Herschel Walker statue ‘not a priority right now’ for UGA
Rob Saye (L) started the 'Herschel Walker Statue Project' on Facebook and created quite a stir. (Photo by Rob Saye)
ATHENS — What about Frank Sinkwich? What about Charley Trippi? What about outstanding individual athletes in Georgia’s 14 sports other than football.
That’s the problem Greg McGarity has with the “Herschel Walker Statue Project.”
Is the Heisman Trophy winner and star player on the Bulldogs’ 1980 national championship team deserving of a statue? Absolutely, McGarity says.
But are not those aforementioned individuals also?
“You have to look at the program as a whole, with all sports,” McGarity said Friday. “Once you make a decision to single out certain individuals for accomplishments, then what is the domino effect? We have 14 other sports here that have had some tremendous accomplishments from certain individuals. There are just so many moving pieces that it just has to be an institutional decision. Right now there has been no discussion about that.”
Rob Saye, a freelance photographer, UGA alumnus and Bulldogs fan extraordinaire, decided earlier this week to create a Facebook Page – aptly named “Herschel Walker Statue Project” — calling on Georgia fans to get behind the idea of erecting a statue of the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner somewhere on campus. The reaction, as might be expected, has been passionate.
Loading ...McGarity has listened politely, but it doesn’t sound as if it’s something that is going to happen any time soon.
“What I’ve told people is we’ll consider it at the right time, but the right time is not right now,” McGarity said. “You basically have to have an institutional philosophy on something like that for every sport and how the university handles such things in general.”
Generally, UGA hasn’t been big on statues. Just last fall it erected a statue of Abraham Baldwin, the university’s founding father, on North Campus. There’s a life-size bronze sculpture of benefactor Bernard Ramsey sitting on a bench, also on North Campus. As for athletics, a statue of former coach and athletic director Vince Dooley was unveiled on the corner of South Campus in 2008. And that came only after considerable public debate and private fundraising.
Otherwise, there are only busts of Dr. Steadman Sanford, Dan Magill and Frank Foley in front of the respective athletics facilities bearing their names.
“Very rarely has there been individual recognition on this campus or in our facilities,” McGarity said. “That’s something you have to be very careful about how you approach it. Once you start you better have a plan to be inclusive.”
Saye appears to have gotten the message. He and his cohort Jimmy Taylor softened their “call to revolution” approach when they updated the status of the Facebook page late Thursday night.
“Thanks so much for everyone’s support of this idea! We have definitely gotten a lot people’s attention!
“This effort has exceeded all of our expectations and is going strong. When we started on Saturday, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. Lots of things are now coming into view and becoming clear as we move forward.
“At this stage, we ask for your continued support and patience, as we navigate the proper channels within the various UGA organizations that we will need to partner with to bring this project to fruition. Please also keep in mind, as we have learned, that we are looking at at least a one-year timeline for the design and construction of the statue!
“The bottom-line is that we started this in good faith with the goal of honoring our greatest player with a permanent tribute and a charitable foundation that will continue to contribute positively to the community. We move forward with these goals still in place and the resolve to work within the system to achieve this mission.
“Thank you again for your support. More to come as we work the process!”
But what got Saye – and subsequently other Georgia fans – motivated about the starting the “Herschel Project” in the first place was seeing how many other football players at other schools had statues. There’s Doug Flutie at Boston College, Ricky Williams at Texas and Johnny Unitas at Louisville, just to name a few. Last April, Florida unveiled statues of Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow, its three Heisman Trophy winners. And Auburn is building monuments to Bo Jackson, Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson this year.
Even Walker seems to like the idea. Though he couldn’t be reached for comment, he sent out this tweet via Twitter on Thursday: “Hey UGA Fans.Thanks for your support on the ‘Herschel Walker Statue Project’ page on Facebook!! Totally honored!!”
But McGarity said that Georgia can’t be influenced by what others are doing.
“It’s more or less a philosophical approach that the athletic association and the institution must have and I’m not even aware of what the policies are,” McGarity said. “Is this something we would consider for the future? I don’t know. We haven’t really talked about it. I don’t want to be disrespectful but that’s not a priority for us right now and it just opens the door to so many other things.
