Follow up: Larry Munson Steps Down After Over 40 Years as Voice of the 'Dawgs

"Get the Picture" that's what he used to say as he described the setting for the day's game....

My dad, who's a huge University of Georgia football fan,turns the sound down on the T.V. in favor of the radio broadcast of Bulldog commentator Larry Munson.

He stopped doing that last year when the Dawgs were on the road, as Munson stopped covering road games due to declining health. And I'm not sure he'll ever do it again, as the man who is in my opinion the greatest play by play commentator of all time has hung up the microphone for the final time.

While the timing caught folks off guard, the announcement really wasn't a surprise. Munson turns 86 on Sunday, and he has more than done his time.

He made the announcement on Monday, after calling Georgia's first two home games in his 42nd season of bringing the action to the Bulldog nation in his own unique style.

Although I live in Georgia, I've never been the biggest Dawg fan, but something about Munson made you listen. It wasn't just that he made you want to, it was almost as though you didn't have a choice. He painted a supreme picture, with vivid descriptions that played on all of your senses, and went well beyond your ears.

His broadcasting career began after he was discharged from the military after WWII. He took his discharge check and enrolled in broadcast school in Devil's lake North Dakota.

After graduating in a class of 20, he began calling football for the University of Wyoming. He remained there until 1947, when he went to Vanderbilt in Nashville Tennessee. He called football and basketball for the Comodores, and also hosted a fishing show.

While on a spring training assignment for the Atlanta Braves in 1966, Munson was offered the job at the University of Georgia, where he has remained until his retirement this week.

In his time at Georgia, he outlasted six "UGAs", ( the English Bulldog that serves as the mascot) and three head coaches.

He has also endured arthritis, back problems and in April of this year, suffered a fall that required emergency surgery.

He served as the play by play man for the Atlanta Falcons from 1988-1991, and called Bulldog basketball from 1987-1996.

I'm the receivers coach at a little high school in Floyd County called Model, where two former Georgia Bulldog players are also on staff.

Charles Smith, a member of the 1980 National Championship team, and Todd Wheeler, who was an All-American center, and a captain on Vince Dooley's last team.

I spoke with both of them about Munson, and their responses were similar.

"He's the greatest ever" Smith said. Wheeler echoed the same senitment. The men both agreed on a favorite quote. From Georgia's 1980 matchup with Florida...The "Run Lindsay" sequence.

"I broke my chair. I came right through a chair. A metal STEEL chair with about five inches of cushion and I broke it.....Man there is going to be some property destroyed tonight"

They rattled off several other big delieveries by Munson. "Sugar is falling from the sky" and  "My God a freshman!". The list went on and on.

Wheeler also jokingly said that he was fond of the times when Munson said "Wheeler down on the ball." Smith chimed in saying "That was the only time an offensive lineman would get his named called, but Munson was one of the few announcers that would even do that."

That's just the kind of announcer that he was, he brought every aspect of the game to life, and made you feel like you were there.

Scott Howard and former UGA quarterback Eric Zeier will finish out the season as the broadcast team, and will undoubtedly do a great job, but it will be hard for anyone to ever  truly replace a legend like Larry Munson.