Mark Schlabach
In the first half of the 1980s, when Georgia met Auburn, the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry always provided legendary tales.
There were mythical legends, like from 1980 to 1982 when Georgia won three straight meetings powered by Herschel Walker, who led the Bulldogs to at least a share of three consecutive SEC titles and the 1980 national championship.
From 1983 to 1985, Bo Jackson and the Tigers returned the favor with three straight wins, twice knocking the Bulldogs out of the conference title race.
“It’s not like the Bama-Auburn rivalry, but there’s a lot of hatred to it, especially when somebody has the upper hand,” said Georgia linebacker John Brantley, a star in the 1986 matchup.
That season, the rivalry earned a new chapter. But it became legendary not for who dominated between the lines, but because of one of the most bizarre postgame incidents in college football history.
It’s the reason Georgia’s 20-16 upset of No. 8 Auburn on Nov. 15, 1986, is still known as the “Game Between the Hoses.” And it’s why some fans and players who were at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama, that night still haven’t forgiven the other side.
As the No. 10 Bulldogs prepare to face the Tigers again Saturday night, memories are resurfacing for Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton‘s family — memories of the night Auburn officials turned water hoses on fans who rushed the field (and some who stayed in the stands), including his grandfather.
“The Georgia fans shouldn’t have been out there,” late Auburn coach Pat Dye told reporters after the game. “If that’s the only way to get them off the field, fine. It doesn’t hurt them. It only gets them wet. It’s better than hitting them on the head with billy clubs.”
‘That was a big, big rivalry’
Entering the 1986 game, the Bulldogs had been hampered by knee injuries to star tailbacks Tim Worley and Keith Henderson. Even the team mascot, Uga IV, went down when he fell out of a hotel bed and tore ligaments in his right hind leg. He was replaced by his older brother, Otto, who had never attended a college football game.
The Bulldogs were 6-3, 3-2 in the SEC, after losing to Florida 31-19 in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, the previous week. They were all but eliminated from the SEC title race and in danger of being left out of a desirable bowl game altogether.
On the other hand, the Tigers (8-1, 3-1 SEC) were very much in the mix for their second SEC championship in four seasons. If Auburn beat Georgia for a fourth straight time and then Alabama in the Iron Bowl two weeks later, there was a good chance it would win the SEC and play in the Sugar Bowl.
The Tigers, who were favored by 10.5 points, led the SEC in total offense and had the league’s leading rusher in Brent Fullwood. Auburn also led the league in total defense and had a menacing defensive front, led by end Aundray Bruce and tackle Tracy Rocker.
Brantley: “They were the dominant team, sort of like Georgia’s been a little bit of the dominant team in the series lately. They kind of had the upper hand around that time.”
Fullwood: “Yeah, we were confident. We had a great team. That was a big, big rivalry. We always wanted to beat Georgia for Coach Dye since he played there.”
Brantley: “If you look at the history of the series, there were so many cross-border ties. From Coach [Vince] Dooley playing at Auburn and coaching at Georgia, and Coach [Pat] Dye being a Georgia player and coaching at Auburn. It was a border war and driving distance to the games. You didn’t fly to that game.”
‘It was like a 15-round fight’
The Bulldogs were forced to use their backup quarterback, Wayne Johnson, after starter James Jackson returned home to Camilla, Georgia, to attend his grandmother’s funeral. Dooley had thought Jackson might return in time to play, but when he didn’t make it, Dooley broke the news to Johnson during a team meeting less than five hours before kickoff.
Johnson, from Columbus, Georgia, hadn’t started since the second game of the previous season. He had played sparingly behind Jackson in 1986.
Johnson nearly threw an interception on his first pass attempt against Auburn but eventually settled down. He ran for one touchdown and passed for another, giving the Bulldogs a 20-10 lead late in the third quarter.
With about 5½ minutes left, Georgia pinned Auburn at its 1-yard line. The Tigers drove 99 yards, throwing on every down, and Jeff Burger threw a 13-yard touchdown to Lawyer Tillman. Auburn went for a 2-point conversion, and Brantley sacked Burger to leave the Bulldogs with a 20-16 lead.
Georgia punted with 1:43 left, and the Tigers drove to the UGA 45 in the final minute. On second down, linebacker Steve Boswell made a one-handed interception to end Auburn’s threat.
