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Georgia Southern Eagles

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Georgia Southern Eagles
Logo
UniversityGeorgia Southern University
ConferenceSun Belt Conference (primary)
CCSA (women's swimming & diving)
Southern (rifle)
NCAADivision I (FBS)
Athletic directorJared Benko
LocationStatesboro, Georgia
Varsity teams17
Football stadiumPaulson Stadium
Basketball arenaHill Convocation Center
Baseball stadiumJ. I. Clements Stadium
Softball stadiumEagle Field at GS Softball Complex
Soccer stadiumEagle Field
Volleyball arenaHanner Fieldhouse
MascotFreedom (live); GUS (costume)
NicknameEagles
Fight songGeorgia Southern Fight Song
ColorsBlue and white[1]
   
Websitegseagles.com

The Georgia Southern Eagles are the athletic team(s) of Georgia Southern University (GS). The Eagles compete in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A) and are members of the NCAA Division I Sun Belt Conference. Prior to joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014, the Eagles were members of the Trans America Athletic Conference (presently known as the ASUN Conference) and the Southern Conference (SoCon). During their time at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS/I-AA) level, the Eagles have won six national championships.

The only Georgia Southern teams which compete outside the Sun Belt do so in sports that are not sponsored by that conference. Women's swimming & diving competes in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association. Rifle, a fully co-educational sport in which GS fields a women-only team, competes in the SoCon. Men's soccer will compete in the Mid-American Conference starting in the fall 2021 season, following the demise of the Sun Belt men's soccer league.

Sports sponsored

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Men's sports Women's sports
Baseball Basketball
Basketball Cross country
Football Golf
Golf Rifle
Soccer Soccer
Tennis Softball
Swimming and diving
Tennis
Track & field†
Volleyball
† – Track and field includes both indoor and outdoor

Baseball

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Main article: Georgia Southern Eagles baseball
An Eagles baseball player fields a pickoff throw during a 2014 game

The baseball team is led by head coach Rodney Hennon, who is in his seventeenth year at Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern played its first year of baseball in 1933.[2] The team went to the College World Series in 1973 and 1990 and has appeared in 11 NCAA regionals. The team was also crowned the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Champions in 1962, sweeping Portland State.[3]

The team won the 2009 Southern Conference baseball tournament with a 7 to 3 victory over top seeded Elon and clinch its first SoCon title since 2002. They also won the 2011 SoCon Tournament after Chris Beck pitched a complete-game shutout against Samford University. They lost two games against future national champion South Carolina, losing a 2–1 decision, and NC State, coming short by three runs in a 5–2 game.[citation needed]

Men's basketball

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Main article: Georgia Southern Eagles men's basketball
Georgia Southern (in white) vs Georgia State in 2020

The head coach of the Georgia Southern men's basketball squad is Charlie Henry.[4] Introduced on March 29, 2023, Henry is the 15th head coach in program history.[5] The team participated in the NCAA Division I Tournament in 1983, 1987 and 1992, and the NIT in 1988, 1989 and 2006.[6] The first year of men's basketball at Georgia Southern was 1926, and the first year the school played in Division I was 1971.[7]

Georgia Southern basketball player Roger Moore was the first African-American athlete to receive a scholarship in the University System of Georgia.[8]

Football

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Main article: Georgia Southern Eagles football
Georgia Southern (in white) on offense at the 2018 Camellia Bowl

The head coach of the Eagles is Clay Helton. The Eagles have won six NCAA FCS (I-AA) National Championships (1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1999, and 2000). In addition, the Eagles have won ten Southern Conference championships (1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2011, and 2012) and one Sun Belt Conference championship (2014); with the Eagles' first Sun Belt title, they became only the third team, after Nevada in 1992 and Marshall in 1997, to win their conference championship in their first year at the FBS level.[9] Home football games are played at Allen E. Paulson Stadium, known as "The Prettiest Little Stadium in America." Georgia Southern fielded its first football team in 1910; however, the sport was suspended for World War II and was not restarted until 1982.[10]

Erk Russell

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Main article: Erk Russell

In 1981, former University of Georgia Defensive Coordinator Erk Russell was hired to restart the football program at Georgia Southern College (as the university was called at the time), a program that had not competed in forty years. Erk Russell became America's winningest coach, leading to the Eagles to three national championships. The Eagles extended Division I's longest home win streak from 26 to 37 games, gaining distinction as the only 15–0 college team of the twentieth century. Russell's final record at Georgia Southern, after his retirement in 1989, was 83–22–1 (.788).[11]

Erk Russell addressed the team the night before his shocking and sudden death on September 8, 2006. Georgia Southern University and thousands of friends, family, and fans gathered at Paulson Stadium to mourn the passing of Erk Russell, one of America's most exciting and successful college football coaches.[12]

Since Russell's departure, football has continued to be prominent at Georgia Southern. Head coach Tim Stowers succeeded Russell and won the 1990 national title, while Paul Johnson added two more in 1999 and 2000 with teams led by all-time Division I rushing leader Adrian Peterson.

