More on Larry Munson: Comments, calls and his stories

Most of the following provided by UGA Sports Communications . . .

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT LARRY MUNSON

“His face is on the Mount Rushmore of the Georgia Bulldogs. He will forever be the voice of the Georgia Bulldogs and one of our most beloved icons and treasures. His legacy will live forever in the hearts of the Georgia people.”

– Jeff Dantzler, 2011

“Ask any sports fan in the South for the name of a college announcer other than his own and the chances are the one he or she will know is Munson.”

–Loran Smith, 1986

“I’ve never known a college announcer who means more to his school’s alumni and friends than Larry Munson. He delivers a passionate, emotional broadcast that has endeared him to all Bulldogs and it has also made him the toast of the state.”

–Mike Faherty, General Manager, WSB Radio, 1986

“Nobody that I know does play-by-play like Larry. He has a certain way of following the ball and his pwers of concentration are unbelievable. He captures the feeling of the moment. He’s great, but he’s a horrible roommate. He could be doing a game in Montana in December and have the air conditioning on. He must have descended from a polar bear.”

–Phil Schaefer, Georgia color analyst, 1986

“The voice of the Georgia Bulldogs has become the voice of college football in the South.”

–Boyd McWhorter, Southeastern Conference Commissioner, 1985

“Hardly a day goes by in my hectic world that I don’t remind my staff to Hunker Down.’”

–Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, 1986

“Larry Munson is to Georgia football what fried chicken is to a tailgate party. You can’t enjoy one without the other.”

–Lewis Grizzard, 1985

“He’s like a folk hero. He has that special style people love and relate to. I finally claimed him as one of the best after the ‘78 season. He just shot straight up. But I’d come out of the hotel on Saturday mornings rested after a good night’s sleep, feeling good about the game and run into Munson and he’d say, ‘You see how fast their receivers are, how we going to run with them?’ I’d say, ‘Munson get away from me.’ The man is a worrier. He drove me crazy as a coach.”

–Vince Dooley on Munson, 1994

MUNSON’S CALLS

“Matt Robinson fakes, end-around to Appleby. Appleby’s gonna throw a bomb! He’s got a man open down on the far side! Complete! A touchdown!……….Appleby to Washington. Eight yarads! Appleby! End around! Just stopped, planted his feet and threw it! Washington, caught it, thinking of Montreal and the Olympics, and ran out of his shoes right down the middle. Eighty yards!”

– Nov. 8, 1975 vs. Florida

“The whole stadium is standing up and roaring against Georgia…..The whole game coming down to this!……He sets it down and it’s up! Watch it! Watch it! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!”

–Oct. 28, 1978 vs. Kentucky, Rex Robinson winning field goal

“We hand it off to Herschel! There’s a hole! Five! 10! 12! He’s running over people! Oh, you Herschel Walker!…….My God Almighty, he ran right through two men…..He drove right over orange shirts, just driving and running with those big thighs. My God, a freshman!”

– Sept. 9, 1980 vs. Tennessee, Herschel’s debut

“Buck back, third down on the eight. In trouble. Got a block behind him. Gonna throw on the run. Complete to the 25! To the 30! Lindsay Scott! 35, 40! Lindsay Scott 45, 50! 45, 40! run Lindsay! 25! 20! 15! 10! Five! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott!………..I can’t believe it. I broke my chair. A metal, steel chair with about a 5-inch cushion. Well, the stadium fell down…..I didn’t mean to beg Lindsay to run, but I had to.”

– Nov. 8, 1980 vs. Florida, winning TD with 1:04 left

“Auburn trying to break our hearts here!……Again you guys, hunker down!….Eight-four seconds. I hate to keep saying it, but HUNKER DOWN!….A minute and four seconds. Sixty-four seconds. Sixty-four seconds to everything!….If you didn’t hear me you guys, HUNKER DOWN!….It’s fourth down….Ball on the 21 and they’ve got to go to the four for a first down. I know I’m asking a lot you guys, but HUNKER IT DOWN ONE MORE TIME!…..(A Pass by Auburn is broken up in the end zone)….The Dogs broke it up!…..Twenty-three, twenty-two, twenty-one. Clock running, running. Oh, look at the sugar falling out of the sky! Look at the sugar falling out of the sky!”

