While celebrating Georgia State’s landmark first-ever college football victory last night at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, head coach Bill Curry was briefly knocked to the ground after Panther players attempted to give him the traditional postgame sports drink cooler bath.
(Curry a tough old goat, Baltimore Colt)
In amateur video of the incident from WSB’s Zach Klein, the 67-year-old former head coach of Alabama, Georgia Tech and Kentucky can be seen on the ground for about 15 seconds before he was able to get back on his feet.
Moments later Curry was all smiles with his players following GSU’s 41-7 win over NAIA Shorter College in front of a remarkable crowd of 30,237 fans.
The native Atlantan’s quick recovery comes as little surprise, considering he also enjoyed a decorated 12-year NFL career as an offensive lineman.
From the video itself, it appears that as the top flew off of the cooler, it may have struck Curry before the coach collapsed.
Understandable the excitement of the Georgia State players last night, but I think this is yet another sign that it might be time for the postgame sports drink bath to be retired.
When it comes to college football coaches, I know I’m not alone in that sentiment.
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5:35 pm on September 3rd, 2010
The amusing thing to me is that the “pour Gatorade on the coach” tradition started because of Bill Parcells dumping over a trash can during a locker room tirade in 1986.
1:02 am on September 4th, 2010
I uh tossed uh uh some Gatorade on temporary VP Biden after he told my wife to shut it and stop taking first class vacations two times a month while I finish off the Economy. Biden slipped on the Gatorade and did a header into my Mao statue. Luckily his ample hair plugs had him richochet off the communist bust… No not my wife’s Michelle’s cluckers, the actual statue. Uh uh that’s the truth.
12:03 am on September 5th, 2010
And so the tradition of knocking the coach down with the top of the cooler is born!