"Beautiful Eagle Creek sits just off Tillman Road in Statesboro, Ga., tracing the edge of the practice field at Georgia Southern University, where for more than four decades, the creek has been considered holy ground. But to call Beautiful Eagle Creek a creek at all is, well ... a stretch. It's really a drainage ditch. Its water usually sits stagnant, attracting swarms of gnats to the field during the more humid months of the year."
"Russell arrived in Statesboro in 1981 to resurrect the football program, he gave it the name and declared its muddy water "magical" to inspire the team. The story stuck. And Beautiful Eagle Creek became a central part of the program's mythos. During every road trip, Russell would bring along a jug full of its brown water with him to sprinkle on the opponent's field. To this day, at the start of every new season in Statesboro, any new players or coaches are "baptized" in its magical waters."
Beautiful Eagle Creek is a stagnant drainage ditch beside Georgia Southern's practice field that has been ritualized as holy ground for more than four decades. Erk Russell named the ditch and called its muddy water "magical," making its brown water a team talisman used on road trips and to baptize new players and coaches. Clay Helton underwent that baptism three years ago after departing USC. Helton spent a dozen seasons at USC, rising to head coach and winning a Rose Bowl and a Pac-12 title, but recruiting and discipline declined and he was fired early in 2021, leaving him feeling lost.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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