For years it has been on my refrigerator, a reminder of the rivalry and ribbing among fans that is the very soul of Southern college football. 

I’m a Georgia fan, Dawg born and Dawg bred, and when I die I’ll be Dawg dead.

Thus I’ve never cared much for most college teams with orange in their color schemes — Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, or even Clemson (even though admittedly that’s changed in the last few years since a couple of my former students in Adam Choice and Austin Bryant play for the Tigers and I like their head coach).

In fact, I used to have a T-shirt featuring cartoons of fans of each of those programs with the words “Rednecks Turn Orange In the Fall” emblazoned above them. 

Of them all, the relationship between Georgia and Auburn is different. As the oldest university in America and by 80 years the senior in the arrangement, Georgia folks have always regarded Auburn as a “little brother” of sorts.

After all, Auburn plays “Glory Glory” as their fight song, too, even though Georgia started using it in 1892 as a mocking thumbed-nose to Yankees who used it as a battle hymn against our state in the war that ended 27 years previous.  

Some even say the famed “War Eagle” cry used by Auburn can be traced back to Georgia. It’s true. A letter from former Georgia coach Bill Cunningham to the Atlanta Journal in 1944 offers his insight into the origins:

“‘War Eagle’ as a call to arms was born in the hills of North Georgia, fostered by the Georgia football team of 1912-13, and later adopted by Auburn… While the Auburn adoption cannot be characterized as a plagiarism, as in their hands it has inspired many a victory for their famous football teams, the cry belongs to Georgia.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that — imitation is actually supposedly quite flattering. 

Some years back, I wrote on these pages how much I enjoyed watching Georgia defeat Auburn. And as always seemed to happen, the next year Auburn won. In fact, when I wrote those words Auburn seemed to be taking control of the overall series between the schools.  

The next morning I discovered an “anonymous” Auburn fan had left an orange and blue paw-print magnet on my mailbox, with an attached note: “War Damn Eagle!” (note to my mom: don’t be mad at me for cussing, those are Auburn’s words, not mine). 

I took the paw and note down and stuck them on the fridge, alongside numerous examples of our children’s artwork.

For the 13 or so years now I’ve looked at that paw and often grinned to myself, because since it was shared the “mojo” in the series has significantly shifted in Georgia’s favor. Maybe it’s karma.

Yes, there’ve been exceptions, including the “Prayer at Jordan Hare” a few years ago when Georgia’s Tray Matthews volleyballed a pass right into an Auburn player’s arms who then ran it in for a game-winning touchdown. 

Ironically, Matthews was eventually kicked off Georgia’s team and is now Auburn’s starting safety. Karma?

So four weeks ago, Georgia traveled to Auburn as the No. 1 team in the nation, and got thumped by a 40-17 score. Seemed every Auburn fan on the planet sought me and every Georgia fan they could find to rub our noses in it. 

It was so bad Auburn’s head coach said after the game, “we just beat the dog crap out of them.”

With those words, every Dawg fan secretly made their lone wish for Christmas a rematch with Auburn. And as surely as Santa dresses in red and black they got their wish this past weekend as the two met in the SEC championship game.

Only this time it was Auburn receiving the thumping as Georgia dominated the game 28-7, gaining over 430 yards while holding AU to just over 250 total yards after giving up almost 500 three weeks ago.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold, and last Saturday it was served deliciously chilled in a big ol’ dawg food bowl. 

Speaking of bowls, Georgia will now move on to face Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl for an opportunity to play for their first national championship in 37 years. It will be UGA’s first visit to Pasadena since 1943 when Charley Trippi and Frank Sinkwich led the Bulldogs to a 9-0 win over UCLA in the middle of WWII. 

By the way — that win capped off Georgia’s first national championship season.

With the comments from Auburn’s coach that surely put a huge burr under Georgia’s saddle, seems Auburn may have well run slap over their dogma with their karma, stepping in a big pile of what he said they’d beaten out of UGA a month ago. Auburn got the knockdown in round one — but Georgia got the knockout in round two.  

Back to the paw — since my friend left that special memento for me some 13 games ago, Georgia has gone 10-3 against Auburn, and given the fact that Georgia is now the SEC champion in only year two of the Kirby Smart era, I have a feeling the grins toward it are just beginning. 

So thanks for the paw, my Plainsman/Tiger/War Eagle friend. May it continue to yield its strange magical karma on our college football mojo for many more games to come.  

Remember: it’s said karma is a dog. Or something like that.