“Right now it’s just not on our radar.”
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264 comments Add your comment
modicum
March 16th, 2012
10:32 pm
walker is the greatest player in ga history—the university needs to build a statue for him asap, no matter what the cost–they have plenty of money to pay for it. mcgarity needs to get it done or hit the road!
Captain
March 16th, 2012
11:56 pm
Not to question AD Greg McGarity but don’t we have the “Ring of Honor” which inducts athletes from all sports? Honestly, it shouldn’t be difficult. Limit it to Heisman Winners, erect the statues along the area inside Sanford where the Olympics wall is. That’s two statues.
Stevefor UGA
March 17th, 2012
12:07 am
Herschel Walker is not just an icon for Georgia football but is probably the greatest player in College Football history. Not just Georgia history. ESPN ranked him as the number one running back in history. Georgia is a football school. If anybody of another sport has a complaint about putting up a statue for the greatest player in football history, then it’s time to quit being politically correct and just tell them “tough”. That’s what Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and others did. McGarity, you need to quit worrying about being politically correct and do what is right.
Hammerhead
March 17th, 2012
12:50 am
Idolatry.
Billy Bob
March 17th, 2012
1:12 am
Come On, Dawgs!!! Get that statue up so all us hero worshipers can keep living in 1980!!!
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
2:06 am
Greg McGarity was a Tennis Player, and not a good one at that – so, what did you expect him to say about the Football School The University of Georgia and our hero ?
Named repeatedly as the # 1 Football Player All-Time in College Football, we have to consider Tennis Players and who gets a Statue ?
Erk Russell gets a Statue at Georgia Southern University and deservedly so.
Maybe if we included Mark Richt, some of the vocal MINORITY with 50 posters posting OTHERWISE that Mark Richt is NOT GREAT on the last blog by Chip Towers, would wake up and see just how Georgia has done against
-ranked teams at time of game
-ranked teams at end of season
at sites such as CBS SPORTS
and sites such as COLLEGE FOOTBALL
where records are kept both
-by where opponent ranked End of Season
-by where opponent ranked Time of Game
Mark Richt Statue would have NO HOPE.
There are certainly others, Charley Trippi obviously not only for his Life in Football here representing us, but also for his Life in Baseball here representing us.
Aaron Murray, even now that he has CLOSED HIS TWITTER ACCOUNT, would have NO HOPE.
Isaiah Crowell would have NO HOPE.
So, Greg McGarity does not want to allow all these people on Facebook who have already funded Herschel Walker a Statue to do so. That should not surprise anyone, given that all of December, January, February and now March he cannot get
MARK RICHT TO SIGN his NEW CONTRACT with all the clauses about how much LESS Mark Richt would be paid if Greg McGarity FIRES him and how much MORE the buyout would be if Mark Richt left to the only job offered to him so far Texas A and M.
“Stats are only kept for Time of Game rankings; they are not kept for how Mark Richt has done against teams at End of Season.” Really what is this then ?
http://www.cfbstats.com/2011/team/257/index.html
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
2:07 am
And, what is this one too then ?
http://www.cfbtrivia.com/cfbt_detail.php?teamname=Georgia&fry=2011&thy=2011&spl=on&cres=3&jpl=on&sortby=Year
0-4 vs ranked teams at BOTH of these sites, for example.
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
2:34 am
7576DAWG March 16th, 2012 2:40 pm
“I think all McGarity was looking for was in 2011 was Georgia to show improvement in our players and coaching Yes we lost 4 games and should have won at least two of those games Georgia did not lose any games that we were suppose to win like a lot of teams did and we were in all the games we lost . All McGarity wants is for us to show improvement and for us to do that in 2012 not only will we be expected to win the games that we are suppose to win but THIS year we will be expected to win the hard games that we are not favored to win. Also if we win the East the only way we can improve from last year is to beat all the teams ourselves and not back into the championship. Of course all of us want Georgia to win but the question will be how did we stack up against other teams to finish with the record we got at the end of the season and how did we look getting to that record.”
