1980 Seniors’ Bond Remains Strong

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Their bodies may not be the same due to the passage of time — aches and pains and medications are popular topics when they get together — but the bond that the seniors on Georgia's 1980 national championship football team share is as strong as ever.

"It's a great group of guys and we'd do anything for each other," said Frank Ros, a linebacker and the 1980 team captain, a role he's unofficially maintained in the decades since.

It's a bond built on respect and experience, on trust and achievement. All the great teams have it, said former Bulldog center Hugh Nall (1977-80), who went on to a long coaching career at programs like Ole Miss and Auburn.

"I was in coaching for so many years and that doesn't happen with every team, but the championship teams always have a little bit different air about them," Nall said.

Earlier this month, 14 of the seniors from the 1980 team got together on the Gulf Coast near Tallahassee, Fla., at a place co-owned by Nall, defensive back Chris Welton and a friend of theirs. Several of their teammates have passed away over the past 40 years and a few others were unable to make this reunion, but those that did make it enjoyed a couple of days of fishing, reminiscing and reconnection.

"Half a dozen of us didn't even touch a fishing pole, we were just glad to be around each other," said Robert Miles, a starting defensive end in 1980 and the longtime Director of Life Skills program for the UGA Athletic Association.

These seniors — no senior citizen jokes here — met as teenagers just starting out on the road to adulthood and all that it brings. They played, practiced and studied together, all in pursuit of success on and off the field.

Now, they're men in their 60s with decades of life experience since they last put on a pair of shoulder pads and ran around inside Sanford Stadium. They've gone from being young to talking about their young families, to talking about their grandchildren — Nall has seven — as well as everything else under the sun.

"Family is probably the No. 1 topic, and the next is probably the aches and pains that everybody has," Nall said with a laugh. "It's fun to watch each other getting old, I guess. It's a good part of life; thank goodness we're still getting old."

"I think it's more special every year," Ros said. "We've lost guys over the years and we're not getting any younger, and we're bound by a very extraordinary common goal that we accomplished. I think that and the respect that we have for each other, it's really amazing.

"If somebody needs help, these guys have never hesitated to step forward and be there."

Nall did a lot of the cooking for this reunion, starting with a low country boil on the first night and "just a good ol' fish fry" on the second, he said, including some coleslaw that Nall made. The fishing was so bad that they went to a local market to get the fish for dinner the second night.

"Hugh Nall is a hell of a cook," Ros said, adding, "My wife made two big pound cakes and those guys killed that."

Miles rode down to Florida with receiver Amp Arnold, offensive lineman Nat Hudson and two-time All-American cornerback, Circle of Honor member and College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Scott Woerner.

"We all ended up commuting down together and enjoying some pre-get-together conversations within that small group," Miles said.

Along with attending the reunions that the Georgia athletic department organizes for the whole team, the seniors have in recent years, with Ros leading the way, found a time and place to get together on their own, Miles said. They've had several reunions on Welton's farm down in Greenville, Ga., near LaGrange.

"If we can get together, we'll try to do it," he said.

Because of the pandemic, Georgia wasn't able to hold a big celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1980 season. Most of the seniors did safely get together for a luncheon at coach Vince Dooley's house, Ros said. Plans are in the works for a proper celebration of that team and that season in the fall, so that Georgia's fans can give those players the roaring salute they deserve.

When the 14 seniors got together earlier this month, it was a low-key, laidback gathering of a group of guys that have now been friends for more than 40 years. The relationships they built as teammates have stood the test of time, through the inevitable ups and downs that life presents.

"It's amazing that camaraderie is still there," Nall said. "It's a special feeling when those guys are around."

Assistant Sports Communications Director 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.

University of Georgia Athletics

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