If you asked me the name of the UGA business school five years after my graduation I may have answered, "Uh, the Brooks Hall College of Business?".
At that time I lived and worked in Chicago mismanaging corporate events. This was before the internet, at least before the internet was available to me, so I could not cheat and search for the answer.
The correct answer was the Terry College of Business. At least that would eventually be the correct answer. When I was earning a marketing degree the business college had no official name, so my Brooks Hall guess would have been as good as any.
But I am getting into the weeds already. And I haven't even started.
If I am going to start, I will start by dropping names of prominent Terry grads I know who are making headlines at UGA and around the globe. They include, in alphabetical order, David Battle, Darren DeVore, David Hanna, Kessel Stelling and Debbie Gohr Storey.
There sure are a lot of "D" names in there. I am not sure what that is about. There are a lot of guys. I know what that is about, because they are my Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brothers. I know what the lone woman is about too, because she is my client and friend dating back to grade school.
Suffice it to say the University of Georgia College of Business Administration has always been a dang good place to get an education, even before it had a name.
When it got a name it got even better. Two years after the school was named Terry College, in 1993 Georgia's HOPE Scholarship made the entire University and Terry College better still. The HOPE was founded by my hero, the late great Zell Miller.
The first I heard of Zell was when yet another fraternity brother, Keith Mason, arrived on campus 2 years behind me. I had never known a college freshman to so passionately advocate for any politician, but Keith definitely knew something I did not.
I thought long and hard to identify the best video I could find to represent Terry College greatness, but it got late and I gave up. You can find one you like best and tell me which one I should have picked.
So many people have written so many things about Terry College rankings I will not attempt to do so here. At this hour it's easier for a tired guy like me to insert hyperlinks.
I was actually a little bit of a College of Business Administration honcho back in the old days when there was far less competition, serving as Vice President of the school's student council. There I was propped up by two other heroes and business school legends, fraternity brothers and senior officers Ken Murphy and Greg Sowell.
At least I had the decency to put on a jacket for photo day. Even the great Dean Flewellen didn't get the memo. "Papa" Sowell lacked the decency to even show up.
My primary VP responsibility was to manage Career Day, when recruiters from major employers came to entice soon to be graduates. That scored me a radio interview with the great Ernie Johnson. Ernie metriculated at the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, but he is such a cool guy and was so nice during our conversation I include him in this Terry College discussion. Though it was not yet Terry College. I think I am repeating myself.
I was also President of the Marketing Club. I embellished the organization name on my resume, albeit factually, as the University of Georgia Collegiate Chapter of the American Marketing Association a/k/a AMA. My primary claim to fame there was the knack for completing obscure budget request forms few people knew about to fund club parties and trips to AMA conventions in Hartford and Chicago. Chicago was more fun. I probably don't need to explain why.
Marketing Club gentlemen knew to wear jackets on photo day.
Note the recurring pensive hands folded in front photo day pose. Maybe they taught us that at the Brooks Hall Business School.
As Marketing Club CEO I also secured Dean Rusk as a guest speaker. Not because he had anything to do with marketing, but because he was famous and available. That scored Dean and me and three other officers a pre-meeting dinner at some steak house I could not afford, again due to my knack for completing obscure budget request forms to get UGA to pay for things I could not afford.
I have been away from the state of Georgia and University of Georgia for a few decades and only recently returned. I have some catching up to do, and I mean to do that by getting involved in things like the Terry College Third Thursday and UGA Alumni Association Atlanta Chapter leadership. I only hope it is as easy to get elected to some high office there as it was to become President of the Marketing Club.
Okay, so this isn't so much about Terry College as it is about my friends from Terry College, then known as "The Business School". It is late, and I can write what I want, even if it means a few readers vote for my opponents in some Alumni Association leadership election.
I may or may not write something more substantive and coherent about Terry College serious greatness when I am better rested. But before bed I must go back up and paste in some images that may not make sense where they may not belong to make this look prettier.
In the meantime look for this future headline on some tabloid at the Dollar Tree checkout line near you:
For this specific press release please do not contact:
University of Georgia
Terry College of Business
600 South Lumpkin Street
Athens, GA 30602
For this specific press release please do contact:
Stoddard Media
678-725-5889
stoddard.media
www.stoddard.media