Beautiful Eagle Creek

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Beautiful Eagle Creek

In the early 1980s, a drainage ditch that the team had to cross several times a day during football practice came to be called Beautiful Eagle Creek by popular Head Football Coach Erk Russell. When the Eagles traveled to Northern Iowa during the 1985 playoffs, Coach Russell brought along a jug of Eagle Creek water to sprinkle on the field. The Eagles were victorious and went on to win many national championships with the help of that magical water. Today, the jug is on display at Georgia Southern University and signs have been erected along the creek.

The Hugo Bowl

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In 1989, ESPN was to broadcast a Thursday Night Football game between the Georgia Southern Eagles and the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. However, Hugo, a category 4 hurricane, was headed straight towards the coast of Georgia. At the time of landfall, Hugo ranked as the eleventh most intense hurricane to strike U.S. this century, and it delivered the highest ever recorded storm surge on the East Coast. Nevertheless, the decision was made to continue with the game. For safety purposes, an open line was kept between the press box at Paulson Stadium and the National Hurricane Center in Florida. The Eagles went on to defeat MTSU by a score of 26–0 in a game known as the Hugo Bowl.

Traditions

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Nickname

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Sun Belt Conference logo in Georgia Southern's colors

Eagles is the third nickname of Georgia Southern University. From 1924 to 1941, the nickname was the Blue Tide. After World War II, athletic teams were referred to as the Professors, as the school was a teachers college. However, in 1959, when the school was renamed Georgia Southern College, a student vote was held to determine the new mascot. Eagles was chosen over Colonels by a narrow margin.[13]

Plain uniforms

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When the football program was revived in 1982, the school did not have a large budget and coach Erk Russell ordered solid blue helmets and asked the players to put a white strip of tape down the middle. The uniforms consisted of plain white pants and blue jerseys without names.[14] With the subsequent success of the Eagles, the basic simple design of the uniforms has remained the same.

Notable alumni

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Name Class year Notability Reference(s)
NaJee Thompson 2023 NFL Cornerback - Minnesota Vikings
Darrell Baker Jr. 2022 NFL Cornerback - Indianapolis Colts
Tyler Bass 2020 NFL Kicker - Buffalo Bills
Kindle Vildor 2020 NFL Cornerback - Detroit Lions
Matt Breida 2017 NFL Running Back - New York Giants
Younghoe Koo 2016 NFL Kicker - Atlanta Falcons
Jerick McKinnon 2014 NFL Running Back - Minnesota Vikings (Third Round Draft Pick in 2014)
J.J. Wilcox 2013 NFL Safety - Dallas Cowboys (Second Round Draft Pick in 2013)
Darius Eubanks 2013 NFL Linebacker - Cleveland Browns
Laron Scott 2012 NFL Defensive Back - New York Giants
Victor Roache 2012 MLB Outfielder, NCAA Homerun Derby Participant, Led NCAA Div.I Baseball in HR
Adrian N. Peterson 2002 Former NFL Running Back - Chicago Bears
Rob Bironas 2001 Former NFL Kicker, set record for most field goals in a game in 2007 (8)
Kiwaukee Thomas 2000 Former NFL Player
Earthwind Moreland 2000 Former NFL Player
Todd Greene 1993 Former MLB Catcher
Joey Hamilton 1991 Former MLB Pitcher
Michael Curry 1990 Former NBA player, Former Head Coach of the Detroit Pistons, and president of the NBA Players Association
Jeff Sanders 1989 Former NBA player, first round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls (20th pick overall)
Fred Stokes 1987 Former NFL Player, started in Super Bowl XXVI
Tracy Ham 1986 member of the College Football Hall of Fame, 1995 CFL Most Outstanding Player
Ken Szotkiewicz 1968 Former MLB Shortstop - Detroit Tigers

References

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  1. ^ Georgia Southern Visual Identity Guide (PDF). April 19, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  2. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.georgiasoutherneagles.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ Delma Eugene Presley, The Southern Century. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University, 2006. 179.
  4. ^ "Charlie Henry - Men's Basketball Coach".
  5. ^ "Charlie Henry Formally Introduced as Georgia Southern Men's Basketball Coach". 29 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Georgia Southern Eagles Basketball 2005–06 Schedule - Eagles Home and Away - ESPN". Espn.go.com. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
  7. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  8. ^ Delma Eugene Presley, The Southern Century. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University, 2006. 190.
  9. ^ "Georgia Southern Claims Outright Sun Belt Title - Sun Belt Winners Score Big on Saturday" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  10. ^ Delma Eugene Presley, The Southern Century. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University, 2006. 50.
  11. ^ "GSUFANS.com". Tscsports.com. Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
  12. ^ "Columns | April 27, 2015". Uga.edu. 2015-04-27. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
  13. ^ Georgia Southern Football Media Guide, 2004. 188
  14. ^ Delma Eugene Presley, The Southern Century. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University, 2006. 230.
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