University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Jeff Dantzler
June 01, 2020 | Baseball, General, Women's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Jeff Dantzler's passion for the Georgia Bulldogs runs incredibly deep, as does his knowledge of all Georgia sports. Perhaps more than anyone, Dantzler, one of the radio voices of Georgia athletics and a regular video contributor here on GeorgiaDogs.com, can talk intelligently for a long, long time about everything from Bulldog football to women's basketball to golf and tennis.
All of that knowledge is coming in handy during the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. Dantzler hosts, with Chris Brame, "The Home Team" radio show on 960 The Ref each weekday afternoon, and they've got a lot of hours to fill each week and not a lot of current sports action to discuss. Dantzler is a diehard sports fan beyond his love for the Bulldogs and every bit of sports trivia and every sports opinion is being put to good use these days.
During a recent Quick Chat, Dantzler, who has been calling Georgia women's basketball and baseball games since the 1990s, talked about working during the shutdown, playing sports when he was young, calling Georgia's 20-inning baseball game versus Clemson in 2019, and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: You still have a radio show to do even though no sports are happening right now, in the U.S. at least, so how are you filling those hours each day?
Dantzler: Chris and I are doing a lot of lists [laughs]. We're probably like everybody else, we've done a lot of lists, we've done a lot of Top 10s, we've done a lot of Mount Rushmores. From the national sports scene, the NFL offseason was a savior, with the draft and all the free-agency moves. And the with the draft, Georgia had a ton of guys go, and that was terrific just to give us something to talk about there.
We're all hungry for things to get back, certainly, and for me, I've missed all the spring sports here and, obviously, Dave (Johnston) and I calling the baseball. It was heartbreaking (not having the baseball season) because it was a special group of guys this year and I've missed it. I go by Foley Field at least two or three times a day and it's hard, I've teared up a couple of times. It's rough.
The other crazy thing, as you well know, is we were setting up for a tremendous spring. Men's and women's tennis, were looking really good, golf, we were hosting the NCAA swimming — I really think this was shaping up to be one of those really great springs for Georgia. And the kids on our baseball team are such great kids, and you knew shutting everything down was going to be tough, but that made it extra tough.
Frierson: What have you been doing with all of that time that you ordinarily would have spent at all of those Georgia baseball games? Have you picked up any new hobbies?
Dantzler: My wife Emily has been teaching from hope and I've been trying to keep her from wanting to strangle me. Our little dog, Albus, is enjoying us being around because usually I'm on the road and Emily's at school teaching.
I've been very lucky, through the university and IMG I've done a lot of projects, we've done lot of Zoom interviews, we're all Zoom experts now, with all of our coaches and done some other projects and features just to try and stay busy and try to give us some content. I've been very grateful to have that to do in addition to the talk show.
I've missed baseball so much and I think back to last year when we had that 20-inning marathon against Clemson. We were sitting there like, oh, man, they've got to change the rules, this is ridiculous, these mid-week games, and I think we were all victims of taking things for granted, and I was as big a culprit as anybody. This is definitely a deal that when I get back to it, I'm going to savor every second — what I wouldn't give to call a 20-inning game right now.
Frierson: When you have something like that, by the 13th inning or so you've probably already burned through any and all bits of interesting prepared material, so what was it like going through those last five or six innings? Do you remember anything you said there at the end?
Dantzler: I think Dave and I figured we had gotten fully punch-drunk by about the 15th innings. I think when we won it was as much joy and relief and it was also the realization that we had just witnessed something historic. What was really cool about that game, too, was it had started grinding and as it got later and later word started getting out that we were still playing, so a lot of the college kids that had been out that evening started trickling in around midnight. We got that second wave (of energy) as the crowd got rejuvenated.
That was something that I'll never forget and that was definitely, as Dave and I said, that was something historic and I hope we never have to witness another 20-inning game again [laughs].
Frierson: Did you play a lot of sports growing up? We're you a sports-obsessed kid?
Dantzler: I just loved sports from the time I was very young. It kind of hit at a perfect age for me, I was 8 years old in 1980, so my love affair with Georgia was off and running hard. One of my first memories, I remember being with my family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and watching the '78 Tech (football) game. I was wearing a Georgia shirt and that's one of the first things that I remember.
With what happened with Georgia in the 1980s, it was an incredible time. I love all sports — football, basketball, baseball, golf and tennis — and I've said, it didn't take me long to figure out that I was not going to be the next Herschel Walker, the next Dominique Wilkins or the next Mikael Pernfors, so I decided I probably ought to find a better alley. I was certainly able to find ways to stay in the games.
My dad also had a great love of sports and he helped facilitate that in me, as well.
Frierson: What was your best sport?
Dantzler: Tennis was my best sport, tennis and basketball. My freshman year in high school (in Statesboro), our basketball team started three freshmen and one of them went to Louisville and one of them went to Auburn — we won the state championship my senior year and finished sixth in the USA Today rankings — so as a freshman I kind of knew that my playing time if I grinded through it would be scant.
I also knew there wasn't much of a market for a light-hitting, good-glove second baseman out there, with an adequate arm at best. At that age, too, I always loved golf but it was hard to do both golf and tennis. I wasn't mean enough at a young age to play football; it was my favorite but I wasn't mean enough for that. I watched football and played tennis.
Frierson: If you could have called any sporting event in history, which would it be?
