Athens Trivia
Uncover the fascinating side of Athens, Georgia! Check out these Athens firsts, oddities, and claims to fame.
Athens Oddities:
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The world's only double-barreled cannon was built in Athens and is displayed on the grounds of City Hall. The
prototype was a spectacular failure in test firings and was never used in combat. Featured in Ripley's Believe
it or Not!
"The Tree that Owns Itself" was willed eight feet of land on all sides around its base, and is surrounded by a
vintage cobblestone street. Recognized by Ripley's Believe it or Not!
Athens Firsts:
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Chartered by the Georgia General Assembly Jan. 27, 1785, The University of Georgia is America's first state
chartered university.
Athens is the birthplace of America's first garden club. Founders Memorial Garden, on UGA's North Campus,
was established to honor the club.
Athens native Fred Birchmore was the first man to bicycle around the world.
Athens resident Ben Epps was the first Southern Aviator. He successfully designed, built, and flew the first
airplane in Georgia in 1907, just four years after the Wright brothers' (from Ohio) first flight.
Michael Thurmond, Georgia's current Commissioner of Labor, was the first African-American elected to
statewide office in Georgia.
Ida Mae Hiram, Athens' first black female dentist, was the first African-American to pass the Georgia Dental
Board exams.
Athens became the smallest municipality in America to develop a far-reaching wireless cloud in late 2002,
when The University of Georgia's New Media Institute launched the Wireless Athens Group Zone (WAGz).
The zone stretches from Broad Street to Dougherty, and from Pulaski Street to Thomas. WAGz allows
individuals with portable computers to access information about downtown businesses, tour Athens' music
history, and communicate with others using the system.
Antebellum, Confederate, and Military Notables:
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UGA's main library houses the original Constitution of the Confederate States of America, on display once
annually in April on Confederate Memorial Day.
Athens was spared Sherman's "March to the Sea," leaving a variety of antebellum structures, many of which
are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Over four dozen historic sites in and around Athens comprise the self-guided Heartland of the Confederacy
Civil War Trail.
The U.S. Navy Supply Corps training base is located in Athens and houses one of only 11 United States
Naval museums in the country. The museum, located in the historic Carnegie Library, contains hundreds of
artifacts such as the first handwritten check to the U.S. by Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm, a "modest" check of
$760 million.
Sports Glory:
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Sanford Stadium's 2003 seating capacity of 91,780 is the fifth largest on-campus collegiate stadium. It is
renowned for the English Privet hedges that encompass the playing field.
UGA's 21 Division IA sports teams have won 25 national championships, including 15 since 1999.
UGA is 9th in the 2006 Directors' Cup standings, the annual ranking of the nation's best all-around collegiate
athletics programs.
Football players Herschel Walker (1982) and Frank Sinkwich (1942) are UGA's two Heisman Trophy winners.
The trophies are on display at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall Sports Museum.
On New Year's Day, 1981, the Georgia Bulldog football team (led by Herschel Walker) defeated Notre Dame
in the Sugar Bowl to win the 1980 NCAA National Championship.
Francis "Fran" Tarkenton, who attended Athens High School and UGA, went on to throw for more yards,
completions, and touchdowns than any other player in NFL history.
The Collegiate NCAA Tennis Hall of Fame is located on the University of Georgia campus in the Dan Magill
Tennis Complex, which is also the semi-permanent home of the Men's NCAA Tennis Championships.
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The 425,000-square-foot Bernard B. and Eugenia A. Ramsey Student Center for Physical Activities is the
largest and most comprehensive fitness/exercise facility for students and faculty in the country, and is rated
by Sports Illustrated as the nation's best such facility.
For more Bulldog trivia, visit Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall Sports Museum, or online at
http://georgiadogs.ocsn.com/traditions/index.shtml.
On the UGA Campus:
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The University of Georgia's College of Journalism administers the Peabody Awards, known as the Pulitzer
Prize for broadcasters.
Dr. Edward J. Larson, professor of history and law, received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for history. Larson won
the Pulitzer for his book "Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over
Science and Religion."
The Georgia Review, the University's quarterly literary journal, was for five consecutive years a finalist in the
fiction category for a National Magazine Award, one of the highest accolades in the magazine publishing
industry. The Review won the award in 1986.
