Biggest Play in Georgia History? 40 Years Later it is Still Belue to Scott

The calendar clearly says it’s been 40 years.

My waistline, hairline and those of my friends definitely say it’s been 40 years.

But how in the precious name of Lawrence Harry Munson, the legendary radio voice of the Georgia Bulldogs, has it been 40 years since Buck Belue to Lindsay Scott—inarguably the most significant play in the school’s football history—gave No. 2 Georgia a 26-21 win over Florida and launched the Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship?

40 years? Really?

On Saturday No. 5 Georgia (4-1) and No. 10 Florida (3-1) will meet for the 99th time by the St. John’s River in Jacksonville. As is usually the case, the winner stays in the hunt for the SEC championship and the loser goes home with a lot of heartache and regret.

They used to call it “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” but that name gave way to changing times. And this Saturday certainly won’t be the festive atmosphere of years gone by because of the damned COVID-19 virus, which will limit the crowd at TIAA Bank Field (formerly known as the Gator Bowl) to less than 20,000.

Still, Saturday’s game will be thick with memories of what happened almost 40 years ago to the day. I have fraternity brothers who are going to Jacksonville without tickets, some for the 40th straight year. Why?

Because it is Georgia-Florida week and they are SUPPOSED to be there.

So why is a play that happened four decades ago still a big deal?

As the late, great Munson—who called 43 Georgia-Florida games—would say: “Get the picture.”

It was Nov. 8, 1980 and the No. 2 and undefeated Bulldogs, led by freshman sensation Herschel Walker, were in big trouble in Jacksonville. Georgia appeared to have the game under control, leading 20-10 in the second half. But the Gators jumped ahead 21-20 on a 40-yard field goal with 6:52 left.

Georgia could not get a first down on its next possession and gave the ball back to Florida. The Gators couldn’t convert a third-and-eight and punted the ball out of bounds at the Georgia eight-yard line with just 1:35 left. The Bulldogs were at least 50 yards away from giving their All-America kicker, Rex Robinson, a chance to win it.

At that moment everything—literally everything—was on the line for Georgia. A loss to the Gators would cost the Bulldogs the SEC championship and a shot at the national championship.

And while things were getting desperate for Georgia in Jacksonville, some 350 miles away in Atlanta Georgia Tech was in the process of tying No. 1 Notre Dame 3-3.

If Georgia found a way to win it would be No. 1 in the next polls and have a clear path to the national championship. But the Bulldogs were pinned at their own eight-yard line.

On third and 11, Belue called “76 Left”, which called for Scott to run a curl pattern just deep enough to get the first down.

“We had run it a 100 times that season,” said Belue, when we talked earlier this week. “There were a number of options on the play but I knew I had to get it to Lindsay. I was 100 percent locked on him.”

Belue took the snap and sprinted to his right to buy some time. Behind him Belue could sense that teammate Nat Hudson had peeled back to block a Florida rusher just a beat before he could grab the Georgia quarterback.

Belue pointed to Scott, who instinctively stopped his route when he found a hole in the Florida defense.

“I had never done that (pointed to Scott) before. But he knew what to do,” said Belue.

Scott caught the ball the 25-yard line.

Florida safety Tim Groves, who was positioned to make the tackle, was trying to get around Georgia receiver Chuck Jones and slipped to the ground. Suddenly, there was nothing between Scott and the end zone but green grass.

“When the Florida guy slipped and I thought ‘we have something here,” said Scott, when we talked on Monday.

Let’s stop here and let Larry Munson tell you exactly what happened:

“Buck back, third down on the eight. In trouble, he got a block behind him! Gotta throw on the run. Complete!!!! to the 25!...... To the 30. Lindsay Scott 35, 40. Lindsay Scott 45, 50, 45, 40 … Run Lindsay!!!!!!, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott!”

Munson never called it a touchdown but in the radio booth he put out his arms to tell everybody to be quiet and let the crowd tell the story. It was a technique, Munson told me before his death in 2011, he learned from legendary broadcaster Vin Scully.

The roar continued for a full 40 seconds before the radio silence was finally broken by color analyst Phil Schaefer:

“Larry, if you wanted a miracle, we just got one.”

Munson capped off the immortal call with these words that every Georgia fan knows by heart. They still live on T-shirts scattered around the Bulldog Nation.