– Nov. 13, 1982 vs. Auburn, Georgia wins third straight SEC title

“So we’ll try to kick one 100,000 miles….We’re gonna try to kick one 60 yards plus a foot and a half….And Butler kicked a long one, a long one….Oh my God, oh my God….The stadium is worse than bonkers.”

–Sept. 22, 1984 vs. Clemson, Kevin Butler winning field goal with 11 seconds left.

“We have come flying down the field we are on their 6-yard line. We are gonna have one play to try and save ourselves. Remember we left our heart down on the other end of the field. We have come all the way back to the 6-yard line and we just took the last timeout like gold bouillon and had to spend it. Six yard line. Can you believe that David Greene brought us down the field that quick? Now we have one play to steal a win. 24-20 and they got the 24 with the great play Clausson to Stephens in three or four blocks. What in the world would you call now? You’re on their 6-yard line and Greene has brought you down there all the way. What are you gonna do now? McGill led us out. Now he calls his hands and raises them for the huddle on the ten. Gah, 10 seconds, were on their six. Michael Johnson turned around asked the bench something. And now Greene makes him line up on the right slot, we have three receivers. Tennessee playing what amounts to a four-four. There’s a fake. And there’s a TOUCHDOWN! MY GOD A TOUCHDOWN! We threw it to Haynes. We just stomped them with five seconds left. My God Almighty did you see what he did? David Greene just straightened up and we snuck the fullback over, Hanes is keeping the ball, Haynes has come running all the way across to the bench. We just dumped it over to 26-24. We just stepped on their face with a hobnailed boot and broke their nose. We just crushed their face. We dumped it over, David Greene brought us flying down the field and Haynes caught a sneak pass wide open.”

– Oct. 6, 2001 vs. Tennessee in Knoxville

MUNSON THE STORYTELLER

“I actually heard a commercial on a radio station. They were begging for announcers. Guys hadn’t come back yet (from the war) and more and more new radio stations were popping up. There was a shortage like you can’t believe. You were supposed to study for six months and they would try to place you. I went for nine weeks and they placed me.”

–Larry on how he got his first job

“The Braves sent me to a car dealer to pick up a car to drive to their training camp in Florida. Before I left Atlanta, I picked up a copy of The Journal. When I got to West Palm Beach, I check into my room, threw the paper on the bed, hung up my clothes, took a shower and lay down on the bed. Then I saw this box in the paper saying that Ed Thelenius was going to have to drop Georgia football. The next morning I called Joel Eaves at the University. He offered me the job that day.”

–Larry on how he got the Georgia job

“I was 20 years old and I read in a magazine want-ad somewhere that the University of Wyoming was looking for a play-by-play radio announcer to do its football and basketball games. I sent them a tape of me doing a play-by-play game. The tape was a fake. I went into the studio and taped me doing the play-by-play for the Ohio State-Minnesota game. I had never done sports or play-by-play before in my life. I recorded about seven or eight plays and added sound effects. I sent that in as my tape. Looking back on it now, I can really see just how bad that tape was. It was awful. When I got out to Wyoming the guy I was replacing was named Curt Gowdy. Back then, I didn’t know him from anybody. He was just another guy. He left to take the job doing Oklahoma A&M football and basketball. I got the Wyoming job and it paid $45 a week. Gowdy and I became good friends. His home was in Wyoming so we hunted and fished a lot together.”

–Larry on how he got his first big break

“Porter Wagoner was the first to teach me to worm fish very deep. Years ago, he was throwing plastic worms off a bluff at night into 100 to 110 feet of water and walking the worm up the sides of the rocks. He was coming in with great strings of largemouths from deep water in Center Hill.

–Larry on learning to fish with plastic worms