Georgia State Starts Football... Pounce On Shorter...

It had been talked about for ten or fifteen years, but then the commitment was finally made to bring Division I NCAA, bona fide, actual win-and-loss football to a school that was only thought of as a commuter school.

Georgia State University was known for being wedged into a section of downtown Atlanta, in between and around overpasses, occupying dormant office buildings, and making sure that you could get to your car at night in the parking decks without being accosted.

The average age of a student was, probably, mid-to-late twenties...
A lot of students were gray beards, mothers pursuing degrees who hadn't gotten them before, and anyone looking for a second chance.

Now, GSU is in the land of the I-AA football machine, playing at the Georgia Dome, and preparing for life in the Colonial after a few years of diving into the deep end. The new schedule had two NAIA schools, six I-AA schools, two Division II's, and ending with a budget-buster in Tuscaloosa.

They had 36-hours to say "yes" to a $450,000 payday. They got another $40,000 when Alabama decided they were too afraid to have only a week to prepare for Auburn, and the game was pushed back to Thursday.

FOSG Lisa Weiss, when she looked at the schedule, asked flat-out: "Is that THE University of Alabama?"

Yup... that University of Alabama...

Game One was against your Shorter Hawks at the Georgia Dome. School president Mark Becker was getting high-fives from students in the endzone seats. Safe to say, Becker's mad hops were being tested in his suit. Students were cheering during warm-ups with their Panthers in the home dress-blues.

You look at the Panthers and they look like every other football team out there on a Saturday (or, in this case, a Thursday). Bill Curry has his note cards for pre-game. 87 kids from various backgrounds, colleges, and Georgia home towns were dressed out ((pictured again, thanks Lisa)).

And how jacked up was the student body...? Twenty minutes before the game, if there was a song that had a well-known chorus, the kids were chiming in to finish the verse. And they were getting loud- quite loud...

Even the NAIA visitors got booed as they ran onto the field...
And the lower bowl was full. I don't think even the school thought it would be this loud or one-sided.

It took about six minutes for GSU to get on the board, but two Shorter penalties helped out. A 15-yard illegal participation foul on a punt and a 15-yarder for pass interference. Four yards later, it was 7-nothing, thanks to Parris Lee.

That's the answer to your trivia question, by the way...
The other answer to your trivia question...? 20-0 at the half...

It was the kind of game you want to have for your opening-opener... regardless of your opponent... even if you were na-na'ing the opponent with four minutes to go in the third...

"The key is, will our community embrace this program," GSU President Mark Becker asked before the game. "Clearly they have, and it's a rallying cry for everybody.

"The fans come back when you have a quality product, so the biggest challenge is going to be to build a great program that the fans keep coming out and keep coming back for."

The final was 41-7, and a good first start for your GSU Panther program.
"People say he's too old. He must be nuts," Coach Curry said after the game. "Yeah, he's nuts."

Next up for them- Lambuth on the 11th...
And for a team that outdrew the Braves a few miles away on the same night, you gotta like that kind of nuts...