How did we improve losing all 4 games against teams ranked in any published poll for 2011 ? We lost every one of those games in 2010 too. 0-4 in 2011 and 0-5 in 2010. Improvement ?
First you say, we lost 4 games and should have won some of those games.
Then, very next sentence you say, we did not lose any games that we were supposed to have won.
?
Which is it
7576DAWG ?
Make up your mind already, sir.
“BACK INTO THE SEC EAST CHAMPIONSHIP”
That’s not a NEGATIVE POST ?
It sure as heck is.
Then, your final statement today is that the real
QUESTION is how did we stack up with the other teams with the same record as us at the end of the season. Again, this is a NEGATIVE COMMENT too 7576DAWG. Obviously, you are referencing the fact that we ended up 10-4 in 2011 and that there were Twenty-Seven (27) other teams with 10-Win Seasons 2011 as well. How did we stack up with the other 27 teams with 10-Win Seasons 2011 ? We beat none of the 27 teams with 10-Win Seasons. We beat none of the 36 teams with 9-Win Seasons. We beat 2 of the 48 teams with 8-Win Seasons. Of the 27 teams with 10-Win Seasons, we had the VERY WORST NUMBER OF LOSSES WITH FOUR (4) including all 4 of the teams who ended the season ranked.
7576DAWG, how is it that you authored a post to this blog here today for the 1st time in your lifetime, NOT CRITICIZING AARON MURRAY ? Would you support building Aaron Murray at STATUE ?
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
3:02 am
WDE March 16th, 2012 3:12 pm
“@SC Fan Sorry I was sure we were SEC East Champs this year…looking up at who again?”
_____________________________________________________
Looking up at Whom Again ?
42-45 at our Home USCe Won
Only Published Polls for 2011 Season :
# 9 South Carolina
# 19 Mark Richt
Uh, we looked UP to South Carolina 2011 WDE, sorry to be the bearer of the Truth to you on that, sir. In fact, Mark Richt ended up # 5 in every single solitary poll for 2011 of just SEC teams, so not only do we look up to South Carolina Again in 2011, but in fact, we are only the # 5 team in The SEC.
Surely, you didn’t really need us to explain to this to you, did you
WDE
?
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
3:08 am
PT March 16th, 2012 4:28 pm
“I just don’t see why a contract extention was needed until after the end of the season.”
______________________________________________________
That is an EXCELLENT POINT, PT. Why do we need a new contract NOW 17 March 2012, until the season is OVER and we can see if the 1st time since 2009 if we can beat a team who ENDS the season a ranked team, like COLLEGE FOOTBALL and CBS SPORTS keeps records of, for example ?
________________
DING DING DING DING – POST OF THE DAY AWARD : PT
Dawgx2
March 17th, 2012
3:32 am
McGarity is a complete idiot. I have talked with him and he has no vision and is not qualified to run a high school athletic department. Does being assistant ticket manager qualify you for being athletic director. UGA’s athletic department is run horribly, lots of easy money makes a lot of problems go away. It does not mean it’s well run. If it was well run we would have national championships in football and basketball, and we would spend the money to make our facilities the best in the nation and add sports that will add prestige to the university (like lacrosse). In short, he’s and idiot and this is just one more example.
CaliDawg
March 17th, 2012
4:39 am
Gotta support the statue. Herschel left early, but came back and graduated from UGA – that has to be a condition for any former UGA student-athlete’s statue.
ManoDog
March 17th, 2012
5:48 am
mcgarity doesn’t have a clue about running the ath dept–he needs to go back to florida. Get someone good and build the statue right away!
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
6:39 am
8-14 is Mark Richt’s record
TIME OF GAME
vs ranked teams time of game after 2007
8-14 is supposed to be what, exactly ?
