Erica McCarthy
co-producer/director

Erica McCarthy attended the University of Georgia's prestigious Grady College of Jornalism and Mass communications, where in 1988, People Who Live To Dance, was nominated for a Student Academy Award. Her documentary work continued with work for the Georgia Center for Continuing Education's Telecommunications Division. She has worked in high-end post production at Atlanta's Video Tape Associates. She has also worked in all production capacities for the major television networks, as well as in Europe and Mexico. In 1996, she received an Emmy for her work on NBC's coverage of the Centennial Olympic Games.

That same year, she formed Nowhere Productions, a film and video production firm based in Athens, Georgia. Since it's installation in Sanford Stadium, Nowhere Productions has provided production services for the video matrix scoreboard during home football games. McCarthy created the UgaCam, a video camera mounted on Uga's collar, which led discussions witht the Seiler family for Damn Good Dog.

Greg Hardin
co-producer/writer

Greg Hardin is a native Atlantan and a graduate of the University of Georgia ('85). Greg has recently returned to the South from living in New York, where he was a member of two theater companies, Room 203 and Hot Box Theater Co.

Greg has written, directed and acted in numerous plays and comedy sketch shows and was a co-writer of a feature film, Platypussy.

While in New York Greg served as a production assistant at Good Morning America, and as an art coordinator at the Sesame Workshop web site. Most recently, he worked at the Andy Warhol Foundation For the Visual Arts as a photo archivist.

Greg met Uga III and Uga IV and has recently become acquainted with Uga VI.

Larry Munson
narrator

His voice has been described as having "all the charm of a backfiring dump truck without a sliver of objectivity". That gravely charm has endeared him to fans of the Georgia Bulldogs, where has been broadcasting play-by-play from between the hedges since 1966. He also called the play-by-play for Georgia basketball games from 1987-96.

Starting at the age of 20, Munson has built a career that covers a wide range of sporting events. Not only has he called the shots for major-college football, but he's also broadcasted major- and minor-league baseball, as well as college basketball. He also spent 23 years on a weekly fishing show and served a stint as a Nashville, TN, disc jockey.

Before he became the "Voice of the Dogs," Munson had established one of the most reputable careers in sports broadcasting. He served as the play-by-play announcer for University of Wyoming football and basketball, the Nashville Vols of the Southern Association (baseball), Vanderbilt football and basketball for 16 years and was a member of the Atlanta Braves broadcast team when they moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee.

A native of Minnesota, Munson was honored by the Georgia General Assembly in 1993 for "his great role in the Georgia championship football program."

Jack Davis
illustrator

Jack Davis is one of America's most successful commercial artists. But he'll never shake his humble origin in comics — nor, from all indications, does he want to.

John Burton "Jack" Davis was born in Atlanta, GA, on December 2, 1924. His first comic book work appeared in the ninth issue of Tip Top Comics (December, 1936), which, in-between reprints of Nancy, The Captain & the Kids and other United Feature newspaper strips, set aside an occasional page for drawings sent in by readers. He also contributed cartoons to school papers in both high school and college, and while at the latter, co-founded an off-campus magazine of risqué humor called Bullsheet. After graduating, he took a few odd cartooning jobs, such as assisting Ed Dodd on Mark Trail and interning as a cartoonist at The Atlanta Journal. A training manual he illustrated in 1949 for the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola company earned him enough money to buy a car and take off for New York, where most of the good cartooning jobs were to be found.

Within a few months he'd been fleeced of his remaining money by a con artist, and his car was stolen. But he stuck it out, and eventually found work at EC Comics, where editors Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman found his unusual style ideal for such titles as The Vault of Horror and Two-Fisted Tales. It was at EC that he achieved the highest accolade that can ever be bestowed on an illustrator of horror comics — two of his panels were reprinted on the opening page of the art section of anti-comics crusader Fredric Wertham's 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent, as shocking examples of the sort of comic books that were corrupting America's youth.

EC folded its line of traditionally-formatted comic books in 1955, but Davis continued to work for Mad magazine, the company's one remaining title. He also worked for Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel, and for a few smaller companies. By the1960s, he'd branched out into bubble gum cards, movie posters and display advertising, but still found time for comics — for example, Little Annie Fanny and Yak Yak, Dell Comics' now-obscure 1961-62 attempt at hip humor.

Before long, kids who'd enjoyed his EC work grew up and, like those of most other generations, became doctors, lawyers and art directors. The latter proved how badly Davis's work had corrupted their youth by offering him more and more lucrative, more and more prestigious jobs. Davis has now done dozens of album covers, in all different genres of music, as well as dozens of covers for such high-profile magazines as Time and TV Guide.

