Now that King Charles III is monarch of the UK, I thought it would be fun to revisit a moment from 45 years ago when the then-prince visited the U.S.
In October 1977, Dean Rusk, the former secretary of state, had become a professor of international relations at the University of Georgia School of Law, and he used his influence to convince the prince to visit the University of Georgia.
Charles attended the University of Georgia football game versus the University of Kentucky on Oct. 22, 1977. In a 2017 interview with the university’s Russell Library Oral History Project, Vince Dooley, UGA’s legendary coach and athletic director, who celebrated his 90th birthday this week, recalled how Rusk had a hand in convincing the prince to come to Athens.
Prince Charles “was coming to the U.S., and he was going to visit somewhere, among other places, and certainly, a university would be a good place for him to visit to really get the atmosphere of football Saturday,” Dooley said.
The appearance of royalty at Sanford Stadium created some unique security issues.
“So there was a lot of excitement, but also a lot of security issues,” Dooley explained. “I remember them — ‘them’ being all the security people, walking under the stadium where the Tanyard Creek flows, and checking out everything, and there was a great deal of excitement. And we had an opportunity to meet the prince before the kickoff.”
Dooley recalled that he gave Prince Charles an autographed football, which flustered Kentucky Coach Fran Curci.
“I presented the prince with a football, an autographed football,” he said. “And I don’t think that Fran Curci was prepared to give him anything, but Fran, who loves to chew gum, got in there and opened up a stick of gum and peeled it back and said, ‘Gum, Prince?’
“Well, I can still see the expression on the prince’s face when he said that,” Dooley continued, laughing. “And he said, ‘Oh no, no,’ you know? ‘No thank you.’ But that was great. I never will forget that expression.”
Prince Charles visited the #UGAvsUK game at #SanfordStadium on Oct. 22, 1977. Here he is with @VinceDooleyUGA and then #UGA President Fred Davison. James Brown performed at halftime of this game. #TBT #UGA pic.twitter.com/ALEYFMaUjW
— Hargrett Library (@hargrettlibrary) November 16, 2017
When the prince came out onto the field, the crowd greeted him with a chant of, “Damn Good Prince” — a play on “Damn Good Dawg,” the ultimate compliment you can pay to a UGA fan.
Related: Queen Elizabeth II Has Passed Away
On top of the excitement of Prince Charles appearing at the game, the halftime entertainment was none other than the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. Brown was a supporter of the Bulldogs, and he even recorded a song about the program entitled “Dooley’s Junkyard Dawgs.” Coach Dooley was present at the recording session as Brown and his band composed the music to the lyrics that someone else had already written.
Imagine buying a ticket to that game only to discover that you would get to see Prince Charles and James Brown on the same day!
The royalty and celebrity sightings were the only good thing about the game for UGA fans, as the Kentucky Wildcats blew out the Georgia Bulldogs 33-0 on their way to a 10-1 season — and that was with the Wildcats playing with limited scholarships thanks to recruiting violations.
“We didn’t play very well,” Dooley recalled. “And so we got beat by Kentucky, So that part of it, I’d like to forget. But you can’t forget Prince Charles visiting Athens, Ga. and coming to a football game.”
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