Beloved UGA VI, mascot of the Georgia Bulldogs athletic program, passed away of heart failure on Friday night at his owner's Savannah home. UGA VI was most noticeably the mascot of the football team who had an air conditioned dog house at Sanford Stadium and first class Delta tickets to road games. He was nine years old. The Bulldogs won two SEC football titles and a football record of 87-27, the most of any previous UGA.
UGA VI has had a very interesting last nine months. Georgia's football program flirted with a BCS Title game bid and eventually landed in New Orleans in a BCS game where they destroyed Hawaii. The basketball team was seeded last in the men's SEC tournament in Atlanta and despite having to play the majority of their games on Georgia Tech's home court due to tornadoes damaging the Georgia Dome they won the tournament by winning four games in three days.
However, I am wondering if UGA VI passed not of heart failure, but of heart break. The Bulldogs baseball team was seeded #8 in the NCAA Baseball tournament and landed in Omaha for the College World Series. Through clutch hitting, stunning come backs, and shut down relief pitching they made it to the final championship series against Fresno State. Georgia went up 1-0 in a come back victory, then it all fell apart. In Game 2, Georgia was up 5-0 and wound up getting whacked 19-10. Then in Game 3, Fresno State pitching game up one run and five hits and won the championship in a stunning upset (Fresno was seeded fourth or last place in their own regional). The loss was deeply heart breaking as Georgia was playing the best baseball in the CWS and was up a game and 5-0. I wonder that this was just too much for poor UGA VI to take. A few days later, he was gone.
Soon a UGA VII will be revealed. UGA VI will have a service in a few days in Athens and be buried at Sanford Stadium along with all his predecessors. One hopes the UGA VII's run will be as fruitful. UGA VI, DGD!
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