Waycross resident hits mark in Alabama with no end in sight
Greg Smith asks himself a simple question on fall Saturdays — “Do I want to go to the game, or do I want to stay home?”
The answer since the start of the 1979 season has been to pack up and head to Athens or wherever the University of Georgia football team is playing.
Earlier this month in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Smith was in attendance for his 600th straight Georgia football game when the Bulldogs knocked off Alabama 20-17 in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“It was a great game,” said Smith, a former member of the Redcoat Marching Band who lives in Waycross. “You know, when you’re winning and all the people sitting around you, everybody’s friendly, it’s great. And anytime you beat Alabama over there, that’s even better.”
The last time Smith, former Director of Finance for the City of Waycross, missed a game was when Georgia played Stanford in the 1978 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston. He was there for the 1979 season opener against Wake Forest in Sanford Stadium, and he’s been to every game since.
Smith nearly missed a Georgia Tech game in the 1990s because he was in London in the days beforehand and had his flight delayed.
Smith
“I was having trouble getting out because of fog and mechanical issues,” Smith said. “I flew into Orlando, I guess on a Friday, and got in my car in the middle of the night and drove to Waycross. Then I got in the car with my dad to drive to the game. That was the closest I’ve been to missing a game, for sure.”
Smith was in Knoxville when Herschel Walker made his debut against Tennessee September 6, 1980. He was in New Orleans when the Bulldogs capped that season with a Sugar Bowl win over Notre Dame to claim the national championship.
He was in Pasadena, Calif., for the 2017 Rose Bowl; he was in Indianapolis when Georgia beat Alabama for the 2021 national championship and in Los Angeles when Georgia made it back-to-back with a rout of TCU.
From that 1979 opener to last Saturday’s win over the Crimson Tide, Smith was there.
“I just love going to the games and seeing Georgia and my family and friends,” Smith said. “At the last home game (October 3 against Vanderbilt), I took a couple from Serbia who came over to the United States on tennis scholarships. I love taking people who’ve never been.”
Smith said he was seven years old when he went to his first Georgia game. Growing up in Waycross, it was easier for his family to get to the annual Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville, Fla., than it was to make the four-hour drive to Athens, though the family did that, too.
Georgia football games always have been a family affair for Smith. Five generations of his family have sat in their seats at Sanford Stadium, starting with his grandfather.
Among Smith’s most prized possessions are ticket stubs from Georgia games that his father kept. Smith has carried on the tradition.
“My favorites are ones that belonged to my dad,” Smith said. “He’s passed away now, but he wrote the scores on the tickets. One of them is from the 1980 Tennessee game, when Herschel made his first appearance.
“I’ve got some, not tons, but I’ve got a few that I really treasure. And the reason I treasure them so is because of my dad.”
Smith graduated from Georgia in 1981 with a degree in Accounting. In 2003, he completed an MBA, making him a “Double Dawg.”
Add in his many years playing the cymbals with the Redcoats, as well as his annual return to the field to take part in the Redcoat Marching Band’s alumni performance, and he’s a Georgia man through and through.
“I go back and play with the alumni band every year,” Smith said. “Of course, I go to all of the games, so it’s easy to do. That’s the only time I play, but I’ve been playing forever, so it’s not like I need to practice. It’s not that hard an instrument, either.”
There’s never a bad time to be in the Redcoat Marching Band, but Smith’s time, from 1976 to 1981, was special.
“I had a blast being in the band,” he said. “We went to the Sugar Bowl my freshman year (in 1976), and then we played in President Carter’s inauguration parade in January of ’77.”
While Smith was connected with the Redcoats for five football seasons, he only marched and played his first four years. In his fifth fall, he was part of the properties crew which helped with the band’s equipment.
“We were down on the field the whole game in the Sugar Bowl that year,” Smith said. “It was neat watching it from down there.”
Smith’s been watching from the stands ever since, week after week and season after season. Now that his streak is at 600, Smith isn’t thinking about getting to 700 down the road.
“I don’t have any goals or anything,” he said.
If he makes it to 700, great, but there’s no quest. He takes it all just one Saturday at a time.
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