2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 :
8-14 vs opponent ranked top 25 time of game
By the way, Mark Richt is 19-30 vs teams who are top 25
End of Season
19-30 all 11 years Mark Richt
It doesn’t matter how you calculate it, Mark Richt is
MEDIOCRE vs the top teams
Mark Richt 2008 2009 2010 and 2011 vs End Season Ranked top 25 :
2-15 vs opponents top 25 end of season after 2007
Either way you figure it,
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
can he ?
http://www.cfbtrivia.com/cfbt_detail.php?teamname=Georgia&fry=2009&thy=2009&spl=on&cres=3&jpl=on&sortby=Year
You can replace any year 2001 through 2011 in this URL Link, have to change year twice each URL Link and see it for every year 2001 through 2011, and you see it for
BOTH
TIME OF GAME
END OF SEASON
ranked top 25.
I thought you said it was ONLY kept TIME OF GAME ?
PROVIDES BOTH.
smyrnabob
March 17th, 2012
6:52 am
Why would the A.D. want to remind fans of a time when UGA won multiple SEC and a National Championship? The bar so much lower and easier now.
onegadawg
March 17th, 2012
7:39 am
everyone is a winner….everyone should make the team….let’s not give F’s because no student is a failure….some are just more fortunate and lucky than other’s…..GIVE ME A BREAK
McGarity, This is UGA! This is Herschel Walker! This is not little league baseball! Whose feelings are you afraid of hurting and who cares? Grow some @#$% man! Football pays your and their salary!
andy harrison
March 17th, 2012
7:49 am
.Thanks to Rob for getting this idea going . I think the idea of a statue is great but done in the right time and the class that UGA has. SOme of the people that have statues at other schools have not been the type of quality person that Hershel has been. True he is the icon of UGA football history, but lets take the time and do it right. I am sure Mr. McGarity will see to that, by the way he is also a UGA alum for those who forgot
SuperB
March 17th, 2012
7:51 am
“Jawja” is 100% correct: Greg McGarity IS Georgia athletics. I worked with him for Coach Magill. He is from Athens, earned a letter in tennis, and is red and black through and through. There is NO ONE who is more “Georgia” than Coach Magill’s prodigy. We all love the Dawgs– and no one more than Greg! With that I say: Build the statues.
Old Dawg
March 17th, 2012
8:06 am
Chip. it’s interesting about a second statue for Erk in Statesboro. There’s already a bronze bust of the “Bald Eagle” a the stadium and players rub his head as they run onto the field, much like Howard’s Rock and Clemson.
That said, if any former UGA athlete deserve a stature, it’s Herschel.
Drew
March 17th, 2012
8:15 am
Yeh but it’s Herschel walker… Greatest college running back ever.
Jborodawg
March 17th, 2012
8:28 am
Frank Sinkwich won the Heisman first, so shouldn’t he should get a statue first? And, as Rob Saye has pointed out a couple times, the Herschel thing is more than just a statue, it also involves a charitable foundation.
All these negative comments about McGarity just because he didn’t immediately start building a statue is ludicrous. As is bringing up CMR’s record against winning teams for the umpteenth time in a totally unrelated blog.
Instead of bad-mouthing McGarity, send in your $34.
Beast from the East
March 17th, 2012
8:42 am
I’d be willing to get that over half of the morons blasting McGarity have never even stepped foot on campus or entered the stadium. Why don’t you just carve your own Hershel statue out of that dead pine tree in front of your trailer.
G. Tanner
March 17th, 2012
8:45 am
Are the two Bo Jackson statues one for football and one for baseball?
GT
March 17th, 2012
8:51 am
Georgia seems to try hard to escape the Dooley years like it was something horrible. They didn’t want to build a statue for Vince a few years ago and now they don’t want to honor the greatest college football player I’ve ever seen. People forget even Herschel Walkers if you don’t remind them. There will be a day that a recruit tours the UGA campus unaware that they were anything above an also run in the SEC conference. Maybe that is what McGarity wants so he doesn’t have the pressure of the past to compete with. As far as other athletes, what other athletes from other sports? Hershel Walker probably sold enough tickets at Tech, playing in Grant Field, to pay for a statue, more less Georgia. The man made the school more money that any athlete before or since, so forget about Frank Sinkwich and Charley Trippi, Walker and Dooley built the place . I am sure part of McGarity paycheck this very day is a contribution of the Walker legacy. He and Dooley and Erk Russel put the place on the map, and as a college football lover it was a pleasure to see the sport played right. Everything else coming out of McGarity’s mouth about other athletes is a insult. No school anywhere has a better athlete than Herschel Walker and this is from a Yellow Jackets so take it to the bank. I think they should name the school Walker University because a huge amount of it was paid for, from the good clean attention this man bought it.
