This is a flashback to the times of Fred Barber, Georgia’s classic fullback of yesteryear, one who could have originated the time-honored football term: “Hardnosed.”
A native of Bainbridge, Barber grew up with equal helpings of emotional capital for the outdoors and Friday Night Lights. In his day, if you were a running back you did what running backs did back then. You took the handoff and ran over people. Run over enough and you’d find yourself in the end zone.
In his precocious days, Barber thrived on competition but aspired for more than fulfillment on the gridiron. He expected to make a name for himself in the classroom. He graduated from UGA on time with a history degree in 1965 and a year later had a bachelor’s in chemistry, too.
That was not enough, though. Fred had long aspired to become a pharmacist and that came about three years later, making him a Triple Dawg no less. Now Barber needed a job. For a hunter-fisherman- pharmaceutical aficionado, where else would he want to be than in deep South Georgia, which led him to Blackshear, where he has lived ever since.
Fred recently celebrated his 80th birthday but I missed the big day, owing to a previous out-of-town commitment. I would have enjoyed showing up to sing his praises, not just as an excellent running back, but as a serious student, a loyal Georgian, and a Damn Good Dawg.
I would have enjoyed reminiscing with him about the Sun Bowl at El Paso, on Dec. 26, 1964. The Bulldogs had not been to a bowl game since the Orange Bowl four years earlier. Most of the players had never flown on an airliner before. Not many had ever been to the state of Texas, but to be in the border city of El Paso, hearing about the lore of Juarez on the other side of the Rio Grande was an unforgettable experience.
In Vince Dooley’s first bowl game, there was a lot of hype brought about by the “Serendipity Dawgs” that won seven games. Many fans drove the 1,487 miles from Athens to El Paso. (1,416 miles from Atlanta).
In the second quarter, Barber ran a flat route to the right and was wide open for quarterback Preston Ridlehuber’s short pass. He turned upfield for 52 yards, looking like a locomotive headed for a mountain pass. There was no chance the defense would catch him. It was a thundering, LoneRanger-aboard-Silver kind of gallop, but about the eight-yard line, Fred suddenly pulled up limping. He had pulled a muscle. The good news is that the Bulldogs drove in to score the only touchdown of the game, winning 7-0.
Throughout South Georgia, Barber’s legend remains intact—from Friday Night Lights to pharmacist to outdoorsman. When he showed up in Blackshear in 1972 in a pickup truck, naturally, with his two bird dogs, Tom Cotton and Lard beside him, naturally, and hung out his shingle, he noticed that to enter Pearce County you had to cross a creek or river. He almost broke out in the song: “Home Sweet Home.”
Fred Barber worked seven days a week most of his life. He would open his pharmacy before and after church just for the sanctuary folk’s convenience.
His days off were spent in the woods, fields, and streams, but he also took duck hunting trips to Arkansas and hunted dove in South America. In deer season, Fred could bring down a 12-point buck and field dress it in a matter of minutes.
Not sure who Ed Dodd had in mind when he created the comic strip character Mark Trail many years ago, but there is no question – if he had come along a few years earlier, Fred Barber would have been perfect for the part.
I enjoyed watching Fred run the football, and I’ve enjoyed a few quail hunting trips with him over the years, too.