Dantzler: Ooh, boy. My wife just said you can't say anything Munson did because he was perfection, and she's absolutely correct. I would have loved to have called it when we won the national championship in men's tennis in 1985, with that group of seniors and Coach Magill's first title. That would have been something that was incredibly special.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
Jeff Dantzler's passion for the Georgia Bulldogs runs incredibly deep, as does his knowledge of all Georgia sports. Perhaps more than anyone, Dantzler, one of the radio voices of Georgia athletics and a regular video contributor here on GeorgiaDogs.com, can talk intelligently for a long, long time about everything from Bulldog football to women's basketball to golf and tennis.
All of that knowledge is coming in handy during the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. Dantzler hosts, with Chris Brame, "The Home Team" radio show on 960 The Ref each weekday afternoon, and they've got a lot of hours to fill each week and not a lot of current sports action to discuss. Dantzler is a diehard sports fan beyond his love for the Bulldogs and every bit of sports trivia and every sports opinion is being put to good use these days.
During a recent Quick Chat, Dantzler, who has been calling Georgia women's basketball and baseball games since the 1990s, talked about working during the shutdown, playing sports when he was young, calling Georgia's 20-inning baseball game versus Clemson in 2019, and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: You still have a radio show to do even though no sports are happening right now, in the U.S. at least, so how are you filling those hours each day?
Dantzler: Chris and I are doing a lot of lists [laughs]. We're probably like everybody else, we've done a lot of lists, we've done a lot of Top 10s, we've done a lot of Mount Rushmores. From the national sports scene, the NFL offseason was a savior, with the draft and all the free-agency moves. And the with the draft, Georgia had a ton of guys go, and that was terrific just to give us something to talk about there.
We're all hungry for things to get back, certainly, and for me, I've missed all the spring sports here and, obviously, Dave (Johnston) and I calling the baseball. It was heartbreaking (not having the baseball season) because it was a special group of guys this year and I've missed it. I go by Foley Field at least two or three times a day and it's hard, I've teared up a couple of times. It's rough.
The other crazy thing, as you well know, is we were setting up for a tremendous spring. Men's and women's tennis, were looking really good, golf, we were hosting the NCAA swimming — I really think this was shaping up to be one of those really great springs for Georgia. And the kids on our baseball team are such great kids, and you knew shutting everything down was going to be tough, but that made it extra tough.
Frierson: What have you been doing with all of that time that you ordinarily would have spent at all of those Georgia baseball games? Have you picked up any new hobbies?
Dantzler: My wife Emily has been teaching from hope and I've been trying to keep her from wanting to strangle me. Our little dog, Albus, is enjoying us being around because usually I'm on the road and Emily's at school teaching.
I've been very lucky, through the university and IMG I've done a lot of projects, we've done lot of Zoom interviews, we're all Zoom experts now, with all of our coaches and done some other projects and features just to try and stay busy and try to give us some content. I've been very grateful to have that to do in addition to the talk show.
I've missed baseball so much and I think back to last year when we had that 20-inning marathon against Clemson. We were sitting there like, oh, man, they've got to change the rules, this is ridiculous, these mid-week games, and I think we were all victims of taking things for granted, and I was as big a culprit as anybody. This is definitely a deal that when I get back to it, I'm going to savor every second — what I wouldn't give to call a 20-inning game right now.
Frierson: When you have something like that, by the 13th inning or so you've probably already burned through any and all bits of interesting prepared material, so what was it like going through those last five or six innings? Do you remember anything you said there at the end?
Dantzler: I think Dave and I figured we had gotten fully punch-drunk by about the 15th innings. I think when we won it was as much joy and relief and it was also the realization that we had just witnessed something historic. What was really cool about that game, too, was it had started grinding and as it got later and later word started getting out that we were still playing, so a lot of the college kids that had been out that evening started trickling in around midnight. We got that second wave (of energy) as the crowd got rejuvenated.
That was something that I'll never forget and that was definitely, as Dave and I said, that was something historic and I hope we never have to witness another 20-inning game again [laughs].
Frierson: Did you play a lot of sports growing up? We're you a sports-obsessed kid?
Dantzler: I just loved sports from the time I was very young. It kind of hit at a perfect age for me, I was 8 years old in 1980, so my love affair with Georgia was off and running hard. One of my first memories, I remember being with my family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and watching the '78 Tech (football) game. I was wearing a Georgia shirt and that's one of the first things that I remember.
With what happened with Georgia in the 1980s, it was an incredible time. I love all sports — football, basketball, baseball, golf and tennis — and I've said, it didn't take me long to figure out that I was not going to be the next Herschel Walker, the next Dominique Wilkins or the next Mikael Pernfors, so I decided I probably ought to find a better alley. I was certainly able to find ways to stay in the games.
My dad also had a great love of sports and he helped facilitate that in me, as well.
Frierson: What was your best sport?
Dantzler: Tennis was my best sport, tennis and basketball. My freshman year in high school (in Statesboro), our basketball team started three freshmen and one of them went to Louisville and one of them went to Auburn — we won the state championship my senior year and finished sixth in the USA Today rankings — so as a freshman I kind of knew that my playing time if I grinded through it would be scant.
I also knew there wasn't much of a market for a light-hitting, good-glove second baseman out there, with an adequate arm at best. At that age, too, I always loved golf but it was hard to do both golf and tennis. I wasn't mean enough at a young age to play football; it was my favorite but I wasn't mean enough for that. I watched football and played tennis.
Frierson: If you could have called any sporting event in history, which would it be?
Dantzler: Ooh, boy. My wife just said you can't say anything Munson did because he was perfection, and she's absolutely correct. I would have loved to have called it when we won the national championship in men's tennis in 1985, with that group of seniors and Coach Magill's first title. That would have been something that was incredibly special.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
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.
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