Bulldogs

Chemistry professor Charles Herty put the first Georgia team on the field in 1892, arranging a game against Mercer University. The nickname came later and from the press box rather than the campus: Atlanta sportswriters, Morgan Blake among them, began calling the team the Bulldogs, and the university made it official in 1920.

That title, under Kirby Smart, was followed immediately by another in 2022, making Georgia the first team to win back-to-back titles in the College Football Playoff era. Sixteen conference championships in the Southeastern Conference sit alongside those four national titles.

Red and black have marked the team throughout, specific enough now to carry names of their own — Bulldog Red, Arch Black. Athens has never had a professional football team to compete with the university's program for local attention, and the closest thing to a rival across leagues is informal: Atlanta Falcons rosters have carried a steady line of Georgia players over the years, Todd Gurley among them.

Games are played at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium, expanded again in 2024 to hold just over 93,000, a crowd that fills the bowl in the middle of Athens on autumn Saturdays.