Katie Huff and her family scrambled to move closer to the action.
She joked that her family’s seats were closer to the Goodyear Blimp than the field, so when the national championship game was finally over and Georgia had secured its first title in 41 years, Katie, her husband Kent, son Jake and daughter Ellie Klaire went lower to watch the trophy presentation, complete with confetti, cigar smoke and grown men kissing trophies.
“We stayed and celebrated and soaked in the moment of glory,” Katie said.
The Huffs, who live in Winterville, were among several Oglethorpe County families and residents who traveled to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to watch the Bulldogs defeat Alabama 33-18 and win the national title on Monday night.
Many of those who made the trip were either UGA grads or longtime, passionate Bulldogs fans and season-ticket holders who couldn’t pass up the opportunity to watch Georgia clinch its first national championship since 1980.
Despite little sleep and facing long trips home, they were ecstatic when reached for comment on Tuesday morning.
“It was a hard-fought game, and there was some adversity throughout, but our team never gave up, and we overcame it all,” texted Levi Taylor, pastor of Mt. Pleasant Community Church in Crawford and voice of the Oglethorpe County football team.
“When that clock hit zero, and the confetti started to fly all around us, we hugged each other with tears of joy flowing down our faces. Grown men and women all around were crying in triumph! So-called curses had been broken, and it felt like a weight had been lifted! The party was on!”
Edd Lowe, an Oglethorpe County native, texted: “What a game. It was worth it to be there for the (fourth) quarter. I walked 8 miles in the last 24 hours. We sold my good seats and had to sit in the nosebleed section. We got back (to) our hotel room at 2:30 and had to watch (the) game over on ESPN. Exhausted, but I would probably do it again.”
The Huffs were driving back when Katie talked about their trip and the thought process behind it.
She and Kent, are UGA grads and have season tickets to Georgia games, but didn’t have enough points for national championship game tickets. They often travel to regular-season road games, but didn’t decide until “about three or four days” before the game to make this trip. As a third-grade teacher at Oglethorpe County Elementary School, Katie needed to arrange a substitute because school started this week.
And they wanted to take their two oldest children — Jake, 12, a seventh-grader at Oglethorpe County Middle School, and Ellie Klaire, 9, a third-grader at OCES — so they bought four tickets off StubHub and booked a hotel about 20 minutes south of Indianapolis.
The Huffs spent Monday at Playoff Fan Central, where Jake was a hit with the gold “savage pads” he’s worn to Georgia games for about five years. Katie said Jake was even shown in a video on the College Football Playoff Instagram account.
“He has quite the celebrity status,” Katie said.
Like the Huffs, Blake Giles couldn’t pass on a trip to a national championship game that was within driving distance of the Athens area.
Giles, who lives in Winterville with his wife, Jan, went with a group of eight people that included his son, John, and daughter, Laura. They found a VRBO in Lawrence, Indiana, about 13 miles from Lucas Oil Stadium.
Hope for a Georgia victory took a hit when Stetson Bennett fumbled in the fourth quarter, leading to Alabama’s only touchdown and an 18-13 Crimson Tide lead with 10:14 remaining in the game.
“We ran the full gamut of emotions during the game, as you can expect,” said Giles, a retired journalist who worked in Athens and Watkinsville. “We didn’t understand the penalty that gave them the ball that led to their only TD. Our thought process was: ‘Well, here we go again.’”
But the Bulldogs erased that deficit with three touchdowns in the final 8:09, capped by Kelee Ringo’s game-clinching 79-yard interception return for a score with 54 seconds left.
“My emotions were high all game,” Katie Huff said. “I texted a friend and told her when we were down three points, it felt like 100 points. The last minute, I had tears in my eyes the entire time. I’m 40 years old and had heard about the last national championship my entire life. This was an unforgettable moment with my family.”
Giles said: “It was great. As the game was counting down, there were a lot of pent-up emotions. Finally, after all those times when we came so close. Kirby (Smart) was on the sideline jumping up and down, waving his visor. Stetson (Bennett) was crying. They turned the confetti loose and the Georgia players swarmed the field. It was the beginning of a big party.”
UGA to hold parade, ceremony
The new national champions will be honored with a parade and celebration on Saturday. The parade will be held on Lumpkin Street heading to Sanford Stadium, starting at 12:30 p.m., to be followed by a Dawg Walk at 1 p.m. A program will start at 2 p.m. Tickets are available on Jan. 13-14.