Bull Meacham
March 17th, 2012
9:11 am
Yes, every day that goes by McGarity looks worse. How many national championships did we win before Herschel? He is in a league by himself and deserves a statue. Nobody else.
bingdon
March 17th, 2012
9:21 am
Hershal Walker has been for the most part invisible since the day he left campus, at least publicly.
Why in the world would you waste money building something like that. He doesn’t deserve it. I was there when he was and he was great, but this idea is something cooked in a jockstrap which in my opinion stinks.
flo-ri-duh
March 17th, 2012
9:48 am
UGA is proud of Herschel Walker’s accomplishments and it is an attention getter when recruits visit the campus. Why do we always have to be PC and give statues to every minor sports star on a campus? This is basically a recruiting tool showing the tradition and success of the school. I do think a school should wait until the player or coach is retired or no longer on campus. Placing a statue of a current player or coach appears to b an ego trip.
flo-ri-duh
March 17th, 2012
9:51 am
Pee Wee Pete – I was at UGA when Herschel had his Trans Am. I don’t know who financed it but it definitely wasn’t new – about 6 years old as I recall.
Why is Bo Jackson getting two statues at Auburn?
March 17th, 2012
9:53 am
“Auburn is building monuments to Bo Jackson, Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson this year.” But, this is typical of Chip’s attention to detail…
Reality Check
March 17th, 2012
10:50 am
This is an ABSOLUTE JOKE. Seriously? Georgia football IS Herschel Walker. This is such politically correct nonsense it defies explanation. It’s okay to say that this is something that doesn’t happen overnight. But don’t act like there needs to be an equality between a statue for Herschel and statues for other “greats” or other sports.
Gimme a break.
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
10:56 am
SuperB,
Greg McGarity was no good as a tennis player for us. Not one of our top tennis players, not even when he was playing, was he even one of the top tennis players for us any of those years.
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
11:06 am
When he is
19-30 vs top 25 teams end-of-season all 11 years
no wonder you don’t want to talk about it.
http://www.cfbtrivia.com/cfbt_detail.php?teamname=Georgia&fry=2004&thy=2004&spl=on&cres=3&jpl=on&sortby=Year
Thomas Brown,"trust me i’m not satisfied”
March 17th, 2012
11:17 am
7-15 vs top 25 teams thru end 2007
2-15 vs top 25 teams since
9-30 vs top 25 teams entire 11 years
Mark Richt vs top 25 teams end of season
http://www.cfbtrivia.com/cfbt_detail.php?teamname=Georgia&fry=2009&thy=2009&spl=on&cres=3&jpl=on&sortby=Year
13-1 SEC East Champions 2012
March 17th, 2012
11:38 am
Here is another site showing Mark Richt
19-30 vs top 25 end season all 11 years
http://www.cfbstats.com/2009/team/257/index.html
Paul in NH
March 17th, 2012
11:40 am
UGA should put up a statue of this guy
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/statues/longstatue.htm
ga gator
March 17th, 2012
11:40 am
Did not read but just a few comments, but here is my take; Hershel Walker in my eyes is the greatest RB to ever play College Football and is in a tie with Tim Tebow as being the greatest College FB player in History. UGA has plenty of money to pay a designer and sculptor to have a statue of Hershel built. Don’t put it at Butts-Mehre with Vince, put it near the bridge overlooking the Stadium.
13-1 SEC East Champions 2012
March 17th, 2012
11:41 am
And this site doesn’t even show what the teams were ranked at game time.
I mean what does it matter ?
2010 we were a ranked team.
We ended up 6-7 requiring us Dawg fans to go all the back to 1953, fifty-eight years back to find a team who lost more games than we did in 2010.
Should a team get a victory over a ranked team 2010 for beating us ?
http://www.cfbstats.com/2010/team/257/index.html
13-1 SEC East Champions 2012
March 17th, 2012
11:43 am
Tim Tebow was the GPOE
Not the # 1 college football player of all-time.
