I’ll always remember Aug. 29, 2005, for two things, one terrible and the other great.
The terrible: Katrina, a powerful killer hurricane, hit our nation’s Gulf Coast.
As the copy desk chief of The Atlanta Journal, I spent most of that early morning working on our storm coverage for what was then the city’s afternoon newspaper.
But whenever possible I glanced at the ajc.com sports page, where the day’s great development (at least, for me) was happening: At 8 a.m., my very first Junkyard Blawg was posted.
The Blawg was part of a group of blogs launched by then-digital sports editor Scott Peacocke, who said he picked me to write a fan’s viewpoint of UGA athletics (mainly football) because I knew the subject and “you love them Dawgs.”
In that first Blawg, I introduced myself and provided my Bulldog bona fides, which included being born and raised within earshot of Sanford Stadium in Athens, selling game programs as a kid and attending every game I could. As I said then, I don’t remember a time when the Bulldogs weren’t an everyday part of my consciousness.
In addition to growing up with the Bulldogs, I graduated from UGA with a degree in journalism and became a football season ticket holder in my first fall out of school (I’ve had the same seats for 50 years!) while starting more than four decades working for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
I also married a fellow UGA grad, had a younger brother who was in the Redcoat Marching Band and sent both my kids to UGA.
The depths of my Bulldog obsession had become evident the season before I started writing the Blawg, when I faced one of those scheduling conflicts that devoted Dawgs fans sometimes encounter.
Mine was having to choose between being best man in a wedding or attending a game in Athens between the No. 3 Bulldogs and defending national champion LSU.
I chose the game against LSU, of course. (The Dawgs won, thankfully, with quarterback David Greene throwing a school-record five touchdown passes that day!)
I opened that first Blawg in 2005 with the greeting, “Let’s talk Georgia Bulldogs,” and that’s what my readers and I have been doing for the past 20 years — the first decade at ajc.com and the second 10 years at DawgNation.com, continuing even after I retired from the paper in 2017.
It has been a fascinating time to write about Georgia football, with some lofty highs, a few soul-crushing lows and many years somewhere in between — good, but not great — which, unfortunately, describes most of the Mark Richt years.
During that time, I ran one blog post headlined “Is it enough for the Dawgs to be good, not great?” The answer from fans then was about 50/50; come the Kirby Smart era — with last year’s SEC championship season considered “disappointing” — that wouldn’t have been the case.
Of course, the Richt years did supply some great moments, including that first season I was writing the Blawg, as Georgia trounced a favored LSU team in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, with Sean Bailey catching a couple of key touchdown passes from DJ Shockley right in front of where my son Bill and I were sitting, courtesy of one of my bosses, who had extra tickets.
The Richt years also saw the thrilling 44-41 win over LSU in 2014; the first “Blackout” in 2007, with the Dawgs coming out in snazzy black jerseys for a come-from-behind win over Auburn in one of the loudest games I ever can recall at Sanford Stadium; the 42-30 “celebration” win over Florida in Jacksonville that same season; my son taking me to see the 30-24 “We Run This State” upset of a favored Georgia Tech team in 2009 (my first football game at Grant Field since I was a Sunday school kid attending one of the Thanksgiving Day Bullpups vs. the Baby Jackets charity clashes); the season-opening 2014 win over Clemson in Athens, with Todd Gurley and Nick Chubb putting on a remarkable display of running prowess; and the 2013 win over South Carolina in Athens that saw Steve Spurrier signaling surrender late in the game by pulling off his headset.
As I wrote a few years ago, many of us had conflicted feelings when UGA let Richt go. We recognized it was time for a change, but we were saddened to lose such a profoundly good and decent man, who had brought the football program back to prominence.
The highest of the highs, of course, have come during the Smart era. After not quite getting all the way to the top in his second season as head coach, with an overtime TD by Alabama denying Georgia a national championship as I watched from the upper deck of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Smart led his Dawgs to back-to-back natties in 2021 and 2022 (unprecedented in the playoff era).
And the Dawgs also got to play host to the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in one of the most electric days I’ve ever experienced in Athens.
Besides the loss to the Tide in that January 2018 national championship game, the low points during my 20 years of Blawging include the 2008 defeat by Bama that soured some of the more superstitious fans on those black jerseys; the 2010 Liberty Bowl, where a talent-loaded Georgia offense that had prided itself on regularly scoring 30 or more points a game failed to get a single touchdown against Central Florida; and the game in Richt’s final season in 2015, where the Dawgs needed to go to overtime in order to defeat Georgia Southern, which was playing just its second season at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.
Blogging about such things wasn’t always fun, but I enjoyed the opportunity to provide a fan’s voice amid the more detached pundits.
There’ve also been some great off-the-field memories, such as the 2009 season, when I got to watch my son’s face as a video promo for the Junkyard Blawg (complete with a picture of me) played on the jumbo video screen at Sanford Stadium.
Another from that same season is viewing my one and only game from a Sanford skybox, joined by Mark Symms and his daughters Baylie and Dayna. Mark had sent in a picture of 13-year-old Baylie, who was in a wheelchair, with the UGA cheerleaders. It won a reader vote in an AJC Ultimate Fan contest run in the Blawg. (Unfortunately, the Dawgs ended up losing the game to Kentucky.)
