This Really Erks Me!!

Someday I’ll opine on my anger that the rock band KISS is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but today I want to point my anger at another Hall of Fame- the College Football Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame committee announced its new members this week and Erk Russell was not one of them again.

Now everyone that knows me also knows my hatred for one University of Georgia. I can’t stand the Bulldogs. It is a dislike that has been ingrained into my DNA through years and years of UGA hatred, but one man from UGA needs to be recognized for what he is – one of the greatest college coaches of all time. Mr. Erk Russell is a man that should be in the College Hall of Fame over all but a few coaches.
I could fill up this whole page with his accomplishments, but I will try a little brevity.

First of all Coach Russell went to the greatest school of them all – Auburn University. I might be a little biased on this one!! He earned 10 varsity letters and was AU’s last four sport letterman in football, basketball, baseball and tennis.

Coach Russell was the defensive coordinator at UGA for 17 years 1964-1981. After a disappointing 1974 campaign Coach Russell coined the term “Junkyard Dawgs” to describe his defensive unit. He convinced then Coach Dooley to ask the band to play a section of Jim Croce’s “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” after the defense did something worthy of praise on the field.

In a chapter of the American Football Coaches Association’s Defensive Football Strategies Erk described what a Junkyard Dawg was: “By our own definition, a Junkyard Dog is a dog completely dedicated to his task, that of defending his goal line. Further, he is very often a reject (from the offense) or the runt of the litter. Nobody wants him, and he is hungry. We had three walk-ons, four QBs, and three running backs in our original Junkyard Dog starting cast, which averaged 208 pounds across the front. In short, a Junkyard Dog is one who must stretch and strain all of his potential just to survive. Then he can think about being good.”

In the 192 games coached by Erk the defense held the opponents to 17 or fewer points in 135 games, and held opponents to single digit scoring 74 times and shut out the other team 27 times.

In 1982 Coach Russell was asked to resurrect a Georgia Southern football program that had been dormant for 40 years. At the first news conference to discuss the program Coach Russell had to run up to the Statesboro Wal-Mart to buy the school a football with which to take press release photos.

In his eight years as head coach, GSU went from not having a football program at all to winning three national titles in Division 1-AA football and a perfect 15-0 1989 campaign that made them the only team of any football division to win 15 games in the 20th century.

Sadly Coach Russell died of a stroke at the age of 80 in 2006.

The sound is kind of bad so turn it up-ENJOY

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