University of Georgia Athletics
SilverDawgs Are Here To Help
August 30, 2018 | Football, General, The Frierson Files, Georgia Facilities
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Look for them Friday in the downtown Athens hotels. Look for them Saturday at Sanford Stadium and sprinkled around the surrounding parts of campus.
Identified by their white button-down shirts with a distinctive logo on the right chest and straw hats with a big "G" on the front, the new SilverDawgs are here and ready to help. If you've got questions, to steal a line from a commercial, the UGA Athletic Association's "game day ambassadors" will have the answers — or track them down for you.
"We want people to go back home and say, 'Man, those people [at the University of Georgia] are really nice,'" said Bill Barstow, a retired UGA professor and emeritus member of the athletic board, who has helped launch the group which had a soft opening at the G-Day game and will make its big debut this weekend as the No. 3-ranked Georgia football team opens its season Saturday afternoon against Austin Peay.
The creation of the SilverDawgs, which will have about 60 volunteers working this weekend, is a direct result of the extraordinary praise so many Georgia fans had following their visit to Notre Dame last fall. For decades Notre Dame has had a Guest Services Team, sporting Fighting Irish green sportcoats, that were there each weekend during football season to help guests and visitors in any way possible.
Barstow wasn't at the Bulldogs' thrilling win last September, but "I must have talked to a dozen people and every conversation was the same." You probably experienced the same thing, because the level of praise for the trip to Notre Dame has been off the charts.
All those conversations made an impression on Barstow, as they did J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Greg McGarity. The two talked about it at the next athletic board meeting, Barstow said, "and Greg said we ought to do something for those folks when they come in 2019."
Better yet, how about bringing Notre Dame's idea to Athens? Thus, the SilverDawgs were born, inspired and motivated by the idea that whether you're a first-time visitor to Athens and Sanford Stadium, as so many Austin Peay fans this weekend may be, or a regular to games between the hedges but in need of some assistance, there will be a lot of easily identifiable people around to lend a hand.
"It's all about making everybody feel like guests," said Elizabeth Clark, Georgia's assistant director of facilities and event management.
The SilverDawgs are comprised of retired men and women, many with silver hair, that are involved with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Georgia. The opportunity to volunteer for the SilverDawgs was advertised soon after McGarity and Barstow's conversation, and "within a couple of weeks we had maybe 40 or 50 names of people interested in doing it," Barstow said.
Some are lifelong Georgia fans and season-ticket holders, while others are folks that have recently retired in the Athens area, with no previous UGA connection. Some know a lot about football and others might not know a blocked punt from a Hail Mary pass. What they all know are the Sanford Stadium policies and procedures, presented to them in a PowerPoint presentation by Clark and included in a thick binder that they took home to study.
Clark said Georgia thought about adding a red or silver coat to the SilverDawgs' ensemble, but blazers and humid 90-degree days don't go together very well.
One point of emphasis for the SilverDawgs will be trying to help smooth out the process of entering the stadium in the final 45 minutes or so before a game when some gates are jam-packed. The SilverDawgs can help anyone who doesn't know exactly where they need to be, or assist those with disabilities — anything to help keep the lines moving and ease what is often a tense situation.
"If we can alleviate some of that with a smiling face and a heads up, that will improve the visitor experience and it helps us from an operational standpoint, too," Clark said.
This is just Week 1 in a long season and in what is hopefully a long and impactful run for the SilverDawgs. At Notre Dame, its Guest Services Team includes more 1,000 members, Barstow said, including about 850 paid workers. Georgia is a long way from that, but it's just getting started.
"We're now on our maiden voyage," Barstow said, "ready to be kind and hospitable to the Austin Peay people."
And anyone and everyone else that can use a little help. Just look for the smiling face between the white button-down shirt and the straw hat.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.