Lukacs: Tracing the history of the hedges at Georgia's Sanford Stadium on the 80th anniversary of their planting - ESPN
Lukacs: Tracing the history of the hedges at Georgia's Sanford Stadium on the 80th anniversary of their planting - ESPNNot long after, when university president Steadman V. Sanford's dream of having the "best football stadium in Dixie" was slowly becoming steel and concrete reality, Martin thought rose hedges could not only beautify the new structure but also distinguish it from the other stadiums being constructed in the pre-stock market crash building boom taking place on campuses across the country. But there was a problem.
"University horticulturists said that roses would not thrive here in Athens, Georgia," Magill says.
So it was decided that Georgia's new gridiron would instead be bound by privet Ligustrum. It was a last-minute decision. The hedges were trucked in from Atlanta, and reportedly plugged into the red Georgia earth just hours before the game by workers wielding shovels and flashlights.
The stadium dedication was no doubt a stressful occasion for Martin, the game's primary promoter. More than 30,000 fans, the largest crowd to witness a southern college football game, crammed the stadium. Governors from all nine southern states also were in attendance.
"It was the biggest athletic event ever held in the South at the time," Magill says.
"It's a royal hedge to the Georgia people, but anywhere else, it's a weed," Dooley says.
Dooley is not spreading a nasty rumor started by Florida or Georgia Tech fans. He speaks the truth: Privet Ligustrum is indeed a weed, and an invasive one at that. Introduced in the United States in the early 1800s, the semi-evergreen, deciduous shrubs are not only poisonous to horses and mildly toxic to humans, but also capable of overrunning a habitat and eliminating native species.
