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FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
MCHS OFF All game broadcasts streamed live at
www.southeastgeorgiatoday.com
RTCA VS. Pinewood 7:30 in Lyons
Listen to on NewsTalk 970 AM 105.3 FM - WVOP
TCHS VS. Dodge County 7:30 in Eastman
VHS OFF
Treutlen vs. Lanier Co. 7:30 in Soperton
Listen to on 101.7 FMWYUM
VHA vs. Sherwood Christian 7:30 in Albany
Wheeler vs. Telfair Co. 7:30 in Alamo
August 18, 2021
®lft Aiuiante
Section B
Loran
Smith
Sanford
Memories
A few days ago, I spent time in
solitude in the lower level of the South
stands at the east end of Sanford Sta
dium. I chose that section for a rea
son. It was
where I sat when
I enrolled at
Georgia in the
late fifties.
In those years,
the student sec
tion was located
in the South
stands. Season
ticket sales were
such that there
was plenty of
room to seat the
students on the same side of the field
with the most active and passionate
season ticket buyers.
That was a time when Georgia was
pratfalling in football. The program
was in disarray. The forties, except for
the war years, were memorable, but
the fifties were, for the most part, for
gettable. However, 1957 turned out
to be a very good year, a year in which
the Bulldogs won but three games.
One of those games was a 7-0 shutout
of Georgia Tech to break a drought of
eight straight loses to the Yellow Jack
ets.
The entire state swooned to this
milestone victory. It was the start of a
four-game winning streak in the an
cient rivalry. The ‘Dogs would expe
rience a hiccup under Johnny Griffith,
but when Vince Dooley arrived in
1964, Georgia would dominate the
all-important state rivalry and then
flirt with national prominence in suc
ceeding years. Now on Kirby Smart’s
watch, a case could be made that
Georgia’s best years lie ahead. Even
in the face of the ravages of a pan
demic and the uncertainty of the col
lege football landscape.
A little less than a hundred years
ago, the situation was eerily similar.
The “Roaring Twenties,” were pre
ceded by the first World War and an
influenza pandemic (1918).
Georgia football was “frustrated,”
before that time, mainly because the
Bulldogs had a ramshackle baseball
stadium which was where the football
team played its games. The biggest
game—with Georgia Tech—was an
nually played on Grant Field in At
lanta for the bigger gate. The Bull
dogs didn’t do so badly in those years
(1900-1928), posting a 7-10-2 record
in the series, but when Tech upset the
1927 Rose Bowl bound Bulldogs 12-0,
in the rain and mud, Dr. Steadman V.
Sanford vowed to build the biggest
and prettiest stadium “in the South
land.”
With the help of 300 Bulldog par
tisans, he succeeded. Those loyalists
signed bank notes for one thousand
dollars each which enabled UGA to
build a showcase stadium, capacity
30,000, hosting mighty Yale in the
dedicatory game Oct. 12, 1929, which
Georgia won 15-0.
Seventeen days later, the stock
market crashed and not a single one of
those bank notes were called. This, I
have often concluded, was Georgia’s
signature fund raising effort. Dr. San
ford’s name should be revered as long
as football is played between those
hallowed hedges.
A quarter century later, the show-
Please see Loran page 11B
h *> e
By Loran Smith
The PAYH Bike Riders in the center along with family, and PAYH staff and ride support,
16th Annual Paul Anderson Youth Home Bike Ride
Held In Paul Anderson's Hometown Of Toccoa
Paul Anderson Youth Home, a
fully accredited and licensed home of
fering a second chance to young men
in crisis, began its 60th-anniversary
celebration this year with its 16th An
nual Bike Ride. Over the course of five
days, five residents of the home trav
eled a total of more than 300 miles by
bicycle on routes through and around
Paul Anderson’s hometown of Toccoa,
Georgia, 90 miles northeast of At
lanta.
The event is part fundraiser, and
donations to sponsor riders can still be
made at payhbikeride.com. These
young men rode in the rural northeast
of the state, passing into South Caro
lina, and traveling around Tallulah
Gorge State Park, the Chattahoochee-
Oconee National Forest, and small
Georgia towns Wiley, Lula and Lake-
mont.
The event also recalled and com
memorated a foundational moment in
the history of Paul Anderson Youth
Home. At its founding in 1961, the
former Olympic gold-medal winner
Anderson hopped on a bicycle and
rode from Vidalia, Georgia, 1,200
miles to Omaha, Nebraska. He did this
for the same reasons the five boys did
it this year, to raise funds and raise
awareness of the mission to give trou
bled young men a second chance
through Christ. Now 60 years later,
the Paul Anderson Youth Home cele
brates more than 1,400 lives changed
through a process of recovery, restora
tion, and redemption.
"It is only fitting that we held this
year's ride in Paul’s hometown of Toc
coa, Ga., as we continue to commemo
rate that original ride," said Glenda
Anderson, co-founder of PAYH. "Our
prayer is that this is a transformative
experience for each of the five young
men. This ride is their chance to dem
onstrate how far they’ve come physi
cally, mentally, and spiritually - and to
prove to themselves that with hard
work, they can do anything."
Since the riders are students of
PAYH, each young man’s struggle to
overcome emotional problems, bad
decisions, and spiritual challenges is
symbolized in the physical fortitude to
travel such distances. Anderson, a
world-class athlete, stressed physical
fitness as one component of honoring
God. The endurance needed to achieve
these distances, in turn, honors his les
sons of how exercising the body is as
important as exercising the mind, fill
ing it with positivity and prayer.
Hayden Williamson with her coaches Julie Spivey (L), and Ann Michelle Toole (R).
Williamson Named
All-State Cheerleader
RTCA Is
Now 4-0
By Mike Branch
Sports Editor
sports 7 advance@gmail.com
The Lady Crusaders softball team
of Robert Toombs Christian Academy
took on Citizens’ Christian Academy
last Tuesday and got the win as they
improved to 4-0 on the season. Mere
dith Durden got the win for RTCA in
the circle and recorded 11 strikeouts
in the game.
RTCA picked up a run in the bot
tom of the first inning with Elbe Gra
ham working the bases. She stole two
bases and then came in to score on a
throwing error by CCA. That put
RTCA on top 1-0.
The Crusaders added three more
runs in the third inning when Durden
drilled a bases loaded double to put
RTCA up 4-0. In the top of the fourth
inning CCA was able to work three
runs across the plate to close the lead
to 4-3.
RTCA bounced back in the bot
tom of the fourth with the big hit of
the inning by Marli McCrannie for a
triple. RTCA plated seven runs in that
Please see RTCA page 10B
By Mike Branch
Sports Editor
sports 1 advance@gmail.com
Two Vidalia High
School Indian competi
tion cheerleaders were in
vited to compete for the
GCCA All-State Team.
Hayden Williamson and
Megan Morris are two
VHS seniors that were se
lected into the GCCA
Cheerleader of the Year
Top 30.
Both completed the
application process and
were eligible to compete.
Morris was unable to
complete the routine por
tion due to an ankle in
jury she is recovering
Please see VHS page 2B
SOFTBALL
MCHS vs. Telfair Co.
Thur. 5:30 p.m. (A)
RTCA vs. Twiggs
Thur. 5:30 p.m. (H)
TCHS vs. Washington Co., Swainsboro
Wed. 6:00 p.m. (H); Thur. 6:00 p.m. (A)
VHS vs. Jeff Davis
Thur. 6:00 p.m. (A)
Treutlen vs. Wheeler Co.
Thur. 5:00 p.m. (H)
Wheeler vs. Dublin
Thur. 5:30 p.m. (A)
