WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Eagles look to pound Paladins
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STATESBORO, GA (WTOC) - The 2009 GSU Homecoming Parade stepped off early Friday afternoon.
Get a crowd of Eagle fans together and just the name Furman raises blood pressures. Vince Galasso and others went to Tacoma Washington when the Eagles first played the Paladins in 1995.
"Furman had a awful lot of notoriety already in the Southern Conference," said GSU fan Galasso. "We had a lot to prove and it was a heck of a ball game. It was a game that went back and to."
The upstart Eagles won on a last second pass and put Statesboro on the map.
"We walked out of the dome and had to walk through the Furman players who were huddled waiting for locker rooms to be opened and the tension was visible," said GSU fan Lane Van Tassel. "They didn't like to lose, understandably, but they certainly didn't want to lose to Georgia Southern."
Even the fans of these two teams probably wouldn't agree on when the rivalry began. Furman fans would say 1985 in Tacoma Washington when the Eagles won 44-42. Eagle fans would say 1988 in Pocatella Idaho when the Paladins won.
"I still remember that ball fumbled on the 5 yard line that would have been a touchdown to win the title," said GSU fan Julian Deal. "I remember like it was yesterday. The rivalry is so deep rooted and carried for so many years."
"You can throw out the records for both teams, it's Georgia Southern Furman," said GSU head coach Chris Hatcher. "Both teams know what's on the line."
The Georgia Southern Furman game is at 2:00pm Saturday at Paulson Stadium.
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