And let's not forget his critical acclaim. Among the many honors that have been heaped on Davis is the Reuben Award, by which The National Cartoonists Society named him Cartoonist of the Year for 2000.

Through all these years, and in all these venues, one thing has remained — his unique style, which he never compromised for commercial or any other reasons. It shines out like a beacon, instantly recognizable on all those covers, posters, gum cards, and wherever else it might appear.

Steve Dancz
composer

Steve Dancz, son of longtime University of Georgia Director of Bands Roger Dancz, began his professional career in 1972 at the age of fifteen. By his twenty-first birthday he had begun performing extensively in Europe, the Soviet Union, Japan, The People's Republic of China, Africa, and South America. He has studied piano with Harold Danko, Tom Ferguson, and Monty Alexander. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts grant, he has performed and or recorded with Eddie Harris, Bill Cosby, Dizzy Gillespie, Clint Holmes, Don Menza, Allen Vizutti, Willie Thomas, Rich Matteson, Gus Mancusco, Martin Taylor, John Pattitucci, Paulino de Costa, and Clark Terry. Steve has worked as a record producer and A&R director during the years he was based in Los Angeles and composed and conducted orchestral scores for television ("Designing Women") and motion pictures ("Grim Prarie Tales" starring James Earl Jones). He has composed and produced original scores to numerous National Geographic projects. His CD "Promised Land" is available on the Three Lion Records label. Mr. Dancz has taught Jazz Studies at the University of Georgia since 1992.

John Lotshaw
post-production supervisor

Unlike the other kids at Pleasant Grove Elementary School, John Lotshaw was certain about only one thing concerning his future: it would not involve a carpet mill. Considering that he grew up in Dalton, Georgia--the Carpet Capital of the World--this tended to set him apart somewhat.

John always knew that his future would involve some combination of cartoons (he learned to draw by copying Charles Schulz's Peanuts out of the newspaper, and had created his own comic strip by the age of 4), computers (John's father had been programming computers before John was born), and television (which John had watched far too much of as a child).

After graduation from high school, he attended the University of Georgia's Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where he was introduced to a magical device: an Amiga computer running VideoScape 3D animation software. Using this primitive animation system, he produced graphics for the Journalism School and the Center for Continuing Education and was paid for it. Any hopes for a life as a normal, well-adjusted member of society were dashed at this point. Moving to Atlanta in 1990, he became the video editor at a small cable advertising company. It was there that he was introduced to the Video Toaster (remember those?) and Lightwave 3D, the successor to VideoScape. This more advanced animation system opened up new possibilities and John refined his skills with the aim of producing character animation with ordinary desktop computers.

By 1994, John's skills with Lightwave had progressed to the point that he was offered a position with Gulliver Ritchie Associates producing, creating and animating a series of safety videos for children starring a lovable talking kangaroo named Troo the Traumaroo. Three shorts were produced in the series, which blended live action and computer animation. In 1996, John started The Toon Factory, and began to work as a freelance computer animator. His clients have included clients such as MCI, Coca-Cola, IBM, Nortel Networks, Ford Motor Company, First USA Bank and the National Football League. In 1997, the company contributed computer generated imagery for Fernbank Museum of Natural History's exhibit "Planet Dinosaur".

More recently, he has been expanding his skills as a multimedia developer, producing web sites and CD-ROMs, as well as continuing to animate for clients ranging from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to BellSouth and the University of Georgia Athletic Association. His current project is providing multimedia and DVD authoring in support of Nowhere Productions' feature-length documentary Damn Good Dog.

John currently lives in Atlanta with a rambunctious Shetland Sheepdog named Buster.

Dave McMahon
researcher

Dave McMahon has been associated with the University of Georgia since 1990. As a student, Dave worked at the George Foster Peabody Awards and at UGA’s Athletic Archive where he assisted with research and preservation of historic UGA memorabilia. He was also involved with UGA Baseball and Volleyball supporting the Sport Communications and Promotions departments.

Dave’s interest in journalism and sports eventually lead him to a job as a production assistant with Atlanta Olympic Broadcasting during the 1996 Olympic Games and then onto Bristol, CT to ESPN where he worked on several shows including, SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, Outside the Lines, and College Gameday.

Currently, Dave is a Broadcast Associate for FOX SPORTS NET in Atlanta, where his main responsibility is to assist producers with research and statistical data on sporting events. He also freelances with CBS Sports traveling with the SEC Gameday crew all over the South. He has been working as a Researcher for Damn Good Dog since 2002 and regards the film experience to be his greatest ever.

Dave would like to thank his family and his friends for putting up with him, when he rambles on with "useless" statistical data, but he also wants to thank Uga for being the best mascot in the whole world.