Georgia Bulldogs First Ever Football Game Was Played

The University of Georgia played its first football game in Athens against Mercer University on January 30, 1892. According to an interesting post on the UGA.edu website, the Bulldogs started their first gridiron campaign with Chemistry Professor Dr. Charles Holmes Herty, organized not on Georgia’s first football team but the first in the deep south of America.

In this first game, the Bulldogs hammered Mercer 50-0. Their schedule for that first season consisted of only one other game, which took place on February 20 against Auburn.

An exciting story that comes from the article tells that in this first game on the athletics fields (now known as Herty Field), some reports indicate that the official scorer for the game missed at least one touchdown when he walked to the city alcohol dispensary on Broad St. across from the campus to purchase a bottle of whiskey during the game. With a 50-point differential, the players from Mercer may have wished they had joined him!

A college football team's first game is a birth certificate and a blank canvas. It's the launch of a program's legacy, a chance to unveil its potential on the field. It serves as a rallying point for future generations of fans and a milestone for the university's athletic identity.

Join us for more fun in examining the origins of team and school mascots here on Pigskin Dispatch, your portal to positive football history. We tray and cover every angle of football history and the aspects of this college team are right smack dab in the middle of a great story of the gridiron.