in the middle of the Georgia Tech seats surrounded by mustard colored shirts. I didn't get to hear this until the ride home that Saturday night. UGA wasn't supposed to win, Tech had Calvin Johnson and a senior quarterback in Reggie Ball. All the Dawgs had was a freshmen quarterback by the name of Matthew Stafford who had played fairly inconsistently that season. Georgia's last possession of the game was their opportunity to take the lead. The following ensued...


It was at this time I took it upon myself to start sending back all the trash the Tech fans had been talking to me all night (especially to the guy who'd been letting his kid throw peanut shells at me all game). My wife told me I needed to sit down and shut up before I got myself killed...which was probably a smart thing to do in hindsight.


Special thanks to Ugamummra for the great videos he's posted.

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