The University of Georgia played its first official football game 132 years ago today, beginning what has developed into one of the top college programs of all time in history and tradition.
Although foot-ball (as it was often printed back then) started being played on the UGA campus in the mid-1880s, the school couldn’t secure an intercollegiate opponent to face until more than a half-dozen years later. Finally, on January 30, 1892, for a game originally scheduled more than two months before on Thanksgiving Day, the Red and Black hosted Mercer University for what was recognized as the first college football game in the Deep South.
On the campus of UGA, which had an undergraduate enrollment of only around 175 students at the time, roughly 1,500 spectators gathered at Alumni Athletic Field—later renamed Herty Field for Charles Herty, an adjunct professor of analytical chemistry who moonlighted as the school’s first head football coach.
Georgia’s starting 11, or its “strong specimens,” as the player group was described, averaged 156 pounds and 5-foot-10 in height per man. In comparison, the Bulldogs’ latest starting offense in 2023 averaged more than 100 pounds heavier (260 pounds) and seven inches taller (6-foot-5) per man.
Shortly after 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the Georgia players rushed onto the playing field, according to The Weekly Columbus Enquirer-Sun, “headed by the college goat…decorated in red and black.”
Soon after the introduction of Georgia’s initial mascot, the Red and Black student section hollered, “rah, rah, rah, ta Georgia!” This was answered by the Mercer fans with a “rah, rah, rah, U-ni-v-sis-boom ah Var-sity Mercer!”
For what resembled more of a rugby scrum than the sport we know today, the rules were considerably different back then. Only five yards, not 10, were needed for a first down, but there was no forward passing allowed. A field goal (five points) was worth more than a touchdown (four points), while all converted point-after tries were worth two points. Also, because of a loophole in the game’s rules, a team kicking off could easily gain possession by nudging the ball forward, recovering it, and promptly go on the offensive. Mercer worked this type of onside kick from yesteryear to begin the game to perfection, and started with the ball around midfield.
On the first play from scrimmage in UGA football history, a Mercer ball-carrier was thrown for a three-yard loss. This was followed by a play for no gain, at which point a fumble was recovered by Georgia's left guard, George Shackelford. On the Red and Black’s first offensive play, right halfback Frank “Si” Herty, cousin of Coach Herty, got the ball and made an “extraordinary” run scoring a touchdown, giving the hosts an early 4-0 advantage. The rout was on.
By the end, Herty, Shackleford, left halfback John Kimball, and fullback-placekicker Henry Brown had combined to score 10 touchdowns, four conversions, and a safety for a total of 50 points, whereas visiting Mercer was held scoreless.
Notably, according to some, including right tackle A.O. Halsey, who told the story decades later to the Atlanta Journal, the final score of the game should have been 60-0, and not 50-0. As the story goes, the official scorer made two trips during the game to the Broad Street Dispensary “to make liquid purchases before the shop closed, by state law, by sundown.” Apparently, the scorer “missed out” on Georgia scoring 10 more points.
Unfortunately, we’ve found this part of the story to be likely just that—a story. Multiple newspapers were covering the game, a couple of which provided detailed play-by-play, and there's no indication whatsoever of other scoring beyond the 50-0 score, or anyone leaving to make “liquid purchases."
Upon completion of the game, spectators’ hats were tossed into the air and Georgia players were hoisted onto the shoulders of patrons in celebration as, according to the Atlanta Constitution, “the red and crimson of the University of Georgia waves triumphantly, and a score of fifty to nothing (50-0) shows the university boys know how to play football.”
Dr. Henry Clay White, an esteemed UGA professor of chemistry at the time, wholeheartedly agreed with the newspaper’s claim. White, who witnessed the game in Athens, was tracked down in Atlanta a few days later and asked about Georgia’s successful start to playing the sport of football.
“Say what you will, but those boys play football very much like experts,” White declared. “It was the most thrilling sport I ever saw on the campus of Georgia’s university. … More than fifteen hundred people watched the game in Athens and their hair stood upright with thrilling excitement...”