After pulling off the big upset, a few Georgia players carried Dooley onto the field on their shoulders.
The Bulldogs’ celebration was only getting started.
Dooley (to reporters after the game): “The outlook was not very good. Our chances? You’d have to say slim. You always think you’ve got a chance, but if you put the percentages on it, ours were slim.”
Dye (to reporters after the game): “Georgia’s offensive front manhandled our defensive front, and running the ball is our bread and butter, but Georgia deserves the credit for shutting us down.”
Fullwood: “The only thing I remember about that game is they called back my touchdown. The officials said I was stopped when I wasn’t, and we ended up losing the game because of that call.”
Brantley, who had 22 tackles in the game: “Fullwood was a great back. I just remember the defense rallying and making a lot of plays when we needed to. We made crucial stops when we needed to and got off the field when we needed to.”
Georgia guard Kim Stephens: “We didn’t know anything about James not playing until Saturday, but then Wayne started and played the whole game. He did a great job, completing some passes and getting us ahead and then we just kind of held on.”
Dooley: “It was like a 15-round fight, and we were ahead on points. But Auburn was trying for the knockout.”
‘Not a spur-of-the-moment decision’
As soon as Johnson took the final knee, dozens of Georgia fans rushed the field — at a time when swarming the field wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. Auburn’s public address announcer asked them to leave the field more than once.
Auburn University police chief Jack Walton and Kermit Perry, the school’s assistant athletic director for facilities and game operations, were watching the Georgia fans from the press box. When a few of them started pulling up sod at midfield, Perry and Walton ordered the grounds crew to fire up water hoses that were already in place to force them to leave.
The previous year, some Auburn fans had made souvenirs out of the cherished hedges at Georgia’s Sanford Stadium after the Tigers’ 24-10 win, so school officials figured the Bulldogs faithful might try to get even.
Walton (to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the game): “This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. Kermit and I discussed the situation during the second quarter, and things were going downhill. They started telling my officers in the third quarter to get ready, that they were coming.”
Former Auburn engineering professor and assistant athletic director for facilities Paul Conner (to The War Eagle Reader in 2011): “We told them, ‘Don’t go on the field; you’re not going to be allowed on the field.’ But they went on there and so we opened it up on them and got them a little wet. Coach Dye laughed about it. He said they needed a bath anyway.”
Loran Smith, who was the Georgia radio network’s sideline reporter: “The guy who made the decision to shower us down was Kermit Perry, who had come to Georgia on a football scholarship. He gave up football and was a pretty good hurdler for Georgia. He’s the one who made his assistants wet the whole damn student body down.”
Sports agent Pat Dye Jr., who watched the game with his mother, Sue, in the head coach’s box: “I was there and saw it, and I didn’t take any particular amusement or delight in it. I knew it wasn’t going to be a good look at the end of the day. But I guess Kermit got mad. It was a very disappointing upset in a big rivalry game. Maybe his emotions took over.”
Brantley: “It seemed like when we won the game, they went ahead and turned the hoses on us. It was just one of those things, you know, sore loser. They had a great team.”
Stephens: “I think I may have found out about the water hoses when an old high school classmate who was an Auburn student came into our locker room after the game. Security wasn’t the same as it is now, and he’d had enough to drink just to walk in without thinking twice about it. He may well have been the first person to tell me about it.”
Former Auburn athletic director David Housel, who was the school’s sports information director at the time: “I thought then, and I think now, that Auburn overreacted. I didn’t think there was any need for it. I thought it was an embarrassment. But you know, some people take exception to that because anything Auburn does is supposed to be right. But in that case, I thought two guys overreacted.”
Walton (to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution): “My only regret is that we didn’t get every one of them.”
‘I was not happy with Kermit’
Walton blamed alcohol for the fans’ behavior and rued the fact his officers couldn’t search women’s purses under state law because that’s where “90 percent of it gets in.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, there were 38 arrests on charges ranging from disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, criminal trespass and disturbing the peace.
One of the Georgia fans who was arrested that night was Lawrence Stockton, the current Bulldogs quarterback’s paternal grandfather who died in October 2010.
According to Lawrence Stockton’s widow, Suzanne Frederickson, who was at the game with him, he became upset when Auburn officials turned the hoses on Georgia fans who were in the stands. It was a chilly November night, and there were older fans sitting there.
