Macon Magazine

After a 72-Year Hiatus, Toe Meets Leather on the Mercer Campus W By Rick Cameron, Voice of the Bears hen Mercer football fans last gathered to watch the Bears take on a gridiron foe, they probably drove a car that cost about $900, paid three cents a gallon for gas to get to the game and then eight cents for the loaf of bread to make a sandwich for tailgating. Far fetched? The prices for "the day" are fairly accurate. But yes, Virginia, there were Gridiron Glory Days at Mercer from 1892 – 1942, as chronicled by Bobby Wilder in his Mercer Press book by the same name. The first intercollegiate football game was between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. The game moved slowly to the South from the Northeast and, in January 1892, most of the Mercer students, faculty and many Middle Georgia citizens took the train to Athens to witness the first college football game in Georgia and one of the first in the Deep South. For those who consider themselves die-hard football fans, just know, in that first game, that touchdowns were worth four points, extra points were two, safeties were two and field goals were five. Also keep in mind, in that classic encounter, the players wore no helmets. Instead, players reportedly began in June letting their hair grow for protection for the ole noggin'. The result: another noteworthy bit of trivia about this first Mercer – Georgia game was the emergence of the Bear as the University mascot. During the game, so the story goes, a Georgia defensive player looked up and saw a bushy-headed Mercer runner burst through the line and remarked, "Whence Cometh That Bear?" And, from that day forward, the Mercer Baptists would become known as the Mercer Bears. 4 2013 Football Fan Guide Mercer's second college football game, and its first at home (Central City Park), was on March 26, when the Bears entertained Savannah Catholic Library Association. After dropping its two games in the inaugural season, 50 – 0 to Georgia and 20 – 2 to Savannah Catholic, the Bears opened play for their second season in the fall of 1892 with their first win, 12 – 6, over Georgia Tech. On the same day that Georgia Tech played its first football game, the Mercer Bears recorded their first win. Before dropping football and playing its last game against Chattanooga in the fall of 1941, Mercer would compete, in those 50 years, against teams that today are in the BCS. They would include — in addition to Georgia and Georgia Tech — Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Miami, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Navy, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Some high-profile football names in the history of the state played at Mercer: Wright Bazemore, legendary Valdosta High School head coach; Wallace Butts, former Georgia head coach; and Dr. Steadman Vincent Sanford, for whom Sanford Stadium in Athens is named. Even a famous movie has Mercer football connections. Remember the Titans is based on the high school coaching career of Bill Yoast, who arrived at Mercer as a student shortly after the University dropped football and graduated in 1949. Seventy-two years later — on Aug. 31, 2013 — toe meets leather only a few hundred yards from where the old Porter Stadium stood, today the home of the Hilton Garden Inn.

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