Other memories: Having one of my brothers call to tell me the Athens Banner-Herald had an article about Richt publicly disagreeing with one of my Blawgs at a press conference (I wrote a response headlined “Hey Coach Richt, thanks for reading!”) … getting to talk with former coach Vince Dooley on several occasions (he always was very generous with his time) … getting phone calls, texts and emails from the very accessible Greg McGarity during his tenure as athletic director (including his much-appreciated condolences over the death of my father, who’d been friends with his dad) … getting kicked out of the Touchdown Club of Athens for quoting Richt warning “it could get worse” during the losing season of 2010 … interacting with the gracious, articulate Matt Stinchcomb during the years he organized summer Countdown to Kickoff fan festivals … having the venerable Loran Smith frequently contribute memories to my looks at Bulldog history … and getting to read a Father’s Day Blawg about my Dawgs-loving dad to my father while he still was around.
I’ve also had a chance to discuss how the game of college football has been transformed, as the Bowl Championship Series gave way to the College Football Playoff, which itself eventually expanded. Meanwhile, the phrases “name image and likeness” and “transfer portal” took over the game, allowing players the same sort of freedom of movement and earning potential their coaches had enjoyed for decades.
I’ve also gotten to indulge my passion for Bulldogs history with looks back at favorite calls by Larry Munson, past UGA sports venues, the greatest moments in 60 years for Stegeman Coliseum and the “Harry Dawg” cartoons that the old Athens Daily News used to run in color on its front page. I also compiled 20 of life’s amazing moments for Dawgs fans with the aid of my daughter Olivia, who has taken quite a few photos for the Blawg.
One thing I’ve always taken very seriously is my original brief to represent UGA fans, including criticizing changes I consider not very fan-friendly (such as closing the bridge beside the stadium to pedestrian traffic on game days), as well as sharing memories of growing up Bulldog in Athens.
And I found that fans love lists, so I’ve compiled all-time players, games and just about any other Dawg-related subject. (I once posted 101 Reasons to Be a Georgia Bulldogs Fan.)
I’ve also enjoyed hearing from many fans through the years, ranging from those who commented on my pieces to more personal encounters, such as when I was walking along Lumpkin Street in Athens on the way to the stadium and someone in a car honked his horn and hollered “Junkyard Blawg!”
And there was the clerk at the UGA Bookstore who recognized me while I was buying a computer for my daughter.
Another time, a young AJC reporter fresh out of UGA who sat across from my desk in the newsroom suddenly looked hard at me one day. “Oh,” she exclaimed, “you’re Junkyard Blawg! I read you all the time!”
Perhaps the nicest moment was the game where fans I never had met before stopped by our seats in Section 106 to wish me a happy birthday.
One reason I was so easily recognized by readers was the evolving mug shots of me that ran with the Blawg during its first decade. When the AJC first came up with the idea of fan blogs (there used to be quite a few), most of the other bloggers had photos taken that partially obscured their faces, to give them some anonymity. The guy taking my photo asked if I wanted to do likewise, and I replied, “Why? I’m proud to be a Georgia Bulldog.”
As USA Today noted in 2012, UGA has one of the most engaged fan bases in the nation so, not surprisingly, it never has been difficult to get Bulldog Nation to “talk Dawgs” with me, whether in the Blawg’s comments section or when I dip periodically into the Junkyard Mail.
I’ve also been lucky enough to have a group of fellow Dawgs fans who’ve shared their thoughts on various UGA issues with me over the years whenever I’ve asked, including current and former colleagues, friends, classmates from Athens and, of course, family.
Back in 2005, the first two comments on that debut Blawg were from my brothers, Tim and Jon. And since we talked Georgia Bulldogs all the time, they quickly became a regular presence here — so much so that, when a reader recognized me in the concourse of Sanford Stadium at a game, he then turned to Tim and said, “You must be his brother.”
Also, when I introduced him to Jon, Matt Stinchcomb teased: “Oh, is this the one who gives you all your ideas?”
It turned out that readers really liked the fact that I quoted and mentioned my family frequently in the Blawg, with many enjoying the annual prediction that the Dawgs will “go undefeated and win a national championship” from Jon (the one who was in the Redcoats).
Jon made that same prediction again last month from a hospital bed in Athens, where he was recovering from spinal surgery. He then had moved to a physical rehab facility and told me in one of our nightly phone conversations that he really was looking forward to getting released, so he could watch the Dawgs’ season-opener on TV at home.
A few hours later, he unexpectedly died.
The condolences and expressions of support from Blawg readers have been wonderful for our family. As one longtime reader put it: “One of the most enjoyable and lasting parts of your work over the years has been the relationship between you and your brothers. You’ve allowed us to know them and made us a part of the King story.”
My heartfelt thanks to all of you. I know when the 2025 Dawgs kick off against Marshall, Jon will be cheering them on, as always.
THE BLAWG IS MOVING
This will be the final Junkyard Blawg posted to DawgNation, but that will not mean the end of the Blawg.
Starting with my post about the upcoming game against Marshall, you will be able to read future installments of the Blawg at a dedicated site of its own: billkingjunkyardblawg.wordpress.com.
My thanks to the AJC and DawgNation for giving me this platform for the past two decades. Go Dawgs!
