The Georgia Southern Eagles are the athletic teams of Georgia Southern University. The Eagles compete in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) (formerly I-AA), and are a member of the NCAA Division I Southern Conference. The Eagles are the only team to win six FCS national championships.

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Traditions

Nickname

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. ^[1]

Football

The head coach of the Eagles is Chris Hatcher, who completed the 2007 season with a record of 7-4. The Eagles have won an unprecedented six NCAA FCS (I-AA) National Championships (1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1999, and 2000) and eight Southern Conference championships (1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004). 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. ^[2]

Erk Russell

In 1981, former University of Georgia Defensive Coordinator Erksine "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 Rusell 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). ^[3]

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. ^[4]

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. The current coach of the Eagles is Chris Hatcher, who was previously the head coach at Valdosta State University, where he had an all time record of 76-12. In his first season as head coach, Hatcher led the Eagles to a record of 7-4. ^[5]

Beautiful Eagle Creek

When Georgia Southern resurrected football in 1981, it lacked tradition. A drainage ditch that the team had to cross several times a day during football practice came to be called Beautiful Eagle Creek by Coach Erk Russell. When the Eagles traveled to Northern Iowa during the 1985 playoffs, Coach Russell brought along a jug of this 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 magic water.

The Hugo Bowl

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 classic that will forever be known in Eagle history as the Hugo Bowl.

Men's Basketball

The head coach of the Eagles basketball squad is Charlton Young, who is in his first year at Georgia Southern. The men's basketball team participated in the NCAA Division I Tournament in 1983, 1987, and 1992, and the NIT in 1988, 1989, and 2006. The first year of men's basketball at Georgia Southern was 1926, and the first year the school played in Division I was 1971. ^[6] Georgia Southern basketball player Roger Moore was the first African-American athlete to receive a scholarship in the University System of Georgia ^[7]

Baseball

The baseball team is led by head coach Rodney Hennon, who is in his eighth year at Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern played its first year of baseball in 1933. ^[8] 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 NAIA National Champions in 1962, sweeping Portland State. ^[9] The team most recently won the Southern Conference tournament for the 2009 season with a 7 to 3 victory over top seeded Elon and clinch its first SoCon title since 2002.

Notable alumni

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference
Adrian N. Peterson		Running Back Chicago Bears
Tracy Ham		member of the College Football Hall of Fame, 1995 CFL Most Outstanding Player
Michael Curry		Current head coach of the Detroit Pistons, former NBA player and president of the NBA Players Association
Sorden Davis		Assistant Women's Basketball Coach at [http://www.sfstategators.com/index.aspx?path
Rob Bironas		NFL kicker, holds record most field goals in a game (8)
Jeff Sanders		NBA player, first round draft pick
Todd Greene		MLB Catcher
Joey Hamilton		MLB Pitcher
Fred Stokes		Former NFL Player
Kiwaukee Thomas		NFL player
Earthwind Moreland		NFL Player

See also

• Southern Conference
• Erk Russell
• Georgia Southern Eagles football

References

1. Georgia Southern Football Media Guide, 2004. 188
2. Delma Eugene Presley, The Southern Century. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University, 2006. 50.
3. http://www.tscsports.com/news/publish/article_6785.shtml
4. http://www.uga.edu/columns/060918/news-obits.html
5. http://www.ncaafootball.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=36&url_article_id=12720&change_well_id=2
6. http://www.georgiasoutherneagles.com/downloads1/26529.pdf?ATCLID=1283216&SPSID=97230&SPID=10903&DB_O
7. Delma Eugene Presley, The Southern Century. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University, 2006. 190.
8. http://www.georgiasoutherneagles.com/pdf5/96489.pdf?ATCLID=1312642&SPSID=99579&SPID=10900&DB_OEM_ID=
9. Delma Eugene Presley, The Southern Century. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University, 2006. 179.