Up Front | Sports

December 1998: Vol. 78, No. 1

With both Georgia and Tennessee unbeaten, pre-game hype was so high for the Oct. 10 matchup in Athens that ESPN's GameDay crew paid a visit to UGA for the first time. Host Chris Fowler and sidekicks Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit were treated like rock stars.

ESPN crew rates UGA No. 1 "GameDay" site

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The score of this year's Georgia-Tennessee football game doesn't merit repeating here, but the story of ESPN's visit to campus does. This October 11 account, written by a '97 journalism grad, is excerpted with permission from the Athens Banner-Herald/Daily News.)

After all the hoopla surrounding ESPN's College GameDay's first visit to Athens—the big stage on the Tate Center rooftop, the thousands of chanting Georgia fans on the bridge, the autographs and photos—GameDay host Chris Fowler still managed to keep everything in perspective.

"We're not the show here—the game's the real show," said Fowler. "We're just here because there's a game, and we try to capture what's already here. These people would be out there wearing red and yelling even if we weren't here—they just might be sleepin' in a little later."

Academic All-Americans

Men's/women's sports in 1990s:

1. Nebraska 77

2. MIT* 50

3. Augustana* 47

4. Notre Dame 43

5. Nebraska Wesleyan*— 39

6. GEORGIA 34

6. Kansas 34

6. Illinois Wesleyan* 34

*Div. III schools

Those fans who did get up early and were able to make their way through the sea of people to the bridge adjacent to the west end of Sanford Stadium saw a great one-hour pre-game show. And GameDay just kept coming back—doing segments off-and-on throughout the day and well into the night.

As expected, GameDay was a big hit with Bulldog fans, and the feeling was mutual as Fowler & Co. really seemed to get a kick out of being in the Classic City.

"The reception here was much warmer and more enthusiastic than we normally get," Fowler said. "Today was totally special."

"We all agreed Friday's crowd for the SportsCenter segment was the best we've ever had," said Fowler's sidekick Kirk Herbstreit, who even ventured downtown with Fowler Friday night to check out Athens' nightlife.

Even Lee Corso managed to win over a heavily anti-Corso crowd that was unhappy with him for picking LSU over Georgia last week. He won over his detractors by putting on a Hairy Dawg headpiece to emphasize which team he thought would win Saturday's game.

Shane Hannon