Today, the day before Saturday’s Georgia-South Carolina game is a momentous anniversary, of sorts, especially for UGA enthusiasts and those in the journalism industry. You see, it was the day before the meeting between the Bulldogs and Gamecocks 50 years ago that "the greatest headline in the history of sports journalism" was realized by a Georgia and literary legend—or so it seemed.
Many of you, especially those long-time followers of Bulldog football, have probably heard the story before. Still, here it is in a nutshell (and in its entirety posted on a blog the day before the Dogs and ‘Cocks played nine years ago):
The great Lewis Grizzard, a 20-year-old newspaper writer in Athens at the time, joined a few of his UGA fraternity brothers the night before the 1967 Georgia-South Carolina game. The fraternity brothers had been lamenting how Bulldog standouts Billy Payne and Happy Dicks would miss the contest against the Gamecocks with injuries. Speaking of Dicks, Grizzard informed the group that if his latest newspaper column was to get by his editor, the next day’s sports section would display "the greatest headline in the history of sports journalism." The next morning, it was evident Grizzard had pulled off the unimaginable—a headline Vince Dooley apparently still maintains is his most memorable ever: DOGS TO PLAY COCKS WITH DICKS OUT.
To me, the greatest headline was so great or, more so, inconceivable, I told the story dozens of times over the course of several years beginning when I first heard it about a decade ago. However, a few years ago, I suddenly stopped telling the “Dicks Out” story—and for good reason—after a morning-long visit to UGA’s main library.
Never actually having seen Grizzard’s headline, I had set out for the library thinking how cool it would be to have a scanned printout of it for a keepsake (plus, I was curious about the identity of the noted newspaper editor who, according to the story, "took drunk”). Apparently revealed in the Athens Banner-Herald the morning of October 7, 1967, the headline would be on microfilm in the dark bowels of the library’s basement. Honestly, I was excited—probably too much so; however, after a few hours of digging, my excitement had been transformed to dejection and confusion.
Sitting at a microfilm machine probably as old as the library itself, I carefully searched through each of the three newspapers Grizzard, as stated, worked for from the mid-to-late 1960s (the Athens Daily News, Athens Banner-Herald, and Atlanta Journal) over a week's period leading up to and on the day of each of the three Georgia-South Carolina games when Happy Dicks played for the Bulldogs (1966 to 1968).
Alas, I found no such acclaimed headline.
On the day of the game in 1966, Grizzard's main story in the Daily News was on the Athens High football team (Trojans Get Down to 'Meat, Potatoes'). A year later for the same newspaper, he did preview the South Carolina game but his lone headline that morning: ‘Dogs Plannin’ Chicken-Lickin’. By the 1968 meeting, Grizzard had moved onto the Journal, writing on the 28-28 tie by Georgia's freshman football team from the afternoon before. As far as the Banner-Herald, Grizzard didn't work there from 1966 to 1968.
Hoping that perhaps there was an additional edition released that day, which was not eventually transferred to microfilm, or maybe I had simply missed something, I continued my quest to find the elusive headline.
I researched the 1967 meeting with the 'Cocks—a 21-0 Georgia victory in Athens—to see if Dicks was indeed "out," as indicated. Curiously, the junior linebacker was projected to start the game and not only played, but finished second on the team with nine tackles. Regarding the other supposedly injured Bulldog mentioned in the story, Billy Payne, he too was projected to start (right offensive end), did so, and led the squad in receiving.
I then discovered a John Futch in California, who claimed the story "seems to have grown in the refrigerator," while the mentioning of Dicks being out is "apocryphal." In near denial, I thought to myself, Who is this John Futch, and what the heck does he know?!? Well, come to find out, Futch wrote for the Athens Daily News from 1965 to 1978, and knew Grizzard—and likely knew a whole lot more to the story. I later corresponded with Futch, who informed me, “Afraid you're never going to find that great white whale…sorry, [the story/headline is] just not there.”
Still not giving up, I got in touch with Vince Dooley and asked him for his feedback on the matter. Unfortunately, instead of the former head coach recognizing it as "his most memorable column ever," Dooley summed up the alleged headline in three words: "a classic fabrication."
Disappointed, I finally realized the story of the greatest headline in the history of sports journalism was just that—a story. So why, after a few years since the “Dicks Out” headline was debunked, do I raise the fact that the Grizzard column was, well, bunk?
Distinguished journalist Rudyard Kipling once said, "If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten." Like Kipling, the late Lewis Grizzard is still revered by many because of his writings and commentaries from decades ago, much of which was told in the form of engaging stories. Whether about him or told by Grizzard himself, his stories often teach, especially Southerners and Bulldog enthusiasts, about their past—stories that, like their composer, will never be forgotten.
With that being said, it often matters little if a story which has captivated us is fact or slightly exaggerated—or even a classic fabrication.
