It's Old Home Week for Georgia Linebacker
Knox Culpepper

8 Nov 1984, The Miami Herald
Section: Sports, Page: 2E
By: Linda Robertson, Herald Sports Writer

For Georgia linebacker Knox Culpepper III, this is hardly a road game.

Culpepper has played in Jacksonville only three times, but the Gator Bowl has been familiar to him most of his life. He remembers the trips with his family to watch Georgia play Florida, and how his late father, former Bulldog fullback Knox Culpepper Jr., would call them the highlight of the season.

"When I was growing up, everything was secondary to the game that week," said Culpepper, an Atlanta native. "We'd drive to Jacksonville and the party seemed to get bigger and wilder every year."

For Culpepper, it would become biggest and wildest after he, too, became a Bulldog.

The celebration was particularly intense last year, when Georgia, in typical fashion, pulled out a 10-9 victory.

It was a familiar role for the Bulldogs, who have built a reputation for guts and grit and playing over their heads. Conversely, Florida added to its reputation of folding in the big games.

Last year, before quarterback Wayne Peace was intercepted and Georgia began its game-winning drive late in the third quarter, Florida had a 326-96 advantage in total yards and had been inside the Georgia 25-yard line six times.

"They ran up and down on us all day, but we got the breaks and we hung in," said Culpepper, who had 12 tackles in the game. "On their first possession, they had a first down on the one and failed to score a touchdown. That sort of set the tone."

Culpepper and his teammates will bring the same instinct for survival to Jacksonville Saturday for the schools' 63rd meeting. Eighth-ranked Georgia (7-1 overall, 4-0 in the Southeastern Conference) leads the series, 39-20-2, and has won six in a row against 10th-ranked Florida (6-1-1, 3-0-1).

Culpepper would like a less frantic repeat of last year's result.

"I'd much rather see our defense control the course of events and take some pressure off the offense," he said. "But we've got a heck of a young team and, collectively, Florida has the best three backs we've faced."

Culpepper, no behemoth at 6-0 and 219 pounds, typifies Georgia's dirty-fingernail defense. But he is a sharp contrast to fellow linebackers Steve Boswell, who has said he "likes the sight of blood," and Bill Mitchell, who "loves it when the opposition gets down to our five-yard line."

"I'd say I'm just as aggressive as the other guys," said Culpepper, who set a school record for tackles last year with 166 and leads the team this year with 114. "We take the same approach: We don't give up."

Florida Coach Galen Hall is not intimidated by the Georgia mystique.

"All the fine football teams have the uncanny ability to stay close, fight it out and come back," Hall said. "I was associated with an Oklahoma team like that."

Hall didn't mention his present team, which is tied for second in the SEC with Louisiana State. Florida, of course, has been close before. The Gators have not won an SEC title since joining the conference in 1933. The stumbling block has been the back-to-back Auburn-Georgia games: Florida has won both only four times in 31 tries.

Georgia, however, has won its Florida-Auburn combination six of the last eight years. If the Bulldogs do it again, they will win their seventh SEC title in 10 years.

"I was recruited by Florida, too," Culpepper said. "But my decision to attend Georgia had already been made. I just couldn't get all those Jacksonville victory parties out of my mind."

Knox Culpepper has fond memories of football

By Hal Hayes
16 Dec 1989, Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Sports, Page E/02

Football may hold his IOU forever because Knox Culpepper says he will never be able to repay the game for the great dividend he reaped from his years as a Bulldog.

"Because I was lucky enough to be able to play the game, I was able to establish some strong, binding friendships," said Culpepper , a former Georgia linebacker (1981-84) who later played in the Canadian Football League.

"Because it's a total team game, you are constantly encouraging your teammates. You learn early that if one person lets you down, the whole team suffers. This lesson is one that can really serve you well once you're out of school and in the job market."

Culpepper , 26, has worked for less than a year as an agent for Pritchard and Jerden of Atlanta, a local risk management insurance agency.

"I figured it was time I put my major (business administration) to work," he said. "Basically, our firm insures and does loss control work for large businesses."

An all-state player at Lovett High of Atlanta, Culpepper originally signed out of college as a free agent with the New York Giants, then was waived.

"I spent two seasons of pro football with the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL," he said, "but I just didn't see much of a future for myself up there. I enjoyed the heck out of pro ball, but I found myself getting further and further behind.

"I didn't have my degree when I left Georgia. I finally got tired of putting off going back to school, so I just decided one day to go back to Athens."

He said it took him two years, but the time was worth it. "I probably could have stayed in Canada for several more years, but I just didn't like the unstable atmosphere of the game. I wanted to come on home, get my diploma and then get a steady job."

The highlight of his college career, he said, came in the 1984 Cotton Bowl.

"It was probably the most satisfying win we had while I was at Georgia," Culpepper said. "Basically, all we heard all week out there in Dallas was, `Georgia's out of its league playing Texas.' People kept saying, `Texas is gonna kick Georgia's tail.'

"Well, our defense played one of its most solid games and, thanks to (quarterback) John Lastinger's (17-yard) touchdown, we won the game 10- 9."

Culpepper Ancestry: Knox Culpepper, III is the grandson of Walter Knox Culpepper, Sr., son of Walter Simpson Culpepper, son of William H. Culpepper, son of Elisha Culpepper, son of Nathan Culpepper, son of Erasmus Culpepper, son of Benjamin Culpepper, son of Robert Culpepper, born 1664 in Norfolk.