The 1932 season also saw the start of a few traditions surrounding the team. A small stadium was built near the northeastern part of campus, perhaps near where the softball field is located today. The stadium hosted the school’s first halftime performance by the band that year. Also, an old school bus was purchased that year for traveling to road games. The bus was a popular symbol and became a big hit with fans. The school bus tradition is still practiced to this day, with slightly different roots, however.
In 1936, the Blue Tide traveled to Miami to play against its first modern-day power school, losing 0-44. The following year, in 1937, South Georgia Teachers again faced the Hurricanes in the first collegiate game played at the newly constructed Orange Bowl, again losing 0-40.
The 1939 team went 6-5 and remains the school’s only team to play a unit from another country and in another country. The Blue Tide hosted the University of Havana on Oct. 11, 1939, in a 14-0 win. Later, in a postseason-type game, a rematch occurred in Havana, Cuba, on Dec. 9, 1939, with the Blue Tide again winning 27-7. The Bacardi Bowl, as it was known, was an officially recognized college football bowl game but was only held eight times, primarily in La Tropical Stadium. South Georgia Teachers College is not listed in these eight games but did play in the various unofficial late-year Cuban based games. Since the Blue Tide usually concluded the season on Thanksgiving Day in that era, this can be considered the earliest evidence of postseason action in an official bowl venue.
In 1941, the Blue Tide played its last season, going 2-8 before suspending all sports due to the outbreak of World War II. The football program would hibernate for 41 years, a sleeping giant, just waiting to become one of the greatest re-birth stories in college football history.