Barbara Dooley, the Georgia coach’s wife: “I did not rush the field. We drove back to Athens, Georgia, soaking wet, let me tell you. I was not happy with Kermit.”
Frederickson: “My late husband was like, ‘I’m going to go down there and tell them not to spray the stands. It’s a bunch of old people up here.’ It’s kind of like the Downy commercial where you’re going, ‘No!’ He was a force of nature. He thought he could save the world. There wasn’t any stopping him. He got away from me.”
Lawrence Stockton (to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution): “I thought maybe the guy controlling the thing had taken the situation into his own hands. Before I could do anything, some guy reached over me, grabbed the nozzle and pointed it out of the stands.”
Frederickson: “By the time I got down there, he had been arrested and carried away. They threw him on the field and threw him down and handcuffed him and hauled him off. All this happened in a few minutes. It happened very fast.”
Lawrence Stockton: “An Auburn policeman came through a gate nearby, and I asked him if it was necessary to be spraying those of us in the stands. I told him there was no reason to spray those in the stands, that they were older people who couldn’t get out of the way. Then he told me, ‘I’ve had about enough of you I can take. You come with me.'”
Frederickson: “I tried to find out where the jail was. Traffic was awful. I ran over to the police station. It was about two miles, I guess. I thought if I got over there in time, I could get him out. There wasn’t any getting him out. There were too many of them. We had to sit there until about four o’clock in the morning.”
‘What’s Daddy done now?’
Lawrence Stockton was released on $58 bond. His son, Allyn, learned about his arrest when a friend showed him a photograph of his father being handcuffed by Auburn police in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during homeroom at Rabun County High School in Tiger, Georgia.
When Lawrence Stockton returned to Auburn for his pretrial court hearing a couple of months later, according to Frederickson, he was offered a plea deal and was asked to sign a form that would prevent him from pursuing civil action against the city.
Stockton told prosecutors he would take his chances in front of a judge.
Allyn Stockton: “I’m like, ‘Is he still there? What’s the deal?’ And, of course, in the fall of 1986, the students couldn’t get their cellphones out and call home. I just had to wait until the end of the day and after football practice that evening to find out what happened.”
Frederickson: “They were in high school then. That’s not the kind of thing you go home and brag to your kids about.”
Allyn Stockton: “Daddy always had a Don Quixote aspect to him. At the time, it’s like, ‘What’s Daddy done now?’ I wish I could say it was uncharacteristic of him, but you see that picture and you kind of understand him a little better.”
Barbara Dooley: “I’m just glad to know that Gunner had a lively grandfather.”
Frederickson: “We get in front of the judge and the judge says, ‘What was Mr. Stockton charged with?’ They say, ‘We didn’t charge him with anything.’ Really? Yeah, so that was that. They didn’t charge him with anything.”
Allyn Stockton: “It’s kind of like John Riggins at Sandra Day O’Connor’s reception, you know? At the time, it’s very embarrassing and you wanted to keep it quiet. But as time goes on, it’s just kind of part of the legend.”
‘We were never going back’
On Saturday night, another Stockton from Rabun County, Georgia, will take the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Once again, the Bulldogs’ SEC championship hopes might be on the line when they face their rivals in another edition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
Gunner Stockton, in his first season as the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, has been dating the late Vince Dooley’s granddaughter, Julianna, for the past few years. They met when her family was living in the Dooley’s lake home in north Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gunner Stockton: “I didn’t know anything about it until they had talked about it. It was probably like two years ago when I first knew about it because my dad didn’t really talk much about it. But, yeah, that was a pretty funny story. He loved the Dogs, and it was just kind of cool to share that memory with him.”
Frederickson: “I’ll be honest with you: We were never going back. I have not been back yet. Whether I go this time or not, it’s still up in the air. We were never coming back to that town. I stopped at Buc-ee’s there in Auburn. That’s about as close as I’ve gotten to the University of Auburn.”
Allyn Stockton: “I don’t know if there’s any unfinished business there. I mean, if you don’t want your field stormed, don’t mess with the hedges. The reason they had the water hoses there was because they were anticipating retribution, that’s what that was all about. I guess they thought we were going to be Harvey Updyke and poison the oaks at Toomer’s Corner.”
