Dwayne Gilbert: 437 straight UGA games

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It was Christmas 2000 and Dwayne
Gilbert had a problem. Coach Jim Donnan’s Georgia Bulldogs
were scheduled to face Virginia that Christmas
Eve in the O’ahu Bowl way out in Honolulu,
Hawaii and Gilbert didn’t want to break his
streak of attending every single Georgia football
game, both home and away. The last game
Gilbert had missed was way back in 1974
when the Bulldogs fell to Miami of Ohio in the
Tangerine Bowl.

But as Georgia prepared for its bowl date
with the Virginia Cavaliers in Blue Hawaii,
Gilbert’s big problem was that his wife, Linda,
wasn’t about to be away from home on Christmas
day.

“She said she wasn’t going anywhere on
Christmas,” recalled Gilbert.

But, traveling companion or not, Gilbert
was determined to be in Honolulu when the
Bulldogs kicked it off in the O’ahu Bowl.
“I just went by myself,” Gilbert said, “and
I actually wound up seeing two bowls that
year, the O’ahu and the Hula Bowl.”

And when Georgia romped over Virginia
37-14, Gilbert’s solo trip to the tropical paradise
turned out to be very gratifying indeed for this
law enforcement officer from Griffin.
Now, if you will, fast forward to the present
2011 football season. Can you believe it?

When Gilbert made it to the Georgia Dome
this past Saturday for the Bulldogs’ season
opener against Boise State, it ran his consecutive
string of attending Georgia games to 437.
That’s right, 437 straight! Now 84 years young,
Dwayne Gilbert has been present for every
Bulldog contest since the start of the 1975 season.

Feeling well or not feeling well, good
weather or bad weather … what have you,
Gilbert has walked into the stadium every time
Georgia has teed it up these past 36 seasons.

“When I started going to Georgia games,
there was no reason for me to think I was starting
a streak,” said Gilbert, who through the
years has worked as a trooper for the Georgia
State Patrol, as a sheriff, as a U.S. Marshall and
as an investigator for the Peace Officers Standards
and Training Council. After having been
retired for 22 years, Gilbert was recently called
back into duty, becoming the interim sheriff in
Griffin after then sheriff Dee Stewart tragically
lost his life in an automobile accident. “I’ll be
filling in until the election, then I’ll be gone
again,” Gilbert pointed out.

Gilbert attended his very first Georgia
football game back in 1948. “My first game
was when we played Georgia Tech and, of
course, we won the SEC that year,” he said. “I
was a state trooper back then and I was assigned
up there (to UGA games) on occasions
and would go to two or three games a year.

But when (Vince) Dooley became coach (in
1964), I started going to all the home games,”
said Gilbert. “Then in 1968 and ’69, I started
going to all the games, both home and away.”
Gilbert usually travels with a group of also
die-hard UGA supporters that includes wife
Linda.

“She has missed only about three games
since 1984 and that was when she was sick,”
said Gilbert. “And, of course, she didn’t go to
that bowl game in Hawaii.”

Starting in 1974, Gilbert and his Bulldog
buddies would load up Gilbert’s motor home
and set out early for whatever destination the
Bulldogs were playing that weekend. “We’d all
take our motor homes, most of the time with
two or three in each group, but when we got
there, all the gang would gather up,” he said.

Gilbert recalls one especially busy time
when he was wearing out the highway attending
games. It was during the bowl season
of 1983, just before Dooley’s Dogs encountered
2nd-ranked Texas in the Jan. 2, 1984
Cotton Bowl.

“I didn’t have anything to do before
Christmas, so we went to Orlando to watch
Tennessee and Maryland, then we came back
to the Peach Bowl to see Florida State play
North Carolina when my step-daughter
played in the FSU band. Then,” added
Gilbert,” we got in the motor home and went
to Dallas and saw Georgia and Texas play (stirring
10-9 Bulldog win). So I saw three bowl
games that year.”

Gilbert has been to 35 Georgia bowl
games.

“My first bowl game was the Sugar Bowl
when we lost to Arkansas (1968 team),” he
said. “Since that time, the only bowl games I’ve
missed are that Tangerine Bowl and the 1969
Sun Bowl, when Nebraska beat us to death.”
Gilbert said his favorite Bulldog bowl trip
was, naturally, the Jan. 1, 1981 Sugar Bowl
when the Herschel Walker-led Bulldogs defeated
Notre Dame 17-10 to win the coveted
national championship.

“We’ve had a lot of great trips for the
games,” he said. “We really enjoyed the Colorado
trip last season. We went with a group
of people in two cars. We went to the Mississippi
State game the week before and then we
spent time in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah
before going on to Boulder. I liked everything
about the trip except the way the game ended
(29-27 UGA loss).”

Gilbert said he plans to continue his
amazing attendance streak for as long as his
health holds up.

“I’ve been sick only twice,” he declared.
“One time was for about 30 minutes after a
game but they had to put me in the hospital.

Then another time I had surgery for lung cancer
but got over that pretty quickly. The good
Lord has been looking after me. My legs are
getting bad now and it’s a little difficult to do a
whole lot of walking,” admitted Gilbert, “but
my wife said, ‘don’t worry, when you get where
you can’t walk, I’ll put you in a wheelchair and
push you to the games.’”

A frequent traveling companion of
Gilbert to the UGA games is Earl Heidt, Georgia
class of 1957. Heidt, last week prior to the
opener with Boise State, drove his motor home
from his residency in Longview, Tex. to Athens,
where he leaves it at Bulldog Park for the entire
Georgia football season.

“Dwayne is the most avid football fan and
Georgia supporter you’ve ever encountered,”
said Heidt. “We first got together in 1985 and
have been bosom buddies ever since. We have
been motor homing to games both home and
away until a few years ago when, due to
Dwayne’s age, we began traveling in automobiles.
“It’s just unbelievable,” said Heidt.

“Dwayne’s had to attend more games in a row
than any living Dog. If he’s in Athens he will be
there when they start warming up – if he’s ever
missed a kickoff, I don’t know about it. You
just won’t come across any Georgia fan that
more Georgia people know,” concluded Heidt.
“Even when Dwayne makes a trip to Wal-
Mart, people stop him and start talking about
the Bulldogs.”

437 and counting ……

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