Let the Big Dawg speak

I was driving over to visit with my Dad Sunday and pulled up behind an SUV sporting a nice shiny “Let the Big Dawg Eat” bumper sticker, and that got me to thinking about favorite Bulldogs slogans of that sort over the years.

Currently, I’d say “Let the Big Dawg Eat” (which was originally popularized by the late Lewis Grizzard) is the one that I see the most, but “How ‘Bout Them Dawgs,” which first started showing up in the mid- to late 1970s and came to national attention during the 1980 championship season, remains another favorite.

A slogan harking back to the 1950s is “Go, You Silver Britches,” which reappeared on a bumper sticker in 1980 after Vince Dooley revived that part of the game uniform. I remember buying one of the new “Silver Britches” stickers at the old Barnett’s Newsstand in Athens just prior to that season and posting it on the wall above my desk at work.

The most popular slogan back in the ’60s, and one you still see from time to time, is “Go, You Hairy Dogs” (or “Dawgs” in later years), from which the taller of our two mascots, Hairy Dawg, got his name. (I’ve always figured Hairy was actually inspired by the old “Harry Dog” cartoon character the late Don Smith used to draw for the game day fronts of the now defunct Athens Daily News.)

Another slogan that still shows up on stickers and magnets gained its greatest prominence during that remarkable early 1980s run — “You Can’t Spell Sugar Without UGA.”

The not very original but nevertheless appropriate “I Bleed Red … and Black” has its fans, too. 

And while I don’t think I’ve actually seen this one on a bumper sticker (too many words), a beloved and oft-quoted slogan after a fall win is “It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog on Saturday night.”

So which slogan is your favorite? Feel free to comment, vote in the poll or do both.