For Advanced College Football Statistics

Like everything else about college football, game program cover art has evolved over the years. There was a vogue for illustrated covers during the 1960s and 1970s and many top-notch cartoonists delivered lively and creative artwork to adorn the gameday guides. One of the best was Phil Neel, the cartoonist for the Birmingham Post-Herald who did decades of fantastic program covers for Auburn and Clemson. Another standout was John Churchill Chase of the New Orleans States-Item who produced program covers for numerous college teams including Tulane, Georgia Tech and Texas. By the 1980s improvements in printing had lead to most game programs featuring photos on the cover. Georgia, then at the height of the Vince Dooley era, decided to go back to the earlier style and called on Atlanta native and alumni Jack Davis to draw a series of game programs. Davis had risen to prominence as one of the premier illustrators for Harvey Kurtzman's Mad magazine in the early 1950s. He delivered a series of spectacular covers including the one above from the 1985 tilt with Florida. The Bulldogs bested the Gators 24-3 in that contest.