Georgia's Win At Michigan in 1965 Brings Back Precious Memories For Bulldogs

Georgia will play Michigan for only the third time in history when the two meet Friday in the CFP semifinals at the Orange Bowl.

Kirby Moore, the former Georgia quarterback (1965-67), had a deal with Coach Vince Dooley when the team flew on road trips.

“If we won, Coach Dooley would let me sit up front with the pilots on the flight home,” said Moore, in his 46th year of practicing law in Macon. “If we lost, I would not even ask.”

On this trip in 1965 Georgia not only won, but the Bulldogs posted one of their biggest intersectional road wins ever traveling to Michigan, the defending Rose Bowl champions, and winning 15-7.

So Moore had a birds-eye view as the Georgia team plane approached the Athens Regional Airport.

“I looked out and all I could see was a bunch of lights,” said Moore, when we talked by phone on Monday. “I asked the pilot what it was and he said: ‘Looks like a bunch of cars.”

It was a whole bunch of cars..

“There were cars as far as the eye could see,” said Moore. “The pilot said it was 10 or 15 thousand people.”

“People couldn’t get close to the airport so they just parked their cars and on the side of the road and walked. It was a celebration like nothing we had ever had at Georgia,” said Dooley, who was 34 years old and in only his second year as the Bulldogs’ head coach. “None of us who made the trip will ever forget it.”

Georgia’s win at Michigan on Oct. 2, 1965 was certaintly a big deal at the time, but in reality it has been pushed to the back of the history books That’s because just two weeks before, the Bulldogs posted their first signature victory of the Vince Dooley era (1964-88).

Alabama, the defending national champions, opened the 1965 season in Athens and led 17-10 deep into the fourth quarter. With the ball at Georgia’s 27-yard line, Dooley called what became known by the Bulldog faithful as the “flea-flicker play.”

Moore threw a short pass to tight end Pat Hodgson, who ran a curl rout. Hodgson bobbled the ball (to this day Alabama swears Hodgson was down) but shoveled it in the direction of running back Bob Taylor, who was trailing the play. Taylor secured the ball and outran the Alabama secondary for a 73-yard touchdown with 3:14 left. Dooley decided to go for two and it worked, giving the Bulldogs an 18-17 victory.

Because of a lack of depth (Taylor, who died in 2014, suffered a broken leg on Oct. 16 against Florida State) the Georgia team that started with Top 10 wins over Alabama and Michigan would finish 6-4 and not go to a bowl.

“We had a scrappy hard-nosed bunch of hungry guys on that team,” said Dooley. “But we didn’t have any depth. And that hurt us.”

It’s too bad freshmen were not eligible to play back then, said Dooley.

“We had Bill Stanfill (All-America DE), Billy Payne (All-SEC DE), and Kent Lawrence (All-SEC RB) all sitting because they were freshmen,” said Dooley. “We sure could have used them.”

The following season, 1966, Dooley would win the first of his six SEC championships at Georgia.

So when people would talk about the 1965 season, it was the one where Georgia upset Alabama. The Michigan game became a distant memory.

Until now.

For the first time in 56 years, Georgia and Michigan will meet in football with nothing less than a spot in the CFP national championship game on the line. No. 3 Georgia (12-1) will meet No. 2 Michigan (12-1) in the Orange Bowl (7:30 p.m., ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

“If you talk to the players they’ll tell you than beating Michigan at Michigan was bigger than beating Alabama,” said Moore. “And I’m from Alabama (Dothan). It was the most wonderful thing that happened in my athletic career.”

In 1964 Michigan went 9-1 with the only loss being to Purdue (21-20). The Wolverines, coached by Bump Elliott, won the Big Ten championship for the first time since 1950. They went on to beat Oregon State 34-7 in the Rose Bowl.

The Wolverines were 2-0 and ranked No. 7 when Georgia arrived. Michigan did not roll out the red carpet.

“I remember standing in the tunnel with all of those people yelling and screaming at us,” said George Patton, a two-time All-America defensive tackle. We really wondered what we were getting into. Because it was a Southern team playing in a Northern arena, I don’t know if they respected us.”

“Their band was making fun of us and calling us a high school team,” said Moore.

“Then the game started.”

Michigan led 7-6 for much of the game but with about four minutes left quarterback Preston Ridlehuber scrambled and threw a 10-yard scoring pass to tight end Pat Hodson. The two-point conversion attempt failed but an interception by Georgia’s Lynn Hughes set up Bobby Etter’s third field goal of the day and the final score

“They were bigger but we were faster,” said Patton, who played at 210 pounds. “We wore them down.”

Moore said he will be in Miami Gardens for Friday’s game.

“I just can’t believe that it’s been 56 yards since we last played them (Michigan),” said Moore.

Patton, now 77 and living in Lilburn, said he will watching from the home of a friend.

“I don’t need to travel all that way,” said Patton. “I just hope we find a way to beat Michigan.”

Dooley, who turned 89 on Sept. 4, was in the process of making up his mind whether or not to attend in person when we talked on Wednesday.

“They’ve (Michigan) got a good team but we have a good team too,” said Dooley. “If we can win this one, then who knows what will happened after that?”

What will happen is that No. 3 Georgia will play No. 1 Alabama or No. 4 Cincinnati for what would be Georgia’s first national championship since 1980, Dooley 17th year as head coach, and his only national title.

The two teams met for the SEC championship on Dec. 4 in Atlanta. Alabama won 41-24.

It would also be a repeat of the 2018 CFP Championship game, which ended in a 26-23 walk-off victory for the Crimson Tide.

And then there is this: Georgia would get a chance to beat both Top-10 ranked Michigan and Alabama in the space of 10 days, just like it did in 1965.

“Now wouldn’t that be awesome,” said Patton.