Athens
()
About this ebook
Patrick Garbin
Patrick Garbin is a freelance journalist who has authored ten books, eight of which relate to University of Georgia football. He is the UGA football beat reporter for DAWGTIME magazine and DawgTime.com and the research writer for UGASports.com of the Rivals network. He lives just outside of Athens, Georgia, in Bishop with his two children, Trip and Rebecca.
Read more from Patrick Garbin
Dawgs Gone Wild: The Scandalous ’70s of UGA Football Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Georgia Bulldogs Playbook: Inside the Huddle for the Greatest Plays in Bulldogs History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Photos of University of Georgia Football Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Then Vince Said to Herschel. . .": The Best Georgia Bulldog Stories Ever Told Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Love Georgia/I Hate Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Road to Georgia: Incredible Twists and Improbable Turns Along the Georgia Bulldogs Recruiting Trail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Athens
Related ebooks
Ground Crew: The Fight to End Segregation at Georgia State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Tracks: A Record Producer’s Southern Roots Music Journey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greensboro Reader Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Quiet Trailblazer: My Journey as the First Black Graduate of the University of Georgia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLet the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women's Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women's Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson: The Baseball Legend's Battle for Civil Rights during World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMississippi Zion: The Struggle for Liberation in Attala County, 1865–1915 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Don't Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLouis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRochdale Village: Robert Moses, 6,000 Families, and New York City's Great Experiment in Integrated Housing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrying in the Rain: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives of the Everly Brothers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Lewis: Courage in Action Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSubstitute Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bruce Springsteen: An Illustrated Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCan’t Stand Still: Taylor Gordon and the Harlem Renaissance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPopularizing the Past: Historians, Publishers, and Readers in Postwar America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNowhere with You: The East Coast Anthems of Joel Plaskett, The Emergency and Thrush Hermit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesegregation State: College Writing Programs after the Civil Rights Movement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCurating America: Journeys through Storyscapes of the American Past Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear Kamala: Women Write to the New Vice President Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings25th Anniversary Edition - An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Live at the Bitter End Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife in the Key of Rubini: A Hollywood Child Prodigy and His Wild Adventures in Crime, Music, Sex, Sinatra and Wonder Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack On Madison Avenue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLone Star: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Dan Rather Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography: The Faith of a Boundary-Breaking Hero Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeep South Dispatch: Memoir of a Civil Rights Journalist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
United States History For You
The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Athens
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Athens - Patrick Garbin
together.
INTRODUCTION
The nickname of Athens, Georgia—the Classic City—can be traced back to the 1870s, when Athens was considered classic
simply for its name and neoclassical architecture, while the city
only contained around 5,000 residents at the time. The University of Georgia (UGA) was primarily responsible for the town’s initial growth spurt, and by 1960 the population of Athens was six times that of a century before. Still, as late as 1957, although Athens was trying so very hard to become a real city
according to an article from that year, it had the attitudes and policies of a small country town. And without that sacrifice [of such attitudes and policies] it will always be nothing more than that.
This book is intended to be a pictorial modern
history of Athens. It begins just past the time when life anatomy classes were literally not taught at UGA because the Athens townspeople would frown upon them as ‘choking and vulgar displays’
and follows the area’s evolution into a thriving, diverse, unique city in which the original attitudes and policies were sacrificed over the course of the next 50-plus years.
A number of different subjects can be identified with Athens from the 1960s to the present, but only so many can be depicted on the following pages. After much consideration, plus asking the opinion of several other native Athenians, I have chosen overarching themes, each of which serves as a chapter in the book: student and campus life (predominantly at UGA), the businesses and attractions of the city’s historic downtown district, the Georgia Bulldogs (UGA’s athletic teams), and the unparalleled music scene and unique culture of Athens. Most prominently, and thus addressed in the first chapter in the book, is how much and how quickly Athens has changed during the last half-century—perhaps more so than any other college town in the country.
The extensive development of Athens began with the integration of area schools, first at UGA in 1961 and in the Clarke County public school system soon thereafter. In the early 1960s, Beechwood Shopping Center opened, the town’s first shopping center. This is significant because after Beechwood’s opening, many shopping centers followed over the next two decades—including the Georgia Square Mall, the county’s first and only shopping mall—and forced many downtown retail stores to relocate into shopping centers or close their doors altogether. Instead of serving a common retail center, the downtown area of Athens was on the verge of becoming something much more extraordinary.
Like many college towns of the time, Athens had its fair share of demonstrators during the late 1960s and early 1970s: Vietnam War protests were followed by those supporting the women’s liberation movement and those advocating for gay rights. In 1974, UGA students joined the unusual nationwide phenomenon of streaking
(running in the nude). On March 7, 1974, more than 1,500 simultaneous streakers on the university campus set the world record for largest group streak—a record that still stands more than 40 years later. By the mid-1970s, the population of Athens had increased approximately 50 percent since 1960; in 1976, the growth was supported by the introduction of citywide public bus transportation: the Athens Transit System.
In a history about a town known for its party-like atmosphere, it would be remiss to not mention what has been called the wildest night in the history of Athens: the post-game celebration that followed the UGA football team’s 21-0 upset victory over Alabama in 1976. Countless partiers invaded Milledge Avenue, causing the police to completely close the road from Broad Street to Five Points—a distance of more than a mile. Speaking of being festive, by the end of the 1970s, a foundation had been laid for the city’s soon-to-be-celebrated music and art scene as bands like The B-52’s, R.E.M., Widespread Panic, and other recognizable acts began to perform at places like the Georgia Theatre, 40 Watt Club, and Uptown Lounge.
For the 1980 season, the Bulldogs were the top team in all of college football after UGA won its first national title in any sport (the football team claims a consensus
national championship for its 1942 season, but it was not recognized as such until the 1990s). After nearly a century of athletic competition but no national titles, the Bulldogs captured a combined 39 team national championships in nine different sports from 1980 through the 2013–2014 academic year, including 10 in women’s gymnastics. The 1980s also saw the arrival of more music venues, bars, restaurants, artistic outlets, and coffee shops in