The UGA Chapel features an enormous painting of the interior of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome; measuring
17 feet by 23 ½ feet, it is purported to be the largest framed oil painting in the world.
The University libraries, with more than 3.7 million volumes, are ranked 28th among the nation's best 109
research libraries in ratings compiled by the Association of Research Libraries. The libraries contain one of
the largest map collections in the United States.
The 150-year old Lumpkin house, on ultra-modern South Campus, is on a gigantic parcel of land that was
willed to the University of Georgia by the Lumpkin family. The gift's one stipulation: if the house is ever moved
or destroyed, ownership of the land will revert to the Lumpkin family.
The black iron fence that surrounds North Campus was built in the 1850s to keep livestock off campus.
Memorial Hall, located on the UGA Campus, was built with 47 columns to honor the 47 UGA men who died in
World War I.
The UGA libraries have established the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame to recognize authors for their
contributions to the state's literary heritage. Two writers, living or deceased, will be chosen annually for
induction into the Hall. Among the first 12 members: Margaret Mitchell, Martin Luther King Jr., Flannery
O'Conner, Sidney Lanier and W.E.B. DuBois.
The University is home to the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, the State Museum of Art and the State
Museum of Natural History.
The Georgia General Assembly designated the University's Botanical Garden the State Botanical Garden in
1984. The 312-acre forest south of the main campus features a 20,000-square-foot conservatory/visitor's
center that contains tropical and semi-tropical plants.
The General Assembly designated the Georgia Museum of Art the State Museum of Art in 1982. Founded in
1945, the museum has a permanent collection of more than 8,000 works with primary focus on American
artists.
The General Assembly in 1999 designated the Museum of Natural History as the State of Georgia Museum of
Natural History. Housed in several departments, the museum is composed of collections of arthropods,
plants, rocks, snakes, fish, invertebrates, mammals, fungi, birds, pollen and plant microspores and contains
more than 4,500,000 specimens.
Enrollment for fall semester 2006 totaled 33,959 - the second-highest highest enrollment in UGA history.
The 4,681 new freshmen who enrolled in the fall of 2006 had an SAT average of 1228 and a high school
grade point average of 3.76. The SAT average is 238 points above the state average and 207 points above
the national average.
Of the new freshmen who enrolled in the summer and fall of 2006, about 85 percent were Georgia residents
and about 98 percent of the Georgia freshmen received the HOPE Scholarship. Altogether, for the current
academic year, a total of 16,837 UGA students in all classes has HOPE Scholarships with a total value of
$81.3 million. Since the HOPE Scholarship program was established in 1993, a total of 73,431 students has
received scholarships worth a total of $668 million.
•For more University of Georgia points of pride, visit The University of Georgia's Visitor Center, or online
at http://www.uga.edu/profile/pride.html .
The Music Scene:
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Athens is world-renowned for its music scene, and nurtured such bands as REM, the B-52s, Widespread
Panic, Drivin' and Cryin', and Pylon, just to name a few.
On April 18, 1998, Downtown Athens hosted the largest CD release party in history: local band Widespread
Panic gave a free concert that attracted almost 100,000 music fans.
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In August, 1996, R.E.M. signed a new deal with Warner Bros. worth $80 million, the largest record contract in
history.
For more Athens music history and trivia, take the self-guided Tour of Athens Music History, or visit: The
Georgia Music Hall of Fame's Athens page, Flagpole magazine, orhttp://www.athensmusic.net.
Gardens:
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The Georgia General Assembly designated the University's Botanical Garden the State Botanical Garden in
1984.
The 312-acre preserve south of the main campus features a 20,000-square-foot conservatory/visitor's center
that contains tropical and semi-tropical plants.
Athens is the birthplace of America's first garden club. The club is recognized by the Founders Memorial
Garden on UGA's North Campus.
The Ginkgo tree is Athens' official tree.
The Ginkgo tree in front of the UGA President's house was planted in 1929, soon after the owner returned
from a meeting of the Garden Club of America.
The Iris is the official flower of Athens.
The Western soapberry tree in the center of the boxwood garden at the UGA President's House is the only
one in Athens.
