The last time the Georgia Bulldogs won the national championship was the 1980 season, and Wrightsville's own Herschel Walker led the team to victory. Walker's performance made his hometown a household name.
For the most part, the streets of Wrightsville are calm and quiet, but the people who live there say they were not always that way.
“It was just something that had never happened to the city of Wrightsville, Johnson County,” says Wombles.
Former Wrightsville Mayor Willis Wombles says the city lit up when Walker led the Dawgs to victory in the national championship.
“There had never been that much excitement before,” says Wombles.
Thanks to a city police car, Wombles made it all the way to New Orleans for the game.
“Folks wanted to put me in the chain gang for representing the city of Wrightsville, but I wasn't going to take the trash truck or anything like that,” says Wombles.
Despite the controversy over the car, Wombles says it was an unforgettable day watching Walker and the team win.
“You could feel it rocking, because on one side, we'd say Herschel, and the other side, Walker,” says Wombles.
Virginia McAfee says she did not get to go to that game, but she listened to most of the games at home in Wrightsville.
“I would literally get down on the floor and sit on there on the carpet and listen to the Georgia games,” says McAfee.
She says Walker's impact went beyond the field.
“If you talk to anybody who knows anything about him, he is a gentleman. He is kind. He has not forgotten his roots,” says McAfee.
As far as this year's national championship, Wombles says a friend in a neighboring city already asked him if he plans on going.
“I said, 'If you got a good new police car, we can borrow it.' I said, 'All ours got a lot of miles on them now,'” says Wombles.
He says this time, he will probably just stick to watching the game from his couch.