The # 1 college football player of all-time is Herschel Walker.
Let’s put up a statue for Mark Richt
ga gator
March 17th, 2012
11:46 am
13-1 SEC East Champions 2012, I disagree; he and Hershel would tie as the greatest of all time.
13-1 SEC East Champions 2012
March 17th, 2012
11:51 am
Tim Tebow was not the # 1 Quarterback in college football all-time
like Herschel Walker was at his position.
13-1 SEC East Champions 2012
March 17th, 2012
11:54 am
Tim Tebow isn’t even going to be the quarterback for Denver Broncos
not if John Elway has his way, he won’t.
Which is why John Elway was at Duke University last night watching
Peyton Manning will be according to John Elway
and, according to
David Cutcliffe
I have grown tired of all this crapola about the GPOE
13-1 SEC East Champions 2012
March 17th, 2012
11:55 am
Tim Tebow would not even make the list of the top 25 college quarterbacks all-time and he absolutely isn’t one of the top 25 NFL Quarterbacks even today
Stephen A.Dawg: Herschel=Greatness
March 17th, 2012
12:16 pm
If it were not for the Greatness of #34 Herschel Walker, I would have abandoned UGA as a fan in 2001 when Georgia soldout to bring in 90s FSU wanna-be OC guru, Mark Richt.
Signal Mtn Dawg
March 17th, 2012
12:24 pm
McGarity is all DAWG! Soneone has to put everything in a proper perspective.
With that said, I think Herschel’s statue should have been in place years ago.
Same with Sinwich, Trippi and Jake Scott.
Football is a different animal than golf or tennis. I think even the golfers would agree to that.
Stephen A.Dawg: Herschel=Greatness
March 17th, 2012
12:37 pm
Look I said it in 2009 concerning the NFL FB/TE posing as a QB Tim Tebow, he should have been originally drafted by the Jaguars. Because all he had to do was run left, run right, then up the middle as he did mainly at UF. Only in the insidious Gator-strongholds like Jacksonville is Tebow the current greatest passing QB other than the legendary Peyton Manning. Look at all the money J-ville lost because the league was too dumb to mandate Tebow to the Jags. The apathetic GatorNation would have swapped all the losing in the Swamp to relive Tebow glory in Jacksonville. Now that Peyton has purged Denver of Tebowmania, the only place left is to ship him to the Jacksonville, drop the Jaguar handle and rename the team the Tebowmanics. LOL. That would set off another chapter of lunacy and hysteria from Skip Bayless, executive president and LeBron James, executive vice-president of the National Tebow cheerleader fan club. It’s all a bunch of B.S. !!
liberalefty
March 17th, 2012
12:48 pm
i guess HERSHEL NEEDS HIS EGO FED…LOL with a giant statue..,
Stephen A.Dawg: Herschel=Greatness
March 17th, 2012
1:08 pm
The idiots that made Tebow a first rounder draft choice have been ran out of Denver, and rightfully so. Former All-Pro and Super Bowl MVP, John Elway has silenced and the Bayless-led Tebow hoopla and is pursuing a real NFL QB for the Broncos. I hope Tebow lands safely in Jacksonville, so the Jags will inherit the shrinking Gator fanbase from the Swamp. Then former Dog, Muschamp will get the Ron Zook treatment and be ran off by UF AD, Jeremy Foley, due to all the empty Swamp seats. LOL. I love it !! The same legendary Swamp QB, Tebow, will drain the facility which houses his likeness in the form of a memorial statute and switch the Saturday Gainesville crowd to a Sunday Jacksonville crowd . LOL ! Go Dogs !
59bulldawg
March 17th, 2012
1:14 pm
All the university has to do is decide where it should go. Fans will raise the money!
tj wise
March 17th, 2012
1:31 pm
I don’t see why y’all ant done it by now I mean everyone has great player and they got them y don’t Georgia ones a dawgs always a dawgs
build the statue
March 17th, 2012
2:16 pm
just jack up ticket / booster fees to pay for the statue—get it built asap!