The last time Georgia played Auburn in Atlanta, World War I was raging and nobody won

It was late November of 1914. The Plainsmen of Auburn had not lost a game in two years.

In fact, the football team from the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, as Auburn was known in those days, had only surrendered two touchdowns over the course of two seasons. The squad had, during that 15-game stretch, outscored foes 410-13.

And on Nov. 21, 1914, the “Blue and Gold” Auburnites traveled to Georgia’s capital city and Piedmont Park for what would, until this weekend’s SEC championship game, be the last clash with rival UGA on Atlanta soil.

The morning after, there were 20-plus items crammed on the seven-column front page of the Macon Daily Telegraph. Among them: word of World War I battles near Verdun and a dispatch from Washington, D.C., about Leo Frank’s murder-case appeal to the Supreme Court. Not a single item on the front page was about football.

To find the score, one had to flip 25 pages inside, to the lone sports page, where the Georgia-Auburn tilt received the same top-of-the-page play as Harvard’s 36-0 demolition of Yale.

It was UGA’s 12th Atlanta meeting with the Plainsmen in a series that had been played off and on there since 1892. Auburn had won five, the “Red and Black” Georgians four. (There were three scoreless ties, the third coming on that November day in 1914.)

Yes, the teams’ last Atlanta-staged showdown was tie. About as thrilling as having a tooth pulled. An ad in that’s day’s Telegraph for a Cherry Street dentist named Dr. Griffin did, however, promote 50-cent “painless extractions.” Not to mention a $5 special on a “set of teeth.” (See football-rivalry joke at bottom.)

The game story that day, what with it being in the Macon paper, bore a decided Georgia slant. The final score was 0-0, yet it was a triumph of sorts for UGA.

“Georgia Holds Auburn For A Scoreless Tie,” the headline declared above a subhead that noted, “Game at Atlanta Replete With the Unexpected.”

As was the apparent custom, the nine-paragraph dispatch cited players by their last names only. Georgia’s offensive backfield featured the poetic quartet of Paddock, Powell, Peacock and Thrash.

The write-up began:

ATLANTA, Nov. 21 — The Plainsmen of Auburn today left a football field without the victory for the first time in two years. In a game replete with the unexpected, the Alabama Polytechnic Institute eleven was held to a scoreless tie by the representatives of the University of Georgia.

College games don’t end in ties anymore, so there will not be a repeat of 1914 come Saturday in Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Even so, a century-old stat doesn’t bode well for Georgia.

In their 12 games against Auburn played in Atlanta, the Bulldogs have been outscored 141-86.

As for Auburn and its devotees, the prospects on this side of the Chattahoochee aren’t all smiles: Dr. Griffin, the Cherry Street dentist, is no longer running his $5 special.

This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 4:25 PM with the headline "The last time Georgia played Auburn in Atlanta, World War I was raging and nobody won."