Alum Reflects on UGA

Indulge me with some fond remembrances by this aging alum of my Dawg Days of the early '60s. I was a J-School student during that erstwhile epoch. The "new" Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication was just a dream. It was my pleasure to meet and to get to know Coach Vince Dooley, Dean Tate, the venerable Dean of Journalism John E.Drewry- mentor, (docent) and friend, and eventual Grady School Dean Tom Russell, then a mere grad student. A few years ago my family and I decided to visit the campus on our way to FL. Wife Pat and I felt we were entering a time warp of sharp contrasts. Tears of neo-nostalgia were shared aplenty. Mental vignettes replayed real time as I was dubbed with knightly honor taking those first tentative steps under the magical UGA Arch. Somehow I knew I had arrived. More flashbacks: I was subsequently chosen (as an independent part-time photographer from local REM Studio) to travel with the team and take Polaroid photos of UGA football rivals' defensive "line-ups" for two years as well as taking the UGA team shots and individual player action photos. Those were glorious times, especially between the hedges at Sanford Stadium - much of that stint spent hanging from the cinched seat belt of a doorless Cessna 150, yes, shooting stadium aerial panoramas on game days. Dean Drewry also adopted me as the official J-School photographer- immortalizing the fixed poses of such visiting intelligentsia as Senator Ted Kennedy and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Today I continue to enjoy the glossy pages of "Georgia Magazine" and occasional drifts down memory lane of the glory days of what has become one of the nation's premiere institutions of higher learning...as I see it. I will leave with the rousing chant: GO DAWGS! Thank you for your obvious patience.

Cal Cobb
ABJ Class of '66
Career-emeritus