Rome memorializes the near-death of football in Georgia

<p>Two granite tablets have been unveiled in Rome to honor the University of Georgia football player whose death threatened and then revived the sport.</p><p>UGA Athletic Director Vince Dooley and 150 people attended the dedication of the monument on Tuesday for Richard Vonalbade Von Gammon, the Rome native who died playing football in 1897.</p><p>Dooley described Gammons death as a happening 105 years ago that has an incredible impact on us today. ... Theres no greater love than the love of a mother for her son.</p><p>Gammon, a sophomore fullback, was fatally injured during the Georgia-Virginia game at Atlantas Brisbine Park.</p><p>Playing without a helmet, as everyone did at the time, Gammon rushed headlong into every play.</p><p>After one play, he lay motionless and died the next morning at Grady Memorial Hospital.</p><p>Gammons death prompted the Georgia Legislature to introduce a bill outlawing football.</p><p>But then Gov. William Y. Atkinson got a letter from Gammons mother, Rosalind Burns Gammon, asking him not to outlaw the sport that her son had loved so much.</p><p>It would be inexpressibly sad to have the cause he held so dear injured by his sacrifice, she wrote.</p><p>Upon reading the letter, the governor refused to sign the bill.</p><p>Weve heard it all our lives. Its been passed down generation after generation. But we didnt know whether other people knew the story, said Marilyn Gammon Allison.</p><p>The tablets were unveiled at the corner Broad Street and Fourth Avenue to tell people what we want them to know about the story of a mother and her son, said master of ceremonies Mike McDougald.</p><p>We wanted to take the opportunity to pay tribute to the story, said Lisa Smith, a member of the Myrtle Hill/Oak Hill Memorial Association, which helped on the memorial. It was way past time.</p>