“You know this game has always been called the World’s Greatest Cocktail Party….Do you know what is going to happen here tonight…and up at St. Simons and Jekyll Island and all those places where all those Dawg people have those condominiums for four days?…Man is there going to be some property destroyed tonight!!!!!”

Scott, who was drafted by the New Orleans Saints, said that once he saw the Gator defender slip to the ground, he remembered the instructions of John Donaldson, his coach at Jesup High School.

“He always said ‘catch the ball and get up field. And that’s what I did.”

Scott didn’t stop running until he was engulfed in a wall of humanity in the corner of the end zone. The entire Georgia bench ran to the end zone and fans started coming out of the stands

Vince Dooley, Georgia’s Hall of Fame coach, remembers running down the sideline trying to stay with Scott.

“I started running with him and, maybe for 10 yards, I out ran him,” said Dooley, who was a quarterback at Auburn. “Our bench (based on experience) got out of my way. Reflecting back, it was only three yards before Lindsay left me in the dust on the way to the end zone.”

Penalty flags flew because of the massive celebration. Lead official Bobby Gaston had the task of explaining it to Dooley.

“He said the flags were for excessive celebration,” said Dooley.

“I replied calmly: ‘Don’t you think that is a little excessive?’”

Before Georgia’s winning drive began, Buck Belue’s mother decided that the moment was too painful to watch. So she walked to the Georgia locker room expecting to console her son. The cacophony of sound and the shaking of the old creaking stadium, Belue said, told her everything she needed to know.

“A man ran past her and she asked ‘What happened?’

“He said that Georgia had scored.”

Georgia had done more than score. Sandra Belue’s son and his roommate, Scott, had just carved out a piece of immortality.

When Belue finally got to his mom and dad, the tears were flowing. Defensive coordinator Erk Russell handed him a victory cigar.

“You know that in life there are going to be tough moments. You hope there are also going to be great moments,” said Belue, a long-time Atlanta radio host. “That was a great moment.”

The following week Georgia won at Auburn to clinch the SEC championship. Then there was the non-conference win over rival Georgia Tech, when Herschel Walker broke Tony Dorsett’s freshman rushing record.

And then there was a 17-10 win over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, which turned the floor of the Louisiana Superdome into a sea of red and gave Georgia the national championship.

Author Robbie Burns devoted an entire book to this play. Appropriately titled “Belue to Scott,” it was first released on the 30th anniversary of the play in 2010. He has updated the book to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moment. It can be found on Amazon.com.

Robbie reminds us that calling the game for ABC that day was a 35-year-old Al Michaels, who in February had coined the immortal words “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” when the USA hockey team beat Russia 4-3 at the Olympics in Lake Placid.

“The book is something that I always wanted to do,” said Burns, who is a teacher and coach at Tattnall Square Academy in Macon, Ga. “Given what was on the line, I think it is one of the greatest plays in college football history.”

You would think after all this time the participants would grow tired of telling and re-telling the story. But they don’t.

“Look, I’ve had some ups and downs in my life,” said Scott. “But that game and that moment and winning a national championship with that group of guys is a ray of light for me. The fact that 40 years have passed and we still enjoy thinking about it is something really special. I will never get tired of it.”

“I just always think about the Georgia people and what this game and that season meant to them,” said Belue. “That was a special year. All season long somebody stepped up when we needed it. And on that day we again found a way to win.”

Vince Dooley won his only national championship that year. Georgia has not won one since. In 1988 he retired after 25 seasons as Georgia’s head coach to become a full-time director of athletics. In 1994 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Dooley turned 88 years old on Sept. 4. He and his wife, Barbara, live at the same address in Athens where they moved when Dooley became head coach in 1964 at the age of 31. He was 17-7-1 against Florida in 25 seasons and was inducted into the Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame in 1996.

Out of an abundance of caution Vince and Barbara Dooley will not be attending Saturday’s Georgia-Florida game. It will be the first one they have missed since Dooley was Georgia’s rookie head coach.

Fittingly, Dooley coached his last game with a win over Michigan State in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 2, 1989. He won 201 games and six SEC championships.

But there is no doubt the biggest play of his career. It’s Belue to Scott, 1980. And, despite the passage of time, that will never change.

“You have to say it’s the biggest play because it put us in position to win the SEC championship and the national championship,” said Dooley. “It is a play that will live forever in the hearts and minds of the Georgia people.”