The dogwoods along Prince Avenue were a project spearheaded by homeowner Hugh Gordon to enhance
the neighborhood; the oldest was planted in 1948.
African-American Accolades:
Athens native Michael Thurmond, Georgia's current Commissioner of Labor, was the first African-American
elected to statewide office in Georgia.
Ida Mae Hiram, Athens' first black female dentist, was the first African-American to pass the Georgia Dental
Board exams.
The Morton Theatre, completed in 1910, is the only remaining vaudeville theatre on the National Register of
Historic Places that was built, owned, and operated by an African-American, Monroe "Pink" Morton.
In its heyday, the Morton featured headliners such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington.
The landmark building and community cultural center also housed black professionals' offices, where doctors,
dentists, pharmacists, jewelers, barbers, and insurance companies served the black community throughout
the first half of the 20th century.
Dr. William Harris, one of Athens' most prominent early African-American physicians and the city's first black
pharmacist, co-founded the Georgia State Medical Association in Augusta, served on this association's
executive board, was elected president of its medical section, and served as a prominent Republican at the
20th National Republican Convention in 1932.
Hall Johnson, a native Athenian who incorporated jazz and blues techniques, established the Hall Johnson
Chorale, and is considered one of America's most distinguished black musicians.
But in its 221 years and on its 615-acre campus, the university has established traditions, hosted
presidents and even fended off livestock intrusions. Here are 10 facts you may not know about the
university and its rich history:
1.
Two early UGA leaders signed the U.S. Constitution. Abraham Baldwin, UGA's first president and author of the
university charter, and William Few, a member of the board of trustees, signed the U.S. Constitution as
representatives of the state of Georgia.
2.
A wooden fence once protected the university from cows and other livestock. In 1858, the fence was replaced by the
Arch and an iron fence. Legend has it that instead of opening the gate, freshmen were forced to climb over the barrier
to leave campus.
3.
Phi Kappa Hall was occupied by Union soldiers during the Civil War. During this occupation most of the literary
society's library unfortunately disappeared.
4.
Alumni Dr. Crawford W. Long and Alexander H. Stephens were roommates. Long, who became the first physician to
use ether as an anesthetic, and Stephens, who became the vice president of the Confederate States of America,
shared a room on the north side of Old College.
5.
A UGA professor introduced football to the university. In the fall of 1891, Charles Herty, a chemistry professor, taught
willing students East coast-style-rugby on what is now Herty Field.
6.
UGA defeated Mercer College 50-0 in its first football game. After the Jan. 30, 1892, game, Mercer-humiliated and
humbled-disbanded its football team. To this day, Mercer does not have a football program.
7.
The university mascot was a goat before it was a bulldog. Herty and his team paid homage to the surrounding
livestock and labeled the team "Goats" before their second football game, a Feb. 22, 1892, match against Auburn.
The Goats lost, 10-0.
8.
Seven U.S. presidents have visited UGA. James Monroe, Grover Cleveland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy,
Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush all have been on campus.
9.
Memorial Hall honors the 47 UGA students who died in World War I. The hall opened in 1929 and served as the main
student union until the Tate Student Center opened in 1983.
10. The university's Chapel contains an oil painting purported to be the world's largest. Painted by George Cooke, the 17by-23.5-foot masterpiece "Interior of St. Peter's Rome" was presented to the university in 1867. The painting endured
a wagon ride from Alabama, two fires and 128 years of heat and humidity before undergoing restoration in 1995.
CCSD
1. What percentage of Clarke County students receive free breakfast and lunch? (100% through a
federal grant)
2. How much were Clarke County grads offered in scholarships for 2015 - not including the
HOPE? (over $7 million)
Athens
In what year did ACC unify? 1991
Which US President received an honorary doctor of laws degree from UGA? Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Which British royalty walked between the hedges at a UGA football game? Prince Charles
Name 2 famous Athenians who supported the tennis program at UGA? Kenny Rogers and Kim Basinger
What three Olympic sports competed in Athens during the 1996 Olympics? Rhythmic Gymnastics,
Volleyball, and Soccer.
History was made in Athens during the 1996 Olympics when the United States won the first Olympic
gold medal in what sport?
Which ACC Commissioner started Flagpole Magazine in 1987? Jared Bailey