Georgia Bulldogs Countdown to Kickoff: Day 43
With 43 days left until Georgia football kicks off against the Oregon Ducks, I bring you Larry Munson. The voice of my childhood and adolescence gave 43 years of Saturdays to his beloved Dawgs, and to our radios.
Not 43 entire years of Saturdays, of course. I just mean, he worked in that capacity for 43 years.
Many of them were great. Some were OK. And some just didn’t have enough Lady Luck.
I don’t know how Larry Munson will be remembered for future generations. How many Gen-Z kids even know what a radio wave is? Do they even listen to sports on the radio?
I’d like to think that even if they didn’t ever hear Munson’s panic-stricken gravel road of a voice call the Dawgs in real time, they’ll understand the gravity of what he did for Georgia football fans around the world.
But part of me thinks, ya just had to be there, on the other side of his airwaves. And I’m glad I was for those last few seasons.
Every Georgia Bulldogs fan has a favorite Larry Munson call
The Hobnail Boot, and the throw from David Greene to Michael Johnson at Auburn in 2002 were the tentpole calls of my lifetime.
I listened to the first one live in the car on a North Georgia road with my family on that October 2001 afternoon. It’s seared into whatever part of your brain loves college football forever.
We listened to the latter one as our radio hummed in the living room with the CBS TV broadcast on mute. No offense to Verne Lundquist and Todd Blackledge. But I think they would understand. You probably do, too.
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Even with those calls stored safely in my memory bank, when I think about Larry Munson, I think about a game and a drive that isn’t as widely known as ‘Run Lindsay’ or ‘Look at the Sugar falling out of the sky.
Matthew Stafford to Mohamed Massaquoi against Georgia Tech in 2006 showed Munson still had it
Larry Munson retired in 2008. He passed in 2011.
Five years before his voice left the earth, it found the ears of Dawgs fans with as much veracity and passion as it had in any given year of his magnificent career.
With Georgia trailing Georgia Tech 12-7 in the fourth quarter, freshman quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Dawgs went to work on a drive that covered about a hundred thousand miles.
I recommend you watch the full nine minutes on YouTube, but the teaser below oughtta get you started, and take you right back to the voice and the cigar-smokin’, movie-watchin’, Dawgs-lovin’ soul who showed so many how to embrace the spirit of a Georgia Bulldog.
